Mae Sot!

The trip to the train station was difficult but otherwise uneventful. I was dripping sweat at 6 am when i made it up the flights of stairs to my platform. By 6:30 I was at the station. The previous night I asked a bilingual person how to communicate to a taxi driver that I needed to get the few blocks from the train to the bus station. She wrote "Terminal Bus" in English on a piece of paper and told me to give it to him. I have tried saying that, in addition to sathaanii rot meh which I think means bus station in Thai, to various people and got only blank stares. I realized that people are used to seeing English but have little idea what it might sound like.

The bus terminal has always been a maze to me. Many private companies have stalls in a large building. Outside are about two acres of buses waiting to leave. Inside there is abundant signage, 98% in Thai. I find a booth with service to Mae Sot but the next bus is at 9:00. I try to find another company with an earlier bus but promptly return for that ticket after a few brief moments being crushed by the burden of my things and the heat.

The bus station smells faintly of excrement, but the smell seems consistently distributed around the place, enough so that I check my shoes and bags to make sure the source isn't following me. A number of stray dogs seem to roam the place unchecked, possibly giving source to the smell. At 8:00, music is played over the speakers and everyone stands. The TVs flip to images of the king and the nation's successes. What is apparently the national anthem begins to play as everyone stands and the dogs howl along. It was quite the scene.

The 6.5 hour bus ride was uneventful. They showed a movie at the beginning, featuring a thai star not unlike Jackie Chan and showing restraint similar to a Tarentino film. It was entertaining even without understanding any of the dialogue, though 'entertaining' takes on new meaning when trapped in a seat for hours on end.

My new home is large two story house with 5 bedrooms, four of which are currently occupied. Most of us work at the clinic with one other helping the management of a local store that sells art and other things made by or related to Burmese refugees. It has wireless internet, sit-down toilets, and a host of geckos. What more does one need? I've just been laying around all day, running a few errands. I'll start at the clinic on Monday.