Boat Plane Taxi to Bangkok

 A very large spider and its web on the path out of the hotel.

She was as large as my outstretched hand.

 I wouldn't want to walk into a web like this walking through the rainforest.

 The guy with the monkey, who I saw on the bike yesterday, was from the hotel next door.

 The fishing village as I left.

 Bye bye to a relaxing week on the islands.

 Beautiful ride back.

 Just what you want to see when you get there.

The ferry boat.

Saturday, May 5^th.

Up early, had breakfast and then waited for the shuttle to take me to the Ao Salad port for the ferry to the mainland. Everything went very smoothly. The shuttle was on time, the ferry was on time. The ride to the mainland took longer this time, as opposed to to Koh Chang because I went to three islands and Koh Kood is further down the coast. When I got off the boat there was a man waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper and he took me to the Trat Airport. Again it was longer because I was further down the coast. This time the drive was about an hour.

I arrived with plenty of time at the little airport. Sometimes the security at these little ones is more of a pain as I think they have little to do and they are trying to prove their importance. They took a bottle of hand sanitizer and a very small pair of scissors from me. I told them I flew down with them and I had no checked luggage so there was nowhere else to put them. Rules are rules. Then they took a brand new tube of toothpaste that was still in the box, because it was over a 100ml. Stupid. The airport provided some complimentary snacks and fruit for the waiting passengers. The flight was dead easy, 45 minutes, but they served us a sandwich, go figure.

I caught a cab back to the Park Plaza Hotel, as I didn’t want to bother with that bus again. When I arrived they checked me in, gave me my stored red backpack and then searched for the envelope that was supposed to have come with my new bank card. They could not find it and said that they would talk to the other receptionist tomorrow. I was angry and told them that wouldn’t work because I was checking out really early. So, they phoned her and she explained she had just put a note on my file (as I asked) but had not signed for the envelope. So, apparently it never arrived. 

I went back to my room and phoned the TD Helpline. They told me that it was sent, but the jackass (my word) who sent it did not attach a tracking number, so they had no idea where it was. Very helpful. He is the one who also told me that my TD Visa card would allow cash withdrawals but when I tried it wouldn’t. Turns out it will but only $100 at a time. Very helpful. Luckily my BMO card will let me take out more. I can’t believe they couldn’t get it here in a week. Anyway, luckily, I do have one more fall-back position. After my Tibet trip I stay in Bangkok for one night on my way to Myanmar, but I will be staying at another hotel closer to the airport. So, hopefully I can pick it up then. But, here is the caveat: TD said that if it does not arrive by the 8^th, they will cancel that one and consider it lost, and reissue another one so that hopefully that will arrive before the 19^th when I return. If that is the case I will have them send it to the hotel by the airport. Wish me luck, sorry to bore you with the details, but I am very frustrated. The problem is that without the debit card I cannot access my bank account on-line. Therefore, I cannot accept the rent from the people living in my house and cannot pay down the credit card or see what is in my account. Hopefully that will all be fixed by the 19^th.

The rest of the day, which was basically just the evening, I went for a swim in the roof top pool and then went for dinner and a beer at a nice restaurant in the neighbourhood (and bought some new toothpaste). Then I read my Dylan book for a bit and went to bed early.