Ah.....Krabi!!!

One word.... Paradise!!!

Arrived in Krabi 4 days ago and the plan was to chill, relax and just take it plain easy - and thats exactly what i did! After all, my last few weeks have been pretty hectic.

On the approach to Krabi from Surat Thani, i could see straight away i would feel a little closer to home here. Clearly not anything to do with the beaches, clear water & blue skies....but with the masses of europeans & westerners there were crawling the streets. Krabi, to date, is definatley the most touristy place i've visited in Thailand with rows of restuarants, bars, stalls & ice cream parlours.... and not to mention....Brits! If i closed my eyes and listened, i could have been in spain or greece!

I stayed in a little beach town called Ao Nang, a must if you ever decide to visit Krabi. Krabi town isn't particularly pleasant, no beach, no walkways, just cars and polution, polution, polution! Ao Nang on the other hand....complete bliss...just look at the pics!

Accomodation was fab for a change...had a little bungalow all to myself with 2 massive doule beds, tv, air con, WESTERN toilet (no squat) & shower with HOT water....yippee! Clean again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First day just kind of found my bearings....and a McD's. Damn, meant to take a pic of Ronald McDonald...he's got his palms together and bowing his head...."Sawadee Ca"..... can't believe i forgot to take a pic.

On friday went kayakng....and as always, my experiences have to be taken to another level! Was expecting a nice cool calm day out on the kayak, taking pics of some nice caves and limestone rocks....eh nobody mentioned the Mangrove trees or monkeys to me!........

Set off, and i had what i can only describe as a Thai God on the back of my Kayak. How i ended up with him i don't know. Funnily enough his name was monkey! However, i didn't quite see the comparison....the muscles clearly blinding my vision. So full steam ahead into the Mangrove forest.......whats a Mangrove Forest i hear you say.....look up Mangrove Tree on the internet and that will give you a fair idea! My description would be HELL!! How the heck we were supposed to paddle through these flippin' things i don't know!!! Basically, Mangrove trees grow above the surface....yip, that means their roots are above ground (and water level as i quickly found out)!! The purpose for this is that in high tide, monkeys can still find food, other animals can feed from the roots, & fish can leave their eggs to be protected! And in low tide, it's clearly so you can get stuck in a kayak.....don't think monkey was too happy with me! Not only did i get us stuck in the roots, we (sorry, I) crashed into the mountain, hit rocks underneath, and a few times nearly capsised us!!! But lets be fair, theres no way you could even walk through this forest without hitting the trees, roots and rocks never mind trying to use a paddle thats double the size of me..............

When i thought we had escaped the Mangroves and were on the home front with very sore arms and shoulders, a little thud on the back of the kayak made me realise otherwise.............a monkey had just jumped on board....how cute!!!!!!!.........eh, that was til the rest of the family and community decided to join him. It was like flies round poo.....one second there was one, the next there were hundreds....ok maybe 25 - 30 but when there climbing over you, squaking like birds its kind of like your in arachnophobia...except with monkeys! After the initial shock of mass monkeys, they were actually quite cute! Monkey (God), was even giving some of them Mohocks....aww this was pretty funny! The wee b*****s though, wouldn't let me take my camera out the waterproof bag, they were trying to take it off me and throw it in the river. Resorted to sitting on it!

At last they left.... was pretty entertaining and good fun, but 3 monkeys would have been plenty!

On the way back to shore i could hear monkey saying "for a woman your very athlete & toned. You are very strong, you must work out..." ..........So there's me thinking all my hard work in the gym before i left the UK had payed off but as i blushed and turnd round to say thanks, realised he was talking to the blonde in the next kayak!!! Oh well...Was an ego boost for about 3 seconds!

The next 2 days consisted of lying on the beach, lying on the beach and a bit more lying on the beach....

From Ao Nang, you can get a longtail boat for 60 baht to the various differet islands including Phi Phi Island, Hong Island & James Bond Island (formely known as Phang Nga Island). I'm sure you can all use your imagination to work out why the last is known as James Bond Island!! All were unbelieveable...Phi Phi being my favourite. you can see all from Ao Nang beach and only takes about 15 minutes to get to each. Anyone who says Ko Samui is the paradise island of Soutern Thailand has clearly never experienced any of these. No comparison what so ever!

Found a little bar called Chang Bar which was pretty cool and would point anyone visiting Ao nang in its direction. The staff were great, good priced beer and good old british music from rock & indie to funky house & electro...can't beat it! Open all night too which is a wee bonus if you can take the pace! Such a surreal setting, you have to go down an alley way of markets and street stalls and when you reach the end its like a dark basement of grafetti with about 5 bars all open plan and facing onto each other! Really pretty cool!

Had a massage on my second last day to cure the aches and pains of trekking last week and kayaking the day before. I'm sure i payed for a back, neck & shoulder massage...but pretty sure it was a full blown thai massage. My body has never been contorted in so many ways! Every bone cracked at least 3 times, my feet touhed my head, my arms were in places i never knew was possible and if i wasn't double jointed before, i certainly am now! Must admit, feel great now! Hope my back agrees when i try to put the backpack on later!

SO... today is my final day in Krabi. My time of chilling and relaxing has come to end until i reach Halong Bay in Vietnam...which probably won't be for another few weeks! Just waiting on my transfer to the airport just now to fly back to Bangkok for the night. Not particularly looking forward to the flight as always. Pretty apprehensive that the skies are about to open probably quickly follwed by rain! Can't believe i packed my valium at the bottom of my backpack...not unpacking again so just going to have to deal with it! So you'll all have to say a little prayer for me and hopefully i'll speak to you on the other side....

....... C xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx