Southern Thailand 09-10

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We left Singapore and flew up into a place called Hat Yai in south Thailand, before heading to a place on the coast called Krabi. The reason we took this route was because we left it really late to book our transport and all other (budget) flights were sold out.

I have been to Thailand before and travelled quite extensively there (http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-190444.html and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-194691.html) but have never been to Krabi. It is a typical laid back beach port town in South West Thailand, really chilled out and I liked it.

Krabi is the port to a number of islands so we went down to the pier and decided to jump across to a random one called Ko Pranang. It was a pretty small, rocky, hilly island with a nice stretch of beach. A lot of people go there for rock climbing but we decided instead to spend the day on the beach.

The port of Ko Pranang is very typical of all the small Thai beaches, full of Long Boats (which are very basic, long, wooden boats with a propeller used to transport tourists around). From the port it was a nice walk through these lime stone caves to the beach. There are lots of caves on the island and you can do some 'cave trails' but we didnt have time. I thought that the bay and views of limestone rocks is a lot like the Coromandel in New Zealand (no, not (just) because I like to drop in names of places I have been to, they actually did!).

After the nice long tail boat to and from the island and a bit of beach time (where we were joined by some monkeys for a while!) we had some drinks and dinner in Krabi. All of south Thailand is full of open air bars (no doors or windows). Not only had I forgotten how nice these were but I also forgot how good (and cheap) Thai food was and it wasnt long before I was back to my old pad-thai-ordering ways! Thai food includes some great noodle, rice, curry and soup (especially rice soup) dishes.

We grabbed some drinks in a local bar (Chang, Singha - decent and cheap Thai beers) where I got chatting with a couple of guys - Donald from Ireland and Nigel from England - who both live and work in Krabi. We chatted about Thailand and I mentioned that we were going to Ko Phi Phi the following day (a small group of islands, on one of which they filmed the movie The Beach) and that last time I went I thought it was pretty touristy and over developed.

Well Nigel went into a bit of a rant about a quiet island nearby where he lived for a while called Ko Jam. Apparently they only recently got electricity there and it is really off the beaten track. He was incredibly enthusiastic about the place. You also had to hire a boat, swim to the island and jump off a waterfall to get to the village! Joking aside, Em and I were sold immediately on this place.

After many drinks with those guys and some good craic, the next day we set off for Ko Phi Phi. We only really just made it since Cecilia and I were suffering from our evening!

I thought it was pretty crazy how Ko Phi Phi had become even more over-developed in the 3 years since I had been. It was also super busy.

So my return wasnt the best experience ever, also marred by the fact it started to rain while we were there, so we spent only a few hours there.

The following day we made our way to Ko Jam to spend a night there (since the ferry only stops once a day each way - there is also no ferry port, the ferry stops nearby and you jump on to a long boat to get to the island!). Whilst it isnt the whitest sand and most scenic bay of all the Thai islands, it makes up for this in how tranquile it is.

Shortly after arriving I left the girls and walked the full 2.5km beach of the main bay - I probably passed 10 people on the walk! I even cut across some rocks and found a little stretch on beach that was untouched - no other resorts, boats or people - pretty cool. I then cut in land and walked through a cool forrest walk, ending up on a dirt road for a while - only I later discovered this wasnt a dirt road but their main road!

The main town could probably best be described as a dozen or so huts and I certainly stood out as an obvious visitor! But everyone was really friendly and I even got offered a lift back to our resort on the back of a cart attached to a motorcycle!

Beside me on the ride were a couple of amps, when I asked what they were for the guys told me there was a party at this place called Fu Bar - apparently the first party the island has thrown (we had also heard this from someone else, it makes sense as they had only recently gone from having electricity from 6-10pm to 24/7 electricity)!

So we chilled by the beach back at the resort (which is best described as a collection of small bungalows with a beach bar and restaurant) - the weather still wasnt too great. At night we walked along the pitch black beach to the place where the party was.

For their first ever party they did a good job! They had fire twirlers, a ring of fire (that the local kids jumped through) and a live band! I imagine that most of the visitors on the island where there - about 50 or so people. We also got chatting to a nice couple called Abi and Adam - who spotted my 'I love Mongolia' t-shirt, for some reason it goes down better in SE Asia than China...! They were travelling the opposite way from us so we swapped travel stories/tips.

So that was our Ko Jam experience over and the next day we travelled from west to east to the island of Ko Phangan for 5 days, including the world famous New Year Full Moon Beach party. I had forgotten how inefficient Thai public transport is and it took us over 12 hours to get to our place, going boat-bus-bus-bus-boat-sawngthaw (a sawngthaw is like a truck with a metal frame and 2 benches down either side in the back). It is only really about 200km in distance though!

I had also been to Ko Phangan (KPN) before although this time we stayed in a quieter part of the island. It is a really chilled out beach island in general, so we did just that and relaxed by the beach - for a while it looked like it might have been a wash out, but luckily the rain died down after the first day.

The one exception to this is of course the New Year party where (we heard) estimates of 40-70 thousand people hit a beach on the SE of the island. It is so big that the whole island and the neighbouring island are sold out of accommodation during the New Year period.

We booked a taxi to take us to the party at 11pm (it is a 30 min cab ride) but we ended up celebrating the bells in the back of the taxi! What happened was that as we got near to the party we got stuck in a traffic jam. But this was no ordinary traffic jam (as a traffic jam on the island is practically impossible) but was instead caused by broken down sawnthaws that were so over-packed with people they couldnt make it up the hills near the party!

But it could have been worse for us, at least we made the mid night fireworks - we passed many other drunken party goes, some several km back, with no option but to walk (stumble) to the party!

I actually really enjoyed the party, it was better than I imagined. I thought it would be jam packed with blaring loud music but actually wasnt too busy at all with tonnes of beach to stand around and chat. I think I probably talked to every Kiwi on the island - we bumped into so many Kiwis (my flight of the conchords t-shirt probably didnt help!), also chatting to a nice (English) couple called Tim and Sam staying in the same area as us on KPN.

After several of the famous Thai buckets - instead of selling drinks in glasses they sell you a bucket and the mixers to make it yourself - we headed back early in the morning to sleep off the effects.

Other than that we didnt do much on KPN, just enjoyed the beach and food. One evening I went into the main port town to go to watch a Muay Thai fight. Muay Thai, from what I can gather, is a mix between boxing and kick boxing. Last time I was in Thailand I wanted to see a match but never made it - this time I would be disappointed too, as the price of the ticket had clearly been impacted by the recent Its-Full-Moon-Party-Lets-Rip-Off-The-Tourists inflation increase, so I passed on that one.

Instead I watched some footy in a bar - I mentioned this last time I blogged about Thailand but they are OBSESSED with the premier league. Anyways I got chatting t a German guy called Tibe and, after me saying how disappointed I was that our beach didnt have beach volleyball, he informed me of a nearby one that did.

So the following day Em and I visited the neighbouring beach, called Malibu. Unfortunately most people there were too interested in their tans than beach volleyball so I didnt get a game... But the beach and area was so nice - a little bay surrounded by large green hills on either side - so we chilled there and even jumped in a hammock. I can also see where they came up with the name - white sands and palm trees just like Malibu, California.

Our leaving day we knew would be another long days travel so we snuck into the pool for an early morning dip at a neighbouring resort - it was another neat infiniti pool like in SG.

We have a long trip to Bangkok after all this but I am excited to be on the road again. It was good to have some relaxing time on our trip but beaches arent my thing and Im looking forward to seeing more sights!

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