Day 1: Arrival in Thailand

I Landed in Bangkok after a long flight from Berlin, Germany, with very little sleep. Some people can just allow themselves to nod off anywhere - I'm not so lucky. Conditions must be conducive to perfect sleep, or it just aint gonna heppen. (Kiwi accent there for some unknown reason): Dark, quiet, still, and no other people for at least 5 metres.Even better to have a wall or two in between. Stuffed into cattle-class on an Airbus in turbulence at 39,000 feet is not ideal.

Bangkok is a little crazy, to say the least. Very few people understand English. And there seems to be about 500 million people there. I grabbed a bus across town, its driver nearly killing a scooter rider, then transfered to another older, more crusty bus complete with open windows and wooden floorboards. And a big piece of bus missing at the front... It just happened to be conveniently in front of the driver, so I'm guessing that he removed it for air-con. This beast of a bus took me to Mo Chit bus station, a real eye opener of a place:

Kids don't need helmets, right?

 Huge markets to stock up on much needed, but far less worthwhile junk like watches, bling, etc. People all over, and mangy dogs roam around everywhere. No-one owns them, and no-one cares about them. They are actually cultured to this, after so many generations of mangy-dog, and don't have a clue what a whistle means. It really means nothing to them, as nobody ever feeds them, looks to them, or even kicks them, let alone whistles at one to come over for a scratch or a pat. They seem quite content though, to lay in doorways, or in the middle of a crowded bus station waiting room. People walk around them, as though they are a person lying down there.

People get around on scooters, usually sans helmet. The scooters are often loaded up with more crates, boxes and bags than would fit in a car's boot. Sometimes a whole family fits on. I really must take more pics!

My bus from Mo Chit to Mae Sot was in (fairly) good condition. It was another long and sleepless night, 8 hours or so. It left a 9pm blunt. The road north, the Asia Highway, was in good shape, and double lanes most of the way. The only slightly un-nerving part was that the bus seemed to overtake other traffic on either side! No keep-left-unless-overtaking rules here - anything goes! I caught some glimpses of road-side scenery through the mirky night, and at times, some huge rock formations very close to the road. Volcanic plugs, I guess similar to Australia's Glass House mountains.

At around 4:30 am, our bus was stopped by a police patrol, at a make-shift checkpoint, and they came on board checking all passports. About a third of the passengers were swiftly escorted off the bus, and assembled outside to be questioned, and fined. They were, unfortunately, Burmese.

Mae Sot street scene

5 am: The bus rolls lazily into Mae Sot station and no Manja to be seen. Only a lot of Tuk-Tuk Taxis (half motorbike/half open carriage of Eastern origin) milling about and asking where I need to go. "Kop kun krab, Mai pen rai", says I, in terrible Thai. Off they go. I had to wait a bit, as I had been told the bus arrived at 6 am... No problem, I'll hang out with the many mangy street dogs, which seem to be of as mixed blood as the Tuk-Tuks, which are part Honda/Yamaha/Ford/or whatever is found lying around.

I ended up calling Manja, and she had organised a driver to pick me up at 6, so she said to just jump in a Tuk-Tuk and come to the house, which I did, but not before haggling the price down by 30 Baht. He ripped along the narrow streets, past 3 street dogs shagging, (well one was just giving advice on technique) and dropped me on a corner seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and pointed at the ground, as if to say "We're here!"

Great. It's still dark, there's a bum sleeping over there, early-rising, foreign-looking people getting about, and Thailand doesn't believe in street signs. Oh yeah, I guess I was the only foreign looking one on this street corner. But he may as well have dropped me in Timbuktu. I called Manja again and she assured me she'd find me. So I waited, a little anxiously, for a few minutes. Then she's there on a bike, with two of the students from     the school. Turns out that I was on the right street, and only about 500 metres away. I've arrived.

       Check out the project we're working with here: http://www.buildproject.org/
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