The ferry from Langkawi to Satun in Thailand and the rides from Satun via Thung Wa, Trang and Khlong Thom to Krabi wre pretty uneventful except for finding a decent bar in Trang that sold Thai Craft Beer.
Bar92 – Thai Craft Beer
Krabi was an interesting town – it’s a local hub for tourists travelling to and from all of the various islands including Phuket. There are a variety of attractions and as usual I had to choose. I rented a scooter – a lovely pink “Hello Kitty” bike but she went well – and visited the famous Wat Tham Sua – the Tiger Cave Temple – apart from the temple there is a climb to the top of the mountain where there is a Golden Buddha admiring the most beautiful views of the surrounding land and sea.
Then I needed to cool down so Hello Kitty and me went to the Huai To Waterfall to swim – well Kitty relaxed in the shade while I climbed (again!) up to the waterfall for a swim.
Huai To Waterfall
Keith suggested a visit to Railay Beach. This is fun beacuse it is inaccessible by any other means than boat. The Longtail boats are fascinating – they have an externally mounted diesel engine linked to a long drive shaft with a propeller on the end which serves as the motive force and the rudder. This makes the boat incredibly agile and it can operate in very shallow water. I took a longtail boat to Railay Beach – it takes about 40 minutes to get there.
From Krabi, I caught a ferry to Koh Phi Phi Don. The Phi Phi islands are a group of five islands in the Andaman Sea between Phuket and the Mainland. Koh Phi Phi Leh is the most famous of the islands as it was the setting for the film “The Beach” however Koh Phi Phi Don is the biggest and most popular and it could almost be two islands except for the narrow strip that connects the two. It is on this strip that the commerce of Phi Phi occurs – it is crazy with bars, restaurants, dive shops, accommodation, tattoo parlours, massage parlours, banks, shops and any small business imaginable all crowding the street making a narrow passage for the thousands of tourists to traverse. This section was seriously damaged by the Tsunami in Dec 2004 but it has totally recovered. People come here for two reasons – to dive and to party – and believe me they know how to party from dusk till dawn!
