Living in the Land of Smiles: An Island Interlude: Krabi

* Some of the formatting of the pictures in this post is weird. Forgive me - it is way too much effort to fix it when in the big picture, does it really matter? <3

Day 13 of our travels was a travel day. We went from Ko Phan Ngang to Krabi which was a bit of an adventure. We knew we needed to take a bus and a boat but were not completely aware of how many buses we would be taking! We were taken to the boat pier by way of pick-up truck from our travel agency. When we got there it was not the boat pier we were expecting but because our tickets seemed to be in order we got on the boat. When we got off the boat we were ushered onto a bus headed for Surat Thani. This is where our first bout of confusion set in as we thought we were taking the boat o Surat Thani and then a bus to Krabi. But we were assured that we took the bus to Surat Thani and then another bus to Krabi. So we got on the bus, traveled for about 45 minutes until we arrived in Surat Thani. When we arrived we were taken in a taxi to another bus station where we picked up our tickets for our bus to Krabi. We had about 45 minutes before our bus was scheduled to leave so we ordered some food while we waited. At 2:15 we started walking towards where our bus would leave from and by 2:30 we were on the bus and on our way! When we arrived at the Krabi bus station we were the last 3 people on the bus (everyone else had gotten off at one of the stops before) but we were lucky enough to find a woman there who got us a taxi to our hostel. It was a really long day - I think 16 hours travelling!

The hostel we chose in Krabi was dorm style and very modern. It was also just up the hill from one of the night markets (the bigger one with more prepared food) so we went down there for dinner and talked about what we wanted to do the next day. So all in all the day was uneventful but still tiring...

the night market

reading lonely planet, looking for things to do!

The next day we decided we would explore Krabi a little bit on our own. The hostel we were staying at had a bike map and on the map there was a little island called Ko Klang that listed a Tsunami memorial museum, a handicraft museum, and a cultural center. Since the part of town we were in didn't have nearly so many things to do (just a Modern Art museum) we decided it would be fun to go over to this little island. So we walked down the beach (seeing some interesting animal life on the way), got a longtail to cross the water, and got onto the island. Once we were there we started walking in the direction our map pointed us to the Tsunami memorial museum. We were probably 10 meters down the road when we ran into an American couple who had been walking around the island. We stopped and talked with them for a bit, asking if they knew where the TMM was but they said they had walked all over and had seen no such thing. In fact, they said the island was pretty much devoid of anything to see or do other than people watch. So we went our separate ways and we kept walking until we came to a government building. There we asked if anyone knew where any of the things on our map were. They said they had no idea what the map was talking about - there was no TMM, handicraft center, or cultural center. At this point we were all kind of laughing at ourselves and our faulty map but decided that since we were already on the island we might as well just explore. So we kept walking down the road. It was really hot and the road was in the open, direct sun, so when we saw a little place with some tables set up we stopped and asked if we could buy some water. It turned out they weren't a "restaurant" like we thought but they did have some water for us to buy and were even kind enough to give us a sweet desert type thing (coconut, condensed milk, tapioca balls?, corn? - it was a bit mysterious and very very sweet). After taking our little break we continued walking until we came to a fork in the road. There were buildings to the left and trees to the right so we chose the left fork and continued walking. I should say that during our little walk we saw very few people. There were a few motorbikes that passed us but for the most part it felt a little deserted. It was also immediately obvious that this island was predominantly (if not totally) Muslim from the few people we passed and also because it seemed the only thing there was to see was the island's mosque. As we continued walking we passed an open room with a mural of a mosque on the back wall. We were welcomed in by some people there who told us it was similar to an after school program. It was cool because they had all sorts of pictures and drawings up of the kids doing activities, including writing to pen pals in the U.S.! Similar to the people in the "restaurant" these folks were really friendly and excited that we were on their little island. After we finished talking to them we continued walking, found the mosque, and then decided to turn around and head back to Krabi. We all thought it was a very happy accident that we stumbled upon this little jewel of an island. Even though there wasn't much to do or see the people we met and the things we observed definitely made me feel like we had stumbled upon a piece of Utopian society.

breakfast the next morning

weird salamander things

Crabs! (in Krabi, lol)

The only sign we saw on Ko Klang talking about the Tsunami were these

Kimsha and Lieke

looking at the crabs

the pier to Ko Klang (Ko Klang is the trees right across the water)

Mangroves on Ko Klang

we walked along this road for a while

stopped for a snack

kept on walking

the Muslim after school center

That night we went over to the other night market which had mostly fruit or other things for locals to buy. We didn't end up eating there since there wasn't much prepared food but we did go to a restaurant across the street that was so good we went back the next night too!

The next day we chose to do the James Bond tour. I want to preface this by saying that one of the things I really wanted to see in the south were the limestone cliffs that seem to appear in the middle of the sea. Like this:

So doing one of the tours where we got to see such beauty was definitely a priority for me. After getting picked up at our hostel we were taken to Phang Nga Bay and from there we took a longtail to James Bond Island (called such because it appeared in "The Man with the Golden Gun"). On the way we passed goregous scenery - the colors were so vibrant in both the water and on the limestone formations. We were given quite a bit of time to explore James Bond Island - there was a cool cliff, the James Bond rock itself, and you could take a little hike to a cavern area. There were many tourists but it just means that there's always someone willing to take your picture, right?! After we got back onto our longtail we cruised around the area a bit, even going under some precarious looking rock formations! Our next stop was at the floating village for lunch. The whole village is built on the water - essentially on stilts - and it was cool to walk around after lunch in the market area and realize the "road" we were walking on was suspended above the sea. Lunch itself was Thai food for tourists (aka, bland). It didn't taste very Thai to me, but the other people in our group seemed to think it was really yummy so I tried to let it go.

boat ride to James Bond Island

limestone formations

some of the folks in our boat

at the island!

there it is!

There was a guy who we asked to take our picture... He took it really seriously and took 5 or 6 all from different angles

The cavern just down the path

Another cool rock formation

looking up!

on the other side

lots of tourists

the Floating Village where we ate lunch

lunch

After lunch we took the longtail back to the mainland via a mangrove forest area and took a bus to Suwankhuha Temple (aka, the monkey cave). Here we saw a lying Buddha, a whole bunch of monkeys, and if you went a little deeper into the cave there was a cool area to explore. It was also blissfully cool which was nice since it was quite hot out. After the temple we were taken to a waterfall but the group declined to go swimming. Unlike the waterfall in Ko Samui, the pool where one could swim at this waterfall was not a wading pool. Getting to it involved a perilous climb over slippery rocks and the water was moving quite quickly. Watching a man carry a baby over the rocks was enough to make me decide that that was definitely not happening.

Mangrove forest

lying Buddha and entrance to the cave

go up some stairs and you reach the "Light Cave"

Looking back towards the "light cave" while entering the "dark cave"

Kimsha in the "Dark Cave"

back at the entrance

Monkeys!

The waterfall was the last stop on our tour so we were taken back to our hostel. That night we went out to eat, saw a different market (its only there Fridays and Saturdays so we lucked out), and then walked around Krabi for a bit.