After our wonderful fortnight in Taiwan, it was time to move on again; this time roughly south-west and into the maelstrom of Bangkok, where we were based for about five days or so. A couple of nights with our friends there followed by several in a guest house in the speeding heart of the city were enough, and as planned, we were ready to explore the rest of the country.
The hotel often proved hard to leave.....
And so we opted to head south all the way down the peninsula first, via a marathon (and surprisingly painless) overnight train and then minivan totalling about 16 hours in all. Well worth it when we reached what would become our base for the following two weeks plus - the Krabi River hotel, a cheap, comfortable and friendly place overlooking the estuarine river and the mangroves beyond in Krabi town, SW Thailand.
As for the town itself, a little scruffy around the edges, but not without its charms, which included - an unforgettable vegetarian cafe (a buddhist place, canteen-style for the locals, where delicious meals cost around 70p each), a night food market on the promenade (which we visited most nights), a very lovely mangrove walkway which we often strolled along at various stages of the incoming tide, the wide, beautiful river itself, and most importantly, plenty of long-tails.
Which was our main reason for basing ourselves there; Krabi is centrally and ideally located close to several stunning spots, easily (and sometimes only) accessible by boat - the traditional local model being the elegant, wooden long-tail.
Our favourite food stall in the night market
Which, once we'd weathered the unusually full-on tail-end of the monsoon rains, provided us with safe passage to plenty of beautiful places locally. Close to home, we hired Mr Ann, an affable and very skilled boatman who took us on boat rides which included drifting through the silent mangroves at dawn, visiting his small traditional village on the otherwise inaccessible side of the river, and birding along both the river and the coast nearby.
The huge limestone outcrops, white sands & clear ocean of Railay beach - even better than it looks...
Further afield, we spent an increasing amount of time at some of the most picturesque and postcard-perfect beaches in Asia - all within a half-hour of our hotel, and where we wiled away long days swimming in clear turquoise oceans and kicking back under the palm trees.
picked that morning and macheted on the spot for us - Mr Ann's coconuts on the long-tail
On the river and through the mangroves
Some of the very pretty fishing boats at Krabi
