Still in Krabi Town

We are still here in Krabi, Thailand. Our last evening here. To start off this blog, we have a few guest entries. First, some words from Dad Bauer:

Hat Yai, Everyone
My favorite expression after going through town of same name. That name says it all for the daytime heat around here.I'm getting my fill of limestone and caves. This area is absolutely riddled with karst. The smaller of the caves here would be major attractions in the US. The hot rain dissolves a lot of rock. It is truly spectacular scenery. Too bad that most of it is covered by a layer of crawling, touristy humanity.

We have been renting motorbikes to get around. Cheap! Less than $4 per day per bike. Fun to drive and stay a bit cooler. Crazy driving on the wrong side of the road. Especially confusing is making right turns. My brain keeps telling me the wrong thing. Even worse is when someone is driving on YOUR shoulder, coming at you (they do that a lot here). That momentarily short-circuits my brain altogether. Quite often two or more vehicles abreast of each other will be coming at you as they are passing.

We found a coffee shop near our hotel (Relaxed Coffee) that serves the best coffee, by far, of anyplace I have ever been. They make it cold and frothy: it tastes so good it makes you weak in the knees (or it makes my black socks go up and down).

Yes, indeed. Relax Coffee & Restaurant has become a favorite for us. I think the owner thinks we are a bit crazy, (we spend about 10 minutes every meal picking which table to sit at, then after deciding moving to a different one anyway) but the food and the coffee is sooooo good, we can't stay away.

Now some words from Mom Bauer. For those of you on her email list, this will be a repeat. She is better about jotting down detailed observations. This first section is random thoughts from her:

We are a white minority in the sense that there are more Europeans here than Americans. Logical since the Euro is doing so well and they travel more anyway. Never saw so many whites on these resort areas. Henry claims that these white sand beaches are not too hot to walk on since the sand is composed of Calcium carbonate instead of silican and this mineral conducts heat better. I don't know, the sands today were kind of hot.

The resort we stayed in on Ko Lanta was called Dream Team and I just always thought of the U.S. basketball team that went to the olympics. Weird name but the reception staff said they were three brothers that started the place and it was their dream or something like that, we are never sure about answers. They were very friendly and called Henry, Yung Papa or something like that, H likes to say Young Papa but I don't think so. They had asked if Em and I were mother and daughter right away. I think they liked to see a family together. Too bad the rest of us weren't here.....

Saw a huge-beaked bird, hornbill, I guess, on Ko Hai right in a tree on the beach, pecking at fruit. Huge extra bill material on upperside. The insects in the forest here and in Malaysia make this screeching sound, like a siren in the forest. The sound is sustained, almost constant and sometimes changes pitch a little. Never heard anything like it. Very loud. Motorbiking around is fun. Driving on left. Crazy drivers coming toward us on the shoulder, even though we are also driving on the shoulder heading the other direction. Sometimes two vehicles pass us. Drove through courntryside and saw these wonderful rain collection ceramic huge vessels, probably 4 or 5 feet tall; some had a hose coming off the roof downspouts. Loved the rubber plantations. Have to find out how much each of thosesmall sheets of latex, about 2 feet by 4 feet (?). They are hanging everywhere in these villages.

And her latest is about food:

Since we spend a lot of time eating and finding places to eat...
Unfortunately for weight loss, I am finding plenty non-spicey menu selections. We are spending between 2-3 dollars on meals per person,incl drinks, not alcohol, sometimes if we really pig out-- $4. We like cashew chicken with vegs and rice in oyster sauce. Or with squid or with just vegs, they use cabbage, carrots some kind of greensticks that look like green onion but aren't, tomatoes (surprisingly). PadThai is also good. The kids have tried spicey curry. Emily loved a soup she tried with red curry when she asked for very little spice but she couldn't repeat the experience, usually too spicey.

Everyone understands when I say "no spicey", thank heaven, altho "spicey" is a relative term (it was too much for me when we stopped at a beautiful,local, wayside place on our motorbikes--everyone staring at us while we ate and refusing to serve us some of the items, no,no, not for you gringos). Keith tried a soup once that was spicey in the wrong way, loaded with ginger. He could not finish that meal, especially since he ordered the huge bowl. Lots of steamed rice helps the spice go down. Emily tried Tom Yam but couldn't tell what was in there, it was sour rather than spicey and we couldn't find any yams in there.

