Krabi, Thailand: Phish in the bluest waters!

Jan 13, 2008 we set off for our much deserved post marriage escape from all the dinners with aunty unclejis, to Krabi, Thailand. A and I had chosen this destination after a lot of reserach since we were sure about one thing - we don't want to land up in a place full of desi honeymooners in churhas (red bangles) and heels.. so we stayed as far away from Phuket as possible.  

Krabi seemed ideal because our lonely planet said that it was less inhabited and difficult to get to. We had decided this time we are allowed to splurge and booked a chintzy looking hotel in Ao Nang beach,  Cliff Ao Nang Resort. The resort was everything they claimed to be in their website, the most amazing outdoor pool facing the hills and a rising sun - right outside our room, bamboo, flowers and birs everywhere and a really funky outdoor bathroom. they had taken our "we are honeymooners" message seriously and equipped the room with dozens ad dozens of orchids, a bottle of champagne and lots of fruits.. so YIPPEE! The place was really well done up, all natural stuff and beautiful. Even the sink in the bathroom was worth taking half a dozen pics of.. it was filled with the most amazing colored orchids. (No wonder they were charging us 40 times the rest of the  resorts around Ao nang!) 

The other nice thing about the resort was the early morning breakfast they served right by the pool. Hog, get dressed and run. That was what we did every single day.. no "relaxing" for this odd couple! The first adventure was the long tail boat ride to railey beach.. a short and noisy trip down to the islands which are known for the most beautiful waters and exotic sun set.

Our first stop was at Railey west where we spent the better part of the morning scrambling up rocks to reach who-knows-where, giving up cos of the heat and the sheer pointlessness of the exercise, swimming non stop (complaining about the reefs and rocks scratching our feet) and then having the most fantastic meal (herbed fish, pina colada, Singha beer) at Flametree Restaurant by the sea. Post dinner stroll was to Railey East and Hat Phra Nang - the beach with white sands and non-rocky sea bed! It was absolutely made for swimming so that's what we did till evening. On way to Hat Phra our these scary looking limestone caves, which freaked the shit out of A especially since some of them had suspicious looking skulls strewn around. we managed to watch the most fantastic sunset (I have pics to prove that) and catch the long tail boat back to Ao nang.. I recommend Railey to anyone who cares to listen!

The next day we decided to try something non-beachy and instead hired a scooty and set off for Thao Phan Ben Jha national Park (or something which sounded like that!) The lady at the counter in our hotel was darn surprised that we are planning to go to a rainforest and said "oh there is nothing there, just trees, butterflies and waterfalls!".. ofcourse we decided WE HAVE TO GO to check out such beautiful nothings!  We meandered into a Wat (Wat Sai) on the way, and then singing happy (Sholay "Yeh Dosti") songs to avoid complaining about the dusty roads, reached the rain forest. The rainforest in Thailand is not as dense as ones you would see in Puerto Rico or Costa Rica (I am just showing off cos I just returned form a trip to CR!) but is definitely worth a visit esp since no one really goes there. I don' think we met anyone during our most fantastic hike through the forests, dip in the waterfall pool and picnic with the butterflies. 

On the way back we ventured into some even eerier looking stalagtite and stalagmite caves (I've always wanted to see this stalag stuff since I read about them in Enid Blyton, I think it was in the "mountain of adventure!).  But again the skulls and strange noises scared us off and we reached Ao Nang in time for a late lunch by the beach and a stop at a sun set beach. Noppharat Thara Bay is ideal in the evening when its low tide and you can practically walk to all the nearby rocky islands, and watch the sun setting behind others.  By the time we managed to click a zillion pics of the sun setting behind a two-humped rock, a storm was brewing so we ran to our treehouse bar (Upstairs Bar) and relaxed with out Pina Colada and Mojito. 

