Time to cross the land border again this time in reverse and so much less hassle, but perhaps less fun!
The Thai's are all a lot more organised and it's a breeze to fill in the form, get your passie stamped and on you go, no money to pay anyone and no hordes of tuk tuks and motodops vying for your attention. This time the minibus runs to a timetable every 45 minutes and I had just missed one so had about forty minutes in the steamy heat to watch the comings and goings of a border post. Very few Westerner's which surprised me, it's more of a workaday place with cars and lorries and hordes of foot passengers going across with trollies full of bundles and badly wrapped boxes. But soon enough it was time to move on and a real coincidence, it was the same mini bus and driver who drove me here for the drive back to Trat. Think he recognised the large suitcase before he recognised me... This time as well as locals there were two French people getting on. They tried to bargain the driver down from the 120 baht fee, all of £2.40 for an hour and a half ride and the same flat rate being charged to locals and foreigners alike. Good on him, he wouldn't budge. Now I'm all for getting value for money, but trying to reduce your fare by 40p when it's obvious to all that you are a lot weathier than them seems a little crass. But on arrival at Trat bus station I realised that they really had no clue about money at all. There are no buses from Trat bus station to the airport, the only option is a tuk tuk taxi for the 45 km ride. So I asked if the Frenchies were going on to Trat airport, if so, we could share the cost three ways. Yes they said, although they thought the price at a tenner for all three of us was too high. They did seem a bit vague though, so just before we set off I decided to check again that Trat airport was in fact their destination, yes they said, they were flying home direct from there. Now even I know that Trat to Paris is not one of Bangkok Airways regular routes... It turned out they actually wanted to go to Bangkok airport, over 300kms away. Paris taxi's must be awfully cheap if you think a tenner for three people to go all that distance is expensive.... I sent them off to the bus station ticket office to find a bus..... So I made my way to Trat alone, another bouncy ride in the back of this little blue truck - it really reminded me, although it was slightly bigger - of the little Mazda we all had in Mandalay...
Looked about the same age and had the same big rusty holes in it!
Quite an airport day for me, Trat airport is lovely, my second favourite anywhere.
You relax in the outdoor Bangkok Airways lounge, free wifi, coffee and cake and little topiary elephants everywhere. And you are taken to the plane on the gaily coloured road trains. And I was flying to Koh Samui, my first favourite airport ever! But I was a little more nervous than usual. I have got used to flying on little propellor planes over the years and even in Burma, managed a few of them. But this was the first AT72 I had got on since David told me about the Air KBZ that had recently crash landed (luckily with no injuries) at Thandwe Airport in Burma. (See pic of the fated plane below). It was the same route that we had taken a few short weeks before when we flew from Heho to Ngapali Beach. But not only that, it was the same plane, it had the same tail number... In fact we had flown on this plane twice, both into and out of Thandwe. I was hoping that the Thai pilots were a bit more experienced than the Burmese ones, and that Bangkok Airways planes are better maintained but have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief as the undercarriage held up on landing at Samui!
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