Khao Yai National Park Part 3: The Departure

The second nights sleep was a bit better. I woke up before the others (we were down to just the four of us as everyone else had left the day before). Since light was pouring in from the open windows on the tent, I grabbed my book and read a few chapters, unti Jeniffer woke up and I had someone to go to breakfast with. At breakfast we met two people, Sam and Sam, who were both working in a small, ethnically Burmese village with some NGOs. They were on a weekend vacation at Khao Yai. They were fun to talk with, when we got done eating we went to go wake up steve and Johnny, and sent them to go clean up and go eat while we took down the tent.

When we were checked out and ready to get going we walked over to the road to start hitchhiking and ran into Sam and Sam, who were also on their way. At first I feared that a group of 6 would be too big and no one would stop to pick us up, but my fears were proven wrong when an extended bed pickup pulled up and said they were headed to the park entrance. In fact they were headed to the park entrance...and through the park entrance and on down the road. We werent sure if they were taking us to town or had forgotten about us, but we were down for the adventure.
About halfway to town the truck pulls over and the two guys just get out. Across the road their are some food stands under thatch roofs, but other than that there is nothing but the road. The driver says some stuff to us in Thai, but we dont understand, and think that maybe there is a bus that goes past here for us to catch. We all grab our bags and hop out, and he looks at us confused and tries to explain again. We eventually figure out that he is waiting for a friend. We tell him that we are students at Thammasat, and he says that his friend works there. Pretty soon, the language barrier slows the conversation till it is no more.
After a few minutes of waiting a pickup truck pulls out and the driver hops out and start chatting with our driver. We ask him if he works at Thammasat, and he laughs like its the funniest thing in the world. I guess not. We stand around waiting some more and a car pulls up behind us. The driver of this vehicle comes up and talks to his friends, and then tells us that he is an Ajan of Sociology at Thammasat. As we are talking to him (he has the best english of the group) another car with a family inside pulls up. At this point we have no idea what is going on, and figure that These people want to know why a bunch of Thais and Farang are chilling on the roadside. We wai to the mom and she smiles Wais back and drives off.

After a little more chitchat between the thais we all jump back in the back of the truck. The Ajan says that they will take us right to the bus station. Perfect. As we drive back into town we notice that the mom we saw earlier is actually leading the caravan into the city, and then when we get in the city limits another driver pulls into the front. As we pull up to the bus stop (and really in this town its a bus stop, not station, just a little roadside stand) there is a bus about to leave, but it waits for us to buy our tickets and board and it was smooth sailing home from there.