So Was dee Krab

I have safely completed my first and second legs of my trip, I'm not sure how many legs this animal has, but they are long legs! Our connecting flight out of Narita, Tokyo, was delayed 2 hours so we had 7+ hours to spend at the Airport. We arrived in Bangkok at 1:30 am (3:30 am Japan time!). Stood in line at customs for over an hour, they were really slow. Got the hotel and made it to bed at about 4:30 am, 23 hours after Gabe woke me up yesterday.

This morning, same morning as check in at the hotel, we had a fabulous buffet breakfast that ranged from french toast to fresh fruit to curry and ramen and back to omlets and potatoes. Maxwell, the lover of all buffets, would have been in heaven and I said as much to May, dental tech accompanying me. We met up with the rest of the MEDCAP, not sure what that means but it is all the medical people on this humanitarian mission, yes I am on a humanitarian mission in Thailand if you didn't know that yet. Then we got into van/buses and took a 3 hour, this is how long the driver said it would take, and arrived some where near Burma 7 hours later. My neck hurts from looking out the window so much!!! Let me interject that the driving here is insane!!! Our driver is driving half in the lane half out to allow faster cars to pass, yet there is a moped on the other side of us approaching a stalled truck on the side of the street!!!! Or there are mopeds weaving through the traffic on the wrong side of the road. Some how it works with some unseen sense of order. Multiple times though we saw little 2 year olds ridding on the mopeds with their mom. Scary!

We eventually made it to our hotel, which is like a motel on a golf course in some mountain valley area near the Burma (Myanmar)/Thai border. And I just finished my spicy chicken over rice which was 25 Bot, about 75 cents!!! I thought I ordered curry but it was still good and spicy despite being assured it was MILD. Loved it.

I have always been fascinated with Thailand and it was the one asian country I've really wanted to visit, yet I had a hard time getting excited since there is a lot of administrative hassle to going on a trip for the AF, and havn't had much clue about what I am going to do. Yet know that I am hear and felt the energy of Bangkok and have traveled through half the country of Thailand I am very excited. Now bring on those rotten teeth!!!! (I assume I'll be pulling lots of teeth, given there are any instruments to use!!!!)

The country side has been pretty. Lots of coconut palms and lots of banana trees. We past a lot of sugar cane fields as well. About 4 hours into the 3 hour drive there were some huge moutains looming on the horizon. We soon entered these and saw some cool rivers here and there. We passed through the area where the Japanese built the Death Railway with all the POWs and slaves in WWII, in Kanchanaburi Province.

Here are a few photos I snapped on the way today.
There are lots of overloaded trucks carrying various items. Here is the egg truck.
Friendly bus patron.
I loved seeing this monk in a coffee shop at one of the pit stops along the way. The pit stops started out nice, but started getting worse and worse til I found myself peeing in an exposed urinal on the side of a building, no walls no privacy just a urinal. Oh, and their squatters are even worse than the jappanese ones. They have a bucket of water for you to wash yourself in and then scoop to wash out the "debris." But I digress here is your monk.