chiang mai to koh chang continued...

sorry i haven't posted in a while! But we have been staying far from the internet cafes and we are just too lazy.

i will catch up a little... we took an overnight bus from chiang mai to bangkok on the night of the 9th. we were picked up at our hostel in chiang mai by a songthaew (a pickup truck with two long benches in the back, a common means of local transportation) at 6pm and drove around to pick up 9 other people (it was very crowded). it seemed as though we were driving in circles for an hour. it finally dropped us off at a big gass station outside of town to wait for our bus. there were around 40 people waiting. it seemed very strange to be waiting at a gass station for a bus. we were all getting a little worried that it wasn't coming. we were supposed to leave at 7pm and the bus didn't arrived until 9:30pm. we were not on the road for more than 15 minutes when we stopped at a gas station. after another 15 minutes we stopped again and we were watching out the window as the two drivers from the bus ran into a shop to buy a battery and get some cables. it didn't look so good. we are not sure exactly what was going on but we think the headlights were not working. well we made it to bangkok anyway! we arrived at 7am and had to run and catch our conecting bus to koh chang that was leaving at 8am. we arrived at a hostel/restaurant/travel agency to catch our other bus and no one was there to tell us anything. we waited until almost 10am and a woman finally showed up for work. we asked about our bus and she told us that we were late and missed the bus. we were not very happy about that. she was not even there, but told us we were late? she made some phone calls to "see what she could do" and then said, come with me. she walked to the back of the hostel/restaurant/travel agency and out a back door into an alley that was so narrow you could touch both walls without stretching your arms. it was dark and not very clean. to make it even more interesting there were three people cooking. one woman was squatting down next to a huge bucket of fried chicken. her hands were covered with batter and a cat walked by. they didn't look too happy that we were walking through the "kitchen" and it wasn't easy with our big bags. we made it through to a street and there were a couple more people from her company on cell phones and a big group of people like us probably wondering where their bus was. the girl that took us there told us to go with one of the men and he wrote us out a new ticket and then labeled us with stickers that said "KOH CHANG". we looked at each other and just started laughing. we felt like luggage. it was all very strange. we walked about a block and waited for our new bus. finally we were on our bus to koh chang but thought we would never make it. it was moving so slowly (probably average speed of 35mph) and our driver was talking on his cell phone almost the entire way (7 hours). the bus dropped us off at the ferry to the island. the ferry ride was about 1 hour and then we finally made it to koh chang at 8pm. we began looking for accomodation and it was not easy in the dark. but we managed to find something for the first night and then moved to a grass hut on a better beach the next morning. our hut has been quite an experience. it's probably not going to be standing for too much longer, it's falling apart a bit, but it is in the best location on this part of the island.
We had a gecko in it one night and a scorpion 2 nights ago. the scorpion was quite an experience. jose saw it first and then i saw his face and then i looked where he was looking and saw it. we discussed what to do about it and then he found a broom and used the handle to crush it. it was disgusting!!! we cleaned the entire hut out and made sure nothing else was in there. we found a cockroach but that was no big deal after having a scorpion.
well, i have to go now i'll try and write more later, if not we are off to cambodia tomorrow morning and are not sure what the internet situation is there. i'm sure we will find someplace though.
Bye for now!!