Category: Krabi

The Swiss couple that Eveline and I met a couple of nights ago recommended a tour of the mangroves. It was something that wasn’t mentioned in any of the guidebooks, and the Swiss guy claimed it really let you ‘feel the spirit of the place’. Before we undertook that, we met Robin and Jolina for breakfast, and tried to convince them to tag along, since the trip price was for the boat, not per person. They agreed and headed to their guesthouse to check out. As Eveline and I were heading down to the Krabi pier to find a boatman, we ran into the Swiss guy who told us about the plan originally, and he hooked us up with his boatman.

We waited about ten minutes for Robin and Jolina to arrive, then hopped on the longtail. We started by passing near the mangrove trees on the opposite side of the pier, and spotted two large lizards (over a metre each) swimming in the water and climbing ashore, plus a few monkeys in the trees that were interested in what we were up to.

After that we headed ashore, and got to explore a big cave that was completely devoid of tourists (save for us). We explored another, smaller cave, too. The smaller cave was used by some monks for praying, but it was deserted now. There was a small monkey outside the cave watching us curiously, but escaped before I could take a photo.

After the second cave we headed back to the boat and and went through some really shallow and narrow waterways. We were surrounded by mangroves, but didn’t see much wildlife. I thought for sure we’d end up getting grounded, but the longboat driver was an expert and got us through. He cheered when he succeeded, and we all applauded.

Back in deeper water, we passed a few small houses, and fishing stations, then came to an area with quite a few houses on stilts, and docked at a house where a woman was shelling mussels. It was a fish farm, and we spent a bit of time watching the young teen boy there grab fish and display them for us. There were a few puffer fish, which were fun to watch expand and contract when under a little stress. He seemed quite happy to show them off.

We headed back to the pier after that and each paid our 100 baht, which amounted to a little over $3 Canadian each. Not bad for a private 1 and a half hour tour.

We explored Krabi after that, splitting up on occasion, but always finding each other again. We headed to the market for one last banana milk shake, then Eveline and I said goodbye to Robin and Jolina. The four of us were all going to Bangkok on a night train, but Robin and Jolina were going through another company.

The bus picked Eveline and I up at the guesthouse just after 3:30 (finally a guesthouse pickup that was more or less on time, and actually showed up) and we headed to the Krabi bus terminal and had to wait about an hour to get on the big bus to Bangkok.

The bus was not as nice as I was hoping for, and the roof leaked when it rained. When we got to Surat Thani (at least I think that’s where we were), we all got off the bus, and had to wait about two hours for yet another bus.

We got on that bus, which was much nicer, and started to watch Borat on the bus tv screen. We drove about 5 minutes down the road, and the bus stopped, and someone came on and told us we were switching buses. Very odd, but we followed along, and waited as they moved our luggage to the next bus.

The next bus was even better, though. Eveline and I ended up with two seats apiece, which made sleep a little roomier. One of the passengers implored the driver to make sure he played Borat on the new bus, and he was happy to comply. I ended up falling asleep before it was over, but woke up a few times to catch a part or two.

Got up early and grabbed some toast for breakfast, as I didn’t have a ton of time before getting picked up for rock climbing. Headed to the reception area and waited for my ride. And waited. And waited. The girl at the desk called and there was no answer. She apologized and suggested that I could go in the afternoon. I arranged that and then tried to figure out what to do with half a day in Krabi. The girl at reception offered me the use of her scooter, but I really couldn’t think of where to go – plus I’m afraid I’ll end up with a broken head.

Headed to the park first, and finished my book. Then I needed another book, so I roamed the streets checking out any shop that sold books. A surprising number actually had English language books. I ran into Eveline’s German friends and talked to them briefly, then headed back to the hostel to make sure I hadn’t missed any bookshops. She told me I had hit the important ones, so I headed back to the biggest one and traded my book in for John Cheever’s short story collection.

At one, I headed back to reception, and waited for my ride to climbing. The owner of the climbing company picked me up and drove me to Ao Nang, where I met up with four Malaysians who would be climbing with me. We took a longtail from Ao Nang to Railay, and met up with our guide for the day. He suited us up with harness and shoes, and we headed to the climbing spot.

There were a few different groups doing some climbs, but there were plenty of routes up the mountain, so it wasn’t so bad. I was reluctant to go first, and one of the Malaysians was eager, so he headed up first on Climb 1. He struggled a bit, but made it to the top. We met another guide, and he took me and one of the Malaysians to climb 2, just a few feet over. The other guy went first, and really struggled, but pushed his way to the top. I was next, and scaled the wall really quick. Was at the top before I knew it.

