Customs and fast food

Just when we thought that rent-a-car companies would never do us a favour, except to make our wallets lighter, we find ourselves blessed with a beam of anglo-hispanic cortesy.
Not only were we given the possibility of leaving our rental in a different country, but we also managed to cross the border on foot, deliver the car keys at the airport counter and board the plane to the City. Particularly interesting to see this in a piece of land where apes are in higher numbers than human inhabitants!
Essential element in the puzzle was the muffin we had to buy to be able to leave the car at the parking lot of a globally known fast-food joint. And that ended up in the bin of the no man's zone between the two countries.
Thank God for cheap food, and online check-in!

Do you want a brew?

Chang and Brahma

In many ways Thailand is like Brazil. If you want to get from A to B, you can be sure to arrive there, but just forget about the means and the sequence - there's no possible trace of logic to help you there.
Our ferry ticket says 12h but we actually leave after 2pm, because we need to wait for them to pass lugagge and people from one boat to the other in open water. And then if the sea gets rough, just duck and pray... and be aware of any chairs flying across the upper deck.

Then the airport transfers. Most of them stop for months during the rainy season but the proud drivers still think a new blasting sound system and flashy moving disco-like lights are a pretty good investment to entertain tourists or, more likely themselves. There's no communication possible - most of them say "yes" and nod to pretty much anything you ask. And we worried for a second thinking where the hell would they put all the luggage when the van was already full of people - just until the driver climbed to the top and started laying down suitcases and rucksacks, tied up with one and only thin rope - we didn't loose any of them though.

We left Ko Lanta with some other tourists - our destination was Krabi airport. We started in a pick-up truck. Then when one of us was already riding on the back (cause there were no other seats left) we changed to a van. On pep talk basis we asked the girl in front of us where she was going and she replied "Bangkok". And we said: "Oh! You're also going to Krabi airport then!?", to which she replied: "No!". We stopped the conversation there for the sake of our souls. In the end we were the only people to get out at Krabi airport - the others continued to God-knows-where. Our flight to Bangkok took more than one hour. We don't know how long it took her, but we believe she saw the light of the next day in the capital.

Ko Lanta, Thailand

Late lunch on my way to Munich

Today, for the first time I had a business trip cancelled while in route.
Due to the heavy snowfall in Bucharest, the flight MUC-OTP was cancelled and I decided to fly back home instead of waiting for the next morning.

Total travel time: ~4h (LH2287 at 12:50 and LH2290 at 15:20)
How to go: Lufthansa assures 8 daily flights to Munich from Brussels and return
When to go: during heavy snowfall in Bucharest
Average ground temperature in February: -5ºC
Menu (in both flights): Styrian Pumpkin Salad with Tuna Strip;
Goat's Milk Cream Cheese Tartar on Parsley Pesto;
Bean Salad made of Five Different Beans aromatized with Cumin, Savory, Dried Dice Tomatoes and Red Chilli,
and Balsamic and Pear Jelly Cubes.