A Loooooong Night

I just came off one hell of a travel night. I wrote that my destination was going to be difficult to get to, but that was an understatement. Following the map to the right, I took a bus at 8:30 p.m. from Ayuthaya, located directly north of Bangkok, arriving in Tak at 2 a.m., located a bit west of Pitsanuloke. From Tak, I immediately jumped on a bus due for Mae Sot, located directly west on the Burmese border. The bus was jam packed, so the driver let me sit up front with him. Soon after hitting the road, he popped open a beer and started drinking. Not wanting to drink and drive all by his lonesome, he kindly offered me one. I graciously refused... someone had to be keeping an eye on the road, right? I got to Mae Sot at 4 a.m., froze my ass off at the outdoor bus station until 7 a.m. (it's cold here at night), then hopped on a sawngthaew for five hours to Um Phang, located just south of the little divot below Mae Sot. So, I arrived in Um Phang at 12 noon, exhausted, dirty, and hating buses. From where I started in Ayuthaya, it looks like I took the most convulated way to get to Um Phang. Unfortunatelty, it was the one and only way to get there from where I was, as the region is very mountainous and underdeveloped. Yeah, if I was in Bangkok I could have gone direct to Mae Sot and skipped the two hour ride from Tak, but we still have to take that beat up pick up truck after that for five hours anyway. And why did I do all this, you ask? 'Cuz, Thailand's largest waterfall is located here... just two hours away.