He put the "ass" in hassle!

I'll try to load the pix, but no guarantees.

Our drive back from the islands started out fine... as long as Kenny was with us. From the ferry onward... well, at least it makes a good story of sorts.

The big long modern but worn "ferry" is really just a high speed passenger service... with a lot of bags and boxes of merchandise loaded wherever they can make it fit. Even people elect to ride on the roof rather than to be entombed within the belly of this vessel. No windows to open, a blaring television of the worst Kung-Fu movies ever, a couple of air conditioners to service about 60 people. I did have a row to myself and was able to snooze a bit. Good time to catch up on the many New Yorkers we have with us.

After four hours on the water, we pull in to Hat Lek near the Cambodian/Thai border on the west side of Cambodia. We negotiate a cab with a unhappy driver to take us the 20 minutes to the border crossing. Luckily we arrived before the many others who took bimo style ride in the back trucks. The crossing was a game. First they make you wait in the sun to wear you down and as Bob theorizes, to give the touts a chance to take bribes from those at the back of the line to get their passports processed first. Then when they do begin to take us... it is painfully slow... as if it is the first time the person behind the computer has ever done this. Finally, after about twenty minutes (we were at the front of the line too) we get through. Expecting all to get better, we hike the 100 or so meters across "no mans land" to the Thai border crossing where it is pretty straight forward and efficient. We are stamped and finished in short.

So now it is time to find transpo to take us north up to Trat, a Thai city that we will spend the night in hopes of finding a ferry out to some more islands we have heard of in this area. This is where we find the "ass" in hassle. The guy is overweight, about 30, white ball cap, sports team shirt, American sneakers and dressed like a "gangsta rappa". He was the controller of all the modes of transpo parked here at this remote outpost of fruit stands and jewelry vendors. You had to go through "boss man" to get anything and he was having a great time being an asshole and overcharging but huge amounts. First he would make everyone wait... and wait... and wait.
Then he would begin to take those who were going all the way north back to Bangkok, and who would pay the top price... had to have ten people squeezed into one van. Finally after about two hours of this, we load onto the back of a pickup truck with eleven others and our baggage for the one hour drive at high speed to the coastal town of Trat. The Germans around us are having a far more angst ridden time of it than we are. It is their game, we have no leverage... and that is just how it sometimes goes. We did meet some nice fellow sufferers from Sweden, Norway and America... with stories far worse than this.

We arrive in Trat exhausted but find accommodations easily and quickly. We decide that we need to eat and find a nice night market. Home, showers (our own) and a good night of sleep before arising early for another 6 hour bus north to Bangkok. We decide the islands are not worth it from what we are hearing, the timetables being against us and the weather being so grey.

We arrive in Bangkok Monday night, noodle around for an hour and find a tight but nice forth floor place with a.c. and breakfast and bath. More to come.