Southern Thailand - Pt 1

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South-West Thailand

This is the first of a 2 part 'travel-blog' describing our time in Southern Thailand. When planning our sojourn to Myanmar, we decided to also include time in southern Thailand as we'd not been to this region before. Generally, as we live beside a globally 'world class' beach, we've not gone searching for beach locations to 'adventure'. That said, so many people give glowing reports of southern Thailand, we felt we'd be foolish to not go visit.


To keep the 'blog' to a reasonable length, we've made it into 2 parts; this part which focuses on the 'south-west' part of southern Thailand - the Krabi & Ao Nang region - and a second part that centre's on the south-eastern side of southern Thailand - Nakhon Si Thammarat.


As always, if you want to 'see' more detail in an accompanying picture, click it to enlarge.

Monday 14 Feb.

Having left Melaka after a short 'side trip' and back to KL airport, we departed for Krabi in early afternoon. After a short flight, we made our way via airport shuttle from the airport to Krabi 'town' some 20k away. The airport shuttle was an adventure in its own right; 'WOW', we thought, 'Wasn't southern Thailand supposed to be westernised? Perhaps not!'. In comparison to rural Malaysia, this shuttle experience suggests less 'finesse'. Well, at least we were given an 'entre' as to what to expect.

After settling into our (surprisingly spacious, comfortable and clean) hotel, we went walking into town. We'd noted costs for a rent-a-car and assumed we'd get a better price 'on site' than over the net. Not so - we quickly learned that high season means no negotiation in this region. Nevertheless, with only one small operator with 'value' priced vehicles, we eventually cut a deal for a 'used' Toyota Vios at a discount (western tourists appear to want Suzuki 'jeeps' or new cars). This we were to have delivered the next day.

We also 'discovered' that many in this region are Muslim. This only affected us in regard to choice of restaurant as Islamists 'prohibit' the sale of alcohol with food. The joke is that Muslim's wanting to drink merely go to a 7-11 and buy spirits with Coke. So, where streetfood vendors at night markets elsewhere in more northern parts of Thailand also include stalls selling bottles of beer, not so in Krabi. Anyway, we found a pleasant place to refresh ourselves.

Tuesday;.

...saw us gain a car and set off to 'look-see' the region.

After a very forgettable breakfast, we headed westwards. That wasn't necessarily our intention. Rather, we tried following roads on a less than adequate map and eventually found ourselves west of Krabi.

We 'found' ourselves arriving at Ao Nang, and as we had booked an apartment there for a couple of days hence (to meet up with family), we went exploring the back lanes to try and find the place - which we eventually did. But, the process 'showed' us more than had we stayed on the main roads. We'll just write 'interesting'!!!

Ao Nang beach is so so touristy. A little further west (2 km) is Nopparat Thara beach, which has neither loads of accommodation nor tourists. As we meandered for the day, we found this contrast repeated so often. It appears that tourists seem to want to congregate together (much to our appreciation). Heading further west, we 'discovered' more beaches at Klong Moung and Tup Kaek.

At Klong Moung there are several high end resorts, with patrons needing to cross a road to access the beach. What we found interesting is that there is a wharf at the northern end used by an inland lime quarry to fill largish ships. The constant flow of large semi-trailer trucks laden with crushed lime not only made for a dusty roadway, but also a busy roadspace. How the high priced resorts 'sold' their locations to tourists was beyond us - maybe the tourists just remained poolside.

Further along at Tup Kaek, the 'resorts' are beach-side of the road and totally control beach access, with merely a little lane-way for those that drive themselves there. Though a nice beach, we weren't in that 'space' to go walking there. Instead, a little further on the road petered out into a National Park. We delighted in the opportunity to go 'nature park' walking. The 'mud' map at the park entrance indicated 2.8k to the waterfall and a lookout about half that distance. After about 750m, the path started to rise. As we progressed, it rose more and more steeply. At about 2.5k, we called it quits. There appeared no indication the path was about to flatten out - or indeed fall - and we we're felt we were quite distant from the coast. At least the return journey was downhill.

After returning to the car, I tried taking a photo to find our camera was 'on the blink'. After a lot of fiddling, the viewfinder 'returned'. We could take a 'snap', but there was no zoom. Later, most aspects 'returned'. Not being too sure, we continued pottering along the western roads for a while. Judy felt 'famished' so we dropped in to a cafe at Klong Moang for some wonderful Thai soup.

