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Published: September 22nd 2011
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We'd already picked our next destination, the Krabi Sands Resort, all we had to do was get there. We've learnt that in any given day, if you're going to try to use the public transport system, all you should do is move a short distance and arrive where you intend nice and early so that you have time to change your mind and go somewhere else if it's awful (like the Lampam Resort). The only down side to this trip was in Krabi where our van driver had lined us up with a "Tourist Information" chap. He called our intended destination and booked us in, no problem there, but then the taxi he'd arranged was his brother (?) and the fee was way more than it should have been. We spent a fair while arguing about this but he was adamant it was a fair price for the distance and direction. Clearly it wasn't, and I'd have like to have said, "You, Sir, are a lying thief!", but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have understood. In the end we decided to cough rather than have to stroll around with our backpacks in a town we didn't know with the likelihood that
we'd get equally shafted elsewhere. This episode is really pretty much a summary of how we were treated the whole time in southern Thailand, they weren't pleased to see us, they weren't smiling and they were most definitely intent upon turning us over for the maximum sum possible. Fair play I guess, we're just cash cows passing through, but I had hoped it was going to be just a little friendlier.
Krabi Sands Resort is fine. As it happens it was the only place on that road that was on the internet that we could actually afford and after the taxi fare it was a good job it was ok as we didn't want to have to go back and start again. The room was nice and clean and they sprayed for mosquitos every day - this is a big deal if you been bitten as often as we had. We booked in for two nights and ended up staying six, the extra four they kindly discounted for us. The fact that there was a swimming pool seemed incidental as we checked in but it turned out to be a real bonus. Neither of us call ourselves swimmers so I think we were both surprised that over the course of our stay we taught ourselves a number of different strokes. I loved it. Wifi was only available around the reception desk or over the road in the restaurant so we spent quite a bit of time in both places. Our constant companion for these sessions was itchy dog. We liked itchy dog a lot, so much so that we removed his wire leash, though it had returned the following night. We took a photo (in fact we have lots of photos) which I will post here if I ever manage to figure out how to post them from this pad (it's not an easy process).
We also spent a few hours in the jungle riding elephants. It's quite a fun experience, especially when your elephant is much more interested in eating the jungle than walking through it. Our guide/elephant master person caught Pippa a chameleon which she refused to hold so I took it. After a little I opened my hand and it ran up my arm on two legs, over my shoulder and over and off the elephant. The jungle rang to Pippa's "Oh my God, it's just like Jurassic Park!". Then he got us a bigger lizard (pic to follow) that took a try at snapping at my leg. All good fun but we paid with a myriad of fresh insect bites.
The area around the resort isn't so fine, sadly. The scenery is lovely, the view from where we had breakfast every day is cracking, but the beaches are covered in glass and plastic and general rubbish. Walking anywhere on the beach is a chore, and a dangerous one at that. We checked out the cleaner beaches at the more expensive resorts and even these were only marginally less littered and were certainly poor by UK standards. Oh well, I didn't come here to lie on a beach all the time. I was looking forward to Paddy's Irish Pub though, which was only a little way down the road from the resort, I even hopefully picked up my darts. Actually, fairs fair, they did have a dart board. There was no Paddy though, and no Guiness either, and no, we don't speak english and we don't have any beer on draught or even large bottles of beer (but don't worry, we charge large bottle prices for the small ones) and a Lemon Smirnoff Ice is an inch of vodka, a couple of ice cubes and a slice of lemon. It would've been a total write off if it hadn't been for the burger and chips on the menu, made with Australian beef. God we're looking forward to Australia...
Oh, and Krabi does have one stand out redeeming feature. The airport.
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