We left Ko Lanta early on Thursday morning with our taxi picking us up from the hotel for the 5 minute journey to the ferry terminal at about 8 o clock. As we are getting used to in Asia, the driver was determined to fit as many people in his taxi (which was basically a pick up truck with seats in the back) and we reckoned he got 10 in plus luggage. It was a squeeze!! We made it to the ferry terminal and got on the boat pretty easily and left Lanta at 8.30am. The ferry crossing was calm and we only stopped a couple of times for long tail boats from the more remote islands to pull alongside the boats to allow people to board our ferry. We made it to Krabi for 10.30am where we jumped in a taxi for the 5 minute journey to our hotel.
After making it to our hotel, we found that our room wasn't ready, so we left our bags and went to explore the town of Krabi. It's only a 10 minute walk from our hotel into the centre of Krabi which we had a look around before we discovered Wat Kaew temple. It immediately jumps out at you as you walk along the street as the golden dragons hugging the stairs up to the temple are shining in the sun. To be honest they pretty much blind you but they look really impressive. We managed to get plenty of photos here and had a good look around the temple which, as per all Buddhist temples we have been to, was immaculate and decorated impressively in gold with murals on the walls and ceilings. We grabbed some street food for lunch which consisted of corn on the cob for Beth and some spring rolls for me. After getting checked into our room we actually had a nap as all this travelling is tiring!!
On Thursday night, we decided to explore the night market which is on every night here. The sights and smells were amazing with everything from fresh fruit (not sure what half of this was) to barbecued fish and meats and soups consisting of god only knows. We refrained from getting any food here as we fancied sitting down for a meal so we found a restaurant around the corner and had a canny tea.
Today we decided to visit the Tiger Cave Temple and we also needed to get to the bus station to book out tickets to Bangkok for Sunday. With this in mind, we decided to hire a scooter and kill two birds with one stone and save a bit from getting the bus. I say this because it was only 200 baht to hire the scooter for 24 hours which is less than £4. So we hired the scooter from reception at the hotel and the woman on reception nervously handed me the key as I said I had never been on a scooter. After a couple of practice runs outside the hotel, Beth was looking as white as a sheet at the thought of having to get on the back of the scooter with my driving. She did eventually get on after she made me do a couple more practice runs and we were eventually unleashed onto the Thai roads. I don't really want to offend a nation but the driving over here is absolutely mental. I haven't got a clue If there are any rules but if there are then they must be broken all of the time. We got lost on the way to the bus station and must have drive about 5km past it; it was only 4km from our hotel!!! After eventually finding it, we got our 12 hour bus to Bangkok on Sunday booked. We then got lost on the way to the Tiger Cave Temple and had to do another of several u turns at sets of traffic lights.
When we made it to the Tiger Cave Temple we pulled up and immediately notice that there were loads of monkeys playing in the trees. We even saw one monkey steal a full pack of fruit off a woman as she sat. She had no chance of getting it back. Beth has been researching Asia recently and advised on coming here and we are really glad we did. However, what she didnt realise is that the actual temple is at ground level. We started climbing the 1,237 steps to the top of the hill which Beth believed the temple would be at. We were absolutely wrecked by the time we got to the top; the steps weren't average size steps and hopefully it's clear how high we ended up from the photos we took from the top. It was definitely worth it though as there was a huge statue at the top and the views were fantastic. The bad news was that we had to go down the way we came and once again had to traverse the giant steps. We made it though.
We managed to return the scooter with no incidents which was more than a relief to me after gingerly getting on it this morning. Tonight, we've been to visit the weekend market which again has loads of food stalls and clothes stalls. Beth had some crab meat on a stick whilst I again got some spring rolls covered in chilli sauce. Absolutely immense!!! So far we are both really enjoying Krabi and it has been fun getting back to real travelling again after two weeks on the beach.