Island Hopping to Krabi, Thailand

We have left our little paradise on Ko Hai, and are now settled into city life in Krabi, Thailand. Krabi sits pretty much due East of Phuket. We are staying in the city of Krabi, which is not what most tourists do. Most pass through Krabi as a way of getting out to the beaches of Ao Nang and the islands beyond. We went there today, and we are so happy we decided to stay in the city. It is soooo touristy out there! We got tired not only from the heat but from being around so many European/Western tourists. It made us long for the beaches of Ko Hai again.

We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our time on Ko Hai. We spent the last two days there doing more of the same. We spent one day kayaking around the entire island. It was pretty fun, but by the last hour we were all wiped by the heat and salt. The sun can be a killer here, and everytime we get ready for an outing, we feel a bit like we are preparing for battle....applying sunscreen to all exposed appendages, donning hats, sunglasses, and dad's latest weapon: black knee high socks.

Leaving the island turned out to be another epic travel day. I swear, if anything is going to break my travel stamina and spirit is the transport days. Just when you are feeling confident, you get duped and ripped off, or lied to, or just plain cranky. We bought ferry tickets to get to Ko Lanta - a bigger, more developed island about 20km north of Ko Hai. We packed up and spent most of the day waiting for the ferry, finally got into a longtail boat to get ferried to the ferry, only to be dropped off on a snorkel tour boat! So we had to wait around and watch people snorkle for an hour, after which the boat went back to Ko Hai to pick up more people. All of that was tolerable, but when the boat docked well south of where we had paid to go, forcing us to pay more for a taxi ride to get to our planned destination....well that was the breaking point. We eventually found out that the original ferry had broken down....someone could have told us!!

Ko Lanta is an island that is quickly becoming more and more developed. It is nothing like where we were today, but it soon will be. It has a small, bustling tourist town on the northern part, but as you travel south, you can still find pockets of peacefulness. We splurged on a very nice hotel with a wonderful pool. We only spent two days there. One of the days we rented motor scooters, and cruised around the island, seeing some of rural Thailand and lots of rubber plantations.

After Ko Lanta, we came here to Krabi, and the trip on this ferry was seamless and comfortable. The town of Krabi sits on a river, with a population of about 25,000, a nice size. It has a bustling night market where you can get lots of cheap eats, and a feel for how the locals shop which is quite a different feel than the tourist strips. We got settled in yesterday, mom and dad taking a more expensive hotel right next to the more modest one Keith and I are staying in. Being off the tourist stretch, prices are nice and low again. Our room is about 10 bucks and you can easily eat at the market for 1 dollar a person. We spent today on motor bikes again and drove out to see some of the famous limestone karsts that this area is known for. Lots of people come here to rockclimb. Very dramatic scenery, but the hoards of crowds does take some of the beauty out of it. We have decided to stay put here and do day trips for the next 3 days. After that we will push on a bit more north where mom booked us in a bungalow on a very secluded beach and a live aboard snorkle tour out to the Similian Islands.

And now, what you have all been waiting for.....some pictures! Unfortunately mom and dad take more and better pictures than we do, but we do not have a card reader that fits their memory card, so I can only select from the photos Keith and I took....

First, back to Malaysia. Our first stop in Malaysia was the Cameron Highlands. Here is one view of the tea plantations surrounded by mist.


From Cameron, we spent a day in Ipoh, Malaysia. Here is the train station-one of the prettier buildings in town. The top half of the station is the hotel where we spent many hours playing Spades and reading books waiting for our 1 AM train.


Here is a look at us getting settled in for the night on the train that took us from Malaysia to Thailand.


I do not have any pictures from Trang or any of our stops before the island of Ko Hai. So onto the stunning scenery of Ko Hai. Keith and mom and dad all managed to get up and watch some sunrises. I never quite made it out of bed....glad Keith took a couple pictures. Sure is pretty. This is the beach that is right out in front of our bungalows.


A look at our home for our week on the island. We ended up sharing a family room, which are the rooms in that long building behind mom.


This photo was taken from Ko Kradon which was one of the islands we stopped at on our snorkling day. Ko Kradon, had the most dramatic beach and the best snorkeling. This boat is one of the infamous longtails that are everywhere in Thailand. The engine that runs them is an old car engine without a muffler - huge and loud - with a prop attached to the end of a very long pole that the fellow steers like an outboard motor. They are pretty, but they are way too loud. This was our transport on our snorkeling day - we all ended up wearing earplugs.


Another look at our beach. This is what we had to do for a couple hours while waiting for our ferry - tough life. We do not usually lie out in the sun. In fact, there was one day my parents were literally running from shade spot to shade spot as they worked their way down the beach! Keith is just trying to dry off a little here.


Moving on to Ko Lanta. Here is a look at our bungalows at the very nice hotel with the very silly name of Dream Team. The pool was a dream and I wish we had a picture of it....there is one, it is just on moms camera.


Motorbiking around the rubber plantations on Ko Lanta. If you look close you can see small cups nailed onto the trees. These are collecting the bleeding rubber from the trees.


And on to Krabi. Here is a look at the night market where we pigged out last night on all kinds of miscellaneous stuff.


Penny, here is a look - not the best photo- of those really big-leaved plants. We see them here and there everywhere. These were right outside of a cave we went into today - there are LOTS of caves around here. This particular one claimed to have a quartz waterfall. Dad quickly informed us that it was absolutely not quartz. We told him he has to write to Lonely Planet and tell them to stop spreading falsehoods!


A look at the famous scenery around Krabi. Cliffs like this fill the bay. This was taken from the longtail ferry we took to the very crowded beaches today. You can notice the undercutting at the bottom of the cliffs. Swimming around some of them, you find that they are littered with small caves, holes, tunnels, etc. Paul - I think you might really enjoy playing around this part of the world - you could get back into rock climbing and do plenty of cave exploration.


One more look at todays scenery.