Krabi in southern Thailand was my first stop after Vietnam. I fly from Hanoi to Bangkok then Bangkok to Krabi. It was a long distance covered in a few short hours and much more comfortable then a bus. I caught the shuttle into town and found a guesthouse not to far away. More importantly I found the night market with excellent Pad Thai, yummy! I hit the sheets ready for a few days in Krabi.
I had plans to tour some nearby islands as Krabi is on the coast. It turned out the cost and the rain hampered most of the efforts. But I did go o Railay Beach the next afternoon to catch some sun and sand. Railay is about 35 minutes via longboat (narrow wooden boat with a car engine block attached to a 15 foot long pole with a prop attached). The east beach was most lovely and this place is also a big rock climbing destination because of the rock formations all around the area called karsts. You could literally climb out over the water and I began to reminesce about my days as a serious rock climber, Bry and Shankel would have loved to climb here. I caught some sun and played in the water for a while then took a nap. While I napped the ran moved in so everyone moved under the rocks. It did not look to be letting up so I walked back to the west beach to catch a longtail back to Krabi. On the way the resident beach monkeys made an appearance to get bananas, corn and whatever else they could grab. They were not very afraid of people probably because they had been doing this for a while. After a few pictures and some corn feeding I walked back and caught a longtail.
IT turns out rain was on tap for the evening and most of the following day. So tended to some travel business and talked with Jessica both nights and caught some more Pad Thai. I was going to fly to Banda Aceh and catch a ferry to a little island called Pulau Weh. Turns out Banda Aceh is one of the new places in Indonesia that you can not get a visa upon arrival. I did not have time to get one anywhere else so I changed plans and decided to leave on Friday, Halloween for Penang to catch a ferry to Medan, Indonesia then a bus to the jungle for orangutans. More later. Anyway, Krabi was a nice stop over, pretty laid back town and easy to take care of business. I have a few pictures to post of the beach and karst formatons to give you an idea. Peace out..
