The southern islands

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It seems whenever I’m writing our blog it means there’s not a lot else to do, either we’re on a bus or train going somewhere far away, or in our room for one reason or another. This time it’s the latter and the reason; well the term “it's raining cats and dogs” does not really do the weather justice, I would possibly go for the term “someone up there has been holding it in for a long time!"

Oh yeah by the way were on now phi phi island, landed via ferry yesterday (Wednesday) it’s now 11.20am and the rain started at around two o’clock this morning. The funny thing is (not ha ha funny) according to the internet, this is light rain!

So we’re in our hotel, the imaginatively named Phi Phi inn, room bound as the rain is showing no sign of letting up. This was meant to be paradise for heaven’s sake!!!
Anyways enough of the moan as over the last few days we have been lucky enough to see some real natural treasures!

We arrived in the Krabi province on 11th June after just a one and a quarter hour flight from Bangkok to Phuket, a 15min bus journey to Phuket town and then followed by a mammoth 3 and a half hour coach trip from phuket town to Krabi town, which was more full than the job centre on dole day. The bus dropped us basically in the middle of nowhere but as always there was a helpful tuk tuk driver nearby ready to take us to our destination, for a price of course. Down south the tuk tuks are actually pickup trucks with 2 benches in the back called Sŏrng tăa ou but we’ll just stick to tuk tuks!
What yas didn’t realise (and should have perhaps looked in to) is that Krabi town is nowhere near the beach and in fact there is very very few tourists about. We went to the night plaza, which was a little night market full of all sorts of paintings, jewellery and some pretty exotic looking food, I really enjoyed it because it felt like we were experiencing a bit of real Thailand (all the signs were in Thai and they could speak very little English) but yas really struggled there mainly because of her vegetarianism but also because she prefers the real touristy areas and was desperate to go to the beach!

The next day we got (another) bus to Ao Nang after speaking to an English family who had lived there for four years (that we had met the night before in the market) had advised to go there as there are plenty of beaches. The fare was 50BT (a quid) for a quite fair distance (did you see what I did there) and we were blessed with pretty nice weather for most of our time there.

We did the usual reluctant shuffle with our backpacks to try and find a suitable place to stay, which always means we end up going for a bit more luxury than we should- for our first night we stayed in hotel sea star (although a fiver each is still pretty good)one definite plus of staying in the nicer places is free stuff; Wi-Fi, places to charge phones , water, soap, clean towels and we always make sure we take the toilet roll (I presume your meant to take all that stuff when you leave?)

One of the first things we noticed once we had checked in was how much more expensive everything was compared to Bangkok, we managed to spend 680TB on a meal (that didn’t even fill us up) that would have cost us less than half the price in a restaurant in Bangkok and about a quarter of that on the night market, which we have missed severely.
That night England were playing the USA but because of the time difference it was on at 1.30am, which unfortunately meant we had to drink. Now that would usually be a sarcastic “unfortunately” but not this time. We ended up watching the football in a place called chang bar, a place with a free pool table, very cheap buckets and perhaps the reason for our downfall, a free shot with your first drink. Had it not been literally our first drink then the tequila shot may not have set the tone for the evening. Let’s just say it ended up with very late night swimming in the sea (lots of people we had met at the bar getting stung by jellyfish and peeing on each other), me and yas losing each other and a broken camera.

One general rule I have learnt about Thailand is that they absolutely love football, especially English football. Possibly even more than the English, which I’m glad about as I was pretty worried about missing the world cup, yas however has been slightly less impressed.

Anyway back to the sightseeing, Ao nang itself is quite pretty, albeit very touristy but we discovered another beach a bit more to the west (I think it was called notharrat beach) which is used by the locals rather than tourist, as soon as we got on the beach we saw these beautiful patterns in the sand completely covering the beach, we looked a bit closer and eventually realised it was these little crabs digging tunnels and scattering the displaced sand around the entrance. There was so many of these tiny crabs we wondered if they were the reason the area was called Krabi (although probably not) we also enjoyed exploring the rock pools nearby which were full of lots of little fish and weird crustations.
Later that day we booked two tours together, the first one for the following day (on the Monday) which was the four island tour which we did via long tail boat. The tour started at Poda island, “Poda” means turtle in gypsy language (from Malaysia/Indonesia a long time ago) because it is shaped like one. This was Yas’ favourite as there were monkeys on the island getting up to general monkey business. You could get within a metres proximity to them and they wouldn’t even bat an eyelid, obviously they were used to humans. We met a nice couple George and Ange on this trip who we spent the rest of the day with. The sand here was much whiter than at Ao Nang and the sea was a turquoise-blue
We then went snorkelling just off of Chicken island, named also because it supposedly looks like a chicken, however as we were approaching the island it looked distinctly like a penis to me which I found very amusing (please see the picture of “penis island”) We (me, George and Ange) were a bit concerned about the snorkelling as the whole way there were lots and lots of fairly big jellyfish but we were assured by the guide that there wasn’t many in the water where we were snorkelling, fortunately he was right but the visibility wasn’t great so I only saw a few tiger fish. Oh yeah in case you were wondering, no Yasmin did not come in the water, what with the whole fish fear!

