Is this Hell???

Close competition for Worst day ever:

so i woke up yesterday feeling not the best but decided that we needed to start our journey. hoping for the best, we hopped on a supposedly 9-hour bus ride from Lampang to Udon Thani. well merely 3 hours after the beginning of our journey, the bus completely broke down on the side of the road. it was mid-day and way too hot to be outside so we waited for an hour inside the sweltering bus. i was strangely calm even though i felt like shit. and then they told us, there is another bus coming. and they put our bus onto a bus that was already full so we got to ride for 2 more hours standing/sweating and trying not to supphocate. i admit that i had a moment of "OHMYGODICAN'THANDLETHIS" but just kept humming to myself and trying not to think about it. there was so much tension and frustration in that bus. right when it seemed that everyone was about to explode, this little baby boy started singing quietly at first and then soooo loud!! everyone on the bus started cracking up. he was singing long crescendos of "UUUGHH and aye!" and when he finished he was so much out of breath that he was panting. at that moment, i sincerely thought that baby was an angel.

so we get to one of the larger cities and most people get off the bus. Unfortunately, the loud lady who constantly shouts comments at the bus driver does not descend from the bus. we also didn't know that there would be no food stops. the bus ride continued to go on and on. we had a moment of calm and laughing at our situation around sunset but after that, the bus got frigid, we got hungry and the lady got even louder. after all the delays, it ended up being a 12 1/2 hour bus ride. this troubled us for a number of reasons: 1. we were friggin starving and surely there would be no vegetarian restaurant open or near the bus station at that hour and 2. we didn't have a hotel room or even know the name of a hotel in Undon thani. this isn't america where you can just pop into a HoJo or red roof inn whenever you please. i considered the options of sleeping at the bus station or at a 7-11 which are open 24 hours.

getting off a bus in thailand, one might easily feel like chattel. once the bus starts pulling up to the station, all manner of transport drivers run over and violently start waving, especailly when they see foreigners. they are shouting at you things like, "Hey, where you go?" and "Hello I love you." it's not exactly what you want to be greeted by when you step off a bus for the first time in hours. we told a driver that we wanted to go to a hotel. what's the name of the hotel? we don't know. where is it? we don't konw. we want to sleep. he wants to know what we're doing tomorrow. going to nong khai. okay, so he says he will take us to the sleep hotel. i'm really hoping it's not a brothel but i'm too tired to resist. he turned out to be our second angel of the day. he took us to a hotel right near the bus station that was new, immaculate, cheap and had air-con and cable TV. we kept looking around wondering if it was a joke. so the fates really delivered on the hotel room but unfortunately there was no food to be found. we settled for snacks and called it a night.

anyways, we are in nong khai now and have already seen some crazy stuff. pictures later. tomorrow laos!