Page 4
~March 18th~
Rudy and Lewis (a Scottish Monk) met us at the hotel at 9:00 AM. When the van arrived we were very surprised. It was not as large as it was supposed to be. When all our bags were loaded in we could see it would be a tight squeeze for 6 of us. Lewis volunteered to sit in the jump seat in back with luggage since, as a monk, he cannot touch a woman. Nan, Chris & I were in the second seats and they were bucket, not bench seats. We weren't sure how we would fit since one of the biggest bags had been squeezed into the space between the 2 seats. Rudy sat in front and we headed for the Honey Hotel to pick up our 5th passenger, Nigel. By the time we'd driven the 10 minutes to the Honey, we had all decided there was no way this would work for 6 hours. Rudy, Nigel and Lewis decided they would send their bags with us and take the night bus to Mae Sot and call us in the morning. I felt badly they couldn't ride in comfort with us, but there was no way 6 of us could be comfortable in the space we had.
We had a very nice trip, but Chris and Nan were pretty nervous about the way our driver drove, especially on the narrow switch-back mountain road with the sheer drop-offs. There were several places where the side of the road had caved in during monsoons and left huge holes along the road with sheer drop offs. I am so used to their seemingly reckless driving at break neck speeds, I just sat back and enjoyed the trip and tried to reassure the 2 gals. I remember my first trip to the border in 1993 on the old school bus our team of 16 traveled in. I remembered how we sang and joked all the way, so there was no time to worry about the driver. So many things have changed since then, but far too many things have remained the same or gotten worse for the Karen.
Our first rest stop was a challenge with huge bees flying around in the Asian style toilets. I had to laugh when I remembered my first experience with these toilets on my first trip here. I knew Nan and Chris would always remember their first trip and first "rest stop!"