Today I took a bus from Phayao to Chiang Rai, two cities of northern Thailand. These are just a few images of the front of the bus.
The dashboard of a bus in Thailand is like its own little temple, crowded with statues and figurines, pots of burnt incense sticks, flowers and other prayer offerings. It's beautiful in its chaos. My understanding is all of this is to bring the bus good luck, to prevent accidents and that sort of thing.
The bus itself was ancient. Decades old, maybe even half a century. It looked older than me.
I was seated right behind the driver. Looking down at the gear shaft, I could see the road below. Most of the gauges didn't work; the speedometer was always at zero. There was one gauge for "Air" – anyone know what that's for? And there was an old-fashion bell wired to the right of the steering wheel, which also seemed strange.
Anyhow, when we reached Chiang Ria, I spent 90 minutes unsuccessfully wandering around looking for a cheap hotel. Unable to find one, I finally went back to the station, hopped on another bus, and now I'm in Mae Sai – the most northern place in Thailand.
