Nick's wild wild life of fun and games

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I met a few New Zealand girls at my guesthouse who have taken me on as one of their own and we have been ripping and roaring around Krabi seeing all of the sites.

After arriving here in Krabi I wandered around trying to find cheap accommodation with two Canadians until we found a place where rooms were 150 baht per night. That's only $5!!!! It was such a great place with a lady with very good english so they helped plan our trips over the past few days.

I jumped on a kayaking trip with the ladies yesterday and we got up super early, around 7am, and were driven over an hour to the kayak spot but stopped at a local market to check it out along the way. It was amazing to see all the foreign candy food, the turtles, squid, fish, chickens, sting rays, fruit and pretty much everything else you can imagine in all shapes and sizes. Quite amazing. Fruit here is so flavorful it is hard not to eat it whenever you see it.

We got to our kayak spot which was in a national park along a very dirty river. We paddled upstream and explored massive limestone caves with cave paintings, many more than we were expecting, and the caves were twice as massive as the ones I was expecting after New Zealand. The limestone cliffs and mountains were also quite interesting because they have orange and black striping along the faded grey weathered surface. We had plenty of fun tipping our guides kayak, splashing one another, finding clams and splashing around in the muddy waters that turned out to be surprisingly deep amongst the mangroves. There were ENORMOUS limestones caves with plenty of things to excite a geologist and I found it amusing to hear the guides half true description about the caves. There were also more cave paintings then I was expecting. They were quite numerous, large and easy to see despite being several thousand years old. We hopped back in our Kayaks and paddled through a cave that reminded me of the cave from the Odyssey when they are driving the boat through the cave and the creature living on the roof attacks the people on the boat. It was super cool as it was flooded with water, was a giant silhouette in photos, creepy stalactites and lush overgrowth immediately outside the cave. It was at least 200m's long as well.

We left back to the dock as we only did the half day, got our fruit salad lunch then headed off back to Krabi. We rented motorbikes after a big lunch and drove doubles (2 on each) about 40 minutes to a temple. This temple had a giant Buddha footprint at the bottom of 1236 steps and a giant gold Buddha at the top. We started the hectic hectic climb luckily not at the peak of the suns heat or else I likely wouldn't be here. It only took about 35 minutes with lots of stops but some of the sections had steps as tall as my knee so you can imagine how hard it was to walk a flight of about 50 stairs. Each steps was also only about 10-15cm deep but you can imagine when the step goes up about 40-50cm it makes a pretty steep climb. The view was definitely rewarding as was the statue at the top and the various things they had erected. The view of top was of limestone cliffs that stretched for km's upon km's in a rugged eroded fashion leaving absolutely no pattern except giant monoliths and rugged edged faces obscured by a hazy mist. We watched part of the sunset but left early to ensure that we wouldn't be stuck on the stairs in the dark because as I described, it was quite hectic.

The next day we took our motorbikes and drove them to a national park where we lounged the morning in pools around the base of a waterfall and then returned the bikes (150 baht for 24 hours!), and hopped on the very bumpy ferry ride to Koh Phi Phi for a few days. We met a couple of guys from Scotland on the ferry who joined us in the excitement of the next few days. We went out on the town that night and ended up at "The Reggae Bar." Not a very good named because they had a Thai boxing ring in the middle where you could challenge others to a padded match and watch real boxers fight. Anyways, being the adventurer I am I got roped into a match with one of the Scots and ended up with a black eye despite the padding and he got one too and then we were both sore, his nose hurt, my jaw a little tender, but it was a good way to realize that I never want to be in a fight. It was an even match but I lost on a technicality because as soon as my eye began to swell they stopped the match (thank god because I would've if they didn't) and that was that. Spent the night just hanging out in the pub they had there then stayed in bed nice and late the following day.

The next day was a late start and a nice long day at the beach. The water there was a little mucky until you got out about 50 meters then it became a crystal blue turquoise color and you could see for ages under water. It is a beautiful place Koh Phi Phi. It is so hard to think that the Tsunami of December '05 came through so recently. There are evacuation routes everywhere and signs showing how high the water was in places. The average was about 4 meters which is pretty crazy to think of a continuous wall of water frothing that high!

Had a quiet night playing cards then to bed early for my early morning excitement!

I woke up about 6 am to get on a boat with some Polish and Slovakians I had met for an island tour for 1/2 the price of the cruises because we had booked a private boat. Despite our guide smoking hash the whole I think it went over pretty well. We boated to the smaller island of Koh Phi Phi where we had a snorkel at the beach from Leonardo Decaprio's "The Beach" but never actually explored it because it cost too much money to go too and we ended p at an even better one that still cost a bit but was much nicer. We snorkeled here and it was amazing to see how different the fish and especially all of the corals are from the Great Barrier Reef. I would describe all I saw but then this would take forever so I will jst touch upon highlights at all my snorkel sights. Here I saw giant clams every several meters, a much higher abundance than Australia and since they are one of my favorites it was awesome!

From there we drove around the island and couldn't do some cliff jumping because of low tide but ended up in in a secluded gully leading through the limestone cliffs over ridiculously shallow water that emerged into a giant opening with vertical cliffs on all sides and the shallow water grading into a deep lagune that was completely still. We swam and mucked around in this private 'resort' for some time then left to head to our beach island. We drove out of the southern island past the north island, and to an island known as Bamboo island. It cost 200 baht in national park fees but was well worth it. We walked around the whole island, taking about 45 minutes, then relaxed on the white sandy beaches and swimming in the unreal warm and clear water. We had a snorkel there and I saw one of the most amazing things ever!

An octopus about the size of an American football, just its head, was hiding in a rock. It was dusky grey with spikes on its head mimicking the rocks around it. When I got to close it instantly lost the spikes and became deep red. I backed off, watched it for a while and witnessed it come out of its hole and grab a medium sized parrot fish (maybe about 25cm) and devour it. Somehow the fishes head fell off and the octopus disappeared with its bounty somewhere.

From there we dove at shark point which didn't have too much excitement going on and then for another dive at monkey bay. We ended off at monkey beach which was full of tourists feeding bananas to monkeys. It was horrible to see how much people have mucked with them and their habitat and completely destroyed their natural state but monkeys are monkeys and they can't help but make you laugh a few times.

Arrived home and went on a viewpoint hike which I got some amazing photos from, all will be posted soon. We went out and celebrated the Half moon party and came home earlyish to pack and prepare for departure. We left this morning to come back to Krabi and from here my plans are crazy and I will explain later since I have 3 minutes left!

I think if I can find some money or save some till the end of my trip I will spend $600 to go diving on the Similian Islands. First class world rated diving with high high chances of making the dream of seeing Manta Rays come true and even bigger dreams of seeing Whale Sharks! 14 dives with 4 days accommodation on a boat and plenty of snorkels make it well worth it if I have the cash. regardless if this sounds interesting to anyone else please come back with me as I will gladly do it later or again =)

Miss you all and remember, I love hearing from you to. Hope you guys are going on adventures too. If not just find something happy to tell me because I really love to hear form you all.

Miss you all, love Nick.

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Comments

[becca]

about diving
I'll go back with you! PICK ME!