We then went on to have lunch at “tup” island, which translates to hut because when people first came to the islands they made lots of huts here (apparently) It was a shame that it was high tide because at low tide there is a sand bank which connects it to chicken island and another island (I can’t remember the name but it meant cooking pot-possibly because it was shaped like one) because tup island didn’t really have allot going on.
The last stop was phranang beach (nang means woman and featured in a lot of the town names in the area) which was a typically picturesque beach with pure white sand, greenie blue sea, caves carved out of the cliffs and humongous, very peculiar stalactites drooping from the overhanging cliff like giant rocky bats. It also had one of the weirdest caves I have ever seen - Inside was a very strange fertility shrine, it was basically a cave full of huge wooden shafts of variable colours and sizes like an x-rated rainbow shining bright in a large dark cave. So After that enlightening experience me and George decided to take a dip in the sea, which if I haven’t said before, is so warm that you feel like you’re in a gigantic bath tub.

So George and I were having a swim when we noticed some locals jumping off a cliff a bit further out to sea, so naturally we thought the time had come to prove we were real men. Turns out I’m a small child at best. After swimming to the cliff, we climbed up this mound of very spiky rock, which was basically like trying to mount a very large porcupine. Once we had got past various sharp, steep, slippery obstacles (a sure sign that we shouldn’t be there) we finally got to the “summit” I swear I almost dropped a pebble right then.

We watched the locals literally peg it off the cliff with no regard for our egos whatsoever; we figured “how hard can it be?” I’d probably go for as easy as tickling a jellyfish. The problem was the massive pot hole just before the launch point which meant instead of the stylish run and jump method that the Thai’s were promoting, we went for the lesser known hobble and hop system- which admittedly has its flaws, mainly that I still managed to completely mess up the take off and landed horizontally in the water, with the biggest belly flop since records began. Suffice to say the whole cliff jumping thing was not for me.
After more conversing with George and Ange, we realised they were staying in the guesthouse next door to us, one of those coincidences that seem to turn up everywhere at the moment. We decided to meet up later for dinner. I think we got back to PK mansion (where we were staying for 300tb a night) at four o clock, we then ended up having a nap for three hours before going to a really nice restaurant which served pretty much exclusively seafood, which was cool because I finally got yas to try something fishy that wasn’t prawns. We all had a try of each other’s dishes; deep fried soft shelled crab, squid, red snapper and the inevitable prawns. It was all so tasty!
So then on Tuesday we went to Hong island, on recommendation from various people, which I’m sure would have been brilliant had the rain not put a massive dampener (literally) on the whole thing.

The longboat left the bay at about 9am and the rain was already pretty impressive, as the boat headed out to sea, the waves were getting bigger and bigger and this little boat felt like a paraplegic mouse being teased by a tiger on steroids, the front of the boat was being slammed down so violently I thought it was about to fall off. After ten minutes of being flicked about by a sea with anger management issues, we heard possibly the worst sentence imaginable for that moment “right, can everyone please put your life jackets on” said the tour guide. A synchronised “oh bollocks” quickly followed. Thankfully it was a false alarm and by 10.30am cheeky bits of blue sky was poking through the droll grey cloud to give a bit of hope to the afternoon, while we paddled about around a small island dodging jellyfish and generally glad to be off the boat for a bit.

Luckily that hope was well placed and by the next stop, which was a slightly bigger island for lunch, the weather was increasing steadily. Yas and I sat with a friendly Dutch couple and helpful Australian bloke that we had been talking to on the journey there. Lunch was a random combination of chicken drumstick, Thai flavoured vegetables, rice and curry. I think I had three helpings because there was so much to go round (and I wonder why I’ve got a belly)

By the time we got to Hong Island the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The beach was a golden white carpet sparkling as if encrusted with diamonds while the sea gently caressed it with its smooth turquoise hand.

So I grabbed my snorkel, ran across the beach (without wiping my feet) and slapped down into the water, while fighting the advances of the frisky sea. The fish varied in colour and size even more than the wooden objects of worship in the cave the previous day and I found myself chasing shoals all along the sea bed for about 40 minutes.
The inner island was a very different story; we ventured down an odd little path towards the jungle like centre and were immediately struck by the evidence of the Christmas tsunami, very heavy looking boats, smashed to bits and just discarded by the wave, further inland than you would think possible. The way they were all surrounded by large trees was a very sobering thought as it just proved how the ocean had picked them up and thrown them as if made of straw.

I think we all need to see this sort of stuff every so often, to understand the death and destruction Mother Nature can cause sometimes. But also to realise how good most of us have it, and to never take anything for granted.

I think I might end this one here and let your minds wander with that last thought.
Until next time....hopefully

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Photos

Krabi town
this is the very thai market we explored on arrival

Random Temple
You find just the most beautiful temples even in the shittiest towns! Really shows how much religion is paramount to the Thais daily life.

Prettiness in Ao Nang
Jake has discovered he's got talent

Penis Shrine!!!
Apparently there was a king on each island and a princess, she couldn't marry any of the kings because otherwise there would be war between all of the islands even though heart belonged to one particular king and so she rang away to this island and died in the cave!