Krabi – Day Three
Well, our last full day in Krabi was definitely a goody. Carly and I signed up for a day-trip that took us to several islands around the area including the famous Phi Phi islands (one side of which was struck by the Tsunami last December) as well as a couple famous beaches. We hit up Maya beach which is where they shot DiCaprio's film "The Beach". Our tour operator noted that prior to the filming, this beach was not famous at all, and was a lot quieter.
At any rate, we were picked up at our hotel in the morning, and they drove us down to the beach from which we departed on a fairly large speed boat. We had 3 or so local Thai guide/driver/staff folks, and I would guess about 13 or so "tourists". I heard a couple sitting beside us speaking in German, so I took my rusty Deutsch for a spin and the couple entertained me for a while before we both quite happily switched to English.
Our first couple of stops were some areas in which we did some snorkeling. Now, I haven't done a lot of snorkeling in my day (once in Cuba, once in Malaysia) - but these snorkeling experiences here were by far the best. There were so many fish swimming around the boat that the only option for getting into the water was to jump in, and hope the fish got out of the way so you didn't smash any of them. We tried to get a few pictures that could capture the sheer number of the fish, but it's a bit hard unless you have an underwater camera.
I won't give a mass running commentary about our day, but just try to touch on some highlights. Mostly because I can't really remember the order in which we did things, or the names of all the places we went, so you'll just have to look at the pictures, and maybe make up a story for yourself.
We stopped at one of the Phi Phi islands for some lunch, which was "ok", and then proceeded to walk along with the German couple we met to the other side of the island where the Tsunami hit. Now, arriving to this side of the island was a little strange. Along our walk it was quite obvious that "Something Bad Happened" hear, mostly because of the tons of rubble and debris that still seemed to be all over the place. But when we actually got to the beach, and you just sorta look out at the palm trees and grass over towards the water, you can just feel that something "Not Good" happened hear. It was almost eerie how the life just seemