The Journey to Mae Sot……
As I said, it was difficult to get out of Kanchanaburi
without going all the way back to Bangkok or enduring a mini-van journey with
14 other travellers, and all of their luggage, in a 12 seater. Similar to our
trip from Malaysia to Thailand. We could have taken a local bus and changed in
somewhere or other as well, but we decided to splash out on a car and driver!
The hotel proprietor organised it all and we settled on a
price. Too bloody expensive but we had no choice if we wanted a door to door
service. The night before we were to leave a chap arrived to collect the money.
I said “no way mate, we don’t pay for a service until we get it, but I will pay
a deposit in good faith”. He wanted 50% but he got 30%. Off he went and I said
“see you tomorrow at 8.30am.”
Well at 8.00am this brand new Toyota pulled up while we were
still having breakfast and an old guy and his wife loitered about until we
finished. This was a completely different guy from the night before. Seemed
friendly enough so off we went. He had only had the car three weeks and was
obviously being cautious with it. Their English was as bad as our Thai, so
silence reigned. It didn’t take long before I realised that he had not driven
an automatic before. What a terrible driver he turned out to be. I won’t give
you a blow by blow of the entire 6 hour journey, but it was an horrendous trip,
both for the driving style and the dangerous situation he put us in. I quite
seriously wanted to make him stop and let me drive. He would accelerate for
about 5 seconds and then slacken off, even on the flat and the hills. This gave
us a surging sensation and was bloody annoying. The rev counter was going from
3000 to 3500 every few seconds. He pulled into every service station that had
LPG and topped up each time,,, 150baht? $6.00. Just in case he ran out I
suppose. When this happened he powered down all of the windows and the 40deg
heat flooded in. He must have read somewhere that is what you have to do.
Didn’t turn off the engine though. Now we came to some pretty steep hills ….a
bit like Takaka hill in Nelson, and he was still doing the surging thing and
getting slower and slower. He pulled over on a bend with 5 cars behind him and
locked it in 2nd gear. Must have read somewhere that is what you
have to do. Pulled away and revved the life out of the engine to keep ahead of
the ‘normal’ drivers who couldn’t pass as the road was steep, winding and
narrow. Still doing the surging thing though. There were lots of trucks on the
road which could only go slow and with few passing lanes the Thais generally
pass anywhere. Undertaking, overtaking on a bend, or on a crest of a hill, and
mostly they get away with it. Our man thought he could do it too, except he
would be just alongside a truck (still in second) then he would button off and
we would be neck and neck with the truck on the brow of a hill and cars coming
the other way. Thais are good at making 3 lanes out of two. Our little
sphincters were gripping the seat covers for sure. Over the brow of the hill
and we are in the clear, but he won’t put it in drive as there is another hill
coming! 110km an hour in second gear! Honestly, Cathie had to physically
restrain me from trying to take over. I did manage to say “it works better in
drive”. We did 6 hours of this and were pleased to finally arrive at our
accommodation. We paid him the balance of the fare, but he was not aware that
we paid a deposit and after some confusion we showed him the receipt. He was
not happy, looks like someone was ripped off, possibly even us as the price was
so high. Ah well we are here now. Look out Mae Sot, here we come. One of
Cathies favourite places. In fact I always think of my mum when I hear Mae Sot
….. she was Mae Scott.
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