Rice paddies again reflect mountains and sky. At Thap Sakae, a rainbow appears over mountains. Then a cell phone rings. Soon, we leave the Burmese border and rumble towards Central Thailand. Farmland replaced rice paddies.
Mountains fall away in the distance.
We pass through fewer villages and more towns, each webbed in wires, sprouting antennas and emitting neon. We hit the sprawl of Bangkok and with it, the smell of civilization. I could reach out and touch passersbys as we meandered through the metropolis. The sun baked us in our oven-car. I don't know what smelled worse, the city, or me.