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Where did June come from??? Oh my gosh we have been away 9 months!
Today we sent some stuff home that was weighing us down. It was somewhat more expensive then we expected, but at least now we have room to fill up with new stuff!!
We have spent the day checking out Krabi town, walking down by the river, getting hassled to go on trips, and checking out tours for tomorrow.
As we walked around town, browsing in the shops, we passed a quite nice looking bakery. Maybe we may go in and get us a little sweet snack, we thought. We had one foot in the door when we saw a woman who worked there with a large length of wood in her hand (used to keep the sliding doors open) as we realised what was happening, we saw that she was on all fours with the wood in her hand ramming the wood (under a bread and cake shelf) into the wall. We heard a thud and a loud squeeking noise!!! As we looked at what she was trying to kill, we saw brown fur and an animal that looked like a RAT!!! All we heard
in our minds for the next 10 minutes or so was the squeeling as the lady was reading its last rites.
We didn't buy anything!!!!
Krabi is a town at the mouth of a river, over the river and in the distance you can see the dramatic limestone rock formations that shoot out of the sea and land. Quite picturesque.
It is also the jumping off point for the islands of Ko Lanta and Ko Phi Phi ( where the Beach was filmed) we are not going to go here as time is ticking. These islands (and probably Krabi as well) got hammered by the Tsunami that happened.
We looked at tours and compared prices. We wanted to go to Ao Thalane (limestone cliffs on the river and mangrove forest) and Ko Hong (an island that had been recommended to us months ago) We got our tour for 1500 Baht each for the two trips in one day (about 20 quid) one place was asking 1900 Baht-1700 Baht.
Later at night we went to a cafe a couple of doors down from our hotel and had a drink and watched a movie (Over the Hedge as requested
by Melissa). I, Andy later got to watch England beat Hungary in a replay on our tv. WE ARE STILL THE SAME, PASS ONE WAY, PASS IT BACK, BOOT IT UPFIELD etc. Win the world cup?????
The alarm woke us up at 7:00am to be picked up at 8:00, we were really looking forward to our latest day out. The Sawngthaew picked us up on time so we set off on our way.
The views along the way were really scenic, little villages and green fields with massive limestone hills and cliffs in the distance. After about 45 minutes in the bumpy pickup truck with seats we arrived at a posh resort to pick up our companions for the day. A Macedonian Aussie and a Thai guy. More nice scenery was to follow then we arrived at the jetty at Ao Thalane to get geared up for the day.
Ao Thalane is a place where the river meets the Andaman sea and is surrounded, by again massive limestone cliffs and also has a mangrove forest.
After a coffee and a little chat with our guide for the day, (June) we got our Kayaks. (The other couple
only planned to do half a day, so the guide asked if they wanted to do the full one with us. The guide asked us how much we paid, so the other couple could pay the same and when we told him we had got it from 1900 Baht to 1500 Baht he was surprised!!!!!!)
The Kayaking was really good, the scenery too and because we were the only ones out there it was so tranquil and peaceful, paddling along the river, listening to all the animal noises surrounded by the huge limestone cliffs and Mangrove lined riverbanks.
As usual we tried to learn a little bit of info, we learnt that the Mangrove trees are used for charcoal, but because the trees are removed for this, the fish in the rivers have no Mangrove tree roots to lay there eggs. So while people make money from the charcoal, the fishermen in turn lose money! Also the Mangrove trees can filter out the saltwater with their roots to provide freshwater for them to live on. Along the way we also saw quite a few Mudkeepers, a fish that can live out of water (which David had introduced us to
on Langkawi) and lots of multicoloured (bright blue and green) crabs.
At around 11:30 we started our trip back for lunch. This was really nice, we had 4 different dishes with rice, fruit and drink. This is when we were given a "Souvineer photo" of us that had been taken earlier. This is where I, Andy felt really awfull for not taking it (it only cost 80p) it wasnt that good and I didnt want to buy it just because I felt I had to. The lady was shocked when we said no!
Part 2 on our daytrip was Hong Island. We had to get there by longtail boat, basically a boat with a car engine fixed to the back with a scaffold pole to turn the rudder. Very noisy.
Along the way we saw the usual cliffs and loads of islands shooting out of the sea all around us. We also saw loads of massive pink jellfish the size of bin lids, apparently this ones don't sting.
Upon arriving at Hong Island we were instantly amazed at the colour of the sea, the white sand and the green tree lined cliffs that encoved the beach. Stunning!
Here we chilled, swam, took loads of photos and fed the many fish that came up to us as we paddled. (we fed them left over chips from the other girls lunch) So there were actually fish and chips in the sea. HA HA HA!
As Melissa went to the toilet she noticed a plaque to remember all the people that died with the Tsunami, so we had a minute and tried to imagine what it must have been like. You just cant!!!
Can you believe that the BBC and HBO are making a program about the Tsunami, on one of the Islands where it happened, (Ko Phi Phi) we have seen an article in a small magazine talkng about it. In the magazine it showed a small poster that the film companies used to recruit actors and extras. They were asking for lead roles, victims and lots of people. How insensitive. We asked our guide what he thought and the people here just want to forget it.
Anyway we had a wicked time on Hong island, from here we kayaked in the sea around the bay to an enclosed lagoon (In Thai a room is
called a Hong, hence the name Hong island) again this was cool, here we were in our small kayaks in the middle of a lagoon surrounded by these massive cliffs with only one way in and out. Here the floor was covered in star fish, so we had a play with them.
The day then came to an end as we headed off back to the mainland, we were shattered. As usual we had a really nice guide for the day, we have been so lucky on our travels.
Tea at the local night market and a beer were all we got up to later that night.
The following day we reluctantly left our nice room and got a Sawnthaew to the bus station where we were again met by touts. I, Andy have started to call this a "Tout Attack". This was quite a mild tout attack maybe with only an attack rating of 2 out of 5 (5 being called Extreme tout attack) We were put onto a bus bound for Surat Thani on the east coast, where we are intending to go to the island of Koh Pha Ngan.
As soon as we
arrived in Surat Thani we were again greeted with a Tout attack this on with a rating of 4/5, we ignored them all. They were touting for the ferries over to the island, but I, Andy had looked on the web and it said there was a ferry at 3:00, so we headed for that. On our way we asked a tout a few directions but all he did was ignore our friendly questions and proceeded to tell us only what HE wanted. We walked out on him.
There was no ferry at 3:00pm so we stayed the night at a hotel called the Ban Don hotel.
This place is not a touristy place and there is nothing here and as we arrived we had a bit of difficulty getting our bearings as all the writing is in Thai.
We checked out the local night market later on and found ourelves bored afterwards and ready for bed at 7:00pm!!! However we resisted, had a beer and went on the internet.
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Tony & Rhonda
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Great Blog
A realy outstanding blog, well done you two keep them coming. Stay Safe X X