Southern Thailand-Phuket, Ko Phi Phi and Krabi

We had found out at the airport in Chiang Mai that we would miss the last boat of the day from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi, so we were prepared to spend a night in town before heading on our way the next day. As it turned out, this was a very good thing. Two years ago when I was in Thailand for the first time with my friend Autumn, we stopped in Phuket town and registered at a guesthouse on the recommendation of LP. If you're unfamiliar with Phuket, you should know that it is famous for its beaches and the parties at its beach towns. But LP extolled the virtues of Phuket town, the beautiful Sino-Portuguese architecture, the lively night market, and other things. However, when Autumn and I were there, we wandered around town from our guesthouse and found nothing but dusty, run-down streets and nothing of any interest. So we hopped on the back of a couple of motorcycle taxis and headed for the beach. Once there, we said, “This is where we want to be!” and promptly got a car back to town to get our bags and move house, without even staying the night in town.
Funnily enough, we ended up at the very same guesthouse this time around as the one where Autumn and I didn’t stay last time. We had met Eva, a single traveler from Belgium, at the Phuket airport, and shared a taxi into town with her. Like us, she was headed for Ko Phi Phi, so was planning to take the first boat in the morning.
On our way into town, our driver tried to sell us on a boat ticket package with minibus pickup to the pier, for the next morning, for only 1000 Bt per person. Sometimes, these offers are actually a good deal, especially for the traveler who values convenience over budget. However, the budget traveler tries to do as much as possible by themselves, especially booking and buying tickets. And our book said tickets should be around 300-400 baht each.
Many times this trip, Yoshi and I have found it handy to be able to converse in Japanese when we don’t want locals to understand us. This was one of those times. So Eva and I talked about it in French, and Yoshi and I talked it over in Japanese, and we came to the conclusion that we probably didn’t want his tickets, that we would just head to the pier ourselves and get our tickets.
As it turned out, we didn’t even need to do that. Once we were checked into our guesthouse, she offered us tickets to Ko Phi Phi, complete with minibus transfer to the pier, on the first boat of the day (basically, exactly what we wanted!) for only 450 Bt each. Perfect.
After getting settled, we headed out to explore the town. As I said, when Autumn and I were there, we found nothing of interest. Well, it turned out we just walked the wrong way down the street from our guesthouse. Turn left, and you head into no-man’s land. Turn right, and you pass Internet cafes, restaurants, beautiful Sino-Portuguese architecture

AND a fantastic night market! We ate BBQ chicken, sweet sticky rice steamed in bamboo stalks,

Chinese dumplings, Korean style pancakes, delicious little deep-fried donut-like things caked in sesame seeds, corn on the cob, chicken skewers, various unidentified fruits,

and spring rolls all washed down with large one-dollar Chang beer from the 7-11.
Since we were only staying one night, and she was so fabulous, we had decided to share a triple room with Eva. She’s a really laid-back, cool chick into tattoos and traveling (obviously!)

So we chatted a bit, slept, had a little breakfast in front of our hotel,


and caught our minibus to the ferry.
On the ferry, we met Janice, another Canadian en route (eventually) to New Zealand, who was another cool tattoo, diving, easy-going chick.
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When we arrived on Ko Phi Phi, since Yoshi was a bit sick again, we left him in charge of our big bags while the three of us went off in search of cheap lodging. Now, to be honest, there’s nothing really cheap on Phi Phi. But we did find one room for Yoshi and me for only 400 Bt. (The girls decided to stay at the dive shop that they booked their dives through). But we found out later why it was so cheap. It being low season, the whole island is frantically trying to get ready for the crowds, so there was construction going on everywhere. In particular, our guesthouse!! And even though it was low season, there were people everywhere! It felt like spring break all over again, 21-year-olds getting smashed and starting fights on the street outside our room on the way home from the bars in the middle of the night. We only stayed 4 days, and I’d had enough.
I went diving with Janice one day (three dives) where we got to dive the King Cruiser Wreck, one of the most popular dive sites near Phi Phi. The King Cruiser was the ferry between Phuket and Ko Phi Phi that hit a reef and sank about 12 years ago. Luckily, it sank in such a way that made it a perfect wreck dive. The top is in about 12 meters of water, and the bottom at around 30 meters, the limit for recreational divers. The rumour is that it was sunk on purpose; it was in its last couple of months of service, there were no cars aboard that day, and the rescue crews arrived suspiciously quickly, and no one was drowned.
Since it’s in warm, shallow, salt water, the wreck has deteriorated pretty quickly. But we got to see lots of marine life, like stonefish, which blend into the rock and sting anything that touches them; lionfish, that blend into nothing,

and also sting anything that touches them; and some big moray eels.

