A fruitless day on a packed to the gunnel bus

Crickey - packed buses in England are absolutely nothing compared to packed buses in Thailand! 

We are currently staying 12km from Phuket in a district called Talang -which is pretty nice.. All the houses have big gates on them and it is safe (apart from the small slum-like dwellings next door) but it is in a district of a big town so these things are to be expected. 

After a serious half an hour power-walk in 28c heat, with two little children scooting like mad, we managed to catch the 'bus' to Phuket town. 

At first glance, and when the bus pulled up, I thought it was humanly impossible to ram us onto the bus. How wrong I was. We got on, as did another 20 or so people.. Within about 5 minutes the bus was full as full could be, with people squashed in, hanging off the back and 4 brave souls driving up front with the driver. And the driver was still stopping for more.. 

On first examination i didn't think much of the extra bench that had been sneakily slipped into the middle of the gangway.. 

But when it was full with school children, people with suitcases, women breast feeding tiny babies and the chaos of the bus driver shouting 'move along, move along' (and yes it did remind me of the bus driver in 'the wheels on the bus') I was soon seething. (And I'm pretty patient!) then Esme and Rowan started bickering about who was going to be siting on mummy's knee.. I got lots of smiles of sympathy but I couldn't move as we were all packed in like sardines. I tried to look out of the open back but couldn't see due to the numbers of men hanging onto the ladder at the back.. 

Meanwhile Guy spent the hour long tedious journey happily chattering to a nice American man.. And I must admit I was ready to commit a heinous crime by the time we got off. 

We have been mulling the idea over of buying bikes with children's seats built onto them but we needed to go to a big out of town store. (£30 each!) Guy bargained with a charming tuk tuk driver who said he would take us to where we wanted as long as we went to visit two of 'his friends' shops.. So we did. That wasn't too bad and the children had a great time  on the 'ghostly' jewel train ride.. (No ghosts but a short story on a train about how precious gems are mined and cleaned). 

Of course, one thing that we hasn't really thought of is that Guy is a big Caucasian chap who is 6'1 and the majority of Thai men are about 5'6 and there was no way on this earth that we would find a bike for Guy. 

So.. Back in the tuk tuk, back to the bus, an hour of suffering in the bus, back to the power walk in the pouring rain with exhausted children.. Not much fun. 

In the end Guy bought a motorbike helmet as there is a scooter here that we can use but he went out this morning in a flurry of excitement.. Only to discover.. Wait for it.. That the scooter had a flat tyre. 

But that's ok. He looked like someone from Thunderbirds. We've now decided its just not meant up be.. And it's safer anyway. So any major excursions will have to be by the overcrowded buses.. 

Esme's face says it all..

Sarah xx