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So we're a little late on this blog entry but we haven't had any internet access to be able to write and upload it until now.
We are actually currently in Penang, Malaysia but we need to update you all on our last days in Thailand.
After leaving Khao Sok we had a relatively short 2 hour minibus journey to Krabi Town. We weren't worried about staying anywhere near the beaches as to be honest, we were happy to have a change after 2 months on Koh Tao! We arrived at our hostel quite early in the morning, a place called Good Dream Guesthouse. It was in a good location near the river (where the night market takes place) and provided hot showers and free internet access! Yes, very exciting to us! Anyhow after settling in we sat at the computers to catch up with everything going on. Andy logged into facebook and found a message from his cousin Phil. The message was Phil recommending a good place to stay in Krabi, somewhere both he and his brother Martin had stayed before whilst on their travels a few years back. The place he recommended? Good Dream Guesthouse! So that was very strange, of all the places we ended up staying, it was the exact place they had stayed previously, and all by coincidence!
Our first day (after tearing ourselves away from the free internet!) was spent wandering around the town getting our bearings. It was really hot as the sun was out but also, being in the middle of a city creates excess heat. Once the sun went down we headed down to the river to check out the night market. The market is simply food, not clothes or trinkets. You can pick up all sorts of things from satay sticks to noodle and rice dishes to pancakes. We sat down for a standard meal of noodles with vegetables and then treated ourselves to a nice pancake for dessert, and all for around £1, bargain!
Day 2 was dedicated to doing as little as possible, whilst still doing something. How to accomplish this? Well we booked ourselves on a Four Island Tour. This consisted of us getting on a longtail boat over to an island, snorkelling/sunbathing for a bit, then back on the boat over to another island where we snorkelled again, then onto the boat etc etc you get the picture. It was actually really nice as we got to see some amazing scenery whilst not having to give much effort! On the third island we decided to go for a walk to explore a little and stumbled across some semi-wild monkeys, next to a sign saying 'DANGER - do not feed the monkeys'. Now it wasn't as though the monkeys were vicious, it's just that if they see a plastic bag they assume it contains food and won't hesitate to grab it and run up a tree! We also were drawn to a couple of signs on the beach which stated it was a Tsunami risk zone and the direction to higher ground! Quite an eye opener when you realise all it takes is an earthquake and suddenly the islands can be in trouble.
The last place we went to was Railay Beach which is ranked as one of the best in the world. It isn't an island as it's connected to the mainland but the only way to get there is by boat as it's inaccessible by car or foot. As the beach is flanked by a huge cliff on one side we decided to walk to that end and go for a swim. We swam around a corner and found an entrance to what can only be described as a lagoon. It was really cool to be able to sit in the water and look around at all the stalactites and stalagmites and various entrances to small caves. We also saw a black heron type bird attempting to catch fish right in front of us. It topped off a nice peaceful day, which was completely different to the following day.
25 metres off the ground, clinging to a rockface whilst your grip loosens and your feet start slipping, with one rope preventing you from falling to your death. Sound fun? We thought so too! Yes we spent half a day partaking in the adrenaline fuelled activity that is rock climbing! It was so good, at times a little nerve-wracking of course but we both took to it really well. Nikki was pretty fearless getting straight into it and giving it her all and completed 3 climbs, and Andy managed to complete an Intermediate 6A+ rated climb which was his 4th climb of the day and pretty impressive as we'd never tried it before! We came away from it aching from fingertips to big toes (it's unbelievable how many parts of your body and how many muscles you use whilst climbing) but feeling both proud of ourselves and very accomplished! It's something we'll be doing again in the future for sure, let's just hope it doesn't take 5 days for our bodies to stop aching like it did this time around!
And that was our time in Krabi! A bit of relaxing followed by a bit of physical punishment. Then it was on to the stop over town of Hat Yai before moving on to Malaysia. We will have Hat Yai and Penang blog updates for you too but for now we have to depart! It's dinner time and we're heading to the cinema (£1 a film, woohoo!) before packing and uprooting again off to a place called the Cameron Highlands. Sorry that the blogs are backdated but it's difficult to keep up with and almost impossible to upload photos as the speeds just aren't good enough. Expect a huge photo update once we get to Kuala Lumpur. Keep your eyes peeled for the next few blogs as we can't say when and where they will be updated, it could be tomorrow (if there is internet access) or if not then in a week or so.
Take care! Andy and Nikki x
- comments
Arvind Wouldve loved to be in that lagoon, sounds awesome!