We did get to Chiang Khan ... but not before this fiasco ...
The following day we were on the move again and up into the higher elevations of Phu Tubberk (Phu Thap Boek as often spelt) for some cooler climes and the ‘sea fog’ that is such a huge attraction here. But before we took the hairy road into the mist there was some business to be done in order to secure our next accommodation.
Thailand is calling itself 4.0 but trying to book accommodation in a national park is at a -2.0 level. It is Kafkaesque to say the least.
We wanted to go to Phu Kradueng and stay in a room at the government camp site on the summit, however, after calling them several times and finally speaking to someone in Bangkok we were told the only way to book this was through the state website. If anyone has used a Thai government website before they’ll know too well that they simply do not function.
First you have to create an account, inputting all of your personal details, and submit your request for booking. If the website wants to behave you are issued reference code and payment instructions which expire in 24 hours like something out of 'mission impossible' ... which this was turning into. After several attempts the website finally did its job.
We tried to pay via ATM but it would only accept payment via the state owned Krung Thai Bank (light blue) machines and neither of us had an account there so could not enter the reference code into the machine since other bank cards or ATMs would not work. We were also a long way away from a physical bank and still on the road in the mountains.
So, the next day we had to find a branch of KTB and pay it in cash (lucky it was a week day). This was attempted in Lomsak but we did not get far as, after at least an hour of waiting (govt bank is the busiest in Thailand), the teller demanded a printed hard copy of the booking form from the government website and would not accept the mobile version.
It was then a mission to find an internet café where we could print this form, but since the advent of smart phones they tended not to exist any longer ... printers are a rare commodity in northern Phetchabun.
The bottom line is that we missed the payment deadline and had to start the entire mind numbingly over-complicated process again from scratch, wasting almost two days of our trip.
We then had to find a town big enough with an amphur office that would have copy/printing shops nearby then go back to wait in a KTB branch with the fabled document so they would accept our cash payment and issue another document that we needed to present to national park staff.
Mrs buksi, who handled all of this, rarely gets flustered by Thai bureaucracy but she was steaming at this utter farce and nearly called the trip off!
Thailand 4.0 my arse.
To follow ... Phu Tabberk