Following lunch, the camera seemed to be OK. But, then, after a bit of a walk, it 'failed' again. Given this, we decided to return to Krabi and go look at the (large) Tesco store to determine whether there were any 'reasonably' priced camera's for sale. There were only small 'point'n'shoot ones for about 3 times the price of Oz. After discussing with various people, we were advised there would be more options at Phuket (about 160k away). We decided we'd go there the next day.

As nightfall was fast approaching, we opted to search for a restaurant. Fortunately, we were in luck with a wonderful Thai restaurant set in a forested property on the outskirts of Krabi.

Wednesday;.

...off to Phuket.

Leaving early for Phuket, we weren't very far up the road when a sign referred to some place to the west of the highway and on our map suggested it was on a road that looped back to the highway further north. As the topography was dotted with karst hills, we decided to 'look-see'. The road did in fact, meander through a lot of karst and in the early morning light, looked stunning. Once off the main drag, the roadsigns were written in 'worm' language (ie sanscrit). We hope we'd taken the right turns; our tourist map was quite deficient in this area.

On one road, we found ourselves at a dead end and a wharf. We later learnt the town is called AoThalen. As we walked on the wharf to have a look, a local came up to and asked whether we wanted to rent his longtail boat for some time, or a day. he pointed out via pictures on a noticeboard that we could go to the karst islands just offshore. After more discussion, and an idea that sounded appealing for later, we took his phone number and said we'd call him.

We headed back along the one way road and eventually we came to a sign with an English direction... 'Unseen Thailand'.

The whole idea of 'Unseen Thailand' intrigued us, so we ventured down the road. Eventually we stumbled upon the Tha Pom Khlong Song Nam nature reserve. What a delightful experience. Set against a karst hillside, but straddling a mangrove area, we toured the nature reserve along a boardwalk (through the 'wetlands'). Due to the calcium rich water, the outgoing tide was crystal clear and slightly blue. We could see all the goings on under the water very well. Additionally, the large overhead canopy made the walk enjoyably cool.

Back on the road, we headed for highway #4 (the main drag) to Ao Luek, Phang Ngo and then down a turnoff to the Sarasin Bridge to the island of Phuket. The highway travels through a major karst area, and so was an enjoyable scenic drive.

As noted, the purpose of the trip was to look at camera options. We found the major shopping mall (that we'd been given a recommendation) and set about checking camera options. While the model range was greater, the models we'd want to buy to replace the Canon were not stocked. Also, the prices were very high. No-one appears to discount, or negotiate a price. As the Canon seemed now to be behaving itself, we decided to count our losses and get a (relatively) cheap Samsung (similar to what we'd ended up with when visiting Laos the year before) and hope the Canon would last the distance.

With time passing, we returned to the car and did a 'drive through' of Phuket town (mmmm, not our sort of place) and then over the range to the western side of the island to Patong Beach. YUK!!!!! What you can't see from the attached pic, is that the urban part fronting the beach is some 3km of wall-to-wall lodging accommodation. The pic shows the wall-to-wall sunworshiping. After a cool fresh lemon drink, we headed northwards to Kamala Beach, then to Thalang, before leaving the island. As we drove over Sarasin Bridge, we noted the sun was soon to set. Just over the bridge, there was a turn off to a 'Sunset Beach'. needing to stop and relax, we headed to Sunset Beach & found a restaurant. We decided to watch the sunset and have dinner. Great decision!

Back in the car to return home, we appreciated that being after dark, there were far fewer vehicles on the road. That said, we still managed to have a minor bingle. Highway #4 is (mostly) dual carraigeway, and when passing a 'caravan' of slow trucks, we were suddenly confronted with a 'road closed' sign. Though braking hard, the car still managed to hit the sign (sending it skywards). We thought It's only car damage, and continued (more sedately) on our journey back to Krabi.

Thursday;.

...family 😊


Today we were to be joined by Mari, Adrian & Sakura. We'd earlier negotiated to rent an apartment at Ao Nang so that we could be together for 'family' time.

After checking out at Krabi, we headed to a panelbeater to 'repair' the minor damage to the rented car. Fortunately, the major damage was to the number plate area with a mangled plate, but otherwise very minor damage. The 'path' of the sign had left paintwork over the bumper and headlight area. With a quick cut'n'polish it was all gone. We felt relieved to not have incurred more damage.

The day was spent 'organising' ourselves in the apartment, waiting for the others, then catching up.

We called the boatman, hoping to go out the next day. At first he said yes, but later called us back and said not tomorrow. We agreed on next day. Then, before we knew it, it was beer o'clock & dinner time.

Friday;.

...Thanbokkoranee National Park.

