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Published: October 23rd 2006
Well.......having kind of fallen for the place and gotten a bit reluctant to leave we spent a whole week here! The accommodation was ace - K Guest House (with the NICEST most helpful little lady - Pojana)......food - oh so cheap and soooo good (relax coffee bar being the best we have seen yet for coffee in ASIA!!!- opposite the road up to K Guest House!)....and activities - oh so plentiful!
After a brief period of recovery....I got a bit of heat stroke.....we started out on the excursions again! Kayaking, we felt, was an absolute must! And we were not disappointed....well once jen and I had sussed out how to paddle (or oar according to Jen) in a straight line - we established that she has a stronger left arm so circles were order for the day to begin with! That sorted we were off........through mangroves, cliff sided valleys, caves and lagoons. Our guide promised us impressive and that was what we got! We meandered through the mangroves wildlife spotting and getting to grips with the kayak to our first cave, which plunged us into a cool, dripping darkness....where Jen and I ricocheted from side to side to shouts of
left, right......SLOWLY!!! Ooooopppssss! Anyway made it through to the other side to a rather impressive canyon-ie, lagoon-ie thing with sheer limestone cliff sides and some pretty murky looking water! Although we did see tree climbing crabs, water skating fish and land based fish too! We couldn't fault it.....except for the mozzies! But they are becoming a bit of a fact of life here!
Renegotiating the cave was a bit easier the second time around...not quite so much bouncing off the walls and we were off again, heading for another lagoon - Tham Khao Wong! This one was more landlocked than the last and was in a complete mountain basin and pretty secluded in all honesty - quite beooooutiful as our new swedish friend put it! Next came a cave with better 'structure'! This was to be a cave called Tom Lod Tai which was pretty incredible, the stalacmites seemed to take on shapes of their own and the light patterns through from the other side gave it an eery feel - friad the photos don't really do it justice - as always seems to be the case! From there on it was down to a floating restaurant for what
can only be described as a culinary delight! All typical Thai dishes served in pretty enormous quantites (and all included in our prepaid price!) meant that we left pretty stuffed - as Jen and I tend to do! This time to head downstream to some ancient caves with prehistorical paintings and amazing views over the mangroves. Here we were offered the chance to do some rock climbing...though this wasn't quite the rock climbing that we were used to! More of a 6ft scramble up to a ledge...but I guess they have to dress it up a bit! Had a bit of time to ourselves there and went all out on the photo taking!!!!! Then it was back to the restaurant (yep more food!) before being transferred to a local national park (Tharn Bok Khoranee) to go swimming in crystal spring waters. This was welcomed to give us some respite from the heat of the day................and was gorgeous, except for the rather large submreged tree roots and rocks that you got swept into at speed when you were least expecting it! OUCH! Despite this, the whole experience was well recieved and most definitely recommended!
Our next day saw another early
start (Jen with quite an impressive hangover and on only 4 hours sleep!!!)......in an attempt to get onto a trip we should have booked the day before....ooooppssss...which we missed anyway! Deciding not to 'waste' the day we opted for the Tiger Temple Cave local to Krabi (which Jen was up for despite the hangover which I am extremely impressed with - the girl has gusto!) This trip HOWEVER did mean enduring yet more uphill travel in hot sticky climates........is it that we never learn...or just that we are gluttons for punishment! BREATHTAKING - the only word to describe it, and it does so in every sense of the word! 1,237 steps to the summit and some of them near vertical to say the least meant breath was hard to come by anyway but was compromised even more by the views!!
Finding these steps was met in the usual Jess and Jen fashion....wondering aimlessly for a while, getting a bit lost and then stumbling upon it by accident! Firstly we ended up (taking the first flight of steps we saw) in the tiger cave (sadly no tigers) with a number of statues and monuments and a little onward pathway up
(where Jen nearly concussed herself and finally broke her rather dilapidated (she'll deny that!!!!) sunnies!) to a smaller worship temple. Seeming a little odd that it had only taken us about 20 steps to get here we thought we might be in the wrong place! Deciding to go and actually read the information boards we had found was, I think, a good idea! Not that it told us anything we couldn't see for ourselves...wondering further along (and somehow missing the main steps...despite their rather grand entrance and blatant signs) we went wrong again. This time up a few hundered steps....and then back down the other side into an enclosed forest with a number of cave temples and HUGE trees! Discovering that, once again, we had gone wrong....and almost about to give up we went on again......and then saw them - and they weren't particularly discreet - the beginnings of the numbered steps! And we were off! Up, up and away! That actually sounds light hearted, floaty and easy going! This ascent most definitely was NOT! Once again (glowing all the way) we struggled to the top, rounding corner after corner to find flight after flight!! But we made it....definitely not
as horrendous as our Malysian upward experiences and to a view well and truly worth it...but yet again photos can't do it justice! Fearing the descent and our jelly like legs giving way we stuck around up there for quite some time......but found the down wasn't half as bad as we were expecting and we made it in one piece!!!
And finally we make it....having been intending to go to Koh Phi Phi all week we manage to book it in advance and be proactive in our decisions!!! Another early start saw our bus forget about us and come and pick us up late.......lost sleep - grrrrrrrrr!!!! However we got there eventually after some pretty hair raising driving as our driver raced to get us there! We had opted for the Speed Boat Tour as we were told it was better............it was faster, i-ll give them that, but better..............QUESTIONABLE!!! My dad has always said that speed boats weren"t as great as people made out......he was right.......noisy, bumpy, bone juddering was order for the day! But we made it to Phi Phi deaf, achy and juddered and in one piece! The itinerary took us right around the 2 islands that
make up Phi Phi, to Maya Bay where The Beach was filmed, Pileh Bay, Phi Phi Don, a Viking Cave (where they collect swallow spit bird's nests for soup!), Lohsamah Bay and a place called Hin Klarng - which is an open sea coral reef where the snorkelling was fantastic...........sounds pretty amazing as a trip - wouldn't you agree?
Let's just say it didn't quite live up to our expectations.......our first beach stop saw maybe 15 other boat loads of people scrabbling for a place in the sand, Pileh Bay saw not one photo opportunity without some other boat in it, Maya Bay......horrific...Hollywood certainly hasn't done it any favours, over crowded, noisy and positively unpleasant, the snorkelling involved avoiding boats, propellers, anchors and not a great deal of fish - tho we did see a BIG eel....hovever a stroll through the forest rather than rallying for beach space meant we could escape the throngs to admire the island in relative peace! Next it was on to Phi Phi Don for lunch...the food was good...the atmosphere another thing...we were in a large hangar with a few hundred other people........not quite idyllic paradise! Our last stop and return journey took us
to Hin Klarng where the snorkelling was stunning....and as long as you kept your head underwater you could lead yourself to believe you were the only one there!! Saw such a variety of fish and coral..........was spectacular and probably made the trip!!! All in all, would say that it was somewhat over-commercialised but what can you expect really! Such a shame. I'm glad that we went, but probably wouldn't go again!
Our return to the hostel saw us book our trip out of here.....we'll be pretty sad to leave but are heading to another seaside location...so it shouldn't be too hard........Ko Phangan and Ko Tao
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Pete
non-member comment
Hello!
Thought I would add a comment as I haven't done so for a while. Looks like your still having a really good time! I must say I'm jeoulous. I have just started a temping office job in London and I am just getting used to the monotony of 9 - 5. Joy oh joy. Pete