After just managing to get our plane to Krabi, we arrived there and were immediately surrounded by Thais trying to sell us accommodation, tours, and taxis. It was quite a surprise, it’s not much like that in Singapore or Malaysia. We made our way to Krabi town where we stayed in a guesthouse and looked around the town, getting a boat to Koh Phi Phi the next morning.
Koh Phi Phi was also a bit of a shock to the system. It’s a beautiful island, but has been totally ruined by tourism. The whole place is jam packed full of tourists and backpackers, shops, bars, massage places and touts trying to sell you stuff. Accommodation and food is also rather pricey, compared to Malaysia and Singapore. I imagine that if you paid more to spend time in a fancy resort elsewhere on the island it would be much nicer though.
That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy our time on Phi Phi. When we arrived, we found ourselves a guest house and went wandering, spending a little time on the beach but also climbing up a rather deceptively steep hill to a couple of viewpoints. The views were lovely, but somewhat spoiled by the 50 or so other Europeans crammed into a relatively small space to watch the sunset. We didn’t stay for it - it was too hard to get a photo with so many people!
The following day we bummed about on the beach, although Pete was still feeling a bit iffy from when he felt ill in Kuala Lumpur, so we mainly chilled out and read our books. We’d booked a bus/boat package from Krabi to take us to Koh Tao on the other side of the peninsula, so the following day, we departed Koh Phi Phi.
The bus journey was okay, but the boat ride to Koh Tao was an experience! It was a night boat that departed Surat Thani at 11pm, arriving in Koh Tao at 6am the next morning. It was rather cramped on board, with almost 150 people lying on several giant beds spread over 2 floors. It was also really hot, although we both managed to sleep reasonably well (though Pete did very nearly lose his glasses down a hole by the window!)
When we arrived on the island, it was very early and as we had no accommodation booked we wandered along the main beach to get an idea of what was available before things opened. Once things had opened, we talked to a few dive shops, as they will sort out accommodation and sometimes discount it if you dive with them. We booked into ‘Ban’s Diving Resort’ eventually, as they looked rather professional and snazzy. We sorted out a 2 tank dive for the following day, and whilst they didn’t have any room in their resort they put us in a little bungalow in a nearby resort, moving us into their complex the next day.
We spent the rest of that day napping (we were sleepy from the boat!) and exploring. Koh Tao seemed much nicer and quieter than Koh Phi Phi, although still busy, the island still seemed to have some character.
The next day we got up early for our dives. We’d decided to dive on Koh Tao as we’d heard that the diving is better on the East coast of Thailand at this time of year, whilst the superior dive sites on islands off the West coast are better during the rest of the year. Unfortunately, when we woke up that morning it was pouring with rain and really windy, meaning the trip to the dive site was terrifying in massive waves, and the visibility at the dive site (which was surprisingly completely calm in contrast) was really bad at about 4-5 metres - the worst we’ve had since diving anywhere. We’re told that on a good day you can sometimes get 40 metre visibility, so really it was just unlucky that it was bad whilst we were there. It meant we didn’t see a whole lot, although the coral was very pretty and there was lots of it, and the water was really warm!
The dive boat and equipment were also a bit of a shock after having done our last 11 dives on a purpose made multi-million dollar dive boat with top range equipment. The Thai stuff was fine to dive with, but just a bit old - and Pete’s depth gauge read 0 metres the whole time! I think the boat used to be a fishing boat too, so to get into the water we had to jump off the bow - it was a bit of a high dive! We can’t complain though, we survived, and loads of people learn there as it’s reputedly the cheapest place in the world to learn. However, I think if anyone was thinking of learning we’d recommend spending the fair amount extra and going with a professional company elsewhere, like ProDive in Cairns. That’s probably the last diving we’ll do on our trip, we’re a bit dived out now!
After our diving we decided to get a Thai massage, as it wasn’t exactly beach weather outside! The place we went to was very good, and we both enjoyed the massage. A Thai massage is a bit more rough than others you might get at a spa at home, but it certainly loosens up your muscles when they use their full bodyweight through their elbows on your shoulders!
Whilst on the island we’d booked ourselves a boat/bus package directly to Bangkok. The bus was due to leave in the evening, delivering us to Bangkok at 5.30am (or so we were told). Once on the mainland however, we were told it would be leaving a little earlier and arriving at 4.30am. After sleeping reasonably well on the bus, we arrived near the Khaosan Road in the city at 3.15am! We hadn’t booked anywhere to stay as we’d assumed our accommodation would be on the bus, so we were at a bit of a loss for what to do! We found somewhere to stay eventually (a road nearby the Khaosan Rd - it can be loud and hectic there) and ended up getting that night free, as we’d checked in after 12.00am.
We spent a couple of days looking around Bangkok, going to lots of temples, markets and we also visited the Grand Palace (very glitzy and spectacular buildings). One of my highlights was seeing the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, where we also got ourselves another Thai massage at the centre there. We left a few bits of sightseeing out, such as the weekend market, as we’ll be coming back to Bangkok to get our flight in September.
In general, Bangkok is a bit of a manic city. There’s a lot of tourists there, but also an awful lot of Thai people trying to sell you stuff and rip you off, be it through tuk tuks, market stalls, or tour bookings. We were surprised at the amount things like clothes were on the Khaosan Road markets having heard how cheap clothes are in Thailand. They clearly just charge a lot for things in backpacker/tourist areas as they know we have the money to spend - going a little further afield its surprising how much cheaper you can find things like food, and bottled water!
We left Bangkok for Kanchanaburi, home of the bridge over the River Kwai, on 29th July.
