a sad day

today has been an incredibly sad day.

yesterday at 4pm, steven and i got on an overnight bus from krabi to bangkok. the bus was to take 12 hours and drop us off in downtown bangkok at 4am this morning. not the most pleasant ride, but it was dirt cheap. we had been warned about these buses. that thieves can break into your bags in the storage compartments, so we kept our most important belongings in my purse which i had with me. the ride was loud and bumpy and neither of us slept very much. 

at some point in the night i woke up and noticed my purse wasn't under my feet where i had been keeping it. i got up and looked around and eventually woke steven up. we looked together and found it on the ground next to my seat. i could have sworn i had just looked there and not found it, but i was relieved to find it.

at 4am we got to bangkok- hired a cab and got dropped off at our hotel. at this point i noticed that my flip flops and my favorite water bottle were missing from the side pouch of my bag. i cried a little but soon realized we'd easily be able to replace those items at one of bangkoks many markets. 

we slept until noon. when we finally started getting ready for our day steven realized his phone was missing and after fully opening our bags we found out that they had been completely riffled through. some of the items that were stolen were quite comical. for instance i brought a headlamp and there was still one in my bag- it just wasnt mine. and my large bag of tampons- gone. other items that got stolen were not so comical.  steven's smartphone, parts for our gopro, and his credit card had been switched with one belonging to someone else.

we were both extremely upset. being violated in this way is the WORST feeling and i dont wish it upon anyone- yet i know that everyone on that bus is going to the same sadness we are. possibly worse.

finally we were ready to move on with our day. nothing that had gotten stolen was going to ruin our trip- or even the rest of our day. right before we were about to leave our room we thought to lock up our last valuables- steven's laptop and enough money for us to travel a good month in myanmar. it was gone, all but $40 of it.  

now- you might be wondering- why the heck have they been carrying that much cash through these countries. well- myanmar is a cash only economy. they have very few ATM's, if any, and when exchanging currencies they prefer (and sometimes only accept) crisp, new US dollar bills. so before we left for our trip we got money out and, up until now, we've managed to keep it perfectly safe and crispy. 

after a significant amount of tears and words that won't be repeated on this blog- we realized that our trip had just become much shorter. we'll most likely spend just a couple more days in bangkok and then fly home.

but we're not letting this ruin our trip. up until now it's been amazing, unforgettable, and life changing. even tonight, after a day of sadness and police statements, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner and began discussing when we'll be able to come back for myanmar...

-e