We arrived in Krabi in the dark to be greeted by the pouring rain. At the bus station we were all told that there were not very many rooms in the town. Instead of walking into town in the dark and wet and due to the seeming absence of taxi's we took one of the rooms offered to us at the tourist desk at the bus station which ended up to be not too bad. After dropping off our stuff and getting some food we went for a walk around to see what, if anything the area had to offer. We did not find a lot although somehow ended up in what i thought from the outside looked like bit of a seedy place with blacked out windows and a karaoke sign!! Inside there were lots of men and a lot of girls with very short dresses on a big shoes, all their outfits were slightly different and they were taking it in turns to parade around the stage and sing karaoke {badly}. After getting a drink one of the girls approached our table and sat down trying to make some converstaion with sam. I have to admit i found the whole thing very funny, i actually felt a bit sorry for her as she was not getting anywhere and was obviously a bit put out but she soon found someone else.
After Krabi we headed to Koh Phi Phi which is supposedly one of the most beautiful islands (it was where the film the beach was filmed). Unfortunately we did not have this impression during our short stopover. We arrived to a be greeted by many touts trying to sell hotel rooms. Our plan was just to stay at the main jetty area as we were only going to stay a night as the plan was to get to phuket the next day where there was more chance of catching the celtic game! We asked at some of the information places offering the hotel rooms but were told we were probably going to have to pay over 1000 bhat as all the rooms were full or wanted people to stay at least 2 nights. On hearing this we gave up asking and went to look ourselves only to end up in one of the places that we had been told about by the touts and paying the unbelievable amount of 1300 baht for a room for the 3 of us with 2 single beds which we would not have paid more than 2/300 anywhere else. This did not leave us with a good first impression. After a sleep we walked around to try and cheer ourselves up and see what all the fuss was about. There were some nice looking restaurants and bars, the beach was very busy and the water not too clean and there was building work going on over a lot of the area. Obviously they are still working hard to clean up and regenerate the area after the tsunami, the area where we were staying was the hardest hit on the island, it looks like they are doing a good job so far, i wonder how much longer it will go on for. I found the density of tourists in the area intense and especially dominating are the big tour groups who come on day trips. I think that if we had spent a little more time and headed to another part of the island that we would maybe have discovered what it truly has to offer. But it was not to be and i can't say that i will be heading back there in a hurry.
It was definately a relief to get to Phuket just so we could settle somewhere for a while. I had been sick for the last week and need a chance to let the antibiotics get to work and to not have to worry about travelling for a while. We checked into the onon guesthouse in phuket town, yet another link to the film the beach which we were not looking for intentionally. It was pretty basic but it had everything we needed and it was close to the old area of phuket which is supposedly where all the interesting things to see are located. We did not really see a lot in our time there. A couple of days we got bikes and headed up to the beach where we were confronted by huge multinational chain hotels like the club med and many others all charging extortionate prices and catering to holidaymakers who just like to stay in the hotel complex and on the beach. We saw too many speedo's and sunbeds to encorage a move out of the town. The place that was most distasteful was patong with the main streets on and near the water a collection of neon signs for hotels, 7-11s, irish bars, steak houses and various things centred towards people who want thailand to be just like home but with a beach and lots of sum. It just screamed package tourist resort, we never did stop driving through it was enough. It was nice to get a swim though after being on the beach for so long even after a few days away we definately missed the water especially as it was so hot.
We met some really great and interesting people in the guesthouse lobby area downstairs who we all spent a lot of time with. A lot of drinking was done and bars visited as we did not really find much else to do. There was a festival on for 3 days which mainly just consisted of lots of stalls selling food and other things, a few bands, some firedancing all of which was closed down by about 10pm. We found some good drinking spots, one of the best being just around the corner from us called rockin' angels. This place is owned by Patrick a talented musician who plays every night in this tiny open fronted bar, sometimes by himself sometimes with a few more people. All sorts of people were drinking there and playing there Niall being one of them. The first night we went the band were particularly impressive with about 5 of them playing taking lots of requests.
We did have a laugh in Old Phuket town but i can't say that i was too sad to leave and head to Chiang Mai. I hope that all the guys we met in OnOn got sorted out with there travels, i think sam has some emails so we will have to make an effort to keep in touch, although that is easier said than done.
