Tuesday 21 December 2010

Bars, Boats and Mangroves

Tuesday 21st December 2010

MP3 track of the day: I'm yours – Jason Mraz

Weather: Cloudy but dry









Yesterday evening Matt, Rachael (The English couple) and I went out to the most bizarre pub in Krabi. The pub itself wasn't that different but the two members of staff were odd; one, I think, was a lesbian (which, I think, fancied Rachael) and the other was clearly a man. 'Lady GaGa' was also played continually throughout the evening. The two were friendly enough and so we stayed there for the evening playing cards, eventually returning to our hostel around 1:30am.


Due to the window being open in my dorm – and the fact that continual traffic was traveling right outside – I woke around 8:30am. As I went to get ready for the day it was a little odd to see Matt and Rachael as they had planned to set off early today to use their hired scooter one last time. We all went for breakfast before I returned to the hostel to do some jobs; Matt and Rachael went out on said scooter.


Realising that they hadn't got much 'scooter rental' time left Rachael and Matt abandoned the idea of using it today and met me back at the hostel. I had just finished my jobs when Matt asked if I wanted to join them on a boat trip. We walked out to the harbor where Rachael managed to barter the one hour boat ride trip down to 400 baht (£8.00).


It was quite a mission boarding the long boat from the harbor front, having to step half a meter down onto a rocking vessel. The long boat traveled down the river at a lovely slow pace and it went extremely close to a mangrove swamps. In front of us were two giant, impressive rock formations that looked like two teeth piercing out of the sea. We stopped at one of these rocks to walk around the island.


We made it to the face of the rock and I was greeted by an eroded wooden staircase that we walked up to see a huge cave with stalagmites and stalactites. No barriers, no ropes, nothing; we could walk right up to these impressive pillars of nature and photograph away. Also within the caves were information boards about what they were used for. It appears that the Japanese used these caves as a natural hideout towards the end of World War 2.


Once back on the boat we headed back to port thinking our trip was over, however the best was still to come. Just after we had seen a huge lizard in the mangroves we took a left turn and went past a load of docked fishing boats, and a floating village, and back into the mangroves. The boat then took a sharp right and we actually entered the mangroves along this narrow watery path; this was amazing. The boat slowed down to a crawl and we were enveloped in mangrove trees, leaves and vines. We went left and right through narrow enclosed passage ways until we appeared at this floating village.


We moored up at this restaurant; at this point I was slightly skeptical of our boat drivers intentions … you hear of story's from South East Asia where taxi drivers give cheap tours of a city and then drop you off at shop where you have to buy something, I did not like the predicament that I had been put in.


Getting out of the boat cautiously Matt, Rachael and I were met by a waiter who showed us around the restaurants fresh fish. Being a floating restaurant large wooden containers, with nets, were laid out on the floor with different fish in each container. The guy through food into some of the containers so that we could see the fish on offer; he also picked out a 'puffer fish' from the water to show us … which was kind of cool, but pretty cruel at the same time.


We then sat down at the restaurant and were given a menu; we had decided just to have a drink and I was surprised to find that the prices were actually really cheap, the food wasn't too bad either. I had a coke, Rachael had a coconut milk and Matt had an apple juice (which he said was the best he had ever tasted). We then all boarded the boat and headed back to mainland Krabi, feeling happy that the 'forced restaurant' situation went rather well.


We had lunch at our favorite restaurant (two doors down from our hostel; I've eaten there four times and the food is excellent and cheap) before chilling in the afternoon. At around 7:30pm we went off some some tea at the night market; I had a chicken and rice dish before finishing it off with a chocolate pancake. We were going to play cards in the evening however we were all pretty tired and so we had an early night instead.


Toodle Pip!

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