What a difference this week was from our first three weeks in Thailand — from cycling through rural areas to tourist hotspots. We found the tourists at Tiger Cave Temple before even getting to the center of Krabi.
The thing to do here is walk up stairs — about 300m vertical — to a stupa, some Buddhas, and views of the surrounding countryside.
Even though this temple is crawling with tourists, the security guard who watched our bicycles was very friendly. He repaired my leaky water bottle with packing tape (not so successful) and glued the soles of my shoes (still holding).
Krabi, I think, was the biggest town we stayed at since leaving Cha-Am three weeks earlier. What a surprise to find that every hotel was full. We asked at many hotels, had them call other hotels, checked the internet booking sites — nothing. We were starting to get nervous when somehow Ferda managed to find the Maritime Resort — with facilities that lived up to the name (often “resort” in Thailand just means hotel).
The grounds were fairly deserted because the facilities were mostly closed. We had to walk a ways to find any restaurants, but I ended up with yummy red duck curry our first evening in Krabi.
A popular excursion from Krabi is to take a boat to Railay Beach. We joined the crowds.
Maybe you’ve heard of rock climbing Thailand’s limestone cliffs. Railay Beach is one of the spots.
A bunch of snorkelers were out in this bay so I checked it out — mostly just algae and dirty water.
Tourists harass the lizards and feed the monkeys.
Railay Beach was too crowded, but the views are pretty.
We left by boat to Ao Nang and had dinner and beers before returning to Krabi.
The plan for the next day was a ride through the karst pinnacles NW of town, but it rained all day. I know it’s a good route ’cause Jack ended up doing the ride a few days later.
The three of us took a boat to spend a couple days on Thailand’s famous Koh Phi Phi. Both Jack and I had been to this part of Thailand before — I had actually stayed in Krabi in 1994 — but neither of us had been to Phi Phi or Phuket islands. Maybe we used to be smarter? Sure, the views are nice, but Phi Phi is a super-crowded party scene.
This might be the photo that everyone wants.
I did snorkel two days at Had Yao (aka Long Beach) at a place called Shark Point. I guess it lived up to its name ’cause I saw a black-tipped reef shark.
Much more exciting were the melon butterflyfish,
eight-band butteflyfish,
copper band butterflyfish,
Andaman butterflyfish,
singular bannerfish,
and powder blue tang ’cause all those species were, I believe, new to me. I wasn’t surprised to see new species since this essentially was my first time snorkeling in Thailand.
The only clownfish species was this pink skunk anemonefish.
It’s always (at least a little) exciting to see Titan triggerfish.
The coral was not special, but the fish were decent. In addition to what I already mentioned I came across sea urchins, giant clams, pincushion stars, parrotfish, Moorish idols, two species of fusiliers, a school of gold saddle rabbitfish, porcupine fish, masked puffer, crown of thorns starfish, cucumbers, bigeyes, and quite a few different wrasse.
We said goodbye to Jack as he took the boat back to Krabi for a flight to Miami via Bangkok. Ferda and I got the ferry to Koh Lanta. Will it be any better than Phi Phi? Stay tuned.
