inconsistent news from southeast asia

Alroight! It's about time to update. Jan. 27th (Day 136, if you're still counting), we got a bus to Krabi Town, heading still further south. They blared painful Thai pop music the whole time and it was starting to drive me crazy by the end (that is to say, I think maybe I was starting to enjoy it). We found an odd GH in town. A beautiful garden setting with crappy cement and thatch little huts with inch thick mattresses. Nice mosquito net, though.

Krabbi town itself is.. well, very small. It's got tons of tourist friendly places because it serves as a hub for getting to the various beaches in the area but there doesn't seem to be much reason to stick around town. We spent the morning of the 28th exploring the town and then decided to check out Ao Nang. There was some spectacular Krabi scenery on the way there - lots of big rock spires. The beach itself was none too exciting. Touristy shops and a very unspectacular beach.

The 29th we'd planned on heading to see Koh (Island) Phi Phi, but thanks in part to a recommendation by my brother, we headed to Ton Sai Beach instead. Okay, the other factor was the fact that it was 300B each for the boat there and everything else continues to be expensive once you get there, from what I hear. It was a short boat trip over to Railey beach and from there we were to take a short walk over to the beach. Of course, when we got there it just wasn't that simple. Turns out it's an easy little hike at low tide, but it's a trek over jagged rocks and wading through the ocean at high tide. We didn't want to wait.

I immediately loved Ton Sai. It's a small rock beach with huge cliffs on either side. It's not built up terribly like most of the other beaches around here and all the buildings are back in the jungle. We found an excellent place (also the cheapest, no coincidence) as far back in the jungle as possible. Tiny little thatch huts with a nice mosquito net. Much like camping. I couldn't have been happier.

Sadly, we didn't have too many days to spend in Ton Sai, but there were quite a few days of lazing on the beach or our rustic front porch and/or swimming.

What else? We got to do a dive/snorkel off Koh Phi Phi and I think it's safe to say we both had a great time. Catherine managed to see a DOZEN sharks while all the divers missed out on them. But we saw a turtle on our second dive! a turtle! Lots of moray eels and tuna and snappers and big triggerfish and crown of thorns starfish and wheee. It was good. Plus the boat and the staff were really nice. Lots of good food and all the caffeine you could consume.

After that, it was definitely time to move on. Our visas were to expire in two days so it was a few days of frantic, stressful, frustrating travel. Then it turned out we were actually two day overstayed on our visas. So skip a few bad days getting to Langkawi, Malaysia.