The official mourning period for Thailand’s dearly loved and recently departed King Rama IX is a year. During this time there are no official celebrations. I should have known this before trekking to Chinatown last night where nothing was happening. There was little or no cock a doodle doing. So, a bit of a wasted journey really.
Tomorrow I’m due to depart to Thailand’s eastern seaboard, towards the Cambodian border, where I’ve never ventured before. Although most of the hotels are fully booked at this time of the year, I managed to find one on the southern coast of the island of Koh Chang in Trat province. I thought that was the difficult part. What is proving to be a giant hurdle to overcome is how to get there!! The flight option (to Trat) is not on as all the flights are booked, trains don’t go there and I really don’t fancy being cooped up on a bus for 7 hours! So, in a flash of inspiration I thought that hiring a car (with sat nav!) would be a great idea as this would give me the flexibility of exploring not only Koh Chang but other areas in the vicinity.
The internet is usually a marvellous thing but sometimes……Grrrrrrr! It would appear that most of Dr Google’s suggestions for car hire companies in Bangkok aren’t really the companies’ websites at all. They are more like the ‘Go Compare’ sites in the UK. So I have spent some time yesterday and a good part of today being pushed around from one website to the other trying to a) obtain prices and availability and b) trying to book something. I have now been ‘successful’ 3 times with the website advising me that my booking has been accepted ‘subject to confirmation by the supplier’. And then, a few hours later the actual supplier emails me to say they haven’t got any vehicles left. There is one company yet to revert back to me. As I plan to depart at 11.00 am tomorrow morning this is cutting it a bit fine as I have no Plan B. According to Google maps, it will take 1 1/2 days to walk to Koh Chang so maybe, if all else fails, I can persuade Uber to come to the rescue.
All in all, a most frustrating 24 hours. I did venture out of the hotel for a stretch of the legs at one point where I noticed an interesting way of crossing the busy streets. Unlike in the UK where vehicles generally stop at crossings to let pedestrians pass, in many other countries around the globe, including Thailand, this just doesn’t happen. In Bangkok, though, someone has thought of a brilliant solution. At many of the crossings you will see red flags in a tin.
The idea is that when you want to cross, you pick up a red flag, march onto the crossing waving it madly, the traffic will immediately stop, you will get to the other side safely and deposit the flag in the tin located there. Genius! OK so it was Sunday and there wasn’t so much traffic around but the people I saw crossing never used a flag. I did. I marched purposefully onto the road waving my flag like some demented demonstrator. No vehicle stopped. They just swerved around me.
There is one thing I am certain about: tomorrow I will be in Thailand. Exactly where? I haven’t a clue!
Phileas
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