Thailand #3- Koh Phi Phi, Krabi

Here we are at Koh Phi Phi. Notice the longboats which are used for most of the transportation of tourists.

Feeling like we could stay here for a long time!

Did we mention that this is where the movie Beach was shot!

A light lunch of shrimp wrapped in green crispy rice noodles.

Birding isn't just standing in one spot- in this case there was lots of climbing as well.

The water was so clean and clear you could see down to the bottom even when swimming.

Tuk-tuk with a flat tire on Krabi on the way to the hotel.

Hotel bungalow on Krabi Island.

This picture gives you some idea of the scale of the rocks jutting out of the water!

Feb.14 Morris black print, Irene blue  #3

Morris here again.  We are now in Krabi, the name of a town, not a
description of how I am feeling!  We have just come from Ko Phi Phi. (Ph is
pronounced as "p").  Can't help the names here (Bangkok!!).

We caught the plane from Chiang Mai to Phuket.  The flight timing is bad.
To get to Ko Phi Phi from Chiang Mai in a day is impossible, although it's
only two hours flying time.  The reason is the timing of the ferries that
leave Phuket for Ko Phi Phi.  So instead of leaving the day after birding,
we left the same evening.  However, our flight from Bangkok to Phuket was
delayed by about 2 hours. So we arrived in our hotel at 2.30 am.  Not fun!
I had chosen the hotel because it was in Phuket, and therefore,
theoretically, we should have been able to get to the ferry easily.  Not so.
There is Phuket province and Phuket town.  The hotel was in Patong, which is
Phuket province, but the ferry was in Phuket town!.  Another 45 minute car
ride.  We just made it to the ferry.   The ferry took another 45 minutes, so
we eventually arrived at the hotel, which is isolated on the island, away
from the main ferry terminal, at about 5.00 pm.  Thus it took us 24 hours to
get to Ko Phi Phi from Chiang Mai.  Was it worth it?  Yes!.  Ko Phi Phi is
beautiful.  It's like a more exotic Caribbean island with mountains.  That
night we had our first, and so far only bad Thai meal.  Instead of eating at
the resort hotel we ate at a restaurant up the beach.  Bad idea.

The following morning we lazed on the beach, admiring the scenery, and that
afternoon we went snorkelling.  Wonderful.  Could have carried on all day,
but of course we had to get back.

Ko Phi Phi was just gorgeous.  It's a small Island with a mountain backbone
(actually more like a hill), and several secluded coves with beaches.  The
colours of the water are beautiful, that light blue green that you see in
shallow water, with the deep blue of deeper water.  There are reefs all
around the island, one of which was our snorkelling destination.  There are
these strange rocks projecting out of the sea.  Most are just rocks, no
beach.  The walls are vertical, more or less.  None of this slope from base
to apex stuff, just straight up.  One of the James Bond movies, with Pierce
Brosnan and Jonathan Pearce as the bad guy was filmed somewhere here and
showed these rocks.  They are limestone rocks, so they erode relatively
easily where they are in contact with the sea, so at the base of these rock
they are undercut.(which means that there are little caves underneath)

Getting to Krabi was also an adventure.  We left the resort by boat,
transferred to another boat two hours later, and 90 minutes later arrived in
Krabi.  To get to our hotel we took a taxi to the river, a boat across the
river and a tuk-tuk to the hotel.  The hotel is on an island, and the only
access is by boat and by tuk-tuk.  There are no cars on this island.  Our
tuk-tuk was essentially an old (very old) Lambretta with a side car
attached.  Somewhere in putting this contraption together the poor Lambretta
lost its oomph.  It chugged along at a few km/hour along this narrow
concrete strip that passed for a road.  We were passed by many motorcycles,
impatient with our lack of progress and that we occupied most of the road.
We had to cross a stream.  The poor Lambretta barely made it up the rise.
So when we came to an even more steep bridge the driver decided we had to
dump the heaviest item - Me!.  I had to get out and get back in again when
the scooter had crested the rise (all of 10 feet).  This seemed such an
unlikely way to get to a resort hotel that we both had our doubts about
where we were going.  Had the various boatmen, taxi drivers and Lambretta
drivers misunderstood where we wanted to go? (Maybe we were being taken to
someone's cousin's ½ star hotel, judging from the buildings we passed on
route.) We passed through villages, fields, swamps, mangroves and it seemed
like we would never get there. On route we saw lots of housing- very
primitive looking with family members sitting outside on what looks like an
elevated platform with a canopy overhead- no chairs or furniture).Not sure
what they do inside the house, sleep and watch TV I guess) There were fires
going on the properties because this is where the people cook. I don't think
they have stoves- cellphones, TV and satellite dishes no problem though!)
Then, Phhhht!  Flat tire.  Now it seemed we were really stuck.  Thank God
for cell phones.  The driver made a call, another tuk-tuk came along and we
were on our way again.  Shortly after we arrived at our destination (-
definitely a 4 star hotel, private bungalow on stilts, teak deck with teak
and wicker furniture, toilet and shower outside but covered by a roof, so
very private.....  So to get from Ko Phi Phi to Krabi a distance of about 40
km, we took, two ferries, a cab, a local long tail boat and two tuk-tuks.
Tomorrow,to meet our birding guide we will have to take the tuk-tuk again,
and cross the river once more.  No bridges, so another boat.

We have had nothing but kindness from Thai hotel staff.  The Thai hotel
staff is so friendly, so polite and so obliging(without being obsequious),
it's incredible.  We found this in Chiang Mai, on Ko Phi Phi and again
tonight in Krabi.  Would that hotel staff elsewhere were as obliging.

Feb 16- We were awoken at 6:15 am so that we could get to meet our guide on
the mainland by 7:15. Another tuk-tuk to a long-tail boat. Halfway across
the river the boat driver got a call on his cell- it is so incongruous to
see these guys walking around barefoot, driving these old wooden boats and
carrying cell phones. It turned out that our birding guide had been in an
accident and couldn't meet us. We had no clue what was going on but the boat
driver suddenly became our birding guide. He had an English book on Birds of
Thailand, an app on his cell phone for bird calls, and was able to identify
the few birds we did see. However, his English was minimal and pronunciation
interesting so it took a bit of doing to interpret. e.g. kingfisher=
kinfitr, with the accent on the wrong syllable- typical in Thailand.

We spent a few hours of going in and out of narrow channels with mangroves
on either side of the river. I was feeling very much  like I was in the
movie African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. We had
expected to spend the day birding, then stay in a local hotel found by our
guide and fed  meals by the guide's wife. None of this worked out so Morris
walked around the resort with his binoculars. I had a swim in a fabulous
pool, then the best massage of my life!  . If you have ever had a
professional massage, you will know that there is a hole at the head of the
massage bed  where you rest your face basically staring at the floor. Not so
in this case, there was a wide bowl which fit just under the opening and in
the bowl were yellow and white mildly scented flowers! When I turned over I
could see the tops of palm trees through the windows - life could be worse

Love to all