I did Climb 1 next, and thought it was really easy too. Apparently I’m a natural at scaling rock formations. Who knew?  The Malaysians struggled with the other climbs as well. At climb 3, I got ready to climb, and realized that one of the girls from the other group had planned on doing the climb.

Only me and two others from the full day group were allowed to do climb 4, and it was really the only challenge of the day. It was 30 metres high, and the first 27 metres were pretty easy, but the last 3 were rather problematic. The guide holding my rope below told me to “just go straight”, but I didn’t see anything to grab on to. I pondered for a bit then took a stab at what I thought might be the right way, and managed to make it to the top. There was a little cave that the guide yelled for me to check out, so I hopped in. Really nice view of Railay beach from up there, but my camera was down below.

Headed back to Krabi, and got a pleasant surprise. Jolina and Robin had arrived from Ko Lanta and were waiting for me to get back from climbing. Chatted with them for a bit, and then went to see if Eveline had shown up. I was supposed to meet her at 6, but because I was doing the afternoon climbing, I wasn’t back till 7. I had texted her earlier, but wasn’t sure if she got the message. Thankfully she did, and all her stuff was in the room – but she was nowhere to be seen. As I headed back to see Robin and Jolina, she showed up.

I had a quick shower, and the four of us headed to the night market for a much needed (by me at least) dinner. Had some liver and other stuff on rice, and a banana milk shake, which quieted my stomach.  Looked at some nice handicraft stuff at a store on the main road, then headed back to the guesthouse. Robin and Jolina are staying down the street, so we made plans to meet in the morning.

The previous night, there was a mosquito net, which I deduced must mean that there were mosquitoes lurking about. I woke up draped in mosquito net, but the little critters didn’t seem to be flying about, so it probably wasn’t necessary. Not a terrible sleep, all in all, but once I was up, getting back to sleep was tough – as the walls were pretty thin.

I headed to the “downtown” of Railay, which is really just a street with some shops and a coffee shop. I had noticed a pancake place there the previous evening, but sadly it was closed. I read my book, then headed back to the resort for breakfast there. Overpriced, but decent yogurt and muesli.

I’d forgotten my camera, so I grabbed that to take some pictures of the limestone cliffs, and then got back to the resort and packed to check out. Checked out, then ran into Pennie and Wiki, who were supposed to be rock climbing. Turns out Pennie wasn’t feeling too well, on account of the food last night (I’m glad I didn’t have what she had) so they decided not to bother. They were going to head back to Krabi a day early, and asked if they could tag along with me, so I told them to meet me at 2:30, and headed to the beach.

Swam and read at the beach, then ran into Pennie and Wiki again. They were with the Americans from the boat, so we all swam together, and thought about swimming to another beach, but decided it was too far. I grabbed lunch with Pennie and Wiki, who had decided they’d tough out another day in Railay, and then headed to the longtail on my own. The problem with leaving Railay is that they must wait until the boat is full before they’ll depart. I waited for about an hour, for another eight people to show up. The water was very rough, and the captain had to go extra slow to keep us from tipping. No lifejackets on board, so I transferred my wallet into my dry sack and put it my pocket, so at least there’d be little trouble identifying my body.

Thankfully we managed to make it to Krabi for 5pm (which was good, since my room would have been up for grabs after that… oh, and I was still alive).

Talked to Eveline to confirm where we were going to meet, then had a shower and uploaded some pictures. At 6:15 I headed to the City Hotel, across from the night market, to meet Eveline, who was coming in on scooter from her guesthouse near Ao Nang.

Walked to the food market, and ran into two German girls Eveline had met in Malaysia, so we sat with them exchanging travel tips we’d heard about the islands. Robert, from Holland, overheard us talking at the next table and asked to join us – probably more interested in meeting some new people, than anything else. That, or he figured I didn’t need three woman all to myself. We all chatted for a while, but then the Germans had to leave. Eveline and I had some dinner (Robert had already eaten). After dinner, Robert went to try and meet up with the Germans, and Eveline and I each got a pancake for dessert. We ate with a Swiss couple we met in line, who had been in Krabi for ten days and recommended a few things worth seeing.

Eveline and I headed to my guesthouse to find out about getting to Bangkok, as we’ll try and go together, but amazingly, all the trains are booked till the 9th so we’ll go by bus. I also booked my rock climbing for the morning.

I walked Eveline back to her scooter, then checked out a bookstore on the way home. If I can finish my book early enough tomorrow morning, I’ll swap it for a John Cheever short story collection before I head to rock climbing.

Grabbed some muesli and fruit for breakfast from the guesthouse. Pretty tasty, but probably a bit pricier than I could get elsewhere in the city. Even still, the difference is probably only $1 or so.

