Krabi Castaway

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It's been a while since I last posted. I resisted the temptation to stay in Ko Pagnan and headed to Krabi in the south west, where I met a load of fun people travelling the same Thailand route as me. Since my last post I've travelled through south west Thailand, headed back to Pagnan for the Full Moon Party and now I write whilst sat in a hostel garden in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.

When I first arrived in Thailand I was struck by the ease of travelling and after a month in the country it still amazes me. I walked into a travel agent in Thongsala, Pagnan and without the use of a computer or telephone the agent presented me with a receipt for the 500 baht (£10) I had spent to get a ferry off the island and minibus down to Krabi - an 8 hour journey. Showing your receipt at the ferry terminal you're given a ferry and bus ticket and then upon arrival in Surrathani you’re herded onto various buses like wayward travellers which took us to another bus station and transferred to a new bus to Krabi. All for ten quid and a dodgy looking receipt. Organised chaos at its best.

Arriving at the Pak Up Hostel in Krabi I looked up to see a mate walking through the entrance at the same time, completely unplanned! I had been doing the tourist route throughout Thailand and at most destinations there would be a friend made elsewhere in the country arriving or departing and always up for a beer.

Having met an Irish guy and two Scottish girls at our hostel we headed the following day for a day trip to Railay, an island famous for its limestone karsts, caves and thieving monkeys.

Having had dogs piss on my towel in Pagnan I was wary of the beady eyed monkeys. Not wary enough however, as soon as I had put a coke down on the beach a monkey had jumped down, seized it in both hands and proceeded up his tree. Needless to say, without opposable thumbs he dropped it. I looked at him with a disappointed shake of my head, we could have shared.

The only way to get to Railay was by longtail boat, a small rickety wooden boat with an outboard, up the Krabi river estuary past mangrove swamps and the towering limestone karsts. Apart from the constant jibes directed at the girls about the boat taking on water, man eating crocodiles and jumping sea snakes, the trip out to Railay was uneventful. The trip back was much more entertaining.

As we began our return up the Krabi River estuary the long tail's engine spluttered and died and with a frantic laugh and frowning brow our captain announced it would be up and running in minutes. 30 minutes later we continued to drift back to the ocean. Gotta love technology, the Thai phoned his mate who came to pick us up within a few minutes. The drifting thirty minutes was spent convincing the girls we were sinking and that our leap from one longtail to the next would present an opportunity for the ravenous crocodiles and sea snakes.

We had spent the day on Railay beach swimming underneath the overhangs under the limestone karsts and jumping from the nearby rocks into crystal blue sea. It wasn't tombstoning, we had seen several of the local guys doing it, however I would recommend doing it without a snorkel wrapped around your neck. A snorkel which I had bartered for that morning and was very proud of, sank to the bottom never to be seen again. That was the end of the snorkelling adventure.

After a couple of days trying deep fried insects and drinking Chang beer in the Reggae Bars in Krabi town we headed as a group to Ko Phi Phi, a nearby island known for its incredible beaches and wild nightlife.

There are no cars on Phi Phi and very few motorbikes, everything is done on foot and in an effort to avoid the endless wandering trying to find accommodation we let a tout book us a room. It promised to be cheap and sleep 5. It did both, although on three beds which were pushed together to make one large bed. The two fans struggled to reduce the temperature, meaning the room was always hotter than outside.

Two days in Phi Phi was enough, the small village was crowded and overpriced, full of massage parlours offering 'happy endings' and tattoo parlours. It had been great fun though; we had avoided the town beach and headed through the jungle to find a deserted beach 40 minutes walk away. We must have got lost somewhere along the route as we arrived at the beach following two hours of sliding flip flops, unseen scuttling creatures and an encounter with a 2ft monitor lizard ambling along presumably looking for the beach.

Heading from Phi Phi to Ko Lanta, a quiet island to the south we made plans to hire scooters and tour the island. Something I was apprehensive about as I had never driven a bike and had seen countless travellers hobbling about with bandaged wounds caused as a result of pot holes, gravel, stray dogs and pickups.

It was very amusing, hiring bikes at the chalet we were staying at all we had to do was hand over our money and nod gravely when the owner explained the dangers of the road and asked whether we had all driven before. It must have slowly dawned on the owner how inept some of us where, namely me and a German guy. Having finished his talk I sat on the bike, turned to him and asked him how to start the thing, and where were the gears? It was an automatic.

