Krabi Part 1: Wet weather, wet me, brooding islands, turquoise sea.

16th June 2015 - yeah, I am still behind. Birthday and general amusement distracted me somewhat.

Remember about three or four blog posts back, I recounted my day trip to Kawthieng in Myanmar. Well, finally I have caught up with that post, and what happened after it.

After one night in the very friendly town of Ranong, complete with a brilliant hostel, I clambered aboard a bus bound for the seaside Thai town of Krabi, five hours and 250km away. I searched out my hostel, and after settling in, I excitedly consulted the pamphlets stacked in reception for what island-hopping tours I wanted to do. I eventually decided on a tour to Koh Hong National Park, which left the following morning. I wanted to do more tours, but decided to just book one, and see whether I enjoyed it before booking more.

I passed the evening in the hostel, eating Mexican food and playing video games in my room.

The following morning I woke up twenty minutes before I was due to leave, and walked downstairs to reception to the sight of rain.

Great!

However, the receptionist said the trip would still be running, so I gamely waited as close to the entrance as I could without getting gusts of rain blown at me. Before long, a sorgnthaew pulls up in front of the hostel.

It had open sides, and leaks in the roof.

I had to get in, and avoid the gusts and drips as best as possible.

After a thirty minute drive, we arrived in Ao Nang, where all the passengers were organised according to destination, given stickers, and left to wait...in the rain.

Then after around fourty minutes of waiting for the remaining passengers to arrive, we got onto another exposed sorgnthaew, and drove ten minutes to the boat terminal, which turned out to be a muddy riverside by the sea.

Guess where we were left whilst our guide fetched our boat and driver...

Yup, in the rain...again.

I suppose I can understand how there is no provision for wet weather. I mean Krabi is in a tropical country, where there definitely is not a distinct, wet monsoon season that lasts for four months of the year...

Eventually our boat turned up, and of course, it was open sided, and we were going to get very wet aboard. By now, I regretted not buying a poncho, as I was already getting cold wearing just a vest and swim shorts.

On the plus side, the boats lined up in the harbour produced some pretty, if heavily edited (to compensate for the dull light), photos.

I took some small comfort from the fact that the tour guide looked even less impressed with the weather than I felt.

We headed out of the bay, and onto the rough sea. The waves pounded the side of the little boat, and several times the driver had to stop the boat because of the size of the waves. I worried we would be forced to return back to the muddy port, but we persevered in the little, easily-sinkable wooden boat.

After around thirty minutes, small islands appeared on the approaching horizon, which signalled we had reached the archipelago of islands that make up the Than Bok Khorani NP.

The islands were incredibly reminiscent of those that lay scattered in Halong Bay, in northern Vietnam, but these islands instead stood isolated in a relatively empty sea, which made their impact up close all the more impressive. They stood at odd angles, and their sheer, stony sides seemed to lunge out of the surf in contorted and hunched shapes, part obscured by the rain and sea mist which were both out in force that morning.


The boat's nose turned towards one of the larger islands, which is Koh Hong. The word hong in Thai means room, which is in reference to the sheltered lagoon which lies in the island's heart. We skimmed over the rough seas until the prow turned towards the island, and before our eyes a hidden gap between the sheer cliffs opened up to reveal a passage into the island.

As you can see, the weather was still rubbish. 

Inside the passengers on another boat were going swimming, but those on our boat were a rather stoic group, and did not want to swim (or they did not understand the guide's roundabout English). I was wet and cold enough without needing to swim, so I was content to photograph and eat crisps.

The boat turned back out to sea, and we jetted through the karst islands towards 'Paradise Island' where we would be having lunch...in the rain. To be fair, Paradise Island was fairly beautiful, though again, I did not feel inspired to swim in the cold, wet weather.

Before lunch, the weather eased, and the tropical storm was reduced to a tropical drizzle, which made the remainder of the day much more enjoyable. Whilst enjoying the occasional ray of sun piercing the still-menacing clouds, I caught sight of these two:

I did not understand in what possible way a poncho was required whilst paddling in the sea. It had been raining, but had all but stuttered to a stop by this point. Were the ponchos a precaution against wayward waves? Were they a fashion statement, or a substitute for a coat against the non-existent wind chill. I did not understand, and still do not. 

I eventually shrugged, and put it down as 'silly Chinese tourists' , before going exploring down a dirt path, where I found my own miniature beach all to myself. There I quickly ate my lunch before the motor was fired up and we left the island.

By now the weather was really improving, and when we arrived at Koh Hong beach, we found it illuminated in sunshine. It was not bright sunshine, but it was a vast improvement over grey rainclouds.

I jumped off the boat, and hiked ahead, and thus had the beach briefly to myself.

The masses were advancing...

Paradise just for little me. 

I found a secluded spot to leave my valuables, and waded into the beautiful, empty turquoise water. I swiftly gave up on snorkelling, as the visibility had been rendered non-existent by the heavy rain. Instead, I just bobbed around in the shallows, keeping one eye on my bag, and the other on the bizarre antics of the tourists who kept arriving by the boat load. This is how the beach looked when it was time to leave.

The strengthening sunlight convinced me to have a snooze on the sand before I was due to return to the boat, and the afternoon all round had been very much improved by the improving weather.

Before long, it was time to leave, and head back to the mainland, the journey to which was wet and cold due to the spray from the waves. I jumped onto the muddy shore in Ao Nang as wet as I had been when I came out from the sea in the picture above...

Goodbye beautiful island.

Back on the mainland, I had to once again endure being organised into various buses which would take me back to my hostel. I was told to return in fifteen minutes, and then thirty, and then forty-five minutes, as we waited for other boats to return with their passengers. I was irritable and cold, and drank a mediocre banana shake in silence in a restaurant which looked indignant that I was taking up one of their tables. In my bad mood, I really did not give a f**k.


After around ninety minutes, we were finally able to proceed back to Krabi town, and I jumped off just down the road from my hostel, and headed in for a hot shower and a warm drink.


That evening, I knew I had overdone it that day with the cold weather. I went to a nearby cafe, not feeling hungry at all (always a warning sign) and forced down soup and coffee, before getting a massage in an attempt to relieve my aching back and neck.


Sadly it was all in vain, and by the late evening, I was feeling distinctly rotten, and I feel I may have alarmed the parents when I skyped them at 01:00am by just how ill I sounded. They probably thought I had malaria or similar.


I was slightly concerned I had malaria too...irrational I know...but I was ill and therefore allowed to be irrational.

After I had finished coughing and mumbling at my mother and father, I staggered to bed, wearing all my clothes, under a blanket and sheet.


I spent the majority of the next two days in bed or eating food so I could return to bed.


But that's for the next blog entry.


DSP

Useful Information:

• I stayed at the Good Dream Guesthouse 2, and paid 200B per night for a (very small) single room. The hostel was clean, and staff friendly, but it really lacked atmosphere, and I spent 4 very lonely days there without meeting anyone.
• The boat trip by longtail boat to the Hong Islands cost me 700B. They picked me up at 09:00, but I was not on a boat until after 10:30. Similarly, though I got back to the hostel just before 17:00, I left the boat at around 14:30. There is a LOT of waiting around.
• I had dinner at May & Mark's House, a cafe near to the nightmarket on Maharaj soi 10. The pumpkin soup is very good, as is the Jasmine Tea and Baked Beans on Toast.