Just got back from 18 days in Thailand.
Booked my flight to Bkk and my flight to Krabi, and the rest i made up as i went along.
First night in BKK was in the Ibis Huamark, which is 200bht taxi ride from the airport and does pretty good pad thai and cost £13.
Early the nest morning it was off to the airport and down to Krabi.
Didnt stay long in Krabi, so cant report much other than, when i asked the taxi driver to take me to the port, he took me to what i assume is the old port. I booked myself a ticket to Ko Lanta and the helpful lady in the shop also booked me a room in advance, as it gets very busy on Lanta !!.
My "ferry" was a minivan with 9 other farang cramped in the back, which took us the best part of 4 hours to drive down to Lanta, due to one of three ferries being out of commision.
I eventually got to Khlong kong, half way down Lanta. Not much of a beach, a bit rocky. I then went to get my room, ,so helpfully booked earlier, to find that the guy knew nothing of it, and after a bit of a row ( a thai style one, no shouting ) i had to go and book myself in next door. So 600bht went straight down the toilet. Im not sure if the guy was in on the scam, or if the woman in the shop does it all by herself, but be warned, never part with your cash until you have seen the goods.
I only stayed 1 night in Khlong kong and headed off south in the morning to Khlong Jark. What a difference, its well off the main road, no tarmac here.I stayed at here for 5 days, paying 400bht for a pretty modern room, ok it had ants marching over a corner of the bed, but i didnt bother them and they stayed away from me. I also had a cheeky mouse, or rat that used to sneak into my bathroom at night and steal and crisp bags or food wrappers. The beach was brilliant though, about 3/4 of a mile rocky outcrops each side to make it a nice bay, and at the bottom of the bach was Moonwalk bar, and its friendly owner 'apple'. He was one of the nicest fella's you could meet, he let me use his moped to go to the waterfall, which would have taken me and the GF at least 2 hours to walk to, and all he asked was that i put a litre of fuel in it when i had finished with it. Really nice guy. There is another beach and a national park to the soth of khlong jaak and i recommend these to anyone too.
Next port of call was Ko jum/Ko pu This is halfway between Lanta and Krabi.
Longtails have to come and get you as the ferry doesnt stop here, due to there being no pier.
I stayed at Joy Bungalows, which was pretty badly damaged by the tsunami judging by the photos they had on the desk. This is another great place, and i feel bad telling people about it because i want to keep it a secret, but what the hell.
At night there is no electricity in your hut, you are given a storm lantern to take to your room, and during the day i saw 2 flying lizards a monkey and a pretty big (6ft) snake as i sat on my balcony ! The walk into town along the main road is very amusing, its literally just a 6ft dirt track through the forest and then through a rubber plantation with a couple of nasty dogs. Luckily i had made friends with a slightly bigger dog in the vilage so he looked after me, in return for a handful of bbq crisps. The vilage here isnt for tourists and we were pretty much ignored as people went about there business, long may it stay that way. This island made ko lanta look like a metropolis and if you want it quiet, really quiet, then this is your place.
Next up was phi phi, now this would usually be a pain as we would have to go to Krabi and then onto Phi Phi, but the guy behind the bar at Joy said he would take us on his longtail.
I owe such a debt to this guy, the seas were pretty rough and he wanted to turn back, but when he saw how disappointed i was he said he would give it a try, and even though the sea was pretty choppy he steered that longtail all the way across to Phi Phi and i barely got wet, he seemed to catch a wave and ride it then wait and pick up another, it doesnt sound much, but this guy was amazing, so cheers Roman.
Phi Phi. What a shame !! Expensive, dirty, overexposed. I dont want to slag it off too much because i can see how beautiful it once was, but do the place and yourself a favour and dont go. Having said that i had 2 days at long beach and the sand was white and the sea was like a bath and i fed the fish some apple whist snorkelling with them. But even long beach is now being overtaken by longtail taxis, i understand that everyone wants a piece of the action, but if there are no places to swim and relax on the beach because its full of longtails, then who is going to go there ?
So it was time to move on again. This time up to Tonsai.
What a difference, this place is amazing, but because it has a sense of what it wants to be it hasnt suffered the same fate as Phi phi. It is proud to be a backpacker and climber resort. Maybe its lucky that it doent have such a great beach, it keeps the developers away, but who needs a beach with the cliff views you get here.I only got to spend 2 nights here, i wish i had left phi phi earlier and got 4 or 5. Although i did get to see "Thailands no.1 band " Jellyfish.
Then on once more to Bangkok and the koh san rd. Which was quiet this year, due to it being election weekend and no one was allowed to sell beer. It was odd walking past the big irish bar near the centre point plaza and seeing everyone drinking fanta and coke, although i did get a tiger in a plastic cup at sylk bar
And then home to manchester.
This barely touches what i got up to, but id be here for a week trying to fit it all in and would bore you all to death !!.
Hope this gives you an idea of what you can squeeze into a fortnight rather than just sitting on the same beach all day.
