After a slightly less choppy boat ride I arrived in Krabi.\u00a0 I decided to stay just down the from the main beach of Ao Nang which is outside of Krabi town centre itself.\u00a0 Having wandered around the shops I pottered back to my guesthouse and decided to nip into a bar for a cheeky G & T.\u00a0 the bar was slightly mad with loud music blaring, U.V. lights and glowing paint.\u00a0 There was also a bonfire on the beach which, when the wind was in the right (or rather the wrong) direction, would cover you in wafts of acrid smoke.\u00a0 I went to the toilet and was so excited by the mirror mosaics, sea theme and sea-shell toilet seats that I decided to take a photo.\u00a0 Unfortunately in order to fit the full splendour of the scene into shot I had to take several steps out of the women’s toilet so that I was standing outside the men’s.\u00a0 As I was about to capture the scene in all its glory a man walked out of the gent’s and gave me such a filthy look that I scuffled straight back into the ladies’ without managing to capture my masterpiece.<\/p>\n
When I went back to my table a bar-tender brought over two gin and tonics.\u00a0 I pointed out that there was only one of me to which he replied, "happy hour".\u00a0 I must say I think that’s one of the few times I have been annoyed with a buy one get one free!<\/p>\n
The following morning I went into town (Ao Nang) and had breakfast.\u00a0 In the afternoon I went kayaking around the mangrove swamps and karst scenery.\u00a0 I was on a group with two Welsh girls (Sophie and Eilsa), two Thais (from Hat Rin) and our guide (Nana).\u00a0 when we were shown the kayaks the guide seemed to think it a very unwise idea that all three English girls have single kayaks.\u00a0 I showed Nana my biceps and said, "I’m very strong".\u00a0 Obviously my upper arms look slightly different in my eyes to everyone else’s as he replied, "you will get very tired".\u00a0 Elisa and Sophie opted to share a double kayak, as did the Thai couple but I was adamant and, to be fair, I was later glad that I was.<\/p>\n
The first place we stopped was a kind of mangrove swamp and the floor was hopping with mudskippers.\u00a0 I asked Nana if he could catch one.\u00a0 He obliged, well kind of, by getting out of his kayak and promptly sinking up to his thighs in thick mud, much to everyone’s amusement.\u00a0 The next stop was a kind of cave, burial site and Nana climbed up to show us human bones.\u00a0 I swear they had been planted there to show the tourists, but they were actually human bones so on second thoughts perhaps that’s worse!\u00a0 The final place we stopped at was a cave which was full of monkeys.\u00a0 They were surprisingly unphased when we got out to point and stare and take photos.\u00a0 Some of the monkeys had babies which was lovely to see.<\/p>\n
We then continued further inland from the sea and went into the most stunning lagoon before proceeding through more rivulets (is that the right word) and mangrove trees.\u00a0 The Thai coupe seemed to struggle somewhat with their kayak controls and, on the way back, as we had to paddle across the estuary against the tide they really struggled.\u00a0 Elisa and Sophie had to catch a bus to Bangkok and, worried they may miss it, paddled ahead.\u00a0 Nana said I could go with them and when the three of us got back a jeep took Elisa and Sophie to the bus station.\u00a0 I waited and waited until finally the other couple got back, just before another group.\u00a0 As the van had gone Nana tried to start his tuk-tuk.\u00a0 There was clearly no battery output and we had several attempts at pushing it up and down the cobbly road until if eventually blurted into life.<\/p>\n
That evening I had the most amazing prawn korma ever and spent way too much money shopping prior to having an early night in preparation for my early start the following maorning.<\/p>\n
On Saturday I was picked up and taken to the pier for the boat and snorkelling trip I had booked.\u00a0 This time it was on a proper speed boat.\u00a0 I was with a group including two young honeymooners (Alex and Becky) from South East England.\u00a0 We went to a lagoon, Hong Island and Palong (hmm, that’s not right but hey ho).\u00a0 To be honest the snorkeling wasn’t great.\u00a0 As Alex so kindly put it, "All the coral’s dead".\u00a0 We weren’t quite sure whether this was a lack of redevelopment following the tsunami or whether the areas had too much boat activity.\u00a0 The tsunami is still very fresh in everyone’s minds in this part of the country and if you speak to locals most of them will tell you stories about friends or family they lost or how they managed to survive by clinging to trees etc.\u00a0 In places like Hong Island and Ko Phi Phi there are "tsunami evacuation route" signs which are slightly concerning.\u00a0 Partly as, and I don’t mean to be insensitive here, the whole idea seems somewhat futile.\u00a0 I mean isn’t that like evacuating an earthquake?\u00a0 How do you know a tsunami’s approaching and if you do, isn’t it all a bit too late?\u00a0 Isn’t that the whole point?<\/p>\n
Anyway, other than the dead coral there were some vaguely interesting fish.\u00a0 I also saw a sea cucumber which pleased me.\u00a0 We fed the fish bread (which I don’t technically think is the best thing for the eco-system but believe me they weren’t getting any nourishment from the coral) and they occasionally decided that your legs looked like bread which really tickled.\u00a0 The scenery was breath-taking and the sea was beautiful.\u00a0 On the way back the sea was quite choppy and occasionally when the front of the boat landed back in the sea it came down with such a crash that it felt like we had landed on a big old rock.\u00a0 I was chatting to Alex and Becky who said that they were really struggling with the hotel they were in.\u00a0 They had traveled (as in back-packed) prior to getting married and found the whole constant service thing very difficult in their hotel.\u00a0 Alex told a story about how one of their traveler friends came over prior to them leaving when they had all their clothes out on the bed ready to pack.\u00a0 He took one look and was like, "What an Earth do you need all that fancy gear for, where are you going?\u00a0 Thailand?\u00a0 You just wanna take an empty bag and head to Khao San Road".\u00a0 To be fair he had a point, but Becky and Alex pointed out that they were trying to do things on a bit more of a classy level as it was their honeymoon.<\/p>\n
In the evening I went to a bar which supposedly had a pre-full moon party.\u00a0 It was empty other than staff so I decided to call it a night and headed to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a slightly less choppy boat ride I arrived in Krabi.\u00a0 I decided to stay just down the from the main beach of Ao Nang which is outside of Krabi town centre itself.\u00a0 Having wandered around the shops I pottered back to my guesthouse and decided to nip into a bar for a cheeky G […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zelmastrip.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}