Thailand Dec 09

Before reaching my dream island, I had to go through Bangkok, Phuket, and Krabi.

 Bangkok: Religion and Superstition
 

Reclining Buddha (46 m long, 15 m high), Wat Pho temple complex the Buddha's mother-of-pearl feet

 Wat Pho at night

                                   expensively decorated temples and simple "khlong" (canal) dwellings in the same neighborhood

flower garlands for pious offerings in the temple

are being produced all night

  the river boats: cheap and efficient transport for everyone  

 

 Supermarket for lottery tickets near Khao San Road


Maharat Road: where you can buy the most powerful amulets...

...or a life-size buddha

 near Wat Chanasongkhram you can buy larger-than-life royals


 Khao San Road: backpackers haven, where the street food is cheap, and everything goes...
the fakers appear at night, put up their signs in the middle of the road, and do a stiff business (with the police patrols keeping a benign eye on them)

I was really happy about this very generous hotel!
For a Sunday afternoon treat, try the merry-go-round in the park, or the dance performance in the National museum:

CHICKEN DANCE

 Phuket Town: not where the beach-party crowd gathers

 

Phuket Town has a few streets with pretty architecture, but the most striking sight (sadly enough) are the electrical cables:

 Otherwise it is a surprisingly normal mid-sized town where people live their lives without paying much attention to the tourist craziness that is going on at the beaches.

They use the open-air public buses

sell their wares

buy food from street kitchens

 

or mobile greengrocers

 

and dry their laundry in the back alleys.

Krabi: between Karst and King Kong

 I had not intended to visit Krabi, but courtesy of Tigerline Travel I had a short weird stopover, which was part of an equally weird trip...
Tigerline is the ferry company that offers transfers from various points of departure in addition to their ferry services from the mainland to the Andaman Islands. I had read all kinds of horror stories about the unreliability of Tigerline, so it was with some anxiety that I waited for their minivan to pick me up at my Phuket hotel at 6 am, but alas, the van was punctual, new, clean - and empty. That is, I was the only passenger, but there were three other people who made the trip: the driver, naturally, the boss of the travel agency where I had bought the ticket, and another guy whose function I could not figure out (I suspect it was some cousin who just came along on the ride).
When we reached Krabi, things started getting funny; first we spent about an hour parked at the river promenade, while Mr.Boss talked on the phone to the Tigerline office where they were supposed to deliver me, and in between went off to have a drink with a friend.

In the meantime I enjoyed the view from the river promenade.

When we got going again, the whole thing became funnier still: they drove hither and thither in Krabi, turned back, stopped to ask directions at gas stations, called the office numerous times... 

I didn't mind, because this way I got to see most of Krabi, including the weird over-sized statues that hold the traffic lights on the main roads - but it did cross my mind that I could have slept an hour or two longer in the morning if the guys had been more efficient.

After about 45 minutes Mr. Boss confessed that none of my three cavalier escorts had ever been to Krabi before, and that they hadn't got a clue - but they did find the office eventually.
That's when the real farce started; I was to board another van destined for Hat Yao Pier, where the ferry boats depart - the van was full. Tigerline employees were running to and fro, talking into their cellphones, counting the passengers, counting again, and then asked me to squeeze into the front of the van where there were two and a quarter seats (one for the driver, and one slightly wider one which I shared with a polite Frenchman).
Wait, it gets even better!
The next destination was the airport, where a Swedish couple was waiting to be picked up. The driver looked at us in the front as we were politely trying to keep our limbs out of the way - looked at the people and the suitcases piled into the back - looked again, and then called the office to send another van. 
Why on earth they had not dispatched two vans straight away is beyond me - but as exactly the same thing happened on the way back, my guess is: hope and faith. Hope that the airport passengers would not be there, contrary to their having phoned three times already to say that they were waiting; faith that the van would grow two or three more seats if they counted often enough...