Goodbye Malaysia... Hello Thailand!

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Although we really enjoyed our time in Malaysia, we were happy to be leaving KL to go to Thailand. KL is a nice city but now we're starting to think that e pollution in KL is the cause of Elysia's really bad conjunctivitis that she's had since we first got to KL (although to be honest, unless the haze was passing through, it didn't seem bad at all). It seems like it flares up each time we set foot outside in KL and goes away when we're gone. So for now we say that Elysia is allergic to KL and we're happy to move on! In fact, today we left just as it seems that the haze was coming back through. The air was very smoky, it was hot and muggy, and the visibility was poor. The haze started a few weeks ago and really affected KL and Singapore. People in these cities had to wear N95 masks as the pollution index soared above unhealthy levels. The haze comes from Indonesia due to their slash and burn method of clearing land for cultivation. It was gone by the time that we got to Kuala Lumpur but it seemed to be returning today so we are extremely thankful to be leaving!

Our next destination was Krabi, Thailand, which is a 1.5 hour flight from KL. For this last leg of our trip, we are really getting a treat. When we were planning our 7+ week long trip, we came across the contacts for this person who organizes itineraries for people around Krabi and Phuket and the islands. It's not a tour, but they organize the accommodation and transport. We worked with them to get an itinerary that suited our time (we decided to omit Phuket on this trip because we don't really have enough time). In the end it was probably more expensive than organizing things ourselves ($1450 for the two of us in 4 star accommodation for 8 days, with all transfers and some extra trips too), but given the fact we'd be travelling for so long and had almost no time to plan, this was amazing for us. This will probably be the best planned part of the trip, as everything else we did was more erratic. I definitely recommend these guys because they're so organized and make it all so smooth and easy. This is exactly we needed at the end of this crazy trip! (They are really called Krabi Konnect.)

Anyways we landed in Krabi and were transferred to the ferry terminal. They had tickets and all for us. The ferry to Phi Phi Don was an hour and a half, with a beautiful view of the mountains and mountainous islands around. Unfortunately it was overcast and the sea was a bit rocky so we didn't really get a sense of the beautiful green waters. When we got to the island, someone was waiting for us to show us to our hotel. We walked through the streets of the little town there towards our hotel. The guy had a little cart and threw our bags in. The town is very cute; little narrow streets, no cars, the locals on bicycles and tons of food, shopping stalls and massage parlours. It is a very laid back and chill atmosphere, and I'm sure a hot spot for partying at night (but its a vibe that makes you not feel pressured to if you don't want to party too). The little town on Koh Phi Phi Don, called Ton Sai village, is nestled on a narrow sand bar between the beautiful beaches on Ton Sai Bay and Loh Dalam Bay. We are staying at the P P Palmtree Resort. We had wanted to stay on the water, but the guy who organized hotels for us said this was a really nice hotel, and it is. It's in the centre of the action in town, with a pool in the courtyard. Our room has its own entrance into the pool, how cool!

After we were settled, we headed down to the beach. It's only s 15 minute walk through the town. The beach is beautiful, like you see on TV. We walked in the water for a bit and then we headed over to one of the many bars on the beach. It's off season (rainy season) so the bars are not packed, but there are still a lot of people around. We sat on some bean chairs in the sand while drinking pineapple daiquiris. Unfortunately Elysia dumped hers all out over the table by accident! Whoops! After drinks we went to another restaurant right on the beach for dinner. They had amazing Thai food (not really a surprise!), so we ordered a few dishes and they were amazing. The best Pad Thai we've ever had! We also got ourselves a bucket of Mai-Thai (a local tradition - basically they give you the whole bucket of a drink)... So we had a lot of Mai-Thai to get through. This was fortunate for elysia because after that we went shopping, and Mike was a little more lenient with the cash than usual, so we bought lots of beach clothes! Elysia bought dresses for under $10 and Mike bought some shorts for $14 each. Great deals!

Finally on our way back to the hotel for the night, we had a run in with a monkey. Ok it wasn't at all like that. There was a guy holding a monkey in a diaper in the street and as we walked by the monkey stretched out its arm and grabbed onto Mike. Yes definitely a tourist trap but the monkey (Jojo) was really cute! So we paid the 100 baht and got to hold him and take some pictures. We've never held monkeys in our arms so that was pretty cool (although we call one of our kittens, Bakerloo a monkey because she acts like one!)

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Photos

Have you ever had one of those dreams...
where you are out and realize that you forgot your clothes? Well that's reality for this guy!

Weather for the Day
It's hot, but the rain isn't as bad as it looks. It really only rains for a short spell.