Bangkok... the Last Stop

Oh My Word, I got off a bus about 2 hours ago after an arduous 12 hour journey. You wanna hear about it? Ok.
First, we woke up around 8am to be ready for the taxi that would take us to the ferry bound for a town called Suratthani that is kind of a way station for busses, trains, and planes. We were about to catch a bus. However, the driver called and said he wouldn't be there to pick us up until 12:30... had we known that, we may have gone on a half day snorkel or something. So, I packed and took a nap because you KNOW how hard it is to sleep on a bus!
We eventually got to a ferry and took a 3 hour journey across the sea, waving goodbye to the beautiful islands as we passed them one last time. We took our usual spot at the very front of the boat outside, which WAS our own little secret, but half the passengers seemed to be out there with us that time. It was great. We rubbed on a little coconut oil spiked with SPF 50 and got ourselves a nice last minute tan. Of course, it is snowing in China right now, so the tan will look sort of ridiculous. However, tan skin is already considered pretty ugly in China, so I'm striking out anyway. I'm already preparing myself mentally for my students' reactions to my new tan... it should be interesting.
Anyway, so we disembarked and hopped in the back of a small covered pick-up truck/taxi. The driver took us to a small stop about 10 min away and told us to wait. We waited for about 30 min until they decided we weren't going to buy anything in the shop and then carted us to the REAL bus stop at around 5pm. Keep in mind that we left at 12:30pm. Although the huge double-decker bus was parked not 10 feet away from the sidewalk, we were forced to wait at the bus stop for another 2 1/2 hours because the driver was missing. The bus stop attendants were ready for us to leave long before that, especially because everybody was asking the same questions: What's happening? and Where is the bus driver?
FINALLY, the driver came, they counted us and we were gone by 8:30... 1 hour late.... you'd think we'd arrive an hour late as well, right? Wrong. Even though we stopped numerous times for what seemed like absolutely no legitimate reason, we arrived in Bangkok about 30 min AHEAD of schedule (5:30am)... i mean, the guy was driving like we were being chased by evil itself. I only noticed the speed once or twice because I kept nodding off and stuff. It took us FOREVER to find a place to stay though because nobody checks out at 6am.
Now we're in Bangkok and about to take the last steps on our month long voyage. I will post pictures as soon as possible!