We arrived bright and breezy in Bangkok, after an eleven hour journey on various mini buses and coaches through Cambodia into Thailand and decided to spend the night catching up on some sleep in the city rather than heading straight off on the night train to Krabi. The whole central area had been decorated in white fairy lights, which turned out to be for the King’s birthday, rather than we had assumed, for christmas.
Off down south on the sleeper train the following afternoon, we arrived early under grey skies and checked into the Krabi ‘Lake View’ Resort. More Murky Pond View in our opinion, it is a short tuk tuk ride to Ao Nang beach and so we headed off for an extra large chocolate shake, trying to dodge the showers…
The rain just about held off for kayaking around the mangroves the next day, although the showers weren’t the only things we had to dodge as the monkeys are keen on hitch hiking between the kayaks, leaping over everyones head and raiding the bags of the unsuspecting!!
We spent the next four days in Ao Nang, visiting Railay Beach, Poda Island, Phra Nang and Chicken Island (which bears no resemblance to chickens whatsoever). The weather didn’t improve much and we flip-flopped around in some large puddles for most of our time here. Highlight of one particular rainy day was a booze cruise which started at around 11am – with a shot of secret recipe ‘Lake Juice’ hmmmm..?? Things carried on in a similar vein and with around fourteen of us all crammed in on one longtail boat (the front was stacked full with the booze…the back end leaking oil into the boat!) we set off around the bay area visiting some of the islands mentioned above with some snorkeling, rock climbing and general beach lazing.
We decided to transfer from Ao Nang to Koh Phi Phi, the small islands just off the coast of Krabi Province that were devestated by the Tsunami of 2004. Two waves had swept in simultaniously from the north and south of the main Phi Phi Don island, meeting in the middle at the small town of Ton Sai, wiping out all infrastructure and killing over 2000 local people and tourists. Phi Phi was nice, but definately caters for the party backpacking crowd and so, as we were still feeling the effects of last weeks booze cruise, we opted in the evenings for a few drinks purchased from the local store and found a spot on the quieter beach along the island ..must be getting old!
From Phi Phi Don (the main island) we took a boat trip to Phi Phi Leh (the small island home of Maya Bay, ‘The Beach’ from the movie, which is beautiful but massively overrun with tourists and charter boats). Then we headed for some snorkeling with lots of stripey Nemo fishes at Koh Mai Phai (Bamboo Island), an idyllic uninhabited tiny place with powdery white sands and the clearest water we’ve ever seen.
After four nights on Phi Phi Don, we decided to head to the southern most island in Thailand, Koh Lipe which is part of the Tarutao National Marine Park. After a hairy eight hour journey across the seas on various ferries and speed boats, we arrived feeling a little wobbly but in one piece.
Another amazing place, and much more relaxed than Phi Phi, Koh Lipe is most definately our favourite Thai island. The sun even made an appearance for two full days, and we made the most of it, seaking out a tiny little bay just across the bamboo walkway at the bottom of the beautiful Pattaya Beach. We hear that there are arctic conditions back at home, and it looks like we’ve had snow here today too.. oh, erm… nope – that’ll be the white sand!
After three nights on Lipe, we said goodbye to Thailand and headed off on the short ferry ride to Langkawi in Malaysia. We arrived late in the day and fortunately docked in the bottom left corner of the island – which is very close to the backpacker’s haven of Pantai Cenang – and not, as the ferry company’s stated destination of the bottom right corner, which would have been a good ol’ taxi ride. After waiting around for over an hour for our passports to be stamped, we shared a taxi with Karin, a traveller from Austria and ended up with the cheekiest taxi driver ever encountered and after enduring comments about the benefits of multiple wives and Thailand being the best and cheapest place to get said wives…and would Tom by any chance be interested in returning to Thailand alone to purchase a few?!
After tramping around various establishments late at night, we eventually found a room at Daddy’s Guesthouse, complete with dodgy plumbing and a leaky air conditioning unit, which we were rudely awoken in the early hours of the morning by freezing cold water spurting out all over the room and bed!
The weather took a turn for the worse again, and so, with no public transport on the island and the sound advice of the taxi driver that the island is ‘approximately’ 160 x 100 kilometres, we decided to raid the funds and hire a car. As it turned out the island is in fact tiny, and we did bottom left to top right in less than half an hour – even without lead-foot Mason driving and Tom temporarily forgetting how use the hand-brake!
After a few more rainy days in Langkawi, we took a connecting flight to Singapore – just a brief stop here before we head to Oz. First impressions are of the cleanliness of the place – clinical in comparision to India, there isn’t a piece of litter or disgarded ciggerette butt in the whole city – and you will be fined for any of the following;
dropping rubbish / eating on a train /urinating in public / not flushing after you’ve been to the loo (how do they know?!) / spitting / feeding birds / importing chewing gum /carrying durian fruit (!) / unnatural sex (we have no idea).
With only an afternoon and evening before our flight, we decided on a visit to Singapore Zoo, followed by a walk along the river gazing skywards at the bright lights of the city and christmas lights which decorate the many bridges.
With our flight to Sydney at 9am, we decided to do our best to be on time for once in our lives and actually organised ourselves enough to show up for check-in at the airport with ONE HOUR, TEN MINUTES TO GO (applause please!)…
Or so we thought.. the flight had infact been cancelled due to the bad weather in Europe and planes not leaving Heathrow – “come back in 36 hours and we’ll try and get you on a plane” they said. We couldn’t complain – the airline put all it’s passengers up in the Grand Copthorne Sinagpore, a huge five star – spangly hotel in the very heart of the city – a far cry from The Beary Good Hostel which we had just left – as lovely as it was.
Taking full advantage of the all inclusiveness, we helped ourselves to the largest breakfast we’ve laid eyes on since England(mmMMmm Bacon! …and Earl Grey Tea!) and checked into our room – only to check out again a few hours later after the airline decided we could infact board a plane today.
So back to the airport once again…
Australia here we come!
OUR TRAVEL BLOG. HELLO WORLD! 