(10/1/3) Leaving Koh Pha Ngan, I took the night ferry. Two decks – one with mattresses the other with simple mats. I don’t know how the Thai people managed to sleep on the mats, the floor must have been especially spongy or maybe they had spongy backs. I got a good sleep.The ferry arrives at the mainland at 4am. A few people disembark but not everyone, so us foreigners, myself included, are left wondering “Are we there yet?”. Some Thai people are still on the boat but I determine this is where I should get off and catch my connection to Krabi. The bus didn’t leave till 6:30am so we were taken to a little restaurant and watched a video CD (all the Thais have them, why don’t we in NZ?)
I liked Krabi because it had all the required amenities (ie: internet and supermarkets) at reasonable prices. Krabi became my HQ for the next few days. Walking around the travel agents (everyone seems to be a travel agent) I saw a million and one different tours for sale. With my map I worked out where these tours go and decided to do them myself (it was a lot cheaper!)
The first day I caught a songtaew to Than Bok Koranee National Park, Ao Luk. The Southern region of Thailand has many national parks. This one has some very nice pools for picnicking and swimming. I meet a group of friendly Thai people and hung out with them for an hour or two. Afterwards I rented a kayak and guide for 2/3hrs (I did this from the national park for a good price compared to the packages in Krabi) who took me to Bor Thor (Baw Thaw) to see the caves Tham Hua Kalok (aka Pee Hu Toa) and Tham Lawt. The reason I wanted to go here was because I remember seeing the caves in episode 10 of the Amazing Race 1. Tham Hua Kalok has a lot of supposedly 2000/3000yr old cave paintings. The interesting ones were two hands, one with 5 fingers and the other with 6, and an alien like figure.
The next day I rented a bike and drove about 50km to a national park near Khlong Thom. There is a crystal clear hot spring here (Sa Thang Tiaw) and some beautiful pools you can bathe in. About 10km on there is an absolutely exquisite emerald pool, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. A must see.
At the hot spring I met a Thai couple, they didn’t know any English but with the help of my phrase book I was able to communicate with them. They had a car and invited me back to their house where we had a drink and sang some karaoke. Their place was some miles away, well off the beaten track, so afterwards the guy had to drop me back at my motorbike. On the way he asked me for 500 baht for petrol. He had filled up the car before we left and it was only 100 baht for petrol to and from my motorbike. I offered him 100 baht but he wanted more. Rightly or wrongly I started to feel that he was trying to make money off me. So I got out and started walking, though my motorbike was about 30km away. I managed to hitch a ride with a young guy and got back to my motorbike at dark. All and all an interesting experience.
In Krabi you can’t miss hearing calls for some guy I’ve never met called Riley. You also can’t miss going there. Riley Beach is only accessible by boat and you can’t bargain with these guys. To quote Adam Smith:
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
and these guys certainly do. But its beautiful, particularly the little bay in between West and East Riley called Hat Tham Phra Nang.
The Tiger Cave Monastery is like any other monastery except for a small cave that now has a big building built around it. The cave has something to do with a tiger, but that’s probably someone’s vivid imagination. Like the Buddha footprint, some 1000 and something steps up the nearby hill. Nice view though. The Tiger Cave Monastery also has some disturbing pictures of people cut open and a human skeleton. I’m not kidding, its very strange.
Go to Phang Nga if you want to do any of the boat tours, they are 1/3 of the price than the same ones in Krabi. Plus its a really nice place, it hasn’t reached that critical mass point where all of a sudden everyone is a travel agent, internet cafe, motorbike hirer, and laundry service all in one. I went to the floating Muslim village (Koh Panyee) and can confirm that Osama Bin Laden is not hiding out in Thailand.
(18/1/03) The Full Moon Party is like any other party except
Returning to Khao San Road for the third time, I began to see it as a unfriendly scamy place, at least compared to the Thailand I had just come from.
