I think the devil drives a bus

Ok, the bus to Phuket was maaaaybe one of the worst rides I have ever been on. We were told that it was about a 15 hour bus ride that leaves at 6:00 pm and gets there at 9:00 am the next day. Cool with me. So we show up at the our departure destination at 5:50 pm and wait. And wait. Finally a little Thai lady comes and tells us to follow her. She is in a very short skirt and gets lots of cat calls as we navigate through busy streets to the street where the bus will pick us up. 30 minutes later, we finally make it on the bus and it leaves a little before 7:00 pm. Hbf and I realize we left our water but we are told we will be stopping in a bit at a place where we can buy water. Sweet. 2 horrible movies later (blood diamond and max payne.. two feel good movies that just warm your heart), we haven't stopped and i'm considering stealing our neighbor's water bottle because I'm pretty sure I'm dying of thirst. As Hbf and I started to devise a plan, the bus finally stopped for "dinner" (it's 11:00 pm). we rush off and are able to buy bottles of water that we instantly drain. We buy 2 more for the trip.

After we get back on the bus, we decide to take some Tylenol PM to make the trip a little more comfortable. Hbf had mentioned a particularly uncomfortable overnight bus ride he had done before, where he got no sleep. Well, no problem here.. I've got pills. We take our pills and fall blissfully asleep, only to be woken up at 3:00 am. They turn on all the lights and some people start to get off. There's momentary drug-induced confusion and panic, but we realize we couldn't possibly be to Phuket yet and go back to our comas.

We are then awakened at 6:00 am and everyone is told to get off the bus. I'm so drowsy I can hardly move, but we get off the bus and we are told we are going to get on a different bus. He asks for our ticket and we give it to him. 30 minutes later, I'm a little more awake but no bus has come for us. Suddenly, the thai man who seems to be in charge notices we have no sticker that tells him where we are going. He asks us for our ticket. We tell him we already gave it to him. He says no, he doesn't have our ticket, otherwise we would have a sticker. Hbf tells him he gave the ticket to him as we got off the bus. The thai man still says no. We ask to see all the tickets, so he gets them out. We point out our ticket and he says no, that's not our ticket. He thinks that ticket came from someone else. I start yelling. I didn't want to, but it's waaaay to early to be awake and obviously we gave him the ticket. Turns out another couple had not given them their ticket and he had given them our stickers. His bad. Yes.. His very bad. 7:00 am rolls around and finally a little covered pick up truck with bench seats in the back picks us up. At first I thought we would be riding in that for the rest of the time, but he was just taking us to the next bus. He drops us off at a little cafe/warehouse so we can wait for the next bus. Hooray, more waiting.
Then, it starts POURING down rain. Luckily we were inside, but the cockroaches wanted to be inside too. They start streaming in to the place and I can't help but yelling and pulling my feet up so they don't touch me. Finally our bus comes and we have to wade out in ankle deep puddles to get on the bus. Good times. By this time it's like 7:30 am and we are thinking we will get to Phuket by 9:00 am. At 2 pm, we finally made it to the Phuket town, but we still needed to go to the beach. That took time.. 2 hours. At 4, we found a place. Thank goodness this place is a little slice of heaven because I wouldn't accept anything less.

The ocean is warm and crystal clear and the beaches are clean and full or soft, white sand. The next day I started my scuba certification and finished today. More on that later. I'm hoping tomorrow I can enjoy the beach and sun.