Vacation

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

Well, its been a while since I've posted up here. I've been absolutely slammed at work for the past three weeks with several projects and the past week has been a real treat.

I've had to get my taxes done, laundry finished, photos developed, and still have to pack. Tonight, the Badgers play in their first frozen four since I was back in school, against Maine. It would be nice to see them advance. Tomorrow, is one of my favorite days of the year, Cubs Opening Day at Wrigley Field. It will be cold and miserable during the game with chances of rain, but because baseball season has started once again in Chicago, it doesn't matter to me. The promise of warmer weather is ahead.

Speaking of warmer weather, I'll be leaving for Bangkok on Saturday. Next week is Songkran, the Thai New Year. I've never been to Thailand in April, but will be reporting as often as I can. I know this time around that if my eye is a little red and irritated, I'm running to the nearest hospital without hesitation.

This trip, I'm heading to the border town of Mae Sot to meet up with a friend. Mae Sot is on the Myanmar border and is in the mountainous Northern part of Thailand. I really have no more information than that because guidebooks and the net have little on the area.

The trip to Mae Sot has become a bit of an adventure for me and I haven't even gone to the airport. I initially found out that you can use the government bus which is fairly inexpensive and takes 8 hours. I was not a huge fan of that idea and tried to see if there was another way to get there. I found out that I could fly from Bangkok to a town called Sukhothai and then take a 3 hour bus ride. A little more palatable I thought.

Earlier this week, I decided to book my internal flight. Guess what? No chance. There's only one flight a day and the day I needed to go its booked full. Damn my procrastination as it was available a week or so ago. Plan B, I'll take the train to Phitsanulok and take a bus to Mae Sot. Strike two. Trains are all booked except for steerage and the times just won't work for my schedule. Plan C, A while back, I found a limo company that offers service all over Thailand. I enquired and found that they could take me to Mae Sot for $143. About twice what I would have spent taking plan A.

Vacation begins in 3 hours, 15 minutes. Go Badgers, Go Cubs, and Go Me.