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.

 

Phuket

We stayed at Pineapple Guesthouse for four nights. It is run by a very friendly Englishman called Steve. We arrived at 2am, so had to wake up the night guy. Unexpected bonus that we were upgraded from dorm rooms to a twin with ensuite at no extra cost!

Slept late Saturday, had a good brunch at guesthouse, had a little wander about to get our bearings. Found the beach, lots of restaurants and bars, not much else.

Borrowed bodyboards and beach towels and went to the beach. Waves were very big and there was a huge storm cloud coming at us from the horizon. Undeterred, we went in and got thrown about by the waves. I managed to catch a couple on the board but it was a battle getting far enough in without being knocked back again.

The storm clouds came closer and closer, but we didn't get out - I was waiting for Andy to get out and take a picture of me bodyboarding, but he didn't realise and before we knew it the monsoon was upon us. Andy did his best to get a photo, but it was nigh on impossible in the dark and stormy environment. Swimming in the sea during a storm was pretty awesome though!

It got pretty dark!

Nice shot of me catching a wave here

After showering, we headed out for dinner, and after that we hit some of the local bars. We played some pool against a couple of bar girls for free drinks, but unfortunately they narrowly beat us. So we went to a different bar and played some different girls, and won. On the way to that second bar we stopped in a sports bar so I could watch the Arsenal game. After the game was over, I was teaching Andy some pool techniques when the owner of the bar came over. He was a fat, ugly, bald, bitter so and so. Making noise about how we were using his facilities without buying drinks and whatnot. We still had half full drinks, and told him so. But he insisted on carrying on being unpleasant, saying that our drinks were empty (I was drinking from a can), so we downed our drinks, paid and left. In retrospect, pouring my half full can of beer on his precious pool table to prove that it wasn't in fact empty would have been much more satisfying, but there you go.

We got up at a decent time on Sunday, and asked Steve for his advice on what to do with the day. He suggested we trek up the mountain to see Big Buddha, so that's what we did. As we strode away from the hostel in our walking shoes, armed with directions written and printed out by Steve, we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for.

It was a tough climb. Most of the way there were paths to follow, but naturally they were all uphill, and some were very steep! We were occasionally rewarded with some spectacular views though.

Andy's stamina far outstrips my own

Eventually, we ran out of path to follow and tangled with the toughest part of the trek by far; a climb up a 50-60 degree incline through about 50 metres of dense forest. To make things harder, the monsoon the previous day had made the ground extremely muddy and slippery, which wasn't much of a problem until we got about halfway up, and strong footholds were becoming few and far between. At one stage I thought I got stuck, as there seemed to be nothing around I could use to climb on. I was staying still as possible, trying to assess my options, when suddenly I saw a huge swarm of ants pouring out of a nearby rotten tree branch, coming straight for me! This made up my mind pretty quickly to get moving, and I made a break for it, aiming for a nearby tree to hang onto. Unfortunately the ground was so slippery I couldn't get any purchase with my trainers and began slipping down the steep hill. With a lot of spiky branches and trees below me, and nothing to hold onto, I was facing the prospect of getting seriously hurt so I did the only thing I could think of; dug my fingers into the mud and dragged myself upright again. I made another break for the tree and got there, leaning up against it in relief.

Meanwhile Andy was also struggling, and had a pretty serious slip of his own, causing him to be caked in mud. Holding the piece of paper with the instructions was hindering him, so he attempted to throw it to me. It fluttered a foot in front of me and landed face down in some mud, rendering most of it unreadable. I burst out laughing at what a silly idea it was. Andy screwed it up and threw it to me to look after, and eventually managed to get up to the tree too. Now we could see the light ahead which meant we would soon be back on the path. The forest we were in was so dense the light seemed almost heavenly. We made a few more jumps up and eventually I was pulling myself up and out, before turning around to pull Andy out. We were caked in mud and sweat, out of breath and exhilarated. And we had made it.

We walked along the road, continuing up the mountain until we found a restaurant. We washed ourselves of mud from our hands, arms and legs, and had some nice refreshing drinks - coconut followed by water for me, lemon juice followed by orange juice for Andy. We drank these sitting on benches which faced out over a drop, giving a magnificent view of the town and sea below.

As we sat there drinking and resting, we saw people walking up from the direction we were facing, holding a piece of paper like ours. At this point we realised we must have gone wrong and that there was a much easier path available. But we didn't care. After we finished our drinks, the kind restaurant owner insisted we have a nap on the comfortable cushioned benches in the shade, so we took the chance to recharge our batteries for 40 minutes. It was extremely relaxing and tranquil.

After that, it was a simple matter of following the road to Big Buddha. It would've been simpler if it hadn't been a very steep and windy road, but that's mountains for you. Eventually we got there, feeling like we couldn't be bothered to look at it anymore. Like Lord of the Rings, the journey was more important than the destination. But we went up to see BB anyway, and took some snaps. It turns out Big Buddha is actually still under construction, and you can donate money towards building it, though we didn't.

Andy looking a bit muddy

Thailand really is beautiful

Donggggggg

The walk back was much easier, we just stayed on the road, getting wolf-whistled occasionally by cars full of girls, and eventually ended up back at the hostel. We showered (muddy!), ate (yummy!), and got a taxi to Bangla Road - a very vibrant nightlife area similar to Khaosan Road in Bangkok. There were countless bars and pubs and clubs and fast food stalls. We went to a place called Tiger, a huge nightclub packed to bursting with people. Great atmosphere. At around 2:30am, things were winding down so we headed back.

Woke up on Monday at 6:00am, so that we could catch our day trip ferry to Phi Phi Island. We were incredibly tired. The minibus that picked us up from the guesthouse stopped for complimentary breakfast on the way to the port, and then we were loaded onto the boat. It took a long time for the boat to leave, but fortunately there were big TVs showing the movie Avatar which made the time pass much faster.

We moored off the coast of the island just as the movie ended. Some people borrowed snorkels, but Andy and I just jumped off the boat and swam about in the sunshine. Soon it was time to get back on the boat, and we finally arrived at Phi Phi for lunch at around 1pm.

Included only for the look on that girl's face

Thankfully our boat wasn't this full

Yeah, I'm immature.

Considering we had to eat and the boat was leaving again at 2:45, this didn't give us much time, but we managed to see a bit of the island and take some pictures (Andy bought a present for a certain someone) before we went back to the boat. In retrospect, an overnight stay on the island would have been better. On the ride back I made friends with a Singaporean girl called May, and the journey passed fairly quickly. Soon enough we were back at the guesthouse.

We rested up and had dinner before heading out to sample the nightlife in Karon, Phuket one last time. As usual, we played pool and had drinks. I had my picture taken with these three, so that I could play a little game with you. One of them is a ladyboy, and one is 35 years old - who can guess which is which? Answers in comments would be great.

No prizes for saying I am the ladyboy, smartarses

After that, we decided to go home as we had a long journey to rest up and prepare for the next day.