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Published: December 20th 2008
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Eva here reporting from Koh Lanta on the Andaman Coast
Last Friday Ornella and I packed our bags for Nakhon Si Thammarat in Southern Thailand. We found cheap plane tickets so decided to use this as a jumping-off point in our journey to the Andaman Coast. However, when we arrived at the airport we discovered the flight had been cancelled. Apparently everyone else had been notified. Luckily we managed to shmooze our way onto a flight to Phuket for free. At the time this didn't seem like a very good thing. We had deliverately avoided Phuket because of its reputation as being an over-commercialised western playground. Thus I decided to change our destination's name from Phuket to Fuckit to better reflect my feelings about the place.
We arrived at midnight and checked into the On On hostel. This place had a write-up in the Lonely Planet and we chose it for two reasons: 1 it was only $12 a night, and 2 it was in this hostel that the first part of the movie The Beach was filmed. True to its portrayal in the movie, it was dingy, dirty, noisy and stinky. Amazingly, like in the movie, we too
had a crazy Irish neighbour who banged on doors and yelled in the halls!
The next day we awoke at 6am to the drug-induced yelling and an awful odour coming from the window. We grabbed a quick bite from the 7-eleven and caught the local bus for about 30 minutes to Patong beach. Patong was as disappointing as expected. The beautiful scenery had been infested by the tourism plague. The entire beach was jam-packed with deck chairs which had to be rented at $5 each. The food was over-priced and under-yummy. Even the apparently beautiful water that people flock to Patong to experience was chockas with stinging lice. Patong truly lived down to my expectations.
The following day we took the bus to Kata beach. Kata seemed to be the Patong for scandanavians. Lots of blonde hair, tans to die for and very little English. We bit the bullet and rented a chair. It was a much nicer day. We swam lots, read lots and had seriously delicious blueberry Cornettos.
That night another backpacker gave us a heads-up on a street party happening not far from our hostel. We wandered over and were seriously impressed. The party
itself wasn't that amazing (though there was a stage with a puppet show and dancing). But the range of food was great. The whole street was lined with tiny stalls, each specialising in a different dish. Most of what we ate consisted of unidetifiable chunky bits in different sauces, soups and other potions. Its probably better that we didn't know what we were eating or the good memories will likely become tainted.
After three nights in Phuket, I reassessed my feelings towards the town and thought it was worthy of having its proper name restored.
On Monday we left the On On and took a bus to Krabi town. We got too engrossed in our books on the trip and forgot to think ahead about what to do when we arrived. And so it was that we were dumped with our big backpacks in a dustbowl on the side of the road with no clue where to go. A few people tried to coax us into their tourist offices and we eventually just followed a chick who assured us she worked for a government tourism office (and would, I suppose, be impartial when telling us where to stay).
It sounded a bit dodgy, but it was our best option so we went with it. The chick actually wasn't pushy at all and didn't seem to have much of an agenda. We ended up staying at a cheapo place in Krabi town for $15 a night. $15 is a little over our budget and certainly didn't buy us any more luxury than the On On. We were on the top floor with little ventilation so we fried. And the toilet stank worst than a men's urinal after a long day of communal drinking. So the next day we wandered around the town to find somewhere else to stay in. We found a fantastic little hostel called Up 2 you. It was $10 a night. The room was just a matteress on the wooden floor but it was pretty clean and the atmosphere of the place was fantastic. The hostel was also a bar and restaurant. The staff treated us like family. The bathroom, though communal, was super clean and even had a funky jungle-look it it. At night they played a movie from a projector in the bar. On the first night there, Ornella and I lay in the
hammock they've got set up in the bar, drank cocktails and watched The Beach.
Actually, its amazing how this movie keeps coming up. First we stayed in the On On. Then the Up 2 You bar was screening it. And on our third day in Krabi Town, we took a boat trip out to the Phi-Phi islands (where the rest of the film was made). But we'll come to that bit in a minute...
On our second day in Krabi we took a tuk-tuk to the Tiger Temple about 8 kms out of town. The temple was said to be fantastic to visit and well worth the trip. The problem was that the temple was built on top of a mountain and anyone wishing to visit it had to first climb 1227 steps. I'll be honest: its not my cup of tea. I was cursing that the Thais hadn't installed a chair lift. We prolonged the pain by first taking a detour through the forest. We passed monks who live there and some incredible caves (see the pictures). But then we were out of the forest and again staring at the first few of those 1227 steps. After
a while we stopped staring and started walking. Just so you can appreciate the challenge: these were no ordinary steps. These were mean, high, skinny steps separated after about every 70 by a small platform. We were sweating like pigs. And to make it worst, we had worn long pants and packed closed shoes because it disrespectful to enter a temple showing knees or shoulders. After about 2 hours in the stinking hot Thai sun, we made it. And it was SO worth it! We spent about 40 minutes up there and for most of the time we were the only ones there. The views were incredible and the silence was eerie. Ornella and I barely spoke when we were up there and when we did, it was in whispers. It was an awesome experience.
Coming back down was a little easier on the legs but a hell of a lot more scary. Now you could actually SEE the hundreds of metres you'd fall if you lost your footing. We held very tightly to the railing!
That night we were completely knackered. We tried to update the blog that day but our camera picked up a virus and
instead we spent the night trying to disinfect it.
The next day was the best day yet... our big trip out to the Phi-Phi Islands. We shared a speedboat with about 8 others and were taken to the most incredible places. We snorkled amongst some incredible fish who completely loved us and were totally cool with us swimming with them. Then we went to Maya bay which is where The Beach was filmed. It was completely gorgeous. Its easy to see why the film makers chose this place as their paradise setting. The only let down was the amount of other people who had come to see it too. And of course they all come in boats. So half of the tiny patch of white sandy beach is designated for boat-parking and the other half swimming (and dodging other swimmers). Even so, this place was amazing and I would love to go there again. After that we went to Phi Phi Don which is an inhabited island. We had a big lunch and a walk around the town and then boarded the boat again to go to a new snorkling place. After that we went to Bamboo Island for
some swimming off the beach. The fish here were incredible too. They came in huge schools right up to where the water was about 1foot deep. Everyone was so tired on the way home that most slept. It was a fantastic, incredible day!
The next day we packed up, said goodbye to our family at Up 2 You, and caught the bus and ferry to Koh Lanta. More on that soon....
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