One eel had even made its home in one of the boat’s toilets.



The main reason we went to Phi Phi was to meet some of the people at Dive For Life, which is an annual gay and lesbian diving group that raises money for HIV/AIDS research. The package was a bit out of our price range; around $1200US for the week, not including flight there and back. But we did meet some interesting people and joined one or two of the evening events. Who knows; maybe when I’m making a doctor’s salary!

After Phi Phi, we headed on to Krabi, another two-and-a-half hour ferry ride to the mainland. Krabi is world-famous as one of the top rock climbing destinations, and that’s what I had planned. We took a long-tail boat out to Railey Beach, on the tip of the peninsula. Ahh, finally! Here was the Thailand I'd been looking for. No crowds, beautiful beaches, bungalows with hammocks on the porch, all surrounded by sheer limestone cliffs climbing more than 200 meters.


We were only there a couple of days when Yoshi started complaining about pain in his arm and hand, and a weird rash. When it got worse the next day, we headed back into town to the hospital to get it checked out. Before going, I’d googled the hospital in Krabi, and it didn’t sound promising; no international clinic, not a great reputation for diagnosis, for anything serious, had to go to Phuket, a 3-hour minibus ride away. But when we arrived, we had a pleasant surprise; only 5 months before, they’d opened a new international clinic, where our nurse spoke English quite well, and the doctor’s English wasn’t too bad either. And her diagnosis was quick, accurate, and shocking; SHINGLES!!! She let me use her computer to google pictures of shingles, and there it was; exactly the rash and symptoms Yoshi had. So they got him a plethora of painkillers, as well as an antiviral and some vitamins too, I think. And everything, including the doctor’s fee, was around $60US.

When we got back Railey, we decided to upgrade our accommodation. We’d been staying in a cute but rustic bungalow, with a mattress on the floor, a mosquito net, cold water showers, and a hammock on the porch. But it was also at the top of a wicked flight of stairs. So we looked around, and for only 100 Bt more per night, we got a big airy room at a resort with a pool, 2 big double beds, hot water, and a nice porch with chairs. So we settled in for another week, for Yoshi to recuperate and in case we needed to return to the hospital for further treatment.

Another bonus of our new digs were our neighbours. A Canadian couple from Calgary also on a grand tour (a year, I think) and who were big into rock climbing. So I rented a harness and shoes, and they took me out for my first day of climbing!
Loves it! So much fun! It’s a sport I’ve been waiting for. I’m not afraid of heights, and have always enjoyed climbing things, so it only seemed natural that I would like it. After that, I signed up for a one-day course with one of the local climb shops, where I got to try a few more climbs, including one that was 30 meters high, which is the limit for single-stage climbs, as rock-climbing ropes are only 60 meters long.

If you click on this picture, you can see the larger version. In the center, the darker area is a cave with stalactites hanging down in front of it. That cave was the end of the 30-meter climb. At the base of the cliff, you can see one of the guys holding the rope for someone climbing.

Other than climbing, and after Yoshi was feeling better, we also spent a few afternoons at the beach watching the little sand crabs build their kingdoms,


feeding the monkeys, and enjoying the spectacular sunsets from West Railey Beach.

We got to spend more time than planned at Krabi, partly because of Yoshi being sick, but also because we learned that our next destination was a no-go. We had planned on heading to Pulau Perhantian, a couple little islands in the north-east corner of Malaysia, just over the Thai border. Our guidebook said they closed during the monsoon season, which was usually from about mid-November every year. Well, maybe this year was different, cause the monsoons had already moved in. And the next plan of doing a jungle trek through the rainforest of central Malaysia didn’t sound all that great either, in the rain. So we stayed in paradise in Krabi as long as possible, before we finally had to move on.

Some of the hundreds of geckos we saw all over SE Asia

A starfish making its way across the sand in a tide pool