Met up with Jolina and Robin, and headed to the Tiger Cave. About 8kms outside of the city we rode in the back of the songthaew with some locals – many who seemed to just hop on and hop off at random. The songthaew is just two benches at the back of a truck, but it serves its purpose.

At the cave, we looked at the sign announcing “1,237 Steps To Top Mountain” with trepidation (and maybe hoping their counting was as poor as their English), but it was still early, so we figured we’d better tackle it before the sun started to really heat us up. Accompanying us on our journey was a mutt that I christened Scabby, because he looked like he’d been in a few too many scraps in his day. He followed us up the stairs, and stopped when we stopped. He also helped keep the monkeys at bay.

Like the Batu caves, the lower stairs of the climb were clambering with monkeys. I took some photos as three of them sat on a garbage bin only a foot away from me, but was quite surprised when one leapt onto my bag and attempted to steal my water bottle. I shooed it away, and promptly put the bottle in my bag to deter any future attempts at thievery.

The climb was grueling, steep, hot, and humid. The stairs were numbered occasionally, which didn’t serve to help things. Near the top, someone passed us on his way down and assured us it was worthwhile. He was right.

Great views from the top, and a giant statue as well (who knows how they got it up there). We sat there for an hour or so, to recover from the climb, and drink some water available at the top. We tried to give Scabby some, but he didn’t seem too interested.

After descending the steps (Scabby stayed up top – maybe he climbed up to die), we headed to the Tiger Cave, which was a smallish (compared to Batu) cave in the jungle. It began to pour rain while we were in the cave, so we used it as shelter. Rain in Asia doesn’t seem to ever die down, though. Even when it does seem calmer, it’s probably as bad as our worst storms in Canada. Eventually we figured the rain was light enough and we headed to the songthaew and got a ride back into town.

Sat around in the guesthouse to wait out the storm, and had a (proper, not nature endowing) shower. Headed out for some food with Robin and Jolina, at a restaurant around the corner, and then back to the hostel. The school next to the guesthouse is having some sort of performance night, so I was able to listen to some off key singing – but they seem to be having fun.

Headed to the night market later to get some more food, and some pancakes for dessert, but ended up skipping the pancakes. Tomorrow I am off to Ko Lanta, which ought to be a nice change from the city life.

A travelling day. The train took us over some interesting terrain, and eventually we stopped at the Thai border, where we had to all disembark with all of our belongings, and pass through customs. There was a sign stating “hippies” were not allowed into the country, and then a list of things that made one a hippy. Long hair and wearing a singlet are apparently not very good. Wooden shoes are also frowned upon, as well as poor looking shorts. I thought about taking a picture, but didn’t want to run the risk. Despite my drab appearance, I managed to get through immigration without much trouble.

Talked with the older man, John from England, who slept in the bunk across from me, and he was heading to Krabi, which was one of the places I planned on going to too (I still wasn’t 100% sure where I would go in Hat Yai). He said he spoke a bit of Thai, and offered to share a cab with me to the bus depot from the train station. We had about an hour to wait while Thai immigration took our bus away, and brought it back to us, and in that time we managed to wrangle two Swedes, Jolina and Robin to join us on the trek to Krabi. Since our numbers were now four, John thought it might be cheaper and quicker for the four of us to take a cab.

Back on the train, we got to Hat Yai at about 11:15 (an hour later than we were supposed to), and headed to the taxi depot. They wanted 4500 baht ($146 Canadian) to take us to Krabi (about 5 hours away), so we told them we’d just take the bus instead. Got an offer for a minibus for 270 baht ($8.75) each. We decided to do that instead, but had an hour to kill. We were pretty hungry so we grabbed some money from the ATM and got some food at a small restaurant (I use the term loosely) in Hat Yai.

At 12:30 we took the minibus to Krabi. Fairly uneventful – but interesting to pass entire families on a motorbike (quite common to see – I’ll get a picture eventually). Our driver drove like a maniac, but the price was good, and the bus was air-conditioned (although poorly).

In Krabi we overpaid for a taxi to a local hostel that John knew of. They were fully booked, but John knew of another place. This place was a tad more than myself and the Swedes wanted to pay, so we parted ways with John and the three of us found another place up the street for 220 baht ($7.13) per night. Checked out the room, and it was clean and more than I needed (two beds for little old me), but who can argue for the price? I had a shower, then turned my laundry in to be cleaned for me. Much needed, I assure you.

In the evening Robin, Jolina and I headed to the night market to meet up with John and get some food. Had some nice bbq fish, chicken, and pork (with rice of course), and washed it down with a banana shake. Total came to about 85 baht ($3.50 Canadian) per person.