Krabi, Thailand – December 1-3, 2010

This is definitely a first for this trip. Some of this just happened today! Don't expect it to happen again soon. Enjoy!

We arrived in Krabi in the early afternoon after a 2.5 hour trip in a minivan that was definitely more comfortable than our previous transport. Some of the group went for an introductory walk to find out where the shopping and beaches were. I stayed home and did some laundry in hopes that it would dry in this hotel. Besides it was a rainy afternoon and I really didn’t need to get any wetter. Our hotel is a couple blocks off of the main street which parallels the ocean or more appropriately the Andaman Sea. You enter our hotel on the fourth floor and our room is on the first floor where there are only two rooms. It’s quite a large room in comparison to our last and the bathroom is three steps up from the main area. We could actually put another person in here very easily. There is a fan in the room but I paid to also have the air conditioning. So far it really hasn’t been needed except to cool me off occasionally and assist with drying clothes.

We went down to a local outdoor restaurant for dinner and it was great. The beachfront just at the end of our street is quite busy with local restaurants and small local retailers. The main town is a couple streets away and has larger stores. It even has places like MacDonald’s and Subway and KFC but we’re trying to avoid those. Krabi as a province only has a population of 18,500 so it’s not a big place. We are in a village called Ao Nang and tourism is definitely the main attraction here. There are tourist shops everywhere for boat tours, snorkeling, diving, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, cooking classes and dozens of other things. And there are lots of restaurants and places of accommodation to handle all the tourists.

There are over 200 islands off the coast of Krabi and many are part of the Hat Noppharat Thara Koh Phi Phi National Park, including the famous Phi Phi Islands. The area is full of limestone cliffs and caves. Most of the latter are Buddhist temples, monasteries and centres for meditation. The mainland and the islands are thick with vegetation and the main crops are rubber, mangos, coconuts and coffee. There are mangrove and cassia trees throughout the forest. The same type of high rock formations on the mainland forms the islands in the sea. The majority of the inhabitants are of Thai origin but about 15% are Chinese in origin and there is a strong Chinese influence in the area. They also have a group of people living here called the Sea Gypsies who are nomadic and move around the sea fishing, collecting shells and diving for sustenance.

On our first full day in Krabi some of us took a 4-5 island tour which included lunch and snorkeling time. It was a cloudy day but never rained and that was perfect for me as it wasn’t too hot at all. It was a good tour but there was too much time in the boat and not enough time on land for my liking. And when we did get on land we only had a limited time so you really didn’t have time to do anything. For example we visited Bamboo Island and had 30 minutes there to look around the beach but there was nothing else there. It was a beautiful island but I would rather have had a couple of hours to sit on the beach and go for a swim and dry off again before getting back on the boat. I just sat for a while and relaxed but some did go in for a swim. We also went to Hin Klarng, a lovely bay with coral and fish for some great snorkeling. One monkey did wander across Monkey Beach where we also stopped for some snorkeling.

Maya Bay was the bay and beach used in the movie The Beach. Prior to the movie it was a nice quiet isolated bay but now every tourist comes here and there was a solid line of boats anchored at the beach and only about one fifth of the beach is actually available for swimming – not that many people can go swimming because most boats allow such little time to see the place. We had half an hour and that just gave me time to walk to each end and take pictures and to take the path back to the toilets and out again, not that I had to use the toilets but because I wanted to see some island vegetation and flowers and that was the only route. All of the beach and all of the trails were full of tourists like me wandering around.

We went to see the Pi Leh Lagoon which is an almost totally cut off lagoon with beautiful blue water surrounded by small beaches and sheer cliffs. We even went to see the Viking Cave which is so named because of the ancient drawings in it that some believe to be from the Viking era. There is scaffolding all over and inside this cave as people live and work in it collecting birds’ nests for birds nest soup. It is a protected area just because of this delicacy. Lohsamah Bay was another stop for snorkeling.

