What It Takes to Get to School {Only Nine Steps}

We started Thai Language School! I write that with an exclamation point because it was a last-minute opportunity that we are so thrilled about taking.  Matt and I both are learning conversational Thai for the next six weeks, five days a week, two hours a day.  Matt goes to the morning class, and I go in the afternoons.  Since I am still in the process of learning to drive here (okay, I’ll be honest, I haven’t really driven outside of our neighborhood), I have had to be creative with using the local taxi system.  Here is a (cheesy) play-by-play. . .

1.  Ride bike (like the one the old lady from Wizard of Oz sported) 1/2 mile, at high-noon, in the tropics, up to the front gate of your neighborhood.  (Skirts add both style and up the navigation points earned on this leg of the journey.)

2.  Walk down this road out of your neighborhood towards the main highway. (Enjoy the trees, and the shade, and think of the South.)

3.  Cross (no, actually, RUN like a scaredy-white-chic stupid enough to wear a long skirt) across the busy highway (where pedestrians have no right-of-way, as stated in all travel guide books you have ever read about Thailand.)

4.  Wait until one of these colored trucks (called a sawng-taaw) notices your polite hailing.  Clamber inside and sit on either of the benches built into the sides of the truck bed.  Prepare yourself for stares, and prepare yourself to be crammed between a monk and a student in her school uniform.  Ride 20 minutes.

5.  Get dropped off at a busy market.  Pay the driver 20 baht (about 80 cents).  Enjoy the fragrance of fresh flowers mixed with burning trash mixed with grilling mystery-meat that permeates the streetside.

6.  Hail a tuk-tuk (motorcyle-turned-cab) driver to take you the remaining 7 minutes (not because you are unable to walk, but because it is so Mississippi-like- hot, and you would probably get lost anyway, and it’s only a dollar).  Barter some over 15 cents.   Fake walk-away at least once.  Settle on a (slightly) cheaper price with the driver.

7.  Look like a dork and take a picture of yourself riding in the aforementioned tuk-tuk.  Lose all facade that you are actually a {newbie} local, and resign yourself to act like a corny tourist for the sake of the blog.  (You can thank me later.)  Pay driver 40 baht, about a dollar.

8.  Down one more street.  Treat yourself to some fresh pineapple from a roadside stand, and then . . . .

9.  Arrive in style.  Re-apply lipgloss.  Wipe sweat from forehead, and repair wind-blown hair as much as possible.  Enter the small class of 5 and get ready to bust out some new Thai words.

Total trip time:  35 minutes.  Total trip expense:  60 baht (about 2 bucks).

And, no, I haven’t tried this with the kids yet.  Now, that would be a blog post.

Tagged as: everyday Thai life, life overseas, traveling in chiang mai, using taxis in chiang mai