Switchbacks and Sticky Rice

Today was a fantastic merry-go-round of an adventure. We woke up at 6, to leave our apartments at 7, to make it to the bus station for the 8 am bus to Mae Hung Son. We remarkably arrived at the station with time to spare, only to find out that our bus wasn't going to leave until 9! So we spent a solid hour and a half stocking up on snacks for our 7 hour journey...

When we finally piled into the smallish bus, we found ourselves whizzing North into the mountains. We stopped a lot to pick up what seemed to be an impossible number of people and at our fullest, we had 43 people in a bus with 28 seats, including a baby, a TV, 2 charming French backpackers, an enormous spare tyre, monks galore and a bus conductor. We went through the Thai countryside with the wind rushing through our hair, as all the windows and both the doors were wide open and gloriously ushering in the breeze. I had my first goosebumps since coming to Thailand and shivered ecstatically as I watched the winding horizon of rice paddies slip into the clouds.

A little girl sat in front of me and another to her right. Both had painted toenails, which they wiggled in their mothers' laps. A woman standing near me, with teeth rotten out from beetle nut, peered curiously at my giggles as Johnny and I talked and talked and talked. We waltzed our way from juice to swingsets, from origami to youTube to Chaaaaaarlie; all while spinning a glistening web of conversation with we basked in and glowed azure amongst the drowsy travellers surrounding. We ate sticky rice and green beans and cabbage and pork and these crazy Thai desserts called 'mini sun marbles.' The sun filled our mouths and our hearts and our dreams - though not for long. When I fell asleep with my head out the window, Johnny awoke and pulled me inside. Dreaming in the wind while mountains race by is dangerous.

But I woke up to switchbacks and fabulous PINE TREES, the sour smell of forest and the delight of craggy cliffs. We peltered up and over countless mountains, dropping 400m, rising 200m, falling 300m, climbing 600m. Altitude became irrelevant as I soared into elation and threw my hands in the air for anticipation of the plummet over the oncoming winding bend.Then the cramp of the seats got to me and I moved backward in the now emptier bus, to drape myself over the enormous spare tyre and nap between those backpacks and legs of travellers loved and unknown.

I awoke to a screech - a brake? Confusion. Reverse. The conductor hops out. Returning to the smile of the driver, so reckless, he carried a road-killed snake twisted up in to a knot. It hung limp like the bags spilling out of the luggage racks and we threw it in a bag - for dinner? We went on our way.