Being asian for a month

I have been in asia for a bit over a month now with Hannah. We toured up and down Vietnam, went by Cambodia and are now in Thailand. It has been very good, a huge eye opener. It has been pretty much solo travel though with no tours organised. I must admit, we have had our share of good with the bad. Last night we had a bus trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (in the north of Thailand) which was about 14 hours long, 3 - 4 hours longer than predicted. '10 minute' stops in the middle of the night at seedy petrol stations stretched out to 40 minutes and '20 minute' ones lasted for over an hour. On the bus, we were blasted with air conditioning while shivering in our summer clothes, while cruising at about 60 km/h while other tour bussed screamed past with their passengers fast asleep in their comfortable seats. That is a little taste of the bad. I have learned why budget trips are so cheap.