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We got up this morning and got a toastie for breakfast from the 7/11 and bought some croissants and crips for lunch. Reception told us that we couldn't change rooms until 1pm so we just decided to leave it and head out.
We walked around the whole town going in and out of different travel booking shops to book the boat from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi. We got prices ranging from 300-400 bhat so went and found the cheapest one with the boat at 9am in the morning and would get picked up at 8am.
After booking the boat we followed the map to what was labelled as a bus stop to go to the Tiger Cave Temple- caves where tigers used to live before monks inhibited the forest. There was a sign which looked like it was a bus stop but there were no times and we hadn't even seen one bus since we were here! We asked a woman at a stall but she didn't have a clue what we were saying so she started asking everybody who passed her to help us, which was nice of her! One lady just kept pointing over the road to the taxi trucks- and then it clicked that these must be the buses and this was the taxi stand that went to that area of the town. Nath haggled with one guy and we managed to get a taxi for 100 bhat each, which I think was the going rate anyway, he was just trying to charge us what he could. The bus was a shabby old van, with the open back and seats in the back and we stopped to get more people in on the way.
It took about 15 mins to get to the temple, which was good for the money really. We spent most of the day here- there were quite a few temples and a lot of monks walking around. There was the tiger cave, which was where tigers apparently used to take shelter and live before the monks inhibited the area.
The main attraction for us anyway was the monkeys and the big trek to the golden Buddha temple at the top of the massive mountain! Everywhere around the place there were monkeys running wild, eating people's food and opening the cages to the bins to have a look through them! We spent quite a while just watching them! You could get pretty close to them and they weren't bothered, people were feeding them and handing them food.
The biggest part of the day was climbing the 1,200 stairs- and however many other steep stairs to the top of the limestone cliff top where there was a huge gold Buddha and praying areas. The steps were ridiculously steep up and I don't think I have ever been that tired and sweaty and not think I was going to make it. Nath thought it was funny but I kept panting to him that it wasn't and that I felt like I was going to be sick! All from exercise!! It really was sooo hard though! You would see people coming down drenched in sweat and we were stopping along with everyone else on the way up to have a rest and catch our breath. It took us about half an hour to get to the top- couldn't believe I made it!! It took me about 20 mins to compose myself and catch my breath! From the top you could see over all of Krabi all the way to the sea. Inland there were limestone cliff everywhere for a far as we could see. Just bumps and bumps of them- it was a fantastic view and worth the climb!
We spent some time at the top, took in the views, got some photos and had a snack before heading back down. I kept working myself up about going back down and I was really dreading it because of the height. Coming up wasn't too bad- although it was a little scary I could just look up and not see the height of the drop down. Coming back down you could alway see how high up we were! Plus the steps were really steep and I might fall!! However, the walk back down wasn't half as bad as I thought! I didn't freak out once- we just got down them as quick as possible. It was a lot less tiring coming back down than going up!! When we got to the bottom I felt really proud of myself and as though I had really achieved something! It was the best climb to a viewpoint yet as we really had to work to get to the top and it felt good once we got to the bottom and had conquered it!!
There was also a forest walk (which also had steps in and out of it!!) which we walked around where the monks lived and all the different caves in the forest and the oldest tree in the forest. It was crazy to think that they just lived out in the forest. We could see all their little huts and saw one monk sweeping outside his hut! The craziest thing was that we were quite deep into the forest and they had electricity everywhere! There were lights in the caves for night time, there were fans hanging from the cliff edges- god only knows how they got them up there!! All we could hear walking around was different animals. It was so quite apart from that. We saw our first massive tropical spider in a web and there was a little tortoise just chilling in the woods too- we didn't see any tigers though thank god! :)
After we had been around everything we thought it would be difficult to get a taxi as we were in the middle of nowhere, but there was once waiting straight away for us to jump into. We went straight back to our hotel, our clothes still drenched in sweat! They told us that we could still change rooms so we moved all of our stuff up a floor- luckily we hadn't really unpacked much. This room was nicer than the last and didn't look as worn down, but apart from that and that it had a double bed and safe it was pretty much the same! At least we didn't have to squeeze in a single bed again for the night!
We got showered and ready and sorted to leave the next morning. We sorted all our photos and booked somewhere to stay in Phuket, where we would be going after Phi Phi so places didn't book up. We booked 4 nights there for 3400 bhat- £8.50 each a night- much cheaper than Phi Phi. Apparently Phuket was going to be expensive too and it is the most visited tourist place, but at least we got cheaper accommodation!
For dinner we went to the Night Market again but headed out earlier this time about 6ish so we had a good 2-3 hours there until it closed. We took our 100 bhat each again and started buying! We both got sushi and spring rolls and both got pad thai for main- I got shrimp and Nath got chicken. I got some pork ball sticks, a marinated chicken stick and a crab stick as well. Nath got fried chicken again, another big spring roll and this battered round thing that we still don't know what it is- but it tasted very nice! As we were walking round it started spitting but we were praying that it would clear! We sat down to eat our pad thai and for the second night it started pissing it down again! It wasn't as bad as the night before but still ruined the night as you could not sit out anywhere! We had to rush our pad thai and took the rest of our food back to our accommodation. The food was amazing again!! I preferred this so much more than going to a restaurant! It was just gutting about the rain as it ruined our last night there!
We chilled out for the rest of the night and I fell asleep pretty early! I woke up to go to the shop to get some breakfast for the next day and then went back to sleep after a long tiring day! I didn't get the best sleep after that though! I kept waking through the night itching! We have both been bit everywhere while we have been here and the itchiness was killing us!! Nath kept getting them on his ankle and they kept swelling up and looking really bad! I woke up at half 5 because it was itching so bad and was trying to search around for bite relief, which I couldn't find! After that I just couldn't get back to sleep so I tossed and turned until we got up out of bed at 7.20am!
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