Krabi, Thailand
April 29, 2014
I like Krabi. It’s a small typical Southern Thai town that only really has a flow of travelers as they move in either direction between the islands and the mainland. They don’t stay around for long from what I’ve seen but we ended up spending five days there. At first it felt strange being back in the concrete world of a town and I missed the islands but Krabi was a great way to re-enter mainland life. It doesn’t have anything spectacular in or around it that you must see while in Thailand but it has a great laid back sleepy feel about it. Very little traffic motors around the small streets, the people are friendly there and you feel in no rush to do anything other than settle into the place and get a feel for it. The landscape around the Provence is beautiful as well. Those great limestone cliffs I saw at Tonsai continue for a few kilometers inland and surround the small country roads once you head further out.
The dude who’s place we were staying at was really nice. A very laid back German lad who actually had a decent sense of humour and sat watching Monty Python a lot, we couldn’t go wrong there. We chilled out the first couple of nights and wandered around from place to place grabbing a bit bite to eat here and then and a cheeky few pints along the way to break up the journey. Friday and Saturday are market nights so we obviously had to hang around for those. I hate to miss a good market! The market on a weekend is really good. There is so much amazing cheap food to try there. Every possible part of a chicken has been cooked in some amazing way and there are snacks galore to be had. Amazing fish cakes wrapped around quail egg were one of my favorite. I’ve tasted nothing like it. The food stalls surrounded a square in the middle of the market with a mass of chairs and tables and a stage with karaoke being badly belted out by the locals. It was hilarious, really bad singing and all the tracks were Thai so I didn’t have a clue what they were singing but it was funny.
Down the side streets were an array of other stalls selling anything from clothes to lamp shades and furniture. A few live acts made the place even more lively in particular a lad about 5 doing street dancing. Well kind of street dancing as all he could manage was to run round in a circle then balance on his head before popping out a head spin which landed in all sorts of different messes and then rinse and repeat but hey the wee chap was tiny so hats off to him he got a few well-earned Bhatt out of me. The market was great so it was a no brainer that we ended up staying both nights to enjoy it.
One thing we did want to see that was nearby was a place called the Tiger cave temple so we hung around the next day and rented a scooter to go out and about on. It’s not far to the temple from Krabi, about 5k North and with Krabi being so small it didn’t take long to be heading down some nice quieter roads towards the massive column that the temple sits atop.
Once you get there you are greeted with two massive limestone pillars, one of which has 1272 small, high steep steps to clamber up to the top where a small Buddha and temple are. We headed into the cave at the bottom first where there are supposedly tiger paw prints on the walls which the temple lends its name to. However I could see no paw prints so wasn’t convinced. Another possible reason for the temple having the name is that a monk took refuge in the cave and also found a tiger that was living there. Either way there are unfortunately no tigers living in these parts any more. From the cave we headed up a rough climb of steep steps thinking this was the way to the top but ended up passing more temples and caves and completed a loop through some jungle terrain instead before returning to where we started. The place was badly signed so already feeling heavy legged from numerous steps we went in search of the entrance to the long climb up to the Buddha that we had come for.
The temple and Buddha at the top are quite a recent addition here. Only built in 1975 and for some reason they thought it was a great idea to pop it on the top of the tallest column around. The 1272 steps were an absolute killer. The lad we were staying with had advised we get there early to avoid the heat of the mid day sun and after having gone in search of tiger paws and a random jungle trek it was now well into the afternoon heat. But it was worth it for the view alone. The Buddha and temple a bit disappointing but once at the top you can see for miles. As far away as Koh Phi Phi sat in the distance in the sea. We chilled there taking the view in, as well as trying to cool down after the climb for a while before a bunch of young monks appeared. They were pretty lively as far as monks go and they all seemed like young lads just starting out. What surprised me is that they started pulling out mobile phones and taking photos of themselves with me before uploading them straight to Facebook! Hmmm not very monkish I thought so we had a bit craic with them and then headed back down and away on the bike.
Having the bike for the full day we decided to go for a bit more tootle around and enjoyed a ride out to Aonang beach on the west coast. The ride there was great with some lovely scenery along the way however the beach itself was pretty grim. Tourist central with a lot of the Russian contingent choosing to hang around there. I’ve read up on it since and there has been a lot of bother with the Russians and Thais in these parts lately. The Russians have taken the place over and opened pretty much every kind of business you can imagine much to the frustration of the local Thais as they are all losing their jobs. Even taxi and Tuk Tuk drivers are struggling as the Russians have started their own transport operations here and are advising all the visiting Russians to not use the local taxis and to use theirs instead. Quite sad really and I suspect it will all come to a head at some point soon as there are a lot of mafia from both sides involved here.
We didn’t hang around long and scooted back to drop the bike off and sort out a bus to Bangkok for the following day. The bus didn’t leave until 4pm the next day so we lazed around resting our aching calves until it was time to head off. Three different mini vans and 100Km later we finally arrived at where we could hop on the overnight bus. It was a crazy set up but hey it was the cheapest way up to Bangkok. 14 hours later crammed on a hot sweaty smelly bus we rolled into Bangkok in the early hours at Khao San road.