The snorkeling in both places was good as the water was very shallow. Of course this was bad if you were one of the unlucky people who happened to put your foot on some coral. The fish were plentiful and very colourful, and they ranged from very tiny to very big. The biggest would be the shark, which I didn’t see, but apparently they have a small, friendly shark in these waters. The clams were a brilliant purple on the inside – quite spectacular. The parrot fish were big and bright with brilliant greens and blues and other almost florescent colours. There were lots of yellow and black striped fish and some fish with long trailing dorsal fins (if that’s the one at the top!). I held a piece of watermelon at one spot and quite literally had dozens of fish eating out of my hand. The sea urchins had incredibly long spines and the sea cucumbers were really plump and fat. I don’t remember what else I saw but it was all quite lovely and very relaxing. The water is not as clear and clean as in other places I’ve been snorkeling and the fish weren’t as plentiful or as colourful but it was still good. I think the Great Barrier Reef spoiled me for reefs although some of the Caribbean islands have pretty good snorkeling as well.

We had lunch at Tonsai Bay on Phi Phi Island (pronounced as Pee Pee by the locals). Lunch was nothing great but it was okay. There were certainly lots of boatloads of people coming in to enjoy it. I then sat for awhile at the beach and enjoyed the view. Had I known how much there was to see I would not have sat for so long. As it was I walked to the one end of the beach and then to the other where I caught the boat. I missed out on walking across the island to the other beach as it’s a very narrow part of the island, and I missed all the little shops along the way. However, I did see the monkey sitting on the corner of the house waiting for people to feed him. He was cute but obviously had the humans well trained. Anyway, there is a walk all along the beach front and it is just store after store with a few restaurants mixed in. Their prices were higher than in other places but they seemed to be doing a great business.

We got back to the hotel around 5 p.m. and I had to shower and wash my hair to get rid of all the salt. I also had to rinse out my bathing suit and T-shirt so they’d be ready for the next day. We went out to dinner in another local restaurant and I then came home and went to bed.

Day 2 in Krabi was similar to day 1 but much nicer. Our tour guide, Golf (so named because his brother thought his head looked like a golf ball when he was a baby) and one other guy on the trip, Paul, and I went on another boat trip but this time to closer islands with enough time on land to allow some kayaking, which I guess really isn’t on land at all but at least it’s not on a big boat. The boat this time was actually much smaller and quieter than the day before and I assume slower because the ride was quite smooth and we weren’t bouncing around as much as yesterday. Because they were expecting strong winds in the afternoon we did the route in reverse. We were supposed to kayak first thing in the morning, which I thought was good since it’s generally calmer then, but that got moved to the afternoon and everything else came first.

Our first stop was Daeng Island for some snorkeling. The current was very strong so they warned us to stay away from the rocky edge of the island, which was a sheer cliff straight up, and the water quite choppy so I decided just to enjoy the scenery. It was another of those quick 30 minute stops so hardly worthwhile anyway. Most people went in but hardly any stayed in the whole time. Again I’m going to confuse the order of the island visits and I only just finished this expedition an hour ago. Oh well, you probably won’t know the difference. We went to the Lagoon on Hong Island and it was quite impressive with just a narrow opening. They weren’t sure they would get in because it all depends on the wind and wave action, along with the tide which I’ll come back to later. It was a lovely lagoon totally surrounded by sheer limestone cliffs and green vegetation. Some of the people were swimming off the one boat and it did look lovely. However we couldn’t stay and our guide told us the others would have to leave soon as well.

From there we went to Paradise Beach on Lading Island. The beach was lovely and located in a small bay. There were only a couple of boats on the beach and not many people. Some were having their lunch there. We spent 40 minutes here and I did the walk across the island to the other beach, which was a stony beach, not sandy, so Paradise Beach seemed much better for swimming. The water was very shallow and you just had to walk in to be able to see the fish as they were all around you. Snorkels weren’t really required although some people went out to one of the points where sea horses sometimes appear but they weren’t spotted today. I should say that the water must be just about air temperature because you really don’t feel any temperature change when you get in. It’s just refreshing.

