Warm Welcome

Not only was it a 6 hour bus ride today, but we were delayed from departing on our desired bus due to overbooking (after waking early for the bus and everything!) Thankfully the bus was comfortable (A/C), with beautiful scenery and even a lunch stop (in addition to frequent bathroom breaks). At the end of this easy, though still long journey (and a couple hundred pages later in my book about training elephants) we had an unexpected warm welcome.

At the bus station located outside of town we tried to score a free ride to a hotel but it wasn't working out until we stumbled upon an Englishman who had a reservation for one and was in the process of calling for transport. I was beginning to wonder if it would be worth the wait after about fifteen minutes passed but as the vehicle with his hotel's name written on the side pulled up I realized it had been well worth it. I can now add to the list of modes of transportation a tractor-trailer. No, not that kind - this was a legitimate tractor, like those you would find on a farm (a smallish one) towing a trailer with two benches in it. The driver was even wearing a straw hat and had to wipe the mud from the seats before we sat!

Arriving at the hotel, located well away from any distraction in the midst of a field, we were greeted by at least three welcoming Thai people who took our picture with the tractor and driver, gave us cold water and Larissa's favourite part, a wet nap to freshen our faces!

How could we NOT stay here after this? In fact only paying 200 Baht ($6.66) for the room seems like WE are ripping THEM off.

Tomorrow we will explore Sukhothai's ancient ruins, and perhaps do something else we haven't done before (though I won't say what until after). The next day our elephant excursion in Chiang Mai begins and will last for the week. I hope it goes better than things have been in my novel, 'Water for Elephants'.