How to get to Chiang Mai in 9 hours

We are in the middle of an adventure in Bangkok airport.  We were supposed to fly to Chiang Mai for the festival Yi Peng (where they release floating lanterns into the sky en mass) but the festival must have started releasing the balloon lanterns early because they canceled our flight to Chiang Mai.  Sadly, the regional airline Nok Air did not tell us that our flight was canceled.  They must have known though.  Because when I tried to check in the night before, they would not let me, and said I had to see the agent out the counter.  

When we got to counter, the poor booking agent had to repeat herself 3 times before we understood part of what she was trying to tell us.  We did understand there would be no flights in or out of Chiang Mai for the next 2 ½ days.  We did not understand the rest of what she said. 

As a consolation, she managed to get on a flight to Phitsanulok that was still available only because the flight was delayed by an hour.   We agreed to go with the understanding that the Nok Airline people would then put us on a bus from Phitsanulok to Chiang Mai. (Melanie asked how long the bus would take and the agent said 1 hr.)  But she didn’t give us any bus tickets.  When we asked how they would know to pay for the bus, she gave us stickers to wear showing we had been rerouted from the Chiang Mai flight. 

At the gate, we met another couple from North Carolina who’s plans had been similarly disrupted.  They informed us their agent had said the bus ride would take 6 hours!  The only reason they had agreed is that the busses from Bangkok were all full and it saved them 2 hours to take the flight.  After then mapping the new, mystery destination, we find it’s only halfway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.  Google says it should take 4 1/12 hours driving.  We'll see.

The stickers got us on the bus.
How long will this take?

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I am writing this part of the post 3 days later: 

Nok Air pulled through.  They not only served us a small snack and drinks on a 45 minute flight, they had somebody waiting with a list of names for a private shuttle when we landed.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Our minivan was driven like a bat out of hell for 4 solid hours and they dropped us off at our hotel in Chiang Mai around 1AM.  

We made it to Chiang Mai in time for the big day of Yi Peng.