From Ko Phi Phi it was another short ferry ride to Krabi on the mainland, a town we really loved! The ferry port has recently been relocated to outside town, so most tourists head directly for the beaches in nearby Ao Nang, without stopping at Krabi town at all. We figured we'd had enough of the beach for a little while and had heard that you get a much better deal with accommodation if you stay in town and do day trips. After checking out a few places, we decided on the strangely named 'A Mansion', one the nicest places we've stayed in, explored the large but very friendly town - stopping for dinner, as we did every night we were there, at the amazing colourful night-market, with it's stalls selling everything you can imagine! We sat down at a little stall a huge array of different food and ordered about 5 dishes, including spicy mussels, green mango & crispy whitebait salad, a green curry, a huge chilli & garlic bbq-ed fish, rice and drinks. It came to a grand total of 120 baht - less than 2 pounds! There is lots to see around Krabi and the surrounding landscape is absolutely spectacular but the highlight of our time there was a sea-kayaking trip through the amazing mangrove forests of the Than Bok Khorani National Park, about an hour north of Krabi. Our small group of us set off in 5 sea-kyacks, acccompanied by our lovely guide, Mr Shy. The scenery is mind-blowing, huge limestone cliffs rising out of the still green water, running through the silent mangrove forests, dense with thick green leaves and a tangle of twisted roots. Mr Shy was a wealth of information on the mangrove eco-system, local tribal people and the history of the area which he disclosed to us as we paddled our through the forest and into pitch-black tunnels under the limestone cliffs - the roof only just above our head and the cold, clean smell of the water which has filtered down through the limestone filling our nostrils, the echoing of the drips the only noise breaking the silence, until you slowly re-emerge into a soft green light which illuminates the amazing stalagmites and stalactites. Quite magical! In the middle of the forest is the Tham Phi Hua To or Big-headed Ghost Cave, named after some huge skulls found in the cave, which has prehistoric cave-paintings of, among other things, a strange figure of a half-man-half buffalo, which, Mr Shy, explained, is thought by the local people to depict a ritual offering to the cave-gods to allow the tribal people to enter safely, in which they sacrifice a buffalo and put it's head over their own before entering the cave. His grandmother has told him that they still did this when she was a child! Before heading back in the afternoon, we stopped at the stunning Than Bokkhorani - a group of freshwater pools in a shady forested area. Emerald green water flows down from a tall cliff to a large pool which overflows steadily into smaller pools, between the massive roots of the trees which tower overhead. It was a pretty humid day - so, even though there wasn't much room to swim in our little pool, it was wonderful and refreshing! We were a little concerned about where to go after leaving Krabi. We really wanted to have a few days further south, but were getting conflicting information about how safe it is for tourists at the moment, with the trouble they've been having with the sepratist movement. Eventually we decided it wasn't worth the risk and booked onto a minibus that left the next morning for Penang, in Malaysia.