entering the homeward stretch

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I had been intending to head straight off to Krabi in the south of Thailand a day or two after leaving Chiang Mai, but I ended up being so sick that I stayed in Bangkok for five days. It may have been something I ate in Chiang Mai, possibly Thai food because it felt like there were little tiny Muay Thai fighters pounding on the insides of all my organs. Or it was entirely possible that it was in fact Giardia from the dodgy bottled water I'd drunk in Chiang Dao. I suspect the latter. My 30 day Thai visa had almost run out because I'd spent too long in Doi Chiang Dao so while in Bangkok I went to immigration and got it extended for seven days. It cost 1900 Baht, which is a lot of Baht, but it was more convenient than doing a border-run and of course I ended up not really being able to travel for a border-run anyway. I didn't want to leave Bangkok. I'd been in and out so many times that when it came to being the last time I was sad. It is now as much as settled that at the end of next year I will be returning to Thailand and Cambodia. So I bid a mournful farewell to the lady friends I had made in Bangkok and went to catch the overnight bus to Krabi.

It turned out that the bus company was the same company as the one that stranded me at a resort in Kanchanaburi when I was on my way to Sai Yok. It was even the same guy who arrived to gather the people to the destination point of the bus. "I remember you," he says. "Yeah you're the guy that dumped me at that resort," I say, "you better not try that this time." Maybe I should have kept silent because somehow he 'forgot' to give me a ticket after I gave him the payment receipt and I didn't know I needed one. (I assumed the receipt was the same as the ticket and I give it to him and that's it). So after a long restless bus trip (12 hours) we end up at the station somewhere outside Surat Thani where we all have to wait a further 1.5 hours for a different bus to Krabi, and I'm told that because I don't have a ticket -- because I've lost it, they tell me -- I'll have to pay again. I point out that I couldn't have even got there if I hadn't paid already, and I'm sure not going to pay again because this guy didn't give me one in the first place. They remain unmoved. The ticket office in Bangkok doesn't open till 10am; the bus to Krabi will leave at 8am; I will have to pay again or wait and then catch the 5.30pm bus. Heated arguments ensue. Well, heated on my end, getting infuriated that they just keep saying that I lost the ticket and to check my wallet (I emptied the wallet in front of them at least three times!) and then just plain ignoring me. Finally they say the ticket is still at their Bangkok office and everything is sorted, even though it isn't even eight yet let alone ten. I'm not sure if it was true or if they just got fed up with me, but I wasn't going to argue that point! The 2.5 hour bus trip from Surat Thani to Krabi took 3.5 hours.

Krabi is certainly not all its cracked up to be, but of course people don't come here for the town, they come here for the beaches and islands. I'm grumpy. All things being equal I'd rather still be in Bangkok.

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