We got up (I took a hot bath! Last one in 2 weeks) and had a buffet breakfast before heading to the airport. After an hour flight on Thai Airways (my favorite airline) we arrived in Chaing Mai, where Don and Kay whisked us away to Mae Sot (a six hour drive - more of the "Sore Butt Tour"). We ate lunch along the road from food packed by Kay - arroy (delicious). Every few miles we were stopped along the road by Thai police. Apparently they check cars in search of those without papers trying to come over from Burma. As we got closer to the city of Mae Sot it became apparent the police were trying to communicate a warning to us about something up the road, but our limited Thai didn't give us any indication aside from the warning. But just 2K's outside of the city, it became clear. We noticed all the cars were parked along the road and people were sitting around the road, one man had pulled out a mat and was sleeping under his truck. We pulled over and Don set out to discover what was going on.
We contacted DK Guesthouse where we were staying and they were going to come and get us. Apparently, some locals in a sign of protest (to what I have no idea) decided to park their trucks along the road to block it from anyone getting through on either side. They had been there since 10 in the morning and no one knew when it would break-up. The people reacted differently than those here. First of all, the police did not get involved. Which here the police would have already gotten them off the road. And Americans would have been engaged in outspoken protest of the protesters demanding our rights to get where we needed to go. These people just accepted it, even though some of them could lose their livelihood if the trucks didn't move soon. I almost loved the way the police let them work it out, and the acceptance of the people - its a lot less stressful and forces people to work things out (not that I am proposing a change in our country...its just different).
When employees of DK Guesthouse arrived, they helped Don park the truck at a friend's house on our side of the blockade, where they would watch our truck and stuff. Elaine and I, who haven't changed clothes in days, grabbed stuff we would need, and we all walked past the blockade to the truck from DK and we drove some back roads to the guesthouse. We checked in and got our stuff situated then headed to a recommended restaurant by the guesthouse, which was wonderful. It was a restaurant owned by a Canadian named Dave. Then we went to bed at 7pm (which was 3am CA time). Elaine and I woke up around 3am and were ready to go for the day so we just sat there til breakfast at 7am :).
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