Krabi

We left Phuket by bus, and arrived in Krabi 4 hours later on Tuesday 26th, at around 6pm. We had broken tradition just this once and not booked a hostel in advance, so the first thing we did as we got off the bus in Krabi Town was look for somewhere to stay. After a bit of walking around and asking prices, we found a very welcoming looking place called Number 7 Guesthouse which gave us a twin room for only 300 baht (£6) per night. That's only £3 each!

After showering and resting up, we went downstairs to go out for dinner. As it was monsooning, we just ran to the Italian restaurant called Firenze across the road. I had pizza and Andy had some Italian noodles. The rain stopped, so we went exploring, and found the night market. We had a look around and soaked up the atmosphere a bit before turning in.

The next day, we got up at about 9 for breakfast at Firenze's, and informed the guesthouse we would be staying for another night. Then we decided to go and see how Krabi Town looks in the daytime. We bought a couple of things and stumbled upon a big temple (Kaewkorawaram Temple) in what seemed to be a small Buddhist complex, so we looked around there. Then we met Drake the kitten down by the river, and tickled his belly for a while, before we realised we were covered in fleas.

Traffic lights are interesting here!

Kaewkorawaram Temple from street level

Peculiar

Andy pretending he can read Thai

They thoughtfully hid these guys in a small cave to make people jump

Drake Jr.

We went back and showered off before venturing out again and buying some souvenirs. Then we intended to rest a while before dinner, watched some of The Dark Knight, and accidentally napped for a couple of hours. We went and got street food for dinner, and were going to go to the pub, but we weren't sure whether we would be able to get back into our hostel if we stayed out late. We were still a bit hungry though so Andy and I both made runs to the nearby 7-11 for snacks.

Our final day in Krabi, we took a very early songthaew - Krabi's combination tuk-tuk/bus service where you are picked up from your hostel by a pickup truck modified so that the back can seat up to 8 people and taken to a predetermined destination - and went to Ao Nang Beach. At first, when we were approaching, it seemed as though the tide was out, but fortunately the beach was very beautiful at our final destination.

We walked down the beach a little and found ourselves in an area comprised almost entirely of massage parlours. I'm not sure if parlour is the right word as there were no private rooms, everyone was just lying on cushions on the floor. As the weather wasn't brilliant at this stage, I had a one hour full body Thai massage, which was sensational.

After that, Andy and I went for a relax on the beach and a swim in the sea until it started monsooning, but when we emerged we realised we hadn't brought any towels. The heat and humidity took care of that problem (we stayed under cover), and we were quite dry by the time we jumped on another songthaew back to the hostel. It was pouring with rain so the back of the truck had its covers down.

Once there we wasted no time getting changed and heading out to find dinner in the heavy rain. After a few trademark indecisive moments, Andy plumped for a coffee place fairly near the hostel that sold cheap local food and had free wifi. Andy had something typically adventurous, and I elected to try some green curry, which blew my head off (I finished it though)!

When we returned to the hostel we booked our transport to Kuala Lumpur for the next day, which should see us arrive there at 10:00pm on Friday 29th. We also asked if there was a way to get in after the front door was locked, and were gently reminded that we had a key to the door on our keyring. We felt dumb. Anyway, I took Andy out to a pub I had found the previous night while searching for food, and soundly thrashed him at pool five times, over a drink. Understandably he had had enough pool by then, so we went and took one last moonlit stroll around Krabi Town and savoured our final night in Thailand, before turning in.

We woke at 5:30am to make sure we had time to pack and get ready, and the minibus arrived at 7:00am. We were taken to Hat Yai, which seems to be the connecting point for most of Southern Thailand, along with Malaysia. At Hat Yai we transferred onto a very comfortable coach with reclining seats and more legroom than you could shake a stick at, so it was a very comfortable 10 hour ride down to KL, with plenty of rest stops. The border posed no problems at all, we arrived at KL bus station at around 11pm, and were soon picked up by Pearl and Tucky and taken back to their home.