A couple of hours on the road and we were in Krabi, we were dropped off in the town centre outside MacDonalds (so much for the tropical paradise we were hoping for). We found our hotel, dumped our bags and went to grab a bite to eat. Krabi is a 'kiss-me-quick' type of resort whose natural beauty has been caked in the make-up of tacky tourism. The main road is lined with souvenir shops, multi-cuisine restaurants, massage parlours (the relaxing kind) and tour offices. The side roads we decided were best avoided.
We ended up in a crappy restaurant and had a crappy meal which left us a little gloomy about our predicament for Christmas. From our table we watched the world go by and this too was rather uninspiring. All signs of Thai culture have been stripped away, leaving a town that panders to western tourists. It's a long way to come for this.
Back at the hotel and we were starting despair, we were hoping for Christmas in paradise but it was looking like paradise had left Krabi quite some time ago.
Ao Nang beach is a busy stretch of sand that is host to the the long tail boats which shuttle tourists and locals alike to either one of the 80 or so islands that lay off the Krabi coast or to another town or village that sits along the jutting coastline.
As we stand looking out to sea, the karst cliffs to our left hide the serenity of Railay and to our right the gritty beach of Klong Muang.
It's Christmas Day, our hopes of going to the local church were dashed as it was closed both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We've learned that goodwill to all men goes out the window when it comes to bacon, elbows had been sharpened at breakfast and people swarmed like locusts as the freshly cooked pig was brought from the kitchen. The tray was all but empty by the time it had been put in place. What is it about bacon for Christmas breakfast?
After the maul, we headed to the beach, a few other foreigners had pitched up for the day but there are no festivities as such. For the most part it's business as usual and in a way it makes sense. Some people must come away to avoid a hectic Christmas at home and of course there are those who don't celebrate Christmas at all. We sang a few carols to ourselves and that was about it. We had a pleasant enough day in the sun but nearly all our conversations turned to reminiscences of Christmases past.
Evening rolled round and our biggest problem of the day was upon us. What the hell were we going to have for Christmas dinner? Having turkey and 'the works' was never an option, we considered just going for street food and letting the occasion pass us by. We couldn't do it, we had to have a special meal as Neville Holder once said..."IT'S CHRIIISTMAAAS!" We plumped for a nice looking Italian restaurant, bruschetta and a superb pasta for Jan and tuna carpaccio and shellfish for me. This was also the first time in nearly 5 months we'd had red wine, yum! We had fun ordering in Italian to a Thai, who then translated it in Thai to the Italian owner who translated back to Italian to the chef. It worked just fine.
After dinner we had a few cocktails in a bar that had a Thai singing Santa who sweated profusely and belted out old country and western songs, good fun if not a little surreal.
And that was our Christmas.
We were heading to Koh Samui for New year and a bit of a party, but first a brief overnight stop in Khanom.