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Published: December 4th 2008
Spent a lovely hour gazing out to sea whilst getting my feet massaged - the woman asked me if I minded a man - as if! I was already feeling sorry for the poor man. It was lovely but my body does seem quite tense - I was trying to relay this to him - as if he needed to be told. Think he saw it as a challenge, said it's lucky you're not doing my back, so bless him he tried a quick neck and back massage, will have to go back for the full hour.
Had a fab trip to various islands via speedboat - which was really good as there were only 10 of us on a boat that could take twice that. The islands are so lovely - went to the one (Maya beach) where they filmed The Beach - there were probably as many people on it as there were when they made the film. Good snorkeling, I love snorkeling straight off the boat. Phi Phi Island was very busy - same same but different.....
Fortunately we found a boat that was charging 2/3rds the price that most were - it really doesn't
make much difference which boat you get on, you end up at the same locations - the only way you end up at more secluded places is by knowing someone, speaking good Thai, having a tolerance for the sort of conditions that youth can endure or having endless supplies of money. We don't have any of those, so we just do what we can afford. There's no point wishing for what's out of reach.
It's nice that the sun has come out, but it's still steaming here. Our fault for trying to escape the winter...... are we never satisfied??
Koh Phi Phi has been massively developed since the tsunami 4 years ago. Apparently there were regulations put in place designed to expressly prevent such runaway building, but it seems that construction still goes ahead, permission or not. I'm told that there's one influential family in Krabi who run the whole shebang. Makes sense.
The mainland is being rapidly developed too. When we came to look at the hotel that we're in right now there were a couple of building sites down the road. One of them, a week later, is now a hotel open for business the
other is about 4 days away judging by the work that gets done in 24hrs. The people here can only hope that enough tourists come to fill them. What with the global recession and the damage that's been done to Thailand's tourist industry by the Bangkok airport closures that may be wishful thinking. If it does go tits up it will be such a shame, the Thai people are so warm and friendly and the country and islands so beautiful that they deserve more.
Interestingly, it seems that the international media are reporting the airport protestors for what they actually are - class warriors, on behalf of the middle and upper classes. This hasn't been a demonstration against corruption, it is obvious that there is corruption on all sides of Thai politics, it's a demonstration against the inconvenience of full democracy in a capitalist society when the largest section of society is poor and rural. The demonstrators apparently have a plan to change the constitution to address this 'inconvenience'.
We may just laze about here now till we go down to Malaysia, the plan is to be a bit more active down there. We'll see 😉
Unlikely - it's
so hot, although the pool is very cooling. Plus they have a bath here as well as a shower -
I seem to go from one lot of water to the next 😊)
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The Sober Rigger
non-member comment
Beautiful lagoons.
I was enchanted by the beauty of the lagoons,the backdrops are stunning--if the photos are like this,then reality must be mind-blowing. A MASSIVE thank-u,for sharing your experiences with us!!!