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Published: January 2nd 2009
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After another over night bus we made it to krabi town. Twice i've been here now and never seen krabi town, always gone straight to the beach. we negotiated a taxi rate along with a couple we met (tim and Claire) and then headed to Ao Nang Bay. Apparently bus travel thai style got to us all and by 10:30 we were at the pier but couldnt muster the energy to get on the longtail boat without a beer! The earliest i've started so far but it was needed! It set the tone for the day!
Finally made it over to railee beach on the longtail boat but struggled to find cheap accomodation on either the east or west side. After hours of me and Tim hut hunting (and another beer), we sent Laura and Claire over the jungle path to Ton sai beach to scout out what the prices were there...cheaper, but the jungle path was a jungle trek! After failing to negotiate a cheap longtail boat to the other side of the rock, the stubborn 4 of us were about to set off with all our bags on the jungle path...and then the rain came in...HEAVY! we all
after the jungle path
We climbed up and through all that green behind laura, and then jumped off the big bolders to her left handside...i kid you not it was epic! and she´s still smiling! squashed ourselves and bags under a small rock overhang and watched the monsoon come in. It got to the point where we couldnt see more than 10m in front of us, it was ridiculous! Lucikly it soon passed and we donned our bags and attempted to jungle path! I didnt really believe laura when she said it was steep in parts, what she failed to mention was that the very first bit you had to pull yourself onto a boulder with a rope. Fine in most circumstances, but not with a backpack on your back and a day pack on your chest! Eventually we made it, i was covered in mud, my flipflops were sliding all over the place and to be fair thankfully tim took my small daypack half way and his rockclimbing experiemnce helped us! Got to the other side, dumped our bags and just ran in the sea to get rid of the sweat and mud! Then had another beer!
Krabi beaches were really nice and hadnt changed too much since my last visit, other than prices soaring. but then we were here in the high season, where last time i was here it was low
season. The beaches were packed with package holiday tourists over on Railee though which was a shame, had it practically to ourselves last time! All in all had a nice relaxing time there, had some good company, a shabby hut and some spider to contend with ( see picture!) and we did a cool snorkelling trip round some of the smaller islands which included our guide (actually some old S.African dude who Caroline and I chatted to in a bar 3 years previously!) cooked an amazing chicken and prawn red curry, for us on the beach while the sunset and showed us some huge bats and the little hermit crabs that came out after dark! we also did the night snorkelling where we flapped around in the water to make the little bits of phosphorous light up in the water..very cool!
Next stop Phi Phi! got there an was very hectic! barely recognised it from 3 years ago when not much had been rebuilt since the tsunami damage. now everything was built, in place and they were ready to sell sell sell! Was nice to get there and bump into our friends from laos and Vietnam, but first day
Our little boulder for shelter
Ok - this is us without 4 backpacks and 3 small rucksacks...we got a tad wet! was bit too much and touristy! After that though it quietened down due to the bangkok airport situation (erm...no1 getting in the country!) the prices dropped, beach crowds thinned and had a good couple of days chilling on the beach with the gorgeous clear blue sea and had some good nights out with everyone! We even splashed out on a bottle of red wine (it went down very well indeed!). Watche dour freind from tubing in Loas, volunteer to tahi box to try win a bucket of whisky&coke, get himself well and truely beaten up while we tried to cheer without grimacing from the corner, and then nursed him better and tried to big up his ego when he had to stop after 2 rounds cos he bust his shoulder! Boys will be boys! Ended up partying at the beach bars and getting a taste for what the full moon was gonna be like! All in all a nice but breif visit to Phi Phi, glad i´ve seen it again, 3 years on from tsunami, but time to see somewhere new...Koh Tao...
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