Running Down the Street Dragging a Wedding Dress Behind Me

Today we were supposed to have a relaxing day where we headed to the tailors, picked up Brooke’s finished wedding dress and my suit, walked to our friend, Ginger’s to put the clothes in a box that she was going to send for us, and then meet up with our old friends Kate and Maryellen (who we randomly ran into on a crowded street in Bangkok and knew from a hostel in Guatemala two years ago. Small world after all) to hang out before catching our 6:00pm bus to Southern Thailand. The heading to the tailors was about the only thing that went as planned. When we arrived the wedding dress was far from the perfect state we were hoping for which made seem very small the fact that the last little tweak on the shirt they were doing for me turned in to a new shirt from scratch. Start the time ticking in the back of my head. Try the dress on, adjust, painfully tear pieces apart, sow, try on, adjust, and repeat! To make a stressful story short, in the end I decided to accept my shirt without looking at it (too afraid of more adjustments) and Brooke, almost happy with her dress, settled for discounts and some extra boning (no idea) that I hope someone in the states will know where to stick it. I left early for Ginger’s sprinting down the crowded streets of Bangkok, backpack on, dragging my new suit behind me. After wrong busses, traffic, and bad choices of when to get off (which meant more sprinting), I finally reached Ginger’s only realizing then the daunting task I had of fitting every strange and abnormally sized object we could find in Thailand into a nicely rectangular, possibly a little too small, box (a rice steamer basket? Really?). Brooke arrived at quarter to five with even a crazier tale of travel and after some tape, a little more tape, a little extra cardboard here and there, a little more tape and done! 5:00pm. Oh crap!...We forgot to put in the boning! After a few cuts and tears and a lot more tape, it was 5:15 and our real adventure was about to begin! - Getting back to Khao Son Rd in Bangkok rush hour traffic before our 6:00pm bus left.

At 5:30 we were still on the street being turned down left and right from taxies that were saying it was impossible or they didn’t want to go that far. At 5:40 we were begging a moto driver to take us and finally for 100B a piece (expensive $3.00) he and his buddy agreed. The next 15 minutes were a blur of passing stopped cars (stuck in traffic), dodging oncoming traffic (I don’t think this is our lane!), popping the moto over curbs and medians, and evading pedestrians as we took a shortcut through a park. At 5 min to 6:00pm I pried open my ghost white knuckles and handed each driver a sweat drenched 100B note. I really hope our moms do not read this one! We were safely at our bus stop. Kate and Maryellen were also there prepared to stall the bus with whatever tactics were necessary until we arrived. They are wonderful people and I am glad that they are the last sights we saw we finally escaped the big city!