Well kids, its time for the first post of the yea.
As you might suspect from the title, I was lucky enough to spend new years in Krabi, Thailand. Krabi is on the western coast near Phuket (of the tsunami fame two years ago) and is itself quite a well known destination. A few years ago one of the islands right off the coast was featured in the movie ‘The Beach’ staring Leonardo Decaprio. That movie was mediocre, but the scenery was beautiful.
After a wonderful trip home (thanks everyone for making the trip home feel way too short), and about 40 hours of traveling we finally landed in Krabi’s small but modern airport. Because of the traveling we decided to stay in Krabi town at a hotel that was about 7 bucks a night. Although the town wasn’t especially nice it did have a good vibe and there was a carnival going on right across the street. Here is a picture I took of the carnival in full swing.
I was kinda nervous about going into the carnival because I didn’t want to be hassled by vendors or feel unsafe. Once inside these fears were totally unfounded; the people were really nice and mostly just let us pass by or browse the stalls. Thailand in generally felt very safe. After a few hours exploring it was time for sleep finally. I also snapped this picture of a cool traffic light stand.
This picture is of the waterfront right at dusk looking back towards the mainland.
The next morning we got up and went to Ao Nang Beach about 30 minutes away by ‘bus’ (and by bus I mean a brightly painted tiny pickup truck with a bench in the back and a canvas top). This beach is where most of the resorts are and is really more of a launching place to get to the different islands more than a destination in itself. So having a day to kill before new years celebrations we decided to go out to a small island called Koh Poda. To get there you take ‘long tail boats’ which are basically canoes with large car motors retrofit onto the back. They are good in the shallow waters and really add to the experience. Here are some pictures.
The engine
Ao Nang beach taken from just a little offshore.
Adam on the boat
This shows the rock formations and the beaches that make this part of Thailand so popular.
If you notice the hotel tucked into that cove. The only way to get there is by long tail boat but it sure does look nice (and more expensive than our $7 a night location).
I call this picture ‘Rocking Long Tail Boat’ – Artisitic
This is a picture of our destination, Koh Poda.
One of the many rock outcroppings
So we go there and no more than 12 hours into the trip and I was already sitting on the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The sand was so soft and white, the water crystal clear, and the reef just off shore teeming with fish.
We rented snorkel gear (which we both own but stupidly left at our hotel). Unfortuentaly I don’t have any pictures, but the reef was amazing and just a small taste of the things to come. After spending the day at the beach it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for new years.
I also don’t really have any pictures of new years but it included exactly what you might expect from a Thai new years – great food, friendly people, a brothel (by accident I may add), fireworks, lots of Europeans, and a party that lasted till daylight…. Good times indeed.
The one really cool thing I had never seen before were these paper lanterns that had a piece of sterno in the bottom. You light the sterno and it fills the lantern with hot air so if floats. The sky was filled with them (over 100 at any given time) and they went up really high, I would guess over 1000 feet easy. Here is a bad picture of them being launched.
Well, the next day consisted of a day of recover and a 2 hour ferry ride to our final destination, Koh Lanta, an island known for not being nearly as touristy as any of the other ones around. The ferry was quite large and the views were great, here is one leaving the harbor.
Here are a few pictures of the main town on Koh Lanta, Saladan. You can see it’s really more of a sleepy fishing village than a tourist meca, which is way better as far as I am concerned.
That night we really just relaxed and ate at this Thai reasturaunt up the beach. I had no idea before this trip that Thai food is simply the best ethenic food out there. The green curries, red curries, pad Thai noodles, fried fish (head and all), and all things spicy are really good and I have been craving them ever sense.
The next day was my first foray into scuba diving, but certainly not my last. Adam took a lot of pictures under the water, but has since lost his camera so unless it comes up you will have to be satisfied with pictures of the scenery. The diving itself was way better than I had expected, and I expected a lot. The reefs in the area are some of the best in the world and we saw and swam with all sorts of amazing creatures. The coolest was a lazy lepord shark that was about 10 feet long and the cuttlefish (kinda like a fat squid). As you looked at some of the fish you could just tell you were both thinking the same thought “what in the blimey hell is that thing.” I really hope to get those pictures and will post if I do.
The first day of diving the water was unusually murky but we did tour around Phi Phi island (where the beach was actually filmed). Here are some pictures of that.
The island from a distance.
This is one of only two ways to get onto the island and is only done by crawing through the tiny hole you can see in these pictures. This is also not exactly a bad place to have lunch either.
On the other side of the island is the main beach where ‘The Beach’ was filmed, seen here. Since the movie this spot has been so filled with tourists you can barely get a boat up to shore. You can see all the people on the sand, including what I would guess to be way too many Europeans wearing speedos.
That night we rented scooters to explore the island. The roads were decent, but apparently not decent enough because Adam crashed and landed smack on his chin. I suppose everyone has to crash a scooter on some trip at some time (I did in Greece after all…). We did make it to the top of the island seen here. Apparently a lot of the flat area seen in the picture was flooded in the tsunami.
The scooter also let me go to a Thai boxing match that was totally unbelievable for a few reasons.
1) The arena was awesome. Open on the sides, dirty, bugs flying around all over, ‘snake charmer music’ blaring on old speakers, dimly lit, ring was stained beyond belief, yea good stuff. The mostly local people in the audience really added to it as well, they were into every fight. Here is a picture.
2) 6 year olds boxing each other!!!! Yes six year olds which was really quite funny. Apparently they start training at age 5 or 6. This fight was basically for comedic value. I cant imagine trying to beat the crap out of people instead of playing tee ball when I was 6. Here is a picture nonetheless.
3) They beat the ever living shit outa each other. All of the fights with people older than about 14 years old ended in a knock out. I’ve never seen two people stand so close and kick each other in the head – awesome!
Up the next morning for more scuba. This time we went to Koh Rok, another island about an hour and 30 minutes off the mainland by speedboat. This island can only be described by pictures.
The beach, even better than Koh Poda.
These two are living my dream of sailing around the world, some day!
The island itself is home to a large monitor lizard population, which itself is the second largest lizard in the world at about 7 feet long with tail. Apparently they don’t bite you, they whip you; either way I was feeling Irwin-esk enough to find out myself.
More pictures of the beach
That night was the best sunset of the trip. These pictures were taken from the reasturant at our hotel.
The last day of diving was by far the best. The place we went, Hin Daeng (Red rock) and Hin Maung (purple rock) is an island that is only about 20 feet across and 6 feet tall in low tide. Its where we saw almost all the animals listed above. I don’t have any pictures, because above water it was just a rock, but underwater it was another world. Hopefully Adam finds his camera.
Our last day in Thailand we toured around Saladan on Koh Lanta. Here are a couple pictures of the town.
Once back in Singapore we met up with our other buddies here and shared all of our new years stories over a few beers. This trip and the one to Chile years ago were two great new years, time to start planning for next year.
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