No risk no fun

On Tuesday, November 08, we were supposed to continue our journey south in Thailand. Beforehand, our driver had tried to contact us by phone and arrange a time for picking us up and taking us first to Nakhon Pathom, from where we would then take a night train to our ferry to Koh Phangan. Unfortunately, this attempt to contact failed due to the language barrier. With the knowledge that he was our tip or also our trip - we were not so sure about that - and that he wanted to arrive at our hostel at some point during the day, sweat was running down our backs. But he actually showed up on time, but with only one arm and a manual car. Of course, in such a situation one wonders how something like this can work and whether it is advisable to get in, but ultimately anything is possible in Thailand. And we didn't really have a choice. Letting go of the steering wheel while shifting gears and talking on the phone, he confidently reached for the turn signal above the steering wheel and actually brought us to our destination after an hour and a half. As a crowning finale, he even asked to take a photo with us. This makes you wonder who or what the attraction in Thailand really is. Like donkeys with our backpacks, we finally stood at the train station and still had a good 6 hours until our train departed. Since Nakhon Pathom is not exactly a tourist town, there were not many dining options for us. Except for a variety of typical Thai street stalls offering a selection of culinary specialties - octopuses, dried or raw fish, and foul-smelling porridge-like substances. The risk of diarrhea was clearly too high for us. After three hours of wandering around, we decided for a delicatessen meal from the supermarket - dry white bread with sausages - and found a cozy place to eat, the train station. Due to our lighter skin color, we were quickly identified as tourists and accordingly, several locals wanted to help us with advice and support for our journey. A man of US-Thai descent warned us about the mosquitoes and officials on the train. Another woman warned us about the man of US-Thai descent - she called him a 'dummkopf' (yes, she could speak German among many other languages ;)). It seemed to be getting interesting, but they couldn't really take away our fear of the train ride. So we decided to read through the night together in a cabin bed after the train arrived. However, this failed shortly afterwards and we were asked to each go to our own cabins. We had no choice but to snore or silently suffer in our respective cabins. At the train station, we were awaited by a bus whose air conditioner switch was defective. In reality, this meant shivering for two hours and getting frostbite after arrival. The cold waved to us cheerfully. Marked with a pink sticker, we were alternately chased out of the bus at various stops and then had to get back on. Completely confused and with the fear of arriving at all, we luckily arrived at the pier after two hours. Smart as we were, or at least we thought so at that time, we decided (to escape the air conditioning) to go to the sun deck. The spray frothed and refreshed our slowly thawing faces in the sun. Only later did we realize - sun deck equals sunburn. Once we had solid ground under our feet again, we were attacked by a crowd of persistent taxi drivers. Everyone wanted to take us. A simple - No, we already have a taxi - didn't make them give up. A completely different story was finding our own taxi driver. The meeting point was 7eleven (a supermarket), the problem: there were three of them right away. Luckily, we stood at the right one right away, because it is questionable whether we would have ever made it to another one in our condition. So, after our exciting and sometimes arduous journey, we finally ended up in a beach chair, only to flee shortly afterwards to our hostel due to strong wind and monsoon-like rain. This is island lifestyle exactly as we imagined it.