Krabi, Thailand

Sorry this is a bit of a long one as its been a week! We landed in Johor Bahru in the south off Malaysia early on Thursday morning and immediately got a transfer to the bus terminal to board a bus that would take us north up the east coast of the country. 6 hours later we arrived in Kuantan, a town with little going on but that serves as a stop over town for people travelling north. After a pretty unsuccessful walk around in search of accommodation we stumbled upon a brand new hotel that was offering a promotional rate of 80 ringgit per room, about £15. We snapped it up and enjoyed Sky TV, free Wi-Fi plus tea and coffee making facilities!!!

That night we took the advice of the Lonely Planet guide and found a local Indian restaurant where we tried lots of different dishes including Tosai (a sort of vegetable filled pancake) all for 14 ringgitt or £2.80! We walked back in a rather soggy Kuantan as the east of the country is currently in monsoon season and experiencing a lot of rain.

The next morning we enjoyed a complementary fry up and set off for the bus station. We arrived to find chaos and discovered it was a public holiday in Malaysia and all the buses were filling up quickly! The result was that we were unable to get a bus to Kota Bharu, the next place we had planned to visit on the north east coast. We were pretty gutted but made a snappy decision to head back across the middle of the country to Kuala Lumpur where we would be able to work out a way into Thailand. The border crossing on the north east coast is also a bit dodgy so we felt it was a sensible thing to do. We had a rather speedy 4 hour journey to KL, quickly found a hotel and spent the afternoon working out how to get to Thailand and booking yet another bus!

On Saturday morning we set off on an 8-9 hour bus journey through North West Malaysia into Thailand. We got to the border and made it through nice and smoothly. We got to Hat Yai where we spent the night in a hotel right in the heart of the town. We had a nice Thai meal for about £3 and then walked around the bustling town centre to explore the different stalls and shops. In the morning we had a quick breakfast and got a sawngthaew (an open backed pickup truck/taxi thing with two rows of seats!) to the bus station where we avoided being conned by a friend of the taxi driver. We eventually got on a much cheaper bus to Krabi, on the pretty Andaman coast.

After a 5 hour bus journey we arrived at Krabi Town, thankfully our last bus journey for a few days. The town is the biggest in the province of Krabi which according to the Lonely Planet is the prettiest province in Thailand. The main attractions are the nearby islands of Ko Phi Phi and the Railay beaches on the mainland coast. We had a wander round the town and planned day trips to both those places for the next few days.

On Monday we headed off to the Railay beaches just north of Krabi, according to the LP these are the prettiest in Thailand. We went on a rather rickety wooden long boat as it is the only way to reach them. They were beautiful with huge limestone cliffs enclosing white sandy beaches and clear turquoise sea. We had a nice day relaxing on the beach but it became slightly less relaxing when it came to getting back! The wind had picked up and the sea had become very choppy, so much so that most of the boats weren’t yet returning to Krabi apart from a few crazy ones! We were a bit stuck as we had to get back, so took another option of a short boat ride around the corner to a pier where we could get a taxi. The boat ride was pretty wet and bumpy and I got a little nervous when the boatman told us to put our life jackets on and we were swaying from side to side! We got pretty soaked but luckily our belongings didn’t as I had by chance bought a dry bag that day!

That night we ate some great food at the night market and tried some Thai beer (47p a bottle!!) to relax. The next morning we were up early for a full day trip to the islands of Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Phi Phi Lei. We had wanted to stay at these islands but as it’s nearly Christmas accommodation was pretty full and expensive so decided to just go for the day. We went out on a speed boat which was a lot sturdier than the previous day’s boat! We visited Maya Bay where the film “The Beach” was shot and many other pretty coves and bays, we even saw monkeys on one! We had a nice buffet lunch and in the afternoon did some great snorkelling in clear water with pretty coral and fishes, even saw Nemo!

These islands were some of the worst affected by the 2004 tsunami but luckily seem to be on the mend now and are just as popular as before apparently. However being there did make you feel for all those people who would have been doing exactly what we were that day before the tsunami struck and caused such damage and loss of life, very sad.

After we got back we had another nice meal at the night market and finished it off with a Thai pancake with chocolate-our new favourite snack! We headed back for an early night as were exhausted after a day in the sun. This morning we are heading to Phuket town for one night. From there we go to the west coast of Phuket for Christmas. There we will be meeting Nic & Si who are heading there from Singapore which we are really looking forward to.

We wish everyone back home a very Merry Christmas. It will be strange not being there for it and can’t believe we’re missing snow! We will miss you all at Christmas, have a great one.

Lots of love Laura and Stani xx