Tantalising Thailand

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Hello all.

Well it’s time to talk about Thailand. We left Penang, and got on a bus to Krabi well to be precise three buses and one of the drivers must have been an ex formula one contestant neither of us thought that those little mini-buses could go so fast and go round corners on two wheels. We had heard the stories about the Thai driving and the amount of people they can get on a motorbike, but to witness it first hand is a sight to behold 4 people on a small scooter baby on dad’s lap who was driving, mum behind him and the daughter on the back. And this is bad enough they sometimes drive the wrong way down the carriageway so one minute you have nothing and then all of a sudden 15 scooters come towards you.

A lot of people we had met and spoken to called Krabi Crappy but we did not find this the case. We arrived and on this day they celebrated and welcomed the tourists. We dumped our stuff off at our guest house and walked down to the peer to witness the open air markets and to sample a taste of Thai food there peer was about 100m long and it was stacked with performances, Singers, theatre and other entertainment all to welcome the start of the peak season. Now one thing we should mention here is they did not have a twin bedroom so we had to top and tail Owen quite rightly mentioned that although we wanted to do a lot of firsts on our trip this was not top of it.

We spent a whole week in Krabi and this was really our rest time as a lot of the other islands are basically party islands so over the following week we spent the bulk of our time sitting in the Guest House dining area chatting to other travelers and having a great time. The place we stayed at was K Guest House and it was a really friendly atmosphere and was good fun. We did venture out on a few days the first one was Canoeing the main thing to point out here was Charlie managed to get a cold and was feeling pretty rough or as we explained to the Thai people he had man flu. The Canoeing was excellent we went all the way through a canyon with limestone walls. About an hour into it we met some locals to be exact monkeys!!!! They were not chimps or any large primate they were the size of a medium dog. See the pics. The guide put pieces of Pineapple on the boat and they went nuts jumping out the trees on to the canoe to get a small pieces and some even swam. Owen had a shock when one decided to climb around him and he thought it was a cat.

The one thing Charlie learnt was Owen only know fast and stop when paddling a canoe there were many times when we hit the guide in front and zig zagged across the Canyon.

This was just a morning trip and in the afternoon we went elephant trekking the weather was really bad and we were not able to get many pictures but it was a good hour on the back of one and you kind of forget how big elephants are. After about an hour your bum is totally numb and you start to get a little uncomfortable but it is great fun. At the start of the trekking you have to cross a small river because the drop is quite deep you are at about a 50 degree angle and you are just looking into the water in front of you. We were both holding onto the cradle we were in for dear life trying not to fall forward and crush the guide and fall off.

The next day Charlie had booked a three island tour for both of us however as it was only just snorkeling and lying on beaches Owen was not too keen so Owen stayed and the guest house and chilled out and Charlie set off and had the time of his life. He saw some of the most beautiful beaches in his life it looked like paradise the water was the clearest he had ever seen and was amazing. There was two small islands attached together by a small sand bar which he happily walked across. He spent most of his time snorkeling and looking at all the fish around there was literally hundreds everywhere ever shape size and color. There is also a place called chicken island where there is a giant rock shaped like a chickens head but he thought it looked more like a turkeys head. The final place was just off Krabi which is one of the most expensive places to stay in Thailand. There is a resort which is so over priced he could not believe it but is was beautiful there was a limestone cliff on the left hand side where you can wade through the water and then though a gap in the limestone you can find yourself in a massive cave.

Charlie got back and was exhausted so we both decided to book rock climbing in a few days time so we chilled out relaxed and did as little as possible. Now this is where the fun began!!!!!

We got on another bus and was taken to a place rear Reiley beach and the two guides who took us shot up the rocks and attached the equipment and as always Charlie being as keen as he is volunteered to go first what he didn’t know was he went on the tallest and most difficult face but he still managed it. It took a bit of time and was exhausted when he got to the bottom. However when Owen tried it he decided to go on the smaller one and fell off is anyone actually surprised?????? He did have a nice bump on his elbow but it was all in the name of fun. It did take him four attempts to get to the top like British rail it might take him a bit of time but he finally got there. One or two choice words were exchanged by Owen with the rock face and he scraped and bumped his way to the top, most of the time he was stuck to the wall like a gecko as he was so terrified of the height. When he got to the top Charlie asked him to stick his thumb out and smile but he quickly brought it back in again.

By the end of it there was no strength in either of our bodies but Charlie decided to try his fourth climb ironically it was not his lack of trying or strength that failed him it was pure exhaustion. On the last trip up he slipped and fell over 15 foot before the guide caught him on the ropes the look of fear on his face was priceless which also made Owen think “I’ll give that one a miss”. We booked our next Guest House and started a night of drinking.

We got back and got ourselves ready for the next day to Ko Phi Phi.

We got to the boat the next morning and discovered that the boat was so full we ended up sitting on the front of the ship where it started to rain Owen was starting to get sense of humor failure again as he was seriously lacking sleep and was hung-over after a previous night of celebrations of going to the next place. Three hours later we got off the boat now this is the best bit in all our wisdom we printed of the Guest Houses address and reference number but we forgot to print of the name of the Guest House we looked at each other, blamed each other and then laughed it off we went for a walk and found that we had gone in the wrong direction and we were getting slightly lost (we blamed this on the Australian again although he had already been gone for almost a week.) We got to an internet café and found the name of the place now the most frustrating thing is you can only really get to it by boat and at 100 bath each way it was not cheap. We got to the Guest House which was at the top of a hill. We had our own bungalow but this is not like a bungalow at home it was made of wood and was on stilts and could have been blown over if you sneezed too loudly. We dumped our stuff off and went back to Phi Phi. We ate drank and had a good night. We went to a place called the Apache where there was fire dancing one thing to mention was there was a 11 year old doing this and he was really amazing and was getting better with each show he performed. Both of us agreed when we were 11 neither of us could of light a match let along dance with one. There was also a dance floor where we watched a lot of people make total fools of themselves we enjoyed this as it is usually the other way round especially Charlie”John Travolta” Horton.

The next day Charlie went of on his own for a walk around the island Phi Phi has two beaches back to back so you only need 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Charlie was really disappointed with the beaches and they were no way near as nice as Krabi we decided to give Phi Phi a chance and stayed an extra night but the commercialism of the place and the whole cost of it kind of put us off. So we decided to move on to the next place Phuket.

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Photos

Local wildlife
No it is not one of Owen's reletives

Poda island
One of the three island tour Charlie did

Poda Island
Look at the water and where did everyone go?

Rei Lei Beach
Hmm we did not want to climb those rocks

Lovely limstone cliff
The cave is behind this rock formation

How did I get roped into this????
It was your idea

Happier at the bottom then the top
The picture cannot explain the relief of getting down

Do you think we are having problems relaxing?
We both though the sitting on the floor while eating was a novelty until you spill it all over your trousers well Owen did.

Our view from the returant
The water was unbelievably clear