Back to Bangkok!

Thursday, December 2.
We woke up in our bamboo hut at 5:30 and met Non out at the shop for a breakfast of Kao nyao sankaya (sticky rice with coconut milk topped with a sweet egg and coconut milk pudding...mm mm, good). The Pun-Pun truck showed up from the farm at 7:00 already full of people, so Non, Lacey, and Austin crammed onto the benches in the back with all of our packs, and one of the Pun-Pun guys and I stood on the back and held on. It was a wicked fun ride, zipping through the wind to Chiang Mai. Once in Chiang Mai, Non took us to the main market where we purchased a couple pairs of the Thai farmer pants we'd all grown to love, and then we stopped by the bank to pick up my debit card that had been rescued from the hungry ATM (hallelujah!) before heading to a gas station on the main road to begin hitchhiking. Non happened to be going to Bangkok as well and explained to us that hitchhiking is safe in Thailand, and that most people are happy to take foreigners for a ride, so we were stoked to save a train load on another ticket and to experience more of Thailand from the back of a truck. Hitchhiking consisted of Non asking drivers of pickups if they were going to Bangkok and would like to take us along. Not a single one was and we got pretty discouraged until finally a group of construction workers showed up who were headed that way and welcomed us aboard. It wasn't a comfortable ride, but there was a tarp over our heads to shade from the sun, and it only took 8 hours, instead of the 13 or so that the train would've taken. Best of all, we didn't have to pay a cent! Once we got to the city, we said goodbye to dear Non and got a taxi back to Matthew's.

Friday, December 3rd.
After a delicious 11:00 dinner of Pad Thai off the street, we went to bed and woke up early to find an internet cafe. We found a perfect place with great drinks and free wifi, and spent a couple of hours getting caught up and deciding what we wanted to do. We then tried some unfamiliar fruits from a stand for lunch, said goodbye to Heather who had arrived early in the morning, and set out to find Chinatown. We failed, but ended up being led around the science center by some eager young girls and then went to one of the city's several parks, called Chatachak for a lovely walk and a tight fit in a paddle boat for a sunset ride around the pond there. Then we found a great dinner at a little place recommended by Matthew, found another internet cafe because our favorite was closed, and vowed never to go back (expensive drinks, no wifi, yada yada yada).

Saturday, December 4th.
Today we've figured out how to get to Chinatown and are hoping to meet Amelia, who's in town for a couple days before flying home. Tomorrow is the King's birthday, and we're hoping to explore the grand palace and other sights in the old town. On Monday the plan is to get the bus down the Eastern Seaboard to Ko Chang, a mountainous island where we're hoping to find a secluded beach to camp near. After a week or so down on the seaboard, we'll have a couple more days to explore Bangkok before heading back to Hong Kong. Woohoo!