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Published: January 6th 2007
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Koh Phangan
Isn't this just the most incredible sunset you've ever seen? We arrived in Krabi a few days before Christmas with nowhere to stay but fortunately after a bit of searching we found somewhere half decent and cheap too. Krabi itself isn't up to much, just a scabby town but a 20 minute taxi ride away is a decent beach beside a touristy strip in Ao Nang as well as numerous stunning islands around. So instead of trying to find anywhere to stay on Phi Phi (the main island) which I've heard very mixed reviews about anyway we thought we'd just base ourselves in Krabi and do day trips out to the islands. The first day we took a trip out on a speed boat to Phi Phi Lei, where the Beach was filmed as well as several other islands where we snorkelled, swam in the sea and sunbathed on the beach. All very relaxing as this was the first beach we's seen for several months. The speed boat, a modern thing with space for about 20 people zoomed off around the islands across seas that were none too kind. The boat continually launched off waves before slamming back down, not really what the families in the back were expecting I think
but great fun when sitting up the front (well until we both woke up the next day with bad backs from the continual beating we'd taken).
We spent the next few days going off to other islands, all the same picture postcard image of blue skies, white soft sand beaches, palm trees, the works. We had a day out on a long tail (narrow wooden boat with a big car engine on the back) which had to negotiate mountainous seas that rocked the tiny little boat around and repeatedly sprayed us with sea water as we cowered inside. None of us had expected this and were all just wearing swimming gear, which was probably for the best anyway as we were soaked within minutes, but also fairly cold with the effect of the wind. We donned life jackets, not because we were worried about it sinking but just to offer a bit of warmth. Oddly when we arrived at each island the weather was always perfect, blue skies and not a breath of wind. It was all pretty exhilerating though.
Leaving Krabi we set off to Koh Lanta for Christmas, just a few hours away by minibus and
a couple of small ferry rides. Koh Lanta is nice, with the same white sand beaches backed by lush rainforest in the interior. We had booked a place fortunately as most was full, which was right on the beach, although we seemed to got the worst pick of the rooms as ours was tucked round the back, overlooking a smelly open drain, real nice! Still we weren't there for the room and spent all our time on the beach or at one of the numerous bars up and down the beaches. Christmas started oddly on Christmas Eve as there seemed to be mostly Scandanavian families staying on the island (who celebrate Christmas early(???)) so we went down to one of the bars on the beach. There were fire shows, fireworks, loud music as well as the awesome sight of dozens of paper hot air balloons (about the size of a person) being released which floated earily up into the sky burning bright orange which reflected off the sea. Christmas Day was a quiet affair as most of the island had already celebrated it but Sophie and I tried our hardest to remember what day it was, helped by small presents
Fire Shows
Ko Lanta at Christmas from home. Much of the day was as always, lying on the beach and eating at restaurants but in the evening we splashed out on dinner and got very drunk on local whisky.
After Christmas we got a bus over to the opposite side of the peninsular to the islands off the eastern coast of Thailand. After another long (and unexpectedly so, "6 hours" right.......) journey of 13 hours we arrived at last on the island of Koh Phangan where we were to be for New Years. Koh Phangan is a nice island as long as you stay away from Had Rin, where all the partying happens which would be ok if it weren't for the fact that the beach is so dirty, the result of nightly parties which take place there. Backpackers throw there cups and straws and everything else onto the beach and noone properly clears it up which is a real shame. Still there are some nice other beaches including our own further down the coast. We had to hire a motorbike to get around as we were far from the action so took it one day inland. The roads in the centre of the island
are unpaved, very steep and deeply rutted by the rain so our little 125cc bike had quite a lot of trouble negotiating it, not to mention climbing the steep hills with two of us on it. We had a little accident on the way back too (I was merely an innocent passenger!) but nothing serious although the bike had a tantrum and refused to start for a few minutes, but after an apology to it from Sophie we were off. Anyway all this was to go see a waterfall which turned out to be rubbish, I've seen better things down my local kids swimming pool. Soon New Years was upon us and so we proceded to get very drunk on buckets of whisky and party the night away to music, fireworks and fire show on the beach in Had Rin. Good time had by all (I think, can't really remember). The next few days were pretty much the same, spent on the beach as well as in the restaurants watching pirate DVDs. That was until Full Moon, an even bigger party a few days after New Years. Well as you'd expect it was pretty much a rerun of New Years
The Beach
Phi Phi Lei where The Beach was filmed although it was bigger, more drunken and later.
We also squeezed in a trip to the local Muay Thai match, Thai kickboxing, in which a member of the staff from our bungalows was fighting. There were seven fights ranging from experienced fighters to boys only 15 years old who went hell for leather at each other to a couple of rookie whities which was amusing (as one was almost kncked out within about 30 seconds). Some of it was quite brutal but you had to respect the fitness and skill of the fighters. Anyway the guy from our bungalows was in the last fight and was getting his arsed kicked (they were both decent fighters, both unbeaten) until the very last point of the fight where he managed to find energy from somewhere and properly knocked the other guy out. The crowd went mental as about half of the audience were from our place. Quality night of action.
Our Thai visas were coming to an end so we had to leave the country which is always sad but I was looking forward to starting in another country. Just a quick stop in Hat Yai in southern Thailand before
we headed down to Malaysia and to the island of Penang where we have just arrived.
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