Last Days in Thailand

I grabbed one last meal in Chiang Mai with my host Ben and friend Suzy. Ben split for work and Suzy gave me a ride towards the freeway on the scooter, also passing on a wooden shoe key chain which I was to deliver to one of our friends since I’d be running into him somewhere in the world before her.

I thumbed a ride from a couple that just went to the next town, from there I caught a ride with an 18 wheeler truck. The driver didn’t speak any English, but the woman with him did and was full of energy. We moved at a snails pace in the old truck, stopping twice for oil they were collecting at different places. We got noodles at a stand somewhere, then got closer to the town where I had some Couch Surfing hosts lined up.


Before getting there we stopped at a house where they were selling fuel, not sure if that was legal or cheap or how it worked, but finally we got to town and they let me out after using the woman’s phone to call Taylor, one of the guys I’d be staying with.

He came and met me on his bicycle, I managed to stand on the bike and we cruised the short distance back to his house where his boyfriend was cooking up a good dinner. We chowed down and shared stories, all and all an easy night.

In the morning I had to keep on going, set on Bangkok where my flight to Germany was leaving the next morning. The guys filled me with french toast and gave me a ride on the bike back to the main road.

A guy picked me, all smiles and no common language. He rang up his daughter who I spoke with on the phone so she could be a translator. It was pretty fun, we didn’t cruise all that far and eventually I hopped out to keep going.

A big truck picked me up and got me all the way to north Bangkok. It took a series of helpful motorbike rides and some public transport bus to get close to Adam’s place, the guy I’d stayed with a week earlier passing through the city. On the walk to his place a troll of person emerged from the shadows under a bridge looking frightened and menacing reaching out to grab me on the shoulder, he said something in Thai and his eyes burned into mine. “What?”, was all I could say, he said nothing, so I kept walking and he didn’t follow me.

Back at Adam’s he had a few people over and they were ready to blast into the night with some E and booze and everything else ready for a huge blowout of a celebration. I was unbelievably tempted, but my flight was leaving in less than 12 hours early in the morning, I foresaw that going out with them would probably result in waking up in a strange place the next afternoon knowing I’d done terrible and wonderful things half of which I would never know about, slowly coming to the realization that I’d missed my flight and would have thousands of miles to cover with nothing but a thumb crossing several borders in the process. Still, I weighed the options.

I stayed back, I was hooked on Germany, too excited for the flight tomorrow. They blasted out into the night, full of energy and I’m sure they conquered and carried on nicely. I showered and shaved my southern hemisbeard, good times were ahead, new lands, new people, adventure.