Back to Krabi

After three amazing trips, time had come to leave Yogyakarta. The next day we flew back to Bali and chose to spend our last two days in Bali at Sanur, another beach resort a half hour ride from the airport. While Kuta at the West coast with it’s nightlife and high waves is for the young, Sanur is nicknamed “Snore”. Soon we figured out, why. The beach had no waves, so it provided safe swimming – for hundreds and thousands of retirees. It felt like a North Sea “Kur” beach just with more sun and Balinese employees. We stayed in a nice bungalow similar to our guesthouse in Ubud. The owner was famous for his songbirds, for which he had at least 30 awards stapled in his office. When he drove us to the airport on Sunday (he provided the airport transfer himself in a car which brakes did only minimally work) he told us that he interbred different bird races, for example a dove from Thailand with one from Bali, to create birds with a nicer sound. He also records the best sounds and plays it to the young birds to teach them how to sing. Naturally he was very interested when Jasper told him about the Australian bush turkey which can imitate nearly any sound and other bird.

"Snore"

From the airport we took a plane to Phuket, Thailand. I had bad expectations because Phuket is a mass tourism island. But actually all the mass tourism is concentrated at the beaches and Phuket town is a typical Thai town for the locals. We stayed one night to take the ferry in the morning to KRABI.

On the ferry to Krabi (Phra Nang beach in the background)

As you mights know I’m still very fond of it and I wanted to meet up with Patrick and Tip, who had now opened a guesthouse opposite their travel agency: The smile guesthouse. They aim to provide a home from home and they are definately good in it, so we stayed several days and took great daytrips.

Smile Guesthouse

Rooftop garden at Smile Guesthouse

Me with Patrick and Tip and Tip's mother, sister and brother

As I had already done all good trips in the past (and would do all again except for “James Bond Island”), Jasper could just chose the ones which sounded best to him.

So we did the 4-Islands Tour:

Jasper at Poda Island

Tup Island

Happy snorkellers

And Kayaking in Ao Thalee:

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

Kayaking in Ao Thalee

And of course we went to my favorite beach, Phra Nang, and up to “the cave” (from which you can walk to a small platform with gorgeous view, already excessively featured in older blog entries).

Longtail boat in front of "the cave"

We then decided to spend the weekend at Railey to watch the sunsets and sunrises over the sea and to enjoy the Railey nightlife and the beaches with fewer tourists. Luckily there was one relatively cheap bungalow resort left. The sunsets were great and the bars with fire shows and one with life music and one with amateur Thai boxing really nice. Just the cocktails could have been way better.

Railey East

Restaurant boats at Phra Nang Beach

Me at nearly sunrise

Monday morning we managed to got up at 5 for a rather disappointing sunrise (too cloudy). But therefore we went to Phra Nang beach because the day before we read on the newly set up information signs that you can watch hornbill birds at the far end. So we walked over the totally empty beach towards the birds. In the small bush, which also leads to the cliff from where you get to the cave, we first heard and then saw them. And on the way back we saw spectacled langurs, which are rare to see. And veeery young baby maquaces. Unfortunately our camera did run out of battery, so we do not have a picture of any of them. So here from the net:

Oriental Pied Hornbill:

http://www.green-jungle.com/30_birdwatch/02_khaoyai/khaoyai.html

Spectacled Langur

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2007-07/12/content_5433938.htm

To my astonishment it started to rain when we took the boat back to Krabi. Normally it is high and dry season now. So we arrived very wet back at Patrick and Tip. Nevertheless we stayed another day to do a Snorkel trip to Ko Phiphi and the inavoidable Maja beach, where they filmed “The Beach”.

Crowded Maja Beach

We had to chase some tourists away to take the pic

Lunch stop at Ko Phi Phi Don

Jasper at Bamboo Island, our last (Snorkel) stop

Just after we entered the speedboat after our last stop, it started to pour down heavily again. The waves were high and the ride very bumpy. Unfortunately one woman had a very bad time because she had a weak back. Our guide also started to hand out life vests on midway, so I became a bit nervous as well. But we arrived back safe and sound.

Due to two days of rain in the afternoon, we decided against the cave-snorkel-sunset-saefoodbarbeque-on-the-beach-and-nightswim-tour, the only tour which sounded very good and I haven’t done yet (so likely it did not exist the last time I was there). Instead we decided to say bye bye to Krabi for now and go to Bangkok with the nightbus. The journey was great because you could decline the bus seats very far and you had your own video screen in the seat before you, so it was like a train. The only bad thing was that all the movies were in Thai. So instead we watched Thai music videos, which are way more funny than Western music movies, I think.

Thursday morning we arrived in Bangkok and met up with Pook to eat at MK restaurant. The city centre of Bangkok is full of great international restaurants, e.g. MK restaurant, where you make your own soup, Sizzler, which had a huge salad bar and the Fudge Factory, where you make your own icecream (e.g. with brownied, cookies, M&Ms, all kind of nuts and sauces and waffles). Friday we also went to the cinema: There was no movie we really wanted to watch, but it was cheap with big screens (and great popcorn) so we chose “I am number 4″. Saturday we did a daytrip with Pook and her boyfriend Baal, which was a very nice day out on which we ate great saefood at the end. If you now have the impression that Bangkok is all about food, you are right. But in the end, that is what whole Thailand is about: Enjoying good food with good people at a good place. That’s why “Did you already eat?” is a common greeting.

Meeting with Pook

By the way: The bunny is not because they start with the Easter decoration as early in Thailand as in Germany, but because this year is the “Year of the Rabbit” according to the Chinese calender.

Preparing soup at MK

Daytrip with Pook (and Baal, who takes the picture

Tonight we take the nightbus to Chiang Mai and from where make our way up to Laos.

Tags: 4-Islands Tour Krabi, Ao Thalee, Ko Phi Phi, Krabi, Maja Beach, Monkeys, Phra Nang, Phuket, Railey, Sanur