Not so Krabi
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
45
79
Trip End
Ongoing
Krabi,
Thailand
Friday, November 21, 2008
after trucking through the Thai island on the west coast, we were looking forward to affordability... cheaper rooms, good cheap street food and just all around cheapness! via ferry we arrived on Krabi with hopes of better weather... not so. it was overcast with on again off again rain for the five days we were here. but we did manage to get in some good times... first off, we heard there were a couple decent night markets so we headed down to town in search of these gastronomic opportunities... we were not disappointed... imagine this: grilled pork steak, pork skewers and pretty good papaya salad and sticky rice with a large bottle of beer for approx $4.00! we went back in the next few days for everything from coconut juice to fried chicken to a variety of different desserts... to make our eating opportunities even better, one of the locals told us about a food festival going on at the other end of town... so we hopped on our rented motorbike and went to a pretty good sized food festival.. the food selection was not only vast, but the flavors and sights were pretty amazing as well... we splurged a bit and spent $10 on like 6 or 7 different dishes and drinks... i thought we did pretty well... it was good fun and what was nice was that there weren't too many foreigners around... i think i gained like 10 lbs that night...
krabi is great for its location... it's not only a jumping off point for places like phi phi and phuket but its also a good cheap alternative to staying on either Ao Nang Beach and Railey Beach... these two places are resort areas... instead of paying the $30 for rooms either of those places, eunice and i paid a third of that and rented a motorbike for another $4/day. Ao Nang Beach is kinda like a poor man's laguna beach... decent beach to lay out on, plus multiple store fronts everywhere and accommodations galore... Railey Beach on the other hand is interesting in that it is only accessible by longtail boat... it is a small peninsula surrounded by really hard limestone mountians... thus, no access via land....
the main reason, however, that i wanted to go to this area and Railey Beach in particular was that it is the home of world class rock climbing... now, i've only dabbled in indoor rock climbing and that's only like once or twice... but since outdoor rock climbing lessons are offered on Railey, we booked a half day course... let me just express how much in love i am with outdoor rock climbing... its got a great mix of challenge, exercise and fun... maybe a new hobby when eunice and i get back state side... anyways, let me tell you about the climbing... we did 4 climbs... the highest climb being 25 meters or about (80 feet)... you start off on the beach and just climb up a rock face cliff... and the views from the top are pretty nice as you get to look out over railey beach east... but before us amateurs go up, the local guys set the ropes... and they literally fly up the rock faces.. AMAZING! hopefully i can get to that point... eunice was not bad either... she FLEW up the 25 m course! people were impressed ... i think she likes it... eunice's first climb was a short easy one... but the other three she and i did were a bit harder than easy... call it medium easy... the last one i attempted i didn't even get up a quarter of the way... it was medium difficulty... i blame it on the fact that i am too short and my arms were shot from the three other climbs, but at the end of the day, i think i was just too weak to get over one of the overhangs... sadness... i definitely would like to come back to challenge it again....
all in all, krabi was good... good cheap food, nice cheap accommodations, decent beaches and fantastic climbing made for a wonderful five days in krabi....
i'll add pics later.....
Comments
losing weight?
Byoung, it looks like you've lost a lot of weight, which is strange since it seems like you guys are eating so well.