We are all dipping our spoons and forks in each other's plates.We all love the "shakes" made with fresh fruits blended with ice:banana and pineapple. Only 50 cents to $1.50 depending on place. So fresh tasting. Banana and/or pineapple filled pancakes are very good in the morning. Also most places have muesli with fruit and yogurt, especially since there are so many Scandinavians here. Pot of Chinese tea here is $1 and very good. Sweet tea with milk is delicious probably cause it's with real cream instead of that thin stuff back home. Keith and Henry ordered coffee to go in Singapore in the Arab section, best coffee there, and they poured it into the thinnest plastic bags with a straw out the top and two little handles. I don't know how that plastic held hot coffee without burning through. Failed to get a picture thinking we'd be getting those all month long. Darn. The only food I'm not able to find is fish, reasonably priced, good-sized portion. Tried for $6 but was disappointed. So hope all this encourages you to fly out to the tropics.

You will all be happy to know, that last night, mom found the fish dish she has been searching for. A good sized piece of barracuda steamed in a lovely lemon sauce. No surprise, it was found at our new favorite establishment, Relax Coffee & Restaurant.

The last two days have seen us doing more of the same. Two days ago, we went out to Tiger Cave (also known as Wat Tham Seua). A wat is a place of worship for Buddhists where monks live year round. The complex around Tiger Cave is huge. Many temples, caves with temples, and buddhas. The one buddha we visited was at the top of 1247 stairs!! Yes, we all made it. We braved a pack full of monkeys (that was almost enough to drive mom and I back - the thought of one of those biting me freaks me out!), very steep stairs, and lots of sweat. It was worth the effort despite the sore muscles we all are recovering from. We were rewarded with beautiful views of the surrounding area and did it early enough in the day to beat the crowds. Some images of that expedition:

Mom and Dad home stretching it. They aren't really posing in this picture - mom really crawled up the steeper stairs!

Keith emerging at the top. Look at the size of that buddha! We decided he is so fit (the buddha, not Keith) because of all those stairs.

And the view from the top, looking East:


Yesterday we did absolutely nothing. Wandered around the streets window shopping. Lazing by mom and dad's marginal pool (mom has a whole email coming about the inadequacies of their hotel. She came over tonight to shower at our cheap-o place!). Eating, reading, eating, drinking coffee, napping, eating. You get the idea.

Here we are eating lunch at a simple cafe:


Mom and Dad picking out the perfect pineapple so that we don't go hungry in between meals:


Chili peppers at the Krabi morning market. They are so pretty, but so hot!


Today we rented motorbikes again and did some more touring of the rural roads. We rented three bikes this time so that I could get more practice driving my own. Dad is right, it is great fun! No injuries or accidents, just one minor burn on my leg from those darn exhaust pipes that get so hot....It's amazing the things you do in a foreign country that you wouldn't really consider doing back home. For example, riding in the backs of pickup truck (that is what a taxi is here), or me riding a motorcycle through a busy city street!

We leave tomorrow for our bungalow retreat and back to the beaches. On Tuesday, we head out onto a boat for a three day live-aboard snorkeling trip. Not sure when we'll have the next internet access - it may be a good week.

Wait....another email in from Mom Bauer (who is sitting right next to me...):

Another day on the motorbikes. My butt is sore. Traveling around the back roads, visited a resort on the edge of anational park and realized we should have spent a night there. We pass homes on stilts with bamboo walls looking very poor and then next door they'd be this lovely small concrete home with a garden in front, colorfully painted bright colors. Interesting economy. Everyone smiles, waves, yells hello. We've been getting by with no Thai, luckily. We know how to say hello, finally. Thank you is a bit tricky.

Not a good value: We've been at this hotel for five nights and keep saying over and over, not a good value. Em has a better room next door, aircon, best shower I've had for 3 weeks and 200 bahts less. Ours has aircon but everything else needs maintenance like the aircon that drips on the floor, previously on H's backpack, horrible shower,sprays all over the room altho there is a curtain (I am getting to like the bathrooms that have the shower and toilet and sink all in one, like an rv.) the faucet swivels around and the sink is too low. Why are we still here? It has a tiny pool and aircon. The pool needs some maintenance and dirty dishes are still there from yesterday. Em and Keith join us there for happy hour, rum and cokes from the liquor store. Mostly we are here because we bargained down to 600 bahts a night telling them we'd be there for 4 more nights. Oh, well, we are out of here tomorrow.

On to the bungalow on the beach. We are taking a private car, friendof the manager of Em's guesthouse, for lots of bahts, $12.50 each person but it's worth it, we say, why not splurge a bit, altho we are saying that a lot. Door to door delivery instead of 4 legs that will eat away the savings on the bus. And he said they'd stop along the way for an hour or so if we want to see anything.