Wait, did we finally get here?

So hellloooooooo Chiang Rai! You magical place of relaxation, adventure and beautifulness! So far upon our arrival we went to Central Plaza (the mall). We had McDonalds, just because we had not eaten in.....14 hours, then saw that we do not have time to see a movie in English, but they do have them here. Hopefully that can happen while we are here. Then we got a manicure! And they sure take beauty care seriously. It took over an hour with all the special care they took taking care of our skin and nails. And I decided since I love sparkly so much, I would make my nails super sparkly! Maybe this will keep me from impulse buying shiny things here that I am allergic to but conveniently forget at times lol. I looooove my nails right now :-) and now we are sitting in a coffee shop with free wifi, strawberry milkshakes and Earl Gray tea. In an hour we will be picked up from the bus station nearby to our hotel outside the city. We will be staying in a cabin/bamboo hut place with mosquito netting over the beds. It should be an interesting experience in the least and the pictures are beautiful. Oh and guess what else they have? Natural hot springs. Guess what I am doing this evening. Yeeesssssss.

Now the trip here was....beyond ideal. Our bus left at 3am. But...our motorcycle never came to pick us up to take us to the bus station. Instead, one of my friends has been elevated to awesome because he gave all of us a ride. Then we find out that the bus only had one free seat and there were three of us. And the next bus was not for two hours. So....we decided to take a bus to Lampang which is on the way and hoped we could catch a bus to Chiang Rai from Lampang. That bus ride went as smooth as can be expected. Rocked a little through the mountains but it was easy to get through since we all slept through it. Each of us only managed an hour and a half the night before so.....it was not even remotely difficult. Then we arrived in Lampang. Every place with a sign to say they sold tickets to Chiang Rai actually did not sell tickets. So we were standing there going....well now what? Finally someone took pity on us and directed us to a lady sitting at a table. The bus in front of her looked like a school bus. An old school bus. She said that one was leaving right then, but it was a 2 bus.

Now before I continue, let me tell you what my teacher told me yesterday before I left school. She said, take a VIP bus and to sit in the front or middle of the bus because taking a bus through the mountains is a little rocky and scary otherwise. So with this advice, we did not want to take a 2 bus to Chiang Rai. We asked when the next bus was. It was in an hour. But it had no air conditioning. That made the choice pretty easy. Though we went got onto the bus it was full except for the seats in the back. So we sat on a 2 bus in the back. Exactly the opposite of what my teacher told me. Lol. Of course. And part of me wants to say, well at least it had air conditioning. Oh yes, it had constant on-full-blast air conditioning directly on me. I was a popsicle after twenty minutes and stayed that way for the rest of the trip. And we expected the trip to last 2 hours. BAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Nope! 6 hours. And rocky. I slept through a lot of it, only waking up when my head banged against the window. And eventually even I did not care about my poor head. I was sleepy. Though might I say that there is nothing creepier than falling asleep beside and elderly woman and waking up beside an old man.