We had saved the last day for a tour to Phi Phi Islands.. I don't recommend a tour to anyone since you are the mercy of someone elses schedule and are stuck with people who might want to avoid in any other circumstance. But I did not mind this tour because it gave me a taste of something I enjoyed the MOST in this trip - snorkeling. Our first snorkeling stop was a disaster, I was too nervouse to breathe through the pipe and kept clutching on to the side of the boat at Monkey Bay. But my second attempt at Lohasamah Bay was a huge success and I managed to see such amazing reefs and  fishes that I was almost crying! The next stop - at Maya beach was a nightmare - the beach is absolutely fantastic (that's where the movie THE BEACH) was shot but it was us teeming with tourist boats on tours like ours.  The buffet lunch at Phi Phi Don (the ugliest islands in that area) was a disaster as well - teh food was bland and the water full of diesel.  I would have complained much more if it hadn;t been for the open sea snorkeling stop at hin Klanrng and the swim stop at Bamboo Islands ... whitest sands and the bluest waters... 

(Above) A long tail boat near Phi Phi Islands

(Above) Setting sun near an island we could walk to on low tide; (below) Setting sun in Railey

Hat Phra nang: Perfect for swimming

(below) Scrambling across rocks to a new hidden island in Railey 

Massaman Curry, Ping Pong and much much more

(Some images of Patpong bars, dried fish on roadsides of Bangkok and Wat po.)

I am back.. a lot happened since I last managed to write a post but.. that's for the other blog. For you, my dear travel diary, here's a post I've been dying to write.

Jan 10, 2008
Bangkok, Thailand is a strange place to be in. It's everything I've read about - flagrant examples of sex tourism in abundance, green curries in all corners, stinky oily street foods, malls, more malls and night markets. Unfortunately (or otherwise) we had just 3 days to taste it all. The highlight for me was definitely

Pat Pong: the night market where you can get it all.. whether it be fake Gucci for 200 Baht or real BEEPS shooting darts for 1200 bahts or playing ping pong for 1300 (excuse the censoring, I have some underage readers like my Mom!!) I confess I chickened out and didn't venture into the beep shooting dart zone, however much my academic curiosity pushed me! But I did observe the drag shows on the streets, the gay tourism (which I was not expecting), the 60-year old red faced, half-burnt German men in speedos with their 20 year old Thai women escorts in short skirts (I had read about this part so was not too surprised). The whole place was so open and unashamedly raunchy that the naked women seemed almost not-naked and the man selling a SM show beating a chair with a whip seemed as normal as the women selling pineapples..

Wat Po or the Temple of the reclining Budhdha was my second pick in the area. Just the size of the statue is worth a visit if not the inner courtyards and paintings.

Street food: If you are braver that I am and less fussy than my tummy is, you are sure to have a blast in bangkok, foodwise. As early as 7 am, the streets are filled with smell of fish, beef satays dipped in some sweet and spicy sauce and round balls made of who-knows-what dipped in who-knows-what. And the best is that they are so darn cheap. The only thing I tasted and enjoyed without any fuss was the papaya shrimp salad. HOT HOT but YUM

And how can I write a travel blog without a restaurant review?! My top pick would have to be the stylish Thanying restaurant in Silom serving "Genuine Royal Cuisine" ... The green curry with prawns and the way they serve their food made me go there for lunch at 4pm and return for dinner at 7! And if you are the type who looks around even when there is a fresh tiger prawn sitting on your plate, the ambience is charming.. lots of bamboo work and orchids.
Silom Village (yes yes I was staying in the silom area and by the end of the day was too hungry and tired to venture anywhere else for dinner!) was also surprisingly good, their fresj fish were HUGE and rather yum.

On a less foody front, Chatu Chak weekend market was quite an experience as well. If you are the mall type you would be happy with the dozen Macy's style establishments around town but if you are like me and hate malls but would still want to grab a fake Puma for 100 baht (2 dollars) then go ahead, push and shove against the zillion sweaty bodies in Chatuchak market. Plan to arrive at the market before 10, unless you love being squashed between sweaty bodies, and plan to leave by noon! I managed to grab half a dozen shoes (all, I must warn you, are darn good looking but a waste of money since they have no souls, oops soles!), and a couple of householdy things. All for less that 5 dollars...

That's pretty much it for my Bangkok story. I'll keep the real thing (Krabi) for my next rest hour!