Krabi

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My fears regarding the overnight bus journey down to Krabi were unfounded as it turns out that the locals use luxury coaches with reclining seats, achres of legroom and snacks served periodically whereas the tourists use the ramskackle deathtraps that I thought we'd be using! This meant a pretty comfortable 12 hour journey and even a few hours sleep (would have been more had it not been for the awful film played at full volume for about 3 hours!)

Krabi itself isn't up to much. It's a pretty quiet little place with a handful of tourists using it as a base to visit the local islands including Phuket and Ko Phi Phi (where The Beach was filmed) but was a pleasant change from the noise and traffic of Bangkok.

After an afternoon of wondering round the town and settling into our guesthouse we took a daytrip the following day to the Laem Phra Nang headland. Although it's attached to the mainland it is only accessible by boat and so feels like an island, and it has stunning beaches surrounded by palm trees and mountains. We spent the best part of a day there lying in the shade and swimming (it's the total opposite of an English beach with people fighting over the shade rather than the sun-spots). The water was beautifully clear and warm, and so salty it took next to no effort to float around admiring the scenery.

The next day we took a tour around some of the local islands which was a terrific day. Our first short stop was the same place as the day before, but the early start meant we could enjoy it while it was a bit quieter. Next stop was a stunningly picturesque island where we were provided lunch and given a couple of hours to swim/sunbathe. The highlight of this stop was a suprise visit by a family of langur monkeys who seemed comfortable enough with humans to carry on with their eating, preening and playing only a few metres from us.

Next we were taken to a snorkelling spot off another island. I've been told that the snorkelling there is pretty poor (the coral wasn't looking ver healthy) but as it was my first time I absolutely loved it and we swam amongst thousands of multicoloured tropical fish. Can't wait to go somewhere that has good snorkelling now!

Our last stop for the day was chicken island, with the promise of a explaination of the name of the island. This explaination was along the lines of "Chicken Island...you see?", and will probably make more sense when I get chance to add some photos to my posts. The only downside of to the day was getting horribly sunburnt due to my shoulders being out of the water whilst swimmin/snorkelling, but it was a small price to pay.

Our last day in Krabi was a lazy admin day of making decisions regarding the next few days (and smothering after-sun on my shoulders). Krabi was the perfect respite after Bangkok, and my only disappointment was not being able to afford to go kayaking round the stunning karst coastline.

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