With his worried expression lingering in my mind we turned to watch our German friend start up his bike and shoot off towards the bungalows, the opposite direction to the road. A quick increase in throttle, a loud bang and then silence caused us all, except the owner, to laugh hysterically until we realised the silence continued. Running to the sound of the crash we found our mate stuck under his bike, laughing nervously. He had only gone and crashed it into the owner’s bungalow.

Riding around the island was exhilarating, dodging pot holes, Thai drivers and at one point elephants, however I was always captain slow, well aware that I had no insurance and had no idea how to steer round the steep mountain bends where pickups would either take a gamble and overtake or sit kissing my bike’s ever blinking brake light until the opportunity arose to gun it. At every village junction I reached I would get puzzled looks from the men and laughter from the women as I set off, legs flapping like stabilizers trying to turn sharply into the right lane but inadvertently crossing the road, dodging an oncoming vehicle until I righted it and began the slow process once again.

We had spent three nights in Ko Lanta and were all itching to set off to our next destinations. Having said our farewells back in Krabi I headed with one of the guys to Phuket, a place we had heard was a complete shit hole, which was exactly why we wanted to see it, was it really that bad?

Our suspicions were confirmed when we tried to get a bus from Krabi to Phuket and having arrived at a travel agent 5 minutes to late we chatted to a middle aged Swedish guy who was desperate to get to Patong, Phuket that day by any means possible. Having ordered a taxi he asked whether we wanted to share and after accepting our money for the bus fare we travelled in air conditioned luxury for the two hour journey.

Our first impressions that the Swede was going to Phuket for one dark reason only were correct. We endured two hours of stories from his previous 6 monthly visits to Patong that would have raised the eyebrows of Heffner.

We stayed in Phuket town, away from our disturbed Swedish friend who was staying in Patong, a place where beer guts, socks and sandals and bum bags are the fashion.

Following an accident involving a totem pole in Phi Phi I had cut my leg, which a week later had become infected. In Europe a cut would never have been an issue, but in Asia where the climate was more humid and the warm sea contains an abundance of flesh eating parasites, there is very little way of healing without iodine and keeping dry. So I headed to Phuket International Hospital, quite excited to see what the outcome would be, would they cut the leg at the knee, the thigh or would they offer me 100 baht for a kidney?

I was amazed by the cleanliness and efficiency of the hospital, within 15 minutes I was sat in front of a doctor, who explained gravely that all the spirits, antiseptic creams and antibiotics I had bought at a pharmacy were crap. The doc cleaned the wound, dressed it and gave me new antibiotics. And so began a week of daily trips to clinics, two weeks of explaining that, 'no I hadn’t fallen off a motorbike' and three weeks without going in the sea.

And so the Full Moon Party was approaching, I had never planned to head back to Pagnan but friends were heading there and the party sounded too good to miss. It was awesome, the whole island had a carnival like atmosphere, arriving on Haad Rin Sunrise beach at 11pm the party was in full force, buckets of Samsung and Redbull were flowing and UV paint covered the 10,000 people who played fire limbo, fire breathing and fire skipping. I left the party at 7am, an unsociable time as it appeared the majority of people where still there and remained there until late into the following evening.

The Full Moon was over, it was time to chill for a couple of days on the north of the island which provided secluded beaches and it appeared a lot of wild life. We shared the resort’s bar for two days with a pet wild boar, which would knock you off your bar stool if it found something to chew. We were always wary of our toes. The children would jump on its back and attempt to bronco down the beach, something I only just managed to resist doing.

My trip to Thailand was drawing to a close. I had seen Bangkok in the floods; dived in the abundant waters of Ko Tao; developed a fear of waterfalls at dusk; developed a love for motorbikes; concluded that Phuket was a place I would never visit again and partied at the infamous Full Moon Party. It had been an AWESOME month.

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Photos

Kirsty and Poi
Friends from back home bumped into in Phi Phi! Check out their travel website
www.noplacetobe.com

The pig
The best life a pig could lead, never to be eaten, ever to be wallowing on a tropical island.

Comments

[z hotel samui]

great read, come stay with us next time your travelling.
really interesting read. was actually looking for a hotel in koh lanta but ended up reading the whole thing. if your ever over samui way look up z hotel!