Before leaving Oz, we had suggested a sort of option plan that included a day at a National Park. Upon arrival in Krabi, we quickly learned that the National Park we'd considered was close to Krabi (in part why we considered it - assuming we'd have to take a tour) and so would be crowded with people. We learned from discussions that there was a park near Ao Luek (about 45k north of Krabi) that was quite quiet, and very scenic. We changed our destination for today to the Thanbokkoranee National Park.

Along the way we tracked the same route as Judy & I had taken on our way to Phuket, letting Adrian & Mari see the Unseen Thailand and Ao Thalen. As it happened, the boatman was at the wharf when we arrived, and we confirmed our intentions for the boat the following day.

As we returned to the main highway, we talked about the seeming impossibility of finding a roadside BBQ chicken stall as to date Judy & I had not sighted any. Where there were roadside stalls, the chickens appeared to have been cooked very early am. For us, it had to be right off the spit - or not at all!!! To our luck, at Ban Khlong Hin we passed a BBQ in full flame with 2 rows of chooks on the spit. Reversing to enter the 'parking' area, we found the Muslim owner had erected several tables under gable roofs. We ordered a roasted chook, some sticky rice & Somtam. Yuuuu-uuuuummmmmmmmm!!!!. While a beer may been enjoyable, our cold water certainly allowed us to focus on the wonderful tastes.

We headed for Thanbokkoranee National Park and on arrival were amazed by the huge numbers already in attendance. We lamented the numbers, but reminded ourselves that the other place would have been more crowded. While the numbers were aplenty, we were the only obvious foreigners. It was a pretty place, and despite the numbers Adrian, Mari & Sakura enjoyed some swimming at the waterfall area.

We later learned that this Friday was a national holiday, and being a Friday, families sought to spend time at 'nice' locations. Oh, well!!

Saturday;.

...to the karst islands around the Hong Island 'group'.

As noted, we'd had to re-arrange our visit on a longtail boat to the 'islands' till today as the Islamic boatman couldn't leave town on a Friday.

We arrived at Ao Thalen wharf at 8am, and quickly boarded the long boat. Ao Thalen is on an ishtmus, aside a deepish estuary. On the southside, an imposing karst cliff made for a dramatic backdrop.

As the boatman (Marp) had advised, we headed for the nearby Ao Thalen 'gorge' (he called it a canyon). We hadn't heard anything about this, so the whole experience took us completely by surprise.

About 750m from the wharf, Marp took the boat to a little bay seemingly cut into the karst hillside. There was nothing to indicate anything other than a nice little bay entrance. We figured he was just 'sightseeing' for us as there was nothing to indicate he could take his boat through the karst hillside. But, just as we moved towards a steep pinnacle of a rock, we could see the narrowest of openings. No way we are going in there we thought. It appeared just too narrow. But, enter it we did - with Marp edging the boat into the narrow opening. We literally could touch the rock walls on each side of the boat. Eventually, the 'gorge' opened into a most magical lagoon. At this stage, Marp turned the motor off and we drifted onto a gravel ridge in the lagoon. The cacophany of sounds was exhilerating. While the noise was exceedingly loud, it was also utterly peaceful. As it was a rising tide from the bottom, the waterflow was quite swift. It wasn't long before we were drifting further into the gorge. For about 45 minutes, the boat drifted further and further into the gorge. Only once did Marp have to start the engine to 'direct' the boat. Once 'redirected', the engine was again cut. Parts of the walled gorge was sheer rock, and other parts were clad in a dense forest. We witnessed a tribe of monkeys 'relate' with each other as they moved along one section of wall. The few birds were encountered were so brightly coloured and mesmerising. Eventually we came to the end - actually a lagoon in mangrove infested mud flats, as the karst gave way to a river channel - and the peaceful journey came to an end. Marp started the motor, turned the boat around - with the bow & stern touching mangroves - and we returned the way we came.

Once in the open sea, the longtail boat made short work of the distance to the nearby karst islands. The 'group' of islands we visited comprise 4 in all. Several Marp named, some he didn't. All are locally referred to as the Hong Island islands - largely because the local tour companies transport tourists from Ao Nang to Hong island. Marp took the boat around a couple of islands, each interesting in its own way. One held a small cave that was 'home' to birds nest gatherers. Life there, while obviously temporary, would still be rugged.

As we approached the third island 'group', Marp offered us two sandy beaches on which to moor. The larger one on Ria Island already had several boats. We chose the deserted beach on Pakbia Island. The distance between the two was minimal, but we were on a deserted island with both a 'big' and 'little' beach!!!

