Bus journeys

Yesterday I finally made the journey to Chaiyaphum after a bit of confusion the previous day. I got down to bus station fairly early in the morning and bought a ticket for the next bus. I had a half hour to wait, so I went and sat down in front of the bay from which the bus would be leaving from. The time passed fairly quickly just people watching, but no bus arrived. I was very calm about this and not really worried. I asked someone a few minutes before it was due to leave and they said I was in the right place. So I waited a bit longer. Luckily a few minutes later someone asked me what I was waiting for, so I told them where I was going and they told me where the bus was. Not actually in its correct bay, but 20 bays away! I rushed over to the bus, and managed to get on just before it was leaving. I was just sitting down feeling a little relieved but not too flustered when I caught sight of another bus that was parked next to ours which was heading for my destination and was now leaving. I suddenly had this really worrying feeling because this bus I had just got on had no place names in English on the side, and I didn't have time to read the Thai. I tried to read the Thai in the window on my bus and it was not the destination I wanted! I was just starting to relax and get used to the fact that I didn't know what province I was going to end up in when the ticket man came around. I said to him, 'rot may pai chaiyaphum mai krub', meaning 'bus go chaiyaphum does it?'. The two words he said next were the best thing I heard all day: 'krub pom'. I was so pleased to hear those words that confirmed I was actually going to Chaiyaphum!

The bus journey itself got even more eventful as I was chatting with the passengers most of the journey. That is 5 hours of talking in Thai. I estimate I probably understood about 10 minutes of it. I was in a good mood and getting offered drinks and snacks. This woman even opened this huge bag of snacks which I am sure she bought as a gift to take home. She offered this snack, which looked like crisps, to me and asked what it was (always a good idea). I couldn't understand what she said but it definitely wasn't fried pork, so I thought it must be vegetarian. I pulled out a decent size crisp and confidently bit into it. How wrong could I have been?!? It tasted fowl, and definitely wasn't vegetarian. Being polite I finished what I had begun. Then I took a look at the packet: Fried fish. Mental note, be more careful in future!

On arriving I headed down to the market and had some fun buying up loads of fruit and sweets. Then I got a motorcycle and told him to drive, as I couldn't remember the name of any of the roads in Chaiyaphum. I directed him to the vegetarian restaurant where I went in and gave the owners some fruit. They brought me out loads of vegetarian food which I gladly ate after eating only snacks on the bus. When I finished I walked back to the house of the family were I stayed last year, and where I would be staying once more. They had also been to the market and bought up lots of food, so I sat through another meal!

To be continued… :)