Mae Hong Son or Bust

I would like to give you all a schedule of my time in transit from Nong Khai to Mae Hong Son:

3:00-3:150pm Tuk tuk to the NK bus station
3:40-5:00pm Bus from NK to Udon Thani
5:00- 7:30pm Misadventures in Udon Thani (details to follow)
8:00pm -8:00am Bus from UT to Chiang Mai
9:00am-5:00pm Bus from CM to MHS (details to follow)

That, my friends, was a 26 hour journey.

Alright now for the details I'm sure you are all dying to hear:

5:00- 7:30pm Misadventures in Udon Thani
I traveled the first leg of the trip with two fellow volunteers who were headed to Chiang Mai, Kristy and Mark. We arrived in Udon Thani with two and a half hours to kill before our 12 hour bus ride and figured that we would go into town, grab some dinner and then head back to the bus station. So we checked out Mark's Lonely Planet to find a place to eat and were exuberantly greeted by a tuk tuk driver as soon as he saw we were looking to go into town.
" We want to go to ____Hotel," we said, knowing that the hotel would be an easy point of reference for the driver.
"Hotel gone," he replied, also motioning with his hands. "____ Hotel! 250 Batt/night! I take you there."
"No, no! Not sleep. Only to eat." more hand motions
"Hotel Gone!"
"We only want to eat next door."
"Gone!"
We had a group pow-wow. Kristy explained that tuk tuk drivers commonly held commissions with local hotels when they bring in guests. The "hotel closed" move was one of the oldest tricks in the book.
"Just take us here," we said pointing to the map.
So we hopped onto the tuk tuk (three large travel backpacks and three cramped people in all) and off we went into Udon Thani. During the 10 minute drive we continuously questioned whether or not the driver was taking us to our so-called "closed" hotel or his hotel recommendation.
He stopped the tuk tuk on a fairly empty street and pointed. "See. Closed!"
There we stood, completely dumbstruck, staring at a gaping whole between two buildings.
"Hotel," he said motioning to one of the spaces. "Restaurant," motioning to the other.
Apparently Mark's Lonely Planet was a bit out dated....
Speechless and rather embarrassed, we disembarked and attempted to find another place to eat. But our search only lead us to another tuk tuk driver who we asked to take us to the Tesco Lotus we had seen while driving in.
I'm still not quite sure what the lesson from that story should because the one time you don't believe a tuk tuk driver he turns out to be telling the truth. The next time you do that, you know you'll just be falling for one of their moves.

9:00am-5:00pm Bus from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son
As the time suggests, it was quite a long ride. Eight hours to be exact.
If you have ever taken the road to Hana on Maui, you can begin to understand what this road was like. So imagine the Hana Hy and multiply it by four. Then imagine that you are traveling at an average of 20 km/hour on a bus that sounds like its about to break down at any second.
While gruelingly long, it was probably one of the most beautiful stretches of road I have ever traveled on. The entire way had 360 views of dense, lush, green jungle. We also passed through some towns that I would definitely like to go back and spend some time visiting.
Lesson to this story: take the mini van, not the local bus, when traveling though northern Thailand for hours at a time.