Life in transit

This second week of work at OHRSD was exhausting, as I dove into my research project on the Burmese pro-democracy movement and my new schedule began to take form:
Every morning, I wake up early, take a motorbike taxi to the main road, and get on the bus. This first bus ride is under 2km but takes about 30 minutes due to the rush hour traffic. I jump off at a big shopping centre and usually wait about 10 minutes for the next bus, which takes me out to the suburb of Salaya where Mahidol University’s main campus is situated. Because it is a reverse-commute, the traffic is not as bad, but the local bus excruciatingly stops every 200m so it still takes nearly an hour to cover the 18km distance.
And then, at the end of a long workday, I have to do the whole thing in reverse: walk to the main road, jump on the bus, transfer to the second bus, then motorbike up my soi (little road off of a main road) to my apartment building.
At first I was almost excited about commuting since I have never had more than a 15-minute commute in my adult life. But the daily 3 hours on non-air-conditioned local buses have quickly eradicated my romantic notions of commuting. Unfortunately I have never had the ability to read or write comfortably in a moving vehicle so I can’t get any work done while on the bus. But my main complaint about the long commute is that is takes away such a big chunk of my day and delivers me home exhausted and drained. Thus my free time to do things besides work (and sit on a bus) are limited and part of me feels like I’m missing out on the experience of living in Thailand. However, when I managed to get a window seat on the bus ride, it’s not too bad as I can sit and watch Thai daily life unfold, and have some quiet time to reflect—which is helpful for someone like me who is learning to slow down and appreciate living in the moment.