Temple stop

A long day (and night) of travel. I needed to get from Krabi to Surat Thani to catch a train but I had all day to get there. I decided to bypass the minibus mafia and go independently. I walked to the main street and waited for the songthiew to take me to the bus station. There I had to wait an hour for the bus. It was a bus, not a minibus. It went a long route to Surat Thani going through lots of small towns instead of going along the main highway but I had plenty time so that wasn’t a problem.

I arrived mid-afternoon. I had lunch and then a bit of a look around the city. I was carrying my pack so I didn’t go far. It was very hot. I went to the river and sat for a while watching people setting up for a street market, then I headed back towards the bus station stopping at this temple along the way. There was a market just outside the temple gates and a loudspeaker near by playing music. At one point everyone stopped what they were doing, those sitting down stood up, no one moved. I think the Thai national anthem must have been played. As soon as the music changed, everyone went back to what they’d been doing.

At the local bus station I watched a good natured but heated argument taking place among a group of about 10 people, some at least worked at the bus station. I have no idea what it was about but it had everyone engaged and participating. As my bus started moving one women left the argument and jumped on – she was the conductor for my bus. It took about 45 mins for the bus to get to the train station and I arrived at 7.15 with my train not due until 9pm. The train station also made for very good people watching and would have been great for photos if I wasn’t so hesitant about taking photos of people.


The train arrived about 20 minutes late and before everyone was allowed to get on my coach, some staff went under the train and started hammering something to try to fix the power supply. The lights came back on and we were allowed to get on. But the lights went off again as I was getting to my bunk! I got my torch out, stowed my bag under the bottom bunk and climbed up to mine. It was pretty comfortable with clean sheets and curtains for privacy. They continued to try to fix the problem with the coach. After about 20 minutes the lights and the air conditioning came back on and the train left the station.