Water Logged...

I have not written in a while as I have been travelling with my mom for the past month. She left on Thursday and I was very sad to see her go. We had a great time and saw an incredible amount of Thailand, as well as a bit of Burma and Loas. To begin my posts on our time together, I must start with how my mom and I met up after she arrived in Bangkok at 1:00 am...

We decided it would be rather difficult for me to pick her up at the airport at such a time as my apartment is 45 minutes away via taxi and all public transportation closes at midnight. I also had work the next day and needed to get up early. So, my mom stayed in a hotel her first night here and we planned to meet at 5:00 pm at the closest sky train stop (Wong Wien Yai) to my apartment. It usually takes me an hour by bus to reach the sky train but just to be safe, I left school as soon as I could the next day, which was at 3:00 pm. I boarded a bus shortly after and began what was to be a memorable journey…

It had been raining all day and when I boarded the bus, it was packed full with soaking wet people. I stood between several sopping wet teens and became wet by proximity, much to my annoyance. The traffic was horrible because of the rain and I congratulated myself on having enough sense to leave early. The bus slowly inched along for about an hour until coming upon a section of the road so flooded that it resembled a lake. The bus driver hesitated for only a moment before plunging our bus into this lake. For obvious reasons, the bus did not make it far; it began to take on water and steam poured from the engine. Yet no one got off….I became panicked after 30 minutes of not moving. Even still, not a single soul got off the bus. Finally I decided enough was enough, I was going to be late at this point and doubted the bus was ever going to re-emerge from the lake. I waded through the water back to slightly dryer land to see if I could flag down a motorcycle to take me the rest of the way (which was still about 45 minutes of driving).

It was a nightmare trying to find a motorcycle to take me; no driver in his right mind wanted to ruin his bike in the streets that had become rivers. One after the next turned me down and all laughed in my face for requesting a ride. I waded through mud up to my calves for what seemed like an eternity before a driver took pity on me, but not before making me pay an exorbitant amount. We took off and it proved to be the most exciting mototaxi ride of my life. We zigzagged in and out of the stopped traffic while the water lapped at our legs, rising high past our calves. I am extremely surprised his bike was not completely ruined. Once on an elevated highway that runs two stories over the city, the rain pelted my face like bee stings as we speed to my destination. I arrived soaking wet with a bright red splotched face at Wong Wien Yai station at 5:30. I was overjoyed to be there….

Yet my mom was not at the station. I walked up and down the length of the station over and over again, checking all entrances for any sign of her. I became worried that something terrible had happened. Thirty minutes later, and jut as I was about to have a nervous breakdown, I got a call from a strange number. My mom had borrowed a Good Samaritan’s cell phone and told me she was waiting at a station, which we quickly determined to be the wrong one. Thank God for cell phones. She was at the correction station within 15 minutes and after yelling at each other, we explained our sides of the story. She had been waiting at the wrong station since 4:30 pm (it was now 6:15 pm) and was also panicking.

After all the trouble, we could not hail a cab for an hour. We walked in the rain with her giant suitcases in the dark until we caught the bus. We arrived back at my apartment at around 10:00 pm. What a beginning!