Ko Kret

Finding rest and recreation in Bangkok sometimes can be quite difficult unless you are living in one of the upper class hotels with a huge spa area. If your are on a small budget but are willing to spend a little bit of time for getting there and away, Ko Kret is the place to go. Ko Kret is a small island in the Chao Phraya river north of Bangkok. A one hour bus ride, which was an experience for itself, brought my fellow student Gregor and me to the suburb of Pak Kret. After arrival we went on searching for the ferry pier which we finally found at the end of a very small and muddy backstreet, where you rather would expect to find a dump than a quay. Nevertheless, the effort was worth it. The whole island is a green, car-free and therefore quiet chill-out zone. A nice and business-minded lady lend us to bicycles to get around the island. Instead of a street there is only a walkway on stilts because some parts of the island seem to be flooded once in a while. Our major concern was to fall of this walkway in a moment of inadvertence. However, we managed to get savely from site to site. Beside two tiny pottery villages and a farm where they demonstrate the traditional harvesting and cropping techniques, the island had four temples. At the second last we met a nice monk who was willing to take some pictures with us. As I just was in the right dress, I also begged  Buddha for some good luck for the FCK. So far, it worked out.