Our last stop was Hong Beach on Hong Island. Yes, this is the same island as the lagoon we visited earlier. The beach is beautiful and is in a small bay. Again there were only a couple of boats around and not very many people. We had our lunch here and it was delicious. We then had about 3 hours to relax and enjoy the setting. The three of us had signed up for kayaking so we just had time after lunch to do the nature trail. It was nice and had some interpretive signage along the way. The area is actually in Than Bok Khorani National Park so it’s well maintained and presented. At one point in the walk there are the remains of several boats and they are left there as a memorial to the December 26th tsunami that happened several years ago as the boats were wrecked at that time and left quite a distance from the water.

We had six kayaks out for the journey around the island. Paul and I had one kayak with me in the front and him in the back. We did reasonably well but occasionally he would forget which side to paddle on when we had to change direction. I actually think he was a bit surprised to find out that the one in the back was in charge of such things. We paddled around the entire island which is about 4 kilometers. There were times when we went into caves and out the other end. Sometimes we went through narrow passages between the main island and smaller islands around it. We saw lots of caves and even a couple of really large caves that are used for collecting bird’s nests. The saliva the swallows use in building their nests is what makes bird’s nest soup a true delicacy. Yummy! The cliffs beside us were always high. As they are limestone there are some stalactites hanging from the cliffs. When you don’t have cliffs beside you the lush green vegetation is everywhere. There were several more nice sandy beaches around the island as well and most of them were deserted as we kayaked past. We stayed close to the edge of the cliffs and there were often lots of fish in this area. No matter where we were there were lots of large jelly fish but they kept telling us that these weren’t the dangerous kind. They looked like large white plastic bags floating in the water at first but then when you looked closely you could see the neat fringe all around them. They were about the size of a basket ball and certainly the largest jelly fish I have ever seen.

The highlight of the journey around the island (apart for going through one shallow, narrow passageway backwards since my navigator got us totally turned around!) was visiting the lagoon again. It was about four hours after our first visit and it was now low tide and there was literally no water in the lagoon at all. We could take our kayaks in only to the very beginning and the rest of the lagoon was just all sand and stone with some little trickling streams and little pools. It was amazing to see the change and quite understandable why the other boat had to get out shortly after we left. We could see the water mark on the rocks above us so there is certainly quite a tidal change, probably about 10 feet between our two visits. We wandered around and looked at some of the pools and streams. There was a lot of activity in most of them and the crabs were particularly entertaining. There was a dead fish, or at least part of a dead fish, and the crabs were fighting over the remains. Two seemed to be in control but it wasn’t clear whether they were working together or working against each other. Everyone once in a while another crab would try to get in on the action and there would be a great commotion and a lot of claw snapping. And when they were eating their mouths were going continually so they were having a real feast. So were the tiny little fish that hovered around the area and picked up the morsels that were being ripped apart by the crabs. It was obviously a good feeding time for everyone. We wondered what happened to the fish and whether he just got caught in a tidal pool and couldn’t get out and the crabs killed him or if he died some other way. I guess we’ll never know. Our kayaking guide picked up a large sea cucumber, which really felt like a blob of jelly. I guess that’s why they say it tastes like jelly when you eat it. I think I’ll take their word for it and not try it for myself as it just didn’t look that appetizing.

At one point on our journey we saw a wonderful mansion up on an island hillside. It apparently belongs to the Prince of Thailand. It was quite nice and definitely very isolated. Our boat ride back to Ao Nang took about an hour and it was a little wet. The wind was blowing just enough to send all of the spray back on us. Luckily the sun had decided to shine and it was warm enough that we really didn’t care. It had been a perfect day and we were all content. We got back to the hotel around 4:30 and I had time to shower, wash my hair, rinse out my clothes, type this blog and do some packing before dinner. Tomorrow morning we are off again and it is a long travel day as we cross into Malaysia and leave Thailand behind. This last day in Thailand was certainly a highlight for me.