Krabi Town is a small place in the south of Thailand usually used as a stop over for people going through on their way to Phi Phi - but I had decided that this would be my first stop on my journey alone and I couldn't have picked a better place to begin.I had already been to Phi Phi with Kim (which will be in my next blog when I write about my return to Phi Phi) and we had mutually decided to go our own ways, it was daunting to begin with but as soon as we made our farewells and I hopped onto my ferry to the mainland after an hours wait in the sun resulting in my ridiculous Rudolf esk nose, I knew I had made the right decision.I sat on the edge of the boat as per usual dangling my feet off of the side, reading and occasionally having a break and chatting to the lovely people around me.I got off of the boat and told the tuk tuk drivers that I wanted to go to Krbbi town - the rest of the boat was going to the coach station to catch their connecting transport and so all on my lonesome I was taken to the town centre, to my new home away from home in the form of the amazing "Pak Up" hostel.For a very reasonable amount I was given a lovely dorm bed (like a bunk bed version of a 4 poster) with my own plug point, bedside light, massive locker to stow away my whole back pack, massive rainforest showers with free toiletries and the best bit - I was sharing the room with some crackin people.As soon as I arrived I was welcomed in by 2 lovely Irish girls who I enjoyed 7pm movies and matsuman curries with every night we had together.

Krabi town itself in my view is underestimated - it might not seem much on the outside but when you look closer the place is super cheap, a short boat ride away from some ridiculously mind boggling scenery and I was surrounded by like minded travelers who had time to kill and jokes to share.

Whilst in Krabi I had some great times, to begin with I spent my time with Michelle and Siobhan on the beach in Au Nang a short 20 min tuk tuk away.We had a fabulous day sun bathing and swimming when the sun got too much (you know the usual routine), whilst chilling out we witnessed some strange things such as a couple having sex in the sea just a long from us … so gross and made weirder by the fact a kid was snorkeling a few feet away! We also watched a man warming up on the beach by stretching his arms, doing lunges and controlling his breathing in deep puffs, all three of us waited anxiously to see what on earth he would do next, sprint away? Do a back flip? Or was he simply preparing his extraordinarily muscly body for a bay watch style run into the water to save a woman drowning? It turns out none of the above, he was just simply attention seeking.I also ended up having a long discussion about the paleness of Siobhan's skin, I reassured her that if she really wanted so desperately to look more tanned she should simply go lie next to someone more pale than herself which resulted in a pale person version of Where's Wally.

After the Irish girls left I hooked up with a new group of travelers who were also a lot of fun, all but a few of us were individual travelers who came to Krabi to relax away from the madness of the usual back packers trail and I met 2 people had come with a specific intention the same as me, they wanted to conquer the tiger temple!

One Morning I woke up and after 3 days of hangovers and delaying the challenge I realized today was the day, I was going to take on the Tiger Temple.On my way out of the hostel I bumped into Alexa and Dan who had both woken up with the same intention, we all hired mopeds and set off on our quest.Tiger Temples exist all over Thailand and regardless of what the name suggests they down necessarily have tigers in them, which is the case with the one in Krabi, there was a different reason I wanted to see this temple and that reason was a fitness test.The Tiger Temple in Krabi sits on top of a mountain which can be reached by a set of steps, 1237 steps to be precise and not only is there a lot of them but most of them are higher than my knee. Believe me its not impossible but after a couple of months with out so much as a jog let alone a workout it isn't easy, especially as we were dumb enough to do it at midday when the sun was blaring down and I was sweating stood still.We all set off up the steps enthusiastically all three of us blindly believing that it wouldn't be that bad but after 400 steps we thought we were near the top, at least half way? Nope not even close! Ha ha All the way up I promised Alexa and Dan I would do a Rocky style run up the last 10 steps, when it got to that point I made a valiant effort to keep to my word but actually ended up crawling the last 2 and then laying on the floor believing I was so hot I might actually be cooking myself from the inside out.The views at the top were amazing though, on a clear day you can sit next to the giant gold Buddha and see all the way to Malaysia and they were made all the more better by the fact that we had got there in 25 mins, not bad we thought all things considering.In actual fact the way up was easier than the way down, with exhausted wobbly legs trying to navigate the thin and tall steps it was not easy but due to good company we still made it fun.After the temple we grabbed some lunch and then decided to make the most of our super cool bikes and drive through the national park, seeing elephants, snakes and what was supposed to be a waterfall?

I also had some great nights out in Krabi, my hostel had a bar on the roof and after trying the local delicacies at the night market everyone would converge on the roof for some beers and buckets.I ended up making friends with a large group of Canadians who after playing drinking games with for an hour or so suggested we all go to a Thai night club on the other side of town, I was tipsy and therefore couldn't think of a better way to spend the evening than dancing like mad men, singing to Thai songs I had never heard before and drinking most of a bottle of black label whiskey. Possibly the funniest if not most dangerous part of the evening was trying to get to the club, there were no tuk tuks and so in the end we flagged down a truck who said we could jump in the back and he would run us up to the club for a reasonable fee.Dear god I thought I was going to die, we all clung to the back of the truck as the driver went god knows how fast, flying over speed bumps making us defy gravity for a split second.When he came to an abrupt halt making me head butt the boy next to me I was so giddy and relieved to get out I knew the night would be worth it - and it was!

The following day me, Kush and Dan (who had been found at 4am asleep in the bread isle of the 7 eleven) nursed our hang overs and decided to head to Railey beach for some snoozing in the sun.We caught a boat across and wondered to the beach which was disappointing, it was full of rich families with their expensive hotels, beautiful kids and mums with plastic faces - I couldn't face it with my hideous hang over making me resemble the Grinch.Luckily Kush noticed another quieter beach around some rocks, all we had to do was wade into the sea with our bags on our heads, scramble over some rocks and trek through some trees and we were there, easy! Oh it was worth it though we had made it to a beautiful hippy beach where everyone was friendly, lots of people had dread locks and someone lulled me into a nice sleepy state playing a recorder, perfect! I later found out that the beach is one of the best places to rock climb in the world!

Krabi was brilliant and I still talk highly of it now, I probably love it because of the friends I made but I also think it's a brilliant little town with more to offer than most people realize, especially for people like me who have time to waste in a relaxing place. But after 6 days I had to leave, I had a date on Phi Phi - my parents were arriving!!!