The next day we got up and headed to the river boat towards Wat Pho and the Grande Palace. The heat was unbearable that day and it was a Saturday in Bangkok so the crowds were unbelievable. I suddenly went off Bangkok in a hurry. By the time we'd reached the Grande Palace I was NOT happy. They wanted me to put on more clothes – some form of paper trousers and top as a mark of respect – but there was no way I was making myself any hotter than I already was, so I stepped aside, let Kev do his thing with the camera and then we headed off to Wat Poh (by Tuk Tuk – that's how hot it was, I was prepared to risk my life rather than walk the 3 minutes to the next tourist destination!). Wat Poh was lovely, when I'd managed to cool myself down and appreciate it. There's a massive budda lying down and some awesome buildings – as much as I liked it, I left still not quite knowing what the place actually is!
We went back to the hotel and from there got totally ripped off in a taxi to the bus station. We boarded our overnight bus to Krabi which was so lovely. There was a lovely, lady/boy who acted as a bus version of an air hostess, bringing round many drinks and snacks. The chairs reclined right back and Kev managed to settle down to sleep pretty quickly. I, on the other hand, couldn't sleep, but I did have a great time listening to my ipod and catching up on all my music that Kev hates!
We arrived at Krabi bus station at about 7am. Having hardly slept a wink, I was a little crabby (ha, see what I did there!). The millions of taxi drivers that pounced on us as soon as we got off the bus were not welcomely received by me and I soon headed straight for the tourist information to find out who we could trust and who we should avoid. I found out that we had two choices to get to Ao Nang – we could either get a bus for 60 baht each, or a taxi for like 400 baht. The lady pointed to the bus which was some kind of rusty old pick up truck with a tarpaulin roof and I quickly persuaded Kev that an air conditioned taxi was the way forward! We arrived at Ao nang beach by about 8am on a stormy morning and had some breakfast while waiting for the sea to calm down so we could find a longboat to Tonsai Bay, where we were planning on staying that night. Ao Nang is a pretty westernised, tourist resort. Kind of like Thailand's Blackpool and on reflection, it's horrible – but at the time, I was so happy to see things written in English and to feel like I was back in normality.
We eventually managed to find a longboat going to Ao Nang and after a short tuk tuk ride to the jetty we clambered on board the flimsy looking wooden boat. A very choppy ride out to sea and we landed at a beach called Railey Bay where we were all told to get off, we could walk to Tonsai from here (they said!). But once on the beach we realised that we couldn't in fact 'walk' to Tonsai bay until the tide went out around 4pm, so we were stranded. But I have to say, there are worse places to be stranded and so we settled down for my first beer of the trip (needless to say, it wasn't Kev's first beer of the trip). We spent the day swimming and relaxing on the beach and then at around 4pm we climbed over to Tonsai, the tide had gone out just enough, but it was still a pretty treacherous wade through the water to the other side. On Tonsai we were taken into the jungle to our bungalow and as it was not quite 5pm – there was no electricity (in Tonsai, they have no electricity between 9am and 5pm!). We were tired and decided we didn't like it there at all. I went to the bathroom, came out only to see a huge black eyed white faced, grey bodied monkey tapping at our patio door – again, looking back, this was amazing, but at the time I was petrified – monkeys can be vicious, so we decided, we'd stay one night and head off the island the next morning as soon as we could. Needless to say this feeling didn't last and we soon grew to love Tonsai Bay. That evening we went out to get some dinner and outside out door was a huge, and I mean huge, lizard – it made Finny look like a baby – we seriously were staying in the jungle. At dinner we realised we were the only people on the island not dressed in Tie Die clothing or with dread locked hair (unfortunately!!!) and we felt like we stood out like sore thumbs. But by the next morning, we realised there were plenty of others like us and Tonsai was amazing. We spent three days there chilling on the beach in the day, watching the rock climbers risk their lives (with no helmets on) and watching the hippies do fire shows during the nights – it was great.
But as much as we loved it on Tonsai, we knew we had to experience other places and we thought one more day of chilling might get boring. So we headed to the end of the beach and managed to share a long boat with a German couple back to Ao Nang. The boat cost 800 baht , 400 for each couple and unfortunately, I only had a 1000 baht note. I said I'd pay and the German couple said they'd give me their 400 on the boat – lesson, never trust anyone, even other tourists. Conveniently, on the boat the German couple announced that they too only had a 1000 baht note and they'd get change on the mainland. As we approached Ao Nang so the heavens opened and we experienced our first monsoon rain, we were soaked through but it was great. We took shelter on the land while it died off and there the German couple just decided they were leaving – me and Kev looked at each other, too polite to say anything about the 400 baht we had yet to receive. The couple left and we spent 10 minutes cursing ourselves for being so stupid. But then the German guy came back with the money and said sorry he'd forgotten to pay us. He hadn't forgotten to pay us, his girlfriend had felt guilty, but anyhooo, we got our money and we learnt a valuable lesson.
We walked towards the sea front shops in Ao Nang and looked for somewhere to stay – we had realised that so far we had been rubbish at the whole haggling thing, so we were determined to get a room for really cheap. But every place we went into wasn't coming down on their prices at all – it's really not easy to haggle. Eventually, a nun chased us down the street and insisted she showed us some bungalows for 500 baht. If you can't trust a nun, who can you trust, although Kev wasn't even sure about her. She took us into more jungle and there we found our bungalow for the night, basic but nice – well, when I say basic, it had air-conditioning so it can't have been that basic.
We didn't like Ao Nang this time round – it was absolutely full of Brits abroad type tourists and more Thai brides than I've ever seen. We decided to leave the next day and head for the island of Koh Phi Phi. I was weary of staying on an island that had pretty much been wiped out by the 2004 tsunami, especially as we're in typhoon season here, but I'm so glad we did go there.
So the following morning we got picked up from our bungalow and taken to the jetty where we got on board the Ao Nang Princess to Phi Phi. After a 2 hour ride, again through stormy waters, we got there. This place was so different – a labyrinth of tiny dirt tracks covered with stalls selling everything you could imagine. We walked up to our hostel, past the shanty style houses built on wooden stilts and surrounded by debris – the drainage wasn't good and it smelt bad. It was weird to see people in the shed-like houses and then all the tourists going and staying in the nice, brick built buildings with air con. We expected our hostel to be awful as it only cost about 10 pounds for the night, but it was one of the nicest places we've stayed at yet, so nice we wanted to steal the furniture and bring it back with us, it was totally our style – big chunky wooden beds and wardrobes and stuff.
We dumped our bags and went to the beach for a drink and some lunch. After a week of noodles (Kev's digestion system seems to prefer the food here to mine, my toilets experiences have not been good – too much information?) I was gagging for a cheese burger! It was embarrassing to do it, but I did and I settled down for a beer with Cheese burger and chips in a lovely restaurant on the beach. I do want to add here though that despite my tummy problems, this was the first non-Thai food since arriving here, it was, however, Kev's second (he caved in a few days ago). So we ate and looked out into the sea, the water in Koh Phi Phi is beautiful and turquoise in colour. There's a lot of tourists there, in fact, it's an island that survives on tourism, but I liked it. There was a happy mix of tourists, hippies and foreigners who have obviously moved there to set up diving businesses and things. Kev wasn't as keen as me, it was a bit too touristy for him, but I liked it. The staff at our hostel told us the view point, which looked out over the whole island, was about a ten minute walk – so at about 4pm we decided to take a wander up there. We got about 20 mins in the heat, up hills and started to wonder whether we were ever going to reach the top. We passed some tourists on their way down who told us it was a long way to go yet – I groaned, but we plodded on. The tarmacked path veered off into the woods and we started to walk along the muddy path. Before long, the sun started to go down (it goes from day to night here in like ten minutes!) and the mosquitoes came out – we were totally unprepared and didn't have our trusty Avon Skin So Soft on us and it wasn't long before we were being eaten alive. Then....I got a spider on me and that was that – we were turning back! The jungle is no fun when you're not prepared. So we headed back down the hill and as soon as we reached out hostel, the rain came down, so we're pretty glad we turned back when we did.
That evening, we popped out for some food and took a nosey round the stalls in an attempt to find a ring for me – it's my mission to fill my fingers with a ring from every country and I was surprised at how hard I had found it to find a suitable jewel in Thailand. Refusing to pay 900 baht for the only ring I liked, my quest would have to continue to the next day....but I was running out of time.
The next morning we got up and headed straight for the pier to catch the boat to Krabi. It was a beautiful day today so we were a little disappointed we didn't have time to go for a swim, but there'll be other times! A short hour and a half boat ride and we were at Krabi port. Taxi touts swarmed around but we had a pick up truck waiting to take us straight to our hotel. This hotel is officially the nicest yet. I have realised a lot about myself already since beginning this trip and I now know, that in my advanced years :) I am not as good at slumming it as I used to be. It seems that we are actually what they affectionately (or perhaps not so affectionately by the hippies who are 'doing it the right way') call 'flash-packers' – basically, we've got a back pack on, but I won't stay in hovels with just a fan to keep me cool – I like air conditioning and I like cleanliness, is that a crime?
After dumping our stuff we took a wander to the town centre of Krabi. It's so lovely here, everyone is so friendly and it's such a relaxed pace. We found some great shops and much to my relief, I found a ring to buy – I was getting seriously worried that I'd fail in my mission at the first hurdle, but never fear – the quest continues.
We walked back along the river to the market where we found stalls selling all kinds of things, including a great Japanese food stall where we tried loads of random sushi for like 30p!
Back at our hostel we sat out on our balcony to admire the huge red ants, the bats flying around and the millions of cute little geckos on the walls. And now it's time to get an early night. We leave Thailand tomorrow and head for Kuala Lumpur. We're sad to leave Thailand, but we feel we've had the right amount of time in each place, so like the littlest hobos – we're back on the road again.
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