On our way back from teaching on Thursday, we went into the city of Buriram to pick up some more Bibles for the kids. It just happened to be at the same orphanage where one of the other teams has been working all month. It was fun to see them, but we only had a few minutes to say hello and goodbye before needing to get back on the road toward home.
Later that day, I got a call from my teammates in Bangkok. We were all supposed to be traveling to Cambodia together on Saturday because our visas were going to expire. We had to leave Thailand and then we could come back for another 30 days.
Well, the rest of our team decided that they were going to go to immigration and pay for and extension instead of making the trip to the border. We would were scheduled to arrive in Bangkok sometime early that morning, and were not at all interested in getting up a 8am to stand in line at the immigration office for several hours.
We decided instead to get a ride back to the orphanage in Buriram and go with team Yeti to the border. So, we hired a truck to drive us to Buriram. The kids got really excited about going along, because they had never been there. We decided to stop at KFC and get ice cream. The kids loved it, and so did we.
The crazy thing is that the truck to Buriram cost 500 baht for a 2hr round trip. Our van for the 7hr trip to Buriram from Bangkok was 400 baht (each). The meal they got at KFC for the five of them also cost about 500 baht. It kind of puts a different perspective on how much of a treat this was for them. You can buy street food for 15-40 baht for one meal. It seems kind of crazy to me to spend that kind of money on KFC, but it made them happy.
We got to the orphanage kind of late, so they showed us to our beds and we settled in to try to get some sleep. At 7am, we all crammed into the pickup truck and made the mad dash to the border. The guy that drove us had to be back by noon to take somebody to the airport, so he was in a bit of a hurry.
We had to stop and get passport photos for the visa application. That set us back a little. We got to the border and ran to the departure office, got stamped out. Then we ran to the Cambodia arrival office and purchased our Cambodian visas. Then we ran across to immigration and got stamped in and out and them ran to the Thai arrival office to get stamped back in. Whew.
We were running behind schedule, so we all crammed back into the truck and rushed home. When I say rushed, it is not just a catchy little phrase. He was speeding, recklessly I might add, the whole way home. I think we were doing at least 100mph most of the time. He was weaving in and out passing cars and then slamming on the breaks to avoid the car in front of him. It was insane. God must have had us surrounded by angles.
I was so glad to get out of that truck when we got back. I am glad we were not the ones staying there.
We ate some lunch and packed up our things to head to the bus station. Then, as usual, we found out that there was some miscommunication or lack of communication. There was no bus or train during the day. There are only overnight trips to Bangkok.
I was frustrated and anxious to get back since our trip had already been extended. They told us there is an hourly bus to Khorat where we could catch another hourly bus to Bangkok. Rather than sitting around all day to take a bus over night, we decided to go to the bus station and look into this option.
When we got there, we had a little trouble communicating because they spoke very little English. We did find out that there was a 3:40 bus to Bangkok. Perfect. So we sat at the station and waited for a few hours until that bus came. It only cost 272 baht (each) for the bus to Bangkok, and it was much better than the van.
The bus had air-conditioning and reclining seats, so it was a pretty comfortable ride. We had to pull out our sleeping bag liners because we were actually getting cold. I had gotten sun burnt on my legs from the truck ride, so the cold air gave me chills.
We got into Bangkok at about 10pm. We didn’t know where we were exactly, but fortunately there was an information desk. They told us we could take a taxi home or to the sky train. We decided the sky train was the fastest and safest, so we took a taxi there. We got back to our rooms at BIT around 11pm, and jumped into bed for a good night of sleep.
It was a good trip, and it was fun to hang out with our friends, but it is also good to be back. We only have about three more days to spend with the girls here, so I am looking forward to seeing them again.