The water was alluring and Sakura was 'in' before we even decided to go for a swim. Within moments we were all 'in'. The calm aqua water was not only enticing, it was mildly warm. The little sandy beach had a large rock seperating it from the larger beach. This rock hosted a surprising array of colourful fish. In two shakes of a ducks tail, we adults had our goggles on for a bo-peep.

The boatman spread out a plastic woven 'beachmat', and after laying out towels, we relaxed in the warm breeze. Later, after eating the lunch we packed, we wondered whether we were really on cloud nine. It certainly felt like heaven. A little later, another boat arrived and we had to share 'our' beach. Fortunately, they stayed only a short while. Having had several swims, lunch, and 'games' in the sand, we felt it time to move on.

Marp took us to / around several other islands. Eventually we arrived at the 'major' island; Hong island. After entering a deep lagoon through a narrow opening - a lagoon surrounded by high karst - we were joined by several other 'tour' boats. Making our way out, Marp showed us the two 'tourist' beaches of Hong Island. The bigger of the two beaches appeared to be wall-to-wall flesh. The southern end of the beach was wall-to-wall boats. This, apparently, is 'tourist' heaven!!! The 'little beach was similarly crowded. What 'got' us was that to use either of the Hong Island beaches, sunworshipers must pay 200baht (A$6.50) to the government - on top of the boat fare of 2500baht per person (= A$81).

Marp took us to another island, landing us on a pebbly beach. It was interesting to note the quite different 'atmosphere' of this beach compared to the sandy beach of Pakbia Island. The beach itself comprised well worn tiny stones, while the waterline and below was a firmish clay-based rockbed. After pottering around for a while, we called it quits and headed home.

Following the half hour drive back to our Ao Nang 'apartment', we went straight to the fridge to hold a beercelebration - what a day!!! We were still pinching ourselves, the price was amazing value, Marp an inspired gentleman, the trip outstanding and the places we were taken just stunning.

After returning to the apartment, Bruce took the rent-a-car back to Krabi. We ordered food from a nearby restaurant and had dinner 'in'.

Sunday;.

...enjoying the company of Sakura.

Today, Mari and Adrian went on a skindiving 'tour' and so we were left to 'mind' Sakura - which we did not mind one little bit.

Adrian & Mari had secured places on a speedboat comprising just 7, which took them past Koh Phi Phi to Dog Island and to Har Island (each for a dive).

In the am, Judy & Sakura had a great 'bonding' time in the apartment pool. Sakura has yet to put words together so we don't know what she thought of the time, but she was laughing and giggling so we took that as a 'yes, I enjoyed myself'. After her middle of the day sleep, we went on a tuk-tuk to Ao Nang to do a bit of shopping.

That evening, we headed for a restaurant that overlooks Nopparat Thara beach, and enjoyed a sunset watching dinner.

Monday;.

...to Rai Ley.

Today was the last 'full' day at the apartment, and we decided to head for Rai Ley (also spelt Railey). Rai Ley is an isthmus 'protected' by a sheer karst cliff and so without road access one gets there by longtail boat from Ao Nang.

After a late start, we took a tuk-tuk to Ao Nang and headed by longtail boat to Rai Ley. There is no doubt that Rai Ley is stunningly beautiful. The coloured cliffs, the white beachsand, the luxurious vegetation all contribute to make a scenically beautiful place. But, it is also packed with tourists.

One side of the isthmus is 'east' beach, the other side hold 'west' beach, with a 5 minute walk between. At one end of 'west' beach is Phranang cave, that is also a sensationally stunning beach. It was here that the penny dropped. We relaxed on a concrete 'podium', as Sakura looked at monkeys, and following that was taken for a swim. During this time, we noticed that a majority of the tourists were merely parading. The young, their bodies, the mid-aged, that they could bring their family, and us grey hairs that we could at all. People were not finding a quiet place to relax - no, it was all about wandering around looking, and being looked at. So, we thought, so this is why so many tourists flock to the same idyllic beach. It's not that they can't go to less crowded places - clearly they can - they want to be on a crowded beach!!!!

After a very ordinary lunch, we headed back to Ao Nang, caught a tuk-tuk back to the apartment and enjoyed life poolside.

later, and acting on advice, we went to a restaurant at Nopparat Thara that was sensational. The seafood was so, so fresh, the balance of flavours and spices so, so good, and the ambience so, so Thai.

What a great way to finish our South-West Thailand adventure.

Tuesday;.

...to other destinations.

After a late breakfast, we packed up and were picked up by a minibus. Sakura, Mari & Adrian to Bangkok; Judy & Bruce back to Krabi to get a bus to Nakhon Si Thammarat.


And, that begins the journey for Part 2 - of which you can find here .


Cheers



😱

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