Thailands West Coast

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Minibus, ferry, bus, bus then minibus. 11 hours. Not how I would choose to spend a day, but hey ho. I felt that the change of scenery was going to be a good one. It wasn't actually that bad. Hangin around in bus stations is actually pretty fun as there's loads of nutters to watch and it's sort of comforting to see some familiar faces from elsewhere on the trip, even if we don't know them to speak to, you know that someone else is having to brave the Thailand transport too.

After killing some time at the bus station (and I use this term in the loosest possible sense - some desks under a corrugated iron roof and some plastic garden furniture) we got dropped off at our hotel. Obviously, ours was the nicest one out of all the ones the minibus dropped off at. Us old men have to travel with some class after all. The porter fellow even carried my rucksack in for me. Felt like a proper posh twat.

Dumped our stuff and walked through the streets of Krabi to the sounds of the town closing down around us. A common theme on the trip so far is that places just don't seem to be very busy. So, another early night then.

Awoke to the sound of Gary eating cornflakes out of the packet...with milk. Checked out of the hotel and headed down the road, fully rucksacked up in search of the bus stop. This lasted about 150 metres before the heat (and rucksacks) got too much and we succumbed to the half arsed advances of a dozing taxi driver.

Once at the coast we were straight onto one of the traditional Thai longtail boats. After our recent ferry experiences, I wasn't particularly looking forward to any more boat action, but this was surprisingly relaxing and as it was only around the bay, not too hectic. Our next stop (Tonsai Bay) was in an isolated bay, hence the boat, but they couldn't get all the way to the beach, so we had to jump out with all our stuff and wade to shore. I don't really remember much of this as I was too busy gawping at the jaw dropping backdrop to our home for the next few days. The photo's I'll upload next just come nowhere near to doing it justice.

The general atmosphere of Tonsai was just completely chilled out. With all the rock faces surrounding us, the area is popular with climbers and with the cheap huts it pulls in the backpacker crowd. The result is a place to chill out and have some beers without having to endure the sheer volume of rowdy backpackers that you get at some places here.

We got checked into our place, which was set back from the beach a bit, by some proper grumpy bastard. From the look on his face you'd have thought we'd walked straight into his house and demanded a room for the night. The bungalow as basic, no probs there, but the bathroom, which was described as semi-outdoor, was...well, it was just that actually. It had a little bit of roof and then nothing. Open to all the local wildlife. Thankfully, the local monkeys, didn't feel the need to drop in whilst either of us was showering. Oh, and did I mention the shower was cold. My favourite!

Spent our 1st day chilling on the beach and enjoying food and drink of the bars and restaurants. At one restaurant after we'd ordered, the guy jumped on his moped and came back with carrier bags full of ingredients. I think this sums up the overall approach to things here. It's cool though. Least you know the stuff is fresh. And...they had Connect 4 too!

The bars on the beach were virtually empty at night and to sit on a bamboo platform with a cold beer and the warm sea breeze...well, it was a bit good really. If anyone's thinking of a place to go to get away from it all, Tonsai! The one bar we went to that was rammed was the bar where everyone (including the guys working there) were skinning up. After getting some drinks in, one of the guys serving had to move sift through his building tray to find enough money for my change. Definitely my kind of establishment!

After checking out, we went on a boat trip to Koh Phi Phi for the day as we'd heard it was a beautiful island, the best of the lot. After getting in a longtail boat which took us out into the bay, we then had to transfer onto the big cruise ship in the middle of the bay. Bit of a daunting prospect but we managed it without losing anyone. Got some pretty amazing views of our bay from the boat too. The main port at Phi Phi was a bit mental as there were a load of boats that had all arrived at the same time. We explored a few of the local beaches. It's weird how people congregate only on the section of beach that has shops behind it. One end was heaving so we walked to the other end which was only inhabited by about a million crabs. Ventured off upto some viewpoint of the bay. 345 steps. 3..4..5!! By the time we got to the top I was a sweaty mess while Gary looked as fresh as a very fresh daisy. Saw some weird old guy kill a scorpion, took some snaps and then headed down the 345 steps again. I think it was just about worth it for the view. The boat back was a touch on the windy side on the way back. Felt like I'd aged about 20 years by the time we arrived back at the bay. Made our way back to the mainland where we had to find somewhere to stay the night.

The beach resort of Ao Nang was a lot more resorty than anywhere we'd been so far. Similar to most of the sort of places you'd see in the Canaries or somewhere like that, but in a good way. Found a cheap hut that seemed good enough. Little did we know that the little side road that ran past it was actually a main route for all buses into the resort and they ran all through the night! Ate at a "nice" italian that night to get all carbed up for the bike ride tomorrow and then headed back...

...then things started to go wrong. Had virtually no sleep all night and was constantly harangued by a squadron of mosquitoes. My bed made a ridiculous squeaky, fingernails down a blackboard noise whenever I made the slightest of movements. Our neighbours were loud, drunk Essex girls who came back at 3am shouting at each other. And the piece de resistance was that at around 5am I started to feel the effects of some sort of stomach bug or food poisoning which saw me in bed for around 36 hours straight...not counting the frequent toilet trips. To say I was a bit under the weather would be...well, a complete load of bollocks. I felt like death. Not even death warmed up. Stone cold death. Stone cold death, with hallucinations. Great. This was not the best place to recover, as my earlier points will have hopefully illustrated. 2 days that I will not look back on with fond memories.

As I was starting to get over the worst of it, we had to be out of the hut at 5am to get in a minibus to take us to Penang in Malaysia. This was a 9 hour trip. The thought of it nearly made me cry. I couldn't think of anything worse at that moment...maybe another plate of the Carbonara that I'm blaming this whole episode on. After an hour or so of faffing and picking up random people and dropping them off, we hit the road...and with gusto! This guy wasn't messing around. Don't think he realised that his minibus was about 20 years old and falling apart..at least, he didn't until he blew out a tyre going round a corner at about 100. He left us stood in the midday sun while he changed it and pissed off to a petrol station to pump it up. At least there were a couple of cute German girls on the bus to keep us entertained. We changed buses before heading across the border and this time the minibus was a bit more VIP. This leg of the trip was a lot better and I was starting to feel a little less like shit. We got dropped off in Penang and this was the start of our 5 day mad dash through Malaysia.

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