Food, Krabi, and Taxis

Our culture shock in Thailand can be measured significantly on the first day. Our onward flight from Bangkok to Krabi was significantly delayed as our flight was moved to a completely different gate and postponed by an hour and a half, just 5 minutes before boarding. Hungry and somewhat lost, we made our way to the gate and grabbed something to eat along the way. But wait, it wasn't that simple. Under tremendous time pressure, in a completely unfamiliar environment, we ordered something even more unfamiliar to us. With the following results: Jana got a small portion of some vegetable dish, the couple ordered something vegetarian that turned out to be half a portion of noodles with vegetables, and I thought I would take the "Red Curry Chicken" daily special, but what I received was rice with chicken and a plastic bag of red sauce. Well, we boarded our flight to Krabi with all this food and ate it all before takeoff. Mario and Kathleen shared their little vegetarian meal lovingly, Jana almost burned her tongue on the still very hot dish, and the spiciness almost threw me out of the plane. I have never eaten anything so spicy in my life, in an airplane, surrounded by so many strangers, far away from bread and milk. My mouth, my lips, my esophagus, even my stomach were burning. Indescribable, delicious, and an absolute border experience!

After landing in Krabi, we went on a tour and compared taxi prices. I saw a somewhat frantic young man frantically pressing buttons on his phone and asked him for his price for 27 km. He offered us 600 baht, which was the cheapest offer of the evening. So we got into his car, the three of us women in the back, me sitting next to a freshly ironed shirt, whose laundry detergent smell tickled my nose for 30 minutes. Mario, the brave one, sat in the front and took on the role of the navigator, as our dear taxi driver seemed to not know the way despite disregarding all traffic rules and common sense. We got lost three times, made U-turns on narrow forest paths and major roads, overtook motorcycles with a safety distance of 3mm in left-hand traffic and in the darkness. In short, we were incredibly relieved when we arrived safely at our accommodation: Baan Nai Lake View Resort.

After a quick refresh, we took a much more reliable in-house taxi to a supermarket where we stocked up on water and chips, and then to a Thai restaurant with delicious food.

Well-fed and happy, we took our little bus back to Baan Nai Lake and started planning for the next day. With chips, water, and lots of munchies, this almost 24-hour long day ended happily for all of us.