Bangkok to Krabi

I went, rather late, to the JR ticket office to try and buy my ticket for the Narita Express. Only to discover there were no seats left on the first train. Which, was a little bit of an issue…as this was the train we needed to get to the airport in time…but I managed, with some very broken Japanese, to find out they still had standing tickets…so it wasn’t so bad.

So, and early start to get to the airport and we get to the check in desk at which point the lady behind the desk asks if I have a re-entry permit [in Japanese]. ?????? errrr no! ‘do I need one?... I thought I had a multiple entry visa…’ anyway, it turns out that I was meant to apply for a re-entry permit. So, there is a bit of flustering behind the desk and now another lady is helping our check-in lady and are muttering away in Japanese. They try to explain to me in Japanese what I can do. I look back blankly. And Rei argues for me and after lots of Japanese exchange the lady goes away to call someone about what to do. In the mean time Rei explains to me in English, that apparently I can get a re-entry permit in the airport at immigration, but it will take about an hour, so I have to go immediately.

I toodle off to departures then immigration, where there is *the* largest intertwining queue I have seen in my LIFE! It actually just looked like a mass of bodies. There was no discernable start, and it wasn’t obvious where anyone was going. So, I just walked in to the middle of the throng to try and find an ‘end’ to a queue. It seemed like there were only 3 immigration officers for a good 500 people. I’d been queuing for a good 20 mins, getting increasingly paranoid about not being able to make it for my flight if they were then going to hold me up for another hour to get the permit. Then I suddenly noticed people making a mad dash to the left…New Queue! There were people practically diving to the newly opened desk. I couldn’t help giggling out loud, mainly because I was making an effort to get there myself. Then, just as I’d settled in my new found so-closer-to-the-counter position, yet another two counters opened up, spurring another melee, which just made me smirk more. I couldn’t be bothered to push the little old grannies out of my way to get a few seconds closer to the counter so I just stayed put and watched. Anyway, after all that I finally get to the counter and try and explain to the immigration officer, what I was told at the check-in desk. Apparently it was all fine, well fine-ish…she just confiscated my alien registration card and said I had to reapply when I got back…so, it all turned out ok. Hazzah!

We get to Bangkok and proceed to find some lunch…some nice Thai food was what we were really looking for, which was just what we found, in the form of the airport cafeteria. Mmmmmm sweet chilli sauce! Yum. After being distracted by our stomachs we went to try and find a way into town, which was pretty easy…we just took a bus in, which dropped us near a market which Rei’s guide book said there were some guest houses near by, so we walked around to book in. After dumping our bags we went for a quick little stroll around town. There was a lot of practice and fire poi on sale and a stall selling fried insects: frogs legs, locusts, beetles and other goodies.

I wasn't brave enough to try any...sorry. but they looked very crunchy, if that helps.

The next day we got up fairly early, to go look at the Grand Palace. Where there was already a queue forming, on a very narrow pavement, to get in. We had to borrow shirts from the office, for being inappropriately dressed…

Anyway the temple in the palace grounds (Wat Phra Kaeo) was beautiful and gold….there was lots of gold. We even got to see the jade Buddha…the building housing it was actually a building site. They seemed to be undergoing some renovation.

After frolicking in the palace grounds we tried to walk over to a different temple...just behind the palace called Wat Pho, but as we were making our way a guy stopped us in the street and went on to tell us that today (sunday) was a national holiday and Wat Pho was shut until 12noon, unfortunately we had to get the 11am bus to the airport to get our internal flight, so we gave up and thought we'd just try and get a tuktuk to the sleeping buddha, fly past, take photos then get back to our guest house and get the bus.

This was a lot harder than we thought it would be. Firstly, because the guy who had stopped us was being overly helpful and trying to point out all the sights in Bangkok that we should see and wasn't about to let us on our way anytime soon. Secondly, when we tried getting a tuktuk to the sleeping buddha the drivers were all trying to take us to some 'Fashion House' so that they could cash in on some government fuel coupon. At least two drivers just point blank refused to take us just to the places we wanted to go. In the end we just ran out of time and managed to convince a driver to take us back to our guest house for more than it should have been. So, that was fun.

We got our bus in the end, and happened to run into a young Canadian man who happened to be taking the same flight to Krabi that we were. Not only that, he had come from Tokyo himself, but not on our flight. Think he was coming from Osaka where he was teaching English at a small high school in a little town about an hour from the city. So, we had a nice chat to him.

I managed to loose my shoes on the air asia flight to Krabi. It seems they absconded from one of the outside pockets in my bag…so only flip flops for me! Unfortunately, I only noticed that they were gone when we’d found a room in Railay beach.
Getting to Railay beach was quite a little adventure for me. First, we had to get a taxi to Ao Namam (can’t quite remember the name, but think that was it) then wait for enough people to turn up to justify moving a long-tail boat. The ride in was beautiful, the photos really don’t do it justice.