Krabi

It was nice – finally we understood why people say to get out of Bangkok asap, beautiful beaches, sea mist surrounded islands and far less people, this is the true Thailand.

One point that I found very confusing in Krabi is the sheer number of Italian restaurants, yes there are still a large number of tourist & local shops but even many of the Thai restaurants also have Italian food. There are even about 5 pizzerias which on a street with less that 100 shops that is an achievement, there may even be more that there are suit shops.
To test why and how Thai + Italian worked together with food I ordered a thai green curry with shrips on spaghetti.
Verdict – I don't know how or why someone first tried this, possibly in the great noodle shortage of 2005 but it's amazing and a nice relief from the mass of rice and noodles that I had been eating. After a fairly warm night with the fan in the room merely pushing around the hot air and an electric socket that made my laptop continuously shock me, I awoke early for breakfast / Lunchbox filling time and transport to the ferry.

The moving bed & quick friends

We boarded the train south and found our seats. It wasn't a good sign when for the first 15mins the train seemed to not go far above jogging pace. After finally picking up pace and everyone settled in we spoke to a group of South Africans and heard about their stories of previous trips & their most recent one to Laos where they were coming from. Around 10 the staff came round putting all the beds down and converting the chairs. At 3.00 the others arrived at their stop so we said our fair wells and I realised how quickly friends could come and go while travelling. Another 5hours later and we arrived at Surat Thani to be greeted by a volley of shouting of place names all seemingly coming from 1 man trying to coordinate the travellers off the train. After being herded onto quite a nice coach we went for about 20minutes to what could only be descried as a sorting area where everyone was stickered and sent to their appropriate transport. Boarding the second and unfortunately back to the low standard coach that we had come to expect we went further south and onto Krabi. Becky tried braving the toilet but was quickly back in her seat and looking a little paler than previously. (check her blog for full descriptions) 4 hours later and another processing through a sorting area (still no hat used) and we were off in a mini bus this time finally arriving at our place to stay 16 hours after leaving Bangkok.

To Krabi

We have one last afternoon in Bankbook when booking this everyone said get out of Bangkok although my experience here has my been good, not quite like hangover 2 just be wary and you’ll have a good time.
(Pic and videos to come soon)

Fast Food

This is great pick your ingredients and your noodles and have it cooked right in front of you and back in about 3 minutes, fast food and even a little healthy.

The accommodation
the room is fairly standard fortunately it has a/c otherwise I may have died on the first day here. Shoes were off in seconds and straight into flops, luckily for us we somehow booked the only place on the street with a pool on the roof which is great for a quick cool down even in the tropical rain that comes down heavily for an hour or so in the afternoon.

Bangkok

Great news no Jetlag – OK well for me anyway, seems the forcing yourself to stay awake works and found our place to stay fairly easily. Just off Khaoson road, walked around a fair bit the first day seeing all the sights nearby and the street that is definitely busier at night – no one here seems to sleep.

The next day we went in search of a map so that we could find the station and purchase tickets for the overnight train to the south and ended up getting a Tuk Tuk to which we had take us to a few places to see the sights and find some tickets – note these are a bargain we paid 515 baht after some haggling to take us to all the places we had asked. We had to return slightly early as it was raining hard and the Tuk Tuk didn't run quite so well in the rain but a good 40p well spent, a great way to get around the city if you don't mind some dangerous driving or getting a little damp if it rains.

The Flight

It begins and with a good start, both arriving on time at Heathrow. After a quick nip through airport control and we were on our way. From the start there was a clear difference in plans for the trip, I had brought things to keep me occupied and awake, whereas Bex went for the option taken by 90% of the people on the plane of watching films halfway and falling asleep or at least attempting to.

As we flew from the darkness of the night into the morning sunlight I photographed and filmed every few minutes and then suddenly after being blinded by the bright sunlight I realised we were over the edge of the snow covered Himalayas.
Overall the flight was good although it was good to be by the window from now I shall definitely be in the aisle as when the two people next to you are sleeping it makes you far less inclinged to want to go for a walk around.

Leaving

On the way to the airport now. Next post will hopefully have attached some pictures of beaches and a clip of the flight. Ecomomy class here I come!