Ko Lanta to Chiang Mai

I leave Ko Lanta to go to Chiang Mai in the north of the country. I am going by public transport as far as Bangkok and then on a flight. I book the public transport through my guest house on Ko Lanta; I am given a piece of paper and I am told that I will go by minivan back to Krabi leaving at 2pm and then pick up the overnight ‘VIP’ bus to Bangkok. The journey is totally successful, but on several occasions I don’t understand the process and have to leave it to trust. For example at 2pm there is no minivan, but the lady from the guest house turns up in one of the island tuk tuks and I get in and she takes me to a tourist booking office along the main road. We say goodbye and she says, ‘Wait here’.  I take a seat inside the office and wait, while the two girls behind the counter carry on with their tasks, taking no notice of me, which I take to be a sign that they are used to this sort of thing happening.  I decide to pass the journey by having another go at reading ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo’. I had started it once before, but didn’t get very far with it, even though most people have said what I great book it is. After half an hour a minivan arrives and the driver comes in and says, ‘Krabi?’ So I get in and I settle down for what I expect to be the reverse of the 2 ½ half hour journey I took to get to the island.

We arrive at the water’s edge to wait for the ferry to the mainland. As I am sitting in the front of the van I have a good view. One ferry comes in and unloads and the vehicles drive off and we move forward in the queue. The first vehicles in front of us drive onto the ferry and then it is our turn, but our driver is hesitant for some reason although there is still loads of room onboard the ferry. Then I realise that there is nothing holding the ferry to the slipway, other than the engine of the ferry. The boat is twisting as the river current pulls it downstream and a gap is opening up between the front of the ferry and the slipway. The boat struggles for a while to get back straight to the shore and then gives up and starts the crossing with only a few vehicles on board.

Gap between the ferry and the jetty

We wait for the next ferry and this time the connection between the boat and the land is secure enough for us to drive on.

After we have been driving on the mainland for about 20 minutes, the minivan stops by the side of the road, the driver gets out and opens the side door and motions for me to get out, saying, ‘Bangkok’. I wasn’t expecting this, but I go along with it and climb out with my luggage. I am left in front of an open-fronted hardware-type store by the side of the main road. The family from the store scuttle about at their tasks, but they don’t seem particularly surprised that I am there and smile at me occasionally, so I sit on the kerb by their shop and wait again.  After a while I begin to get some clues that I am in the right place because two men from the shop change from wearing shorts, T shits and flip flops into uniforms of black trousers and white shirts with epaulets – bus drivers perhaps? One goes off in a tuk tuk and comes back driving a shiny double-decker air-conditioned coach. Various family members climb aboard and make preparations and then eventually motion to me to get on. The bus completes the journey to Krabi town and fills up with passengers at the main bus station, as it is starting to get dark. At this point I cause a small commotion when it becomes apparent that I have an allocated seat and I am not in it, so move along the bus and settle into my allotted space.

Early in the evening the passengers are issued with blankets and the interior lights on the bus go out and everyone seems to fall asleep. I don’t feel tired and carry on reading.  Have got past the point in the book where I left the book previously and am now getting into the story (although why wouldn’t he take the annual birthday presents of pressed flowers as a sign that Harriet was alive, rather than that she had been murdered?).

At about 10.30pm the bus pulls into a busy service station, along with many other similar coaches. Everybody wakes up instantly and starts getting off, so I do too. People wander around a little and then make for a dining room area and sit at round tables.  Meal is served to each table of 8 people of rice, meat and vegetables. I join one table and we sit, serve ourselves from the middle of the table and eat in total silence. There is nothing to pay, so presumably it was included as part of the bus ticket. When I go to get back on the bus I realise that I hadn’t really taken much note of exactly which bus I was on! I go back to approximately where I thought it was and after walking up and down a bit I find it, by recognising the pattern on the upholstery material.

Everyone settles back down and quickly goes back to sleep. At several points in the night I try and sleep, but can’t, so I carry on reading. The bus finally pulls into Bangkok bus station at 5am. It is still dark, but very busy, with a seemingly continuous stream of other coaches arriving too. I take a taxi to the airport and we have to make one detour around a flood in the road, but other than that everywhere else is dry. The 2 mysteries of the day are solved and I am feeling surprisingly lively considering I haven’t had any sleep: I have completed a journey with very few clues and finished my book.