Hitch hiking through Thailand

Tuesday 25th October

A quick consultation of the Lonely Planet and I figured it would take about six hours to get from my school in Chachoengsao to Lop Buri via Bangkok. I set out the door with no idea of the journey I had before me.
'I need to get to the train station to get to Bangkok,' I said to the tuk tuk driver.
'Bangkok a long way,' he replied.
'No the choo, choo train,' I again asked.
'Ah train yes.' I climbed in and he dropped me at the station.
I booked a ticket for 14 Baht (50 cents Australian) and everything was going to plan. The train was thirty minutes late but it was ok at least it was coming. The train journey did not take too long and when I got off the train I was called over by a lady at an information desk who asked in English where are you going.
'I need to get to Lop Buri on the train,' I said.
'No train, bus,' she replied. Then she wrote down instructions in English and Thai on how to get to the Bangkok bus station by catching a local bus.
Things were still going ok and I got to the northern bus terminal and booked a seat on the bus. The bus was due to leave at 3.15pm so around 3pm I went outside and waited hoping not to miss the bus. The bus did not leave so I waited in the scorching heat with sweat pouring off me with no idea when the bus would leave.
At 4.15pm a large bus came and everybody scrambled to get a seat. The bus did not say anything in English about Lop Buri but I checked with a few other passengers and I was fairly confident I was heading in the right direction.
As we were driving I began to see the affects of the floods. The highways and overpasses were full of parked cars. The people of Bangkok have driven their cars to higher ground and left them there. Some families are living in their cars. The driver of the bus drove us around and around Bangkok for a few hours trying to find an exit which was not clogged with traffic. At one point I saw a few signs which read Chachoengsao, meaning I was back close to where I had started the day.
The driver found an exit and I felt like we were making ground and getting somewhere close. Even when there was no traffic the bus was getting any speed. Until finally the bus just stopped, a driver in a passing car yelled something to the driver and the passengers began to run off the bus. I ran off too and followed the crowd away from the bus. I turned around to see the back of the bus in a cloud of smoke and passengers running in all directions.
All the passengers began waving down cars and I followed a couple who had waved over a driver of a Ute (pick up truck) with a canvas roof.
'Lop Buri, Lop Buri, I need to get to Lop Buri,' I said.
'No not Lop Buri,' they replied as I went to walk off they said 'Let's go.'
For the next half an hour seven of us, the rest of the passengers all Thai including a lady boy, rode in the back of the Ute till we reached a major intersection. At the intersection we all climbed out, walked over an overpass and waved down another car.
The next four or so hours passed in the same way getting in the back of a Ute till a major intersection then climbing out, waving down another car and continuing on. I felt safe although for the most part I had no idea where I was. Until finally I spotted a sign which read Lop Buri. As soon as I had seen the sign the Ute we were in started going a different direction. Then it stopped outside a supermarket and I followed the rest of the passengers as we walked through the car park along a road and ended up at a bus station.
Somehow some of the other passengers I had noticed on the bus earlier had also made it to the station although none of them could tell me how they got there. After much conversation of which I understood nothing I realised there was no bus from that station to Lop Buri that night. They pointed me in the direction of another Ute and followed some other passengers and paid the driver 70 Baht. With about ten others we rode in the back to Lop Buri. I had made it to Lop Buri.
I called my friend to say I had made it to the bus station only to be told she was waiting at the train station.
Then I had to work out how to get to the train station. Luckily one of the passengers was still around. I told him I needed to get to the train station and he walked me to the motor bike taxi stand and I climbed on the back of a bike.
Finally around 11.30pm I made it to the train station and met Alice and she walked me to where the rest of the crew where drinking at a pub. It was a 15 journey I am fairly sure I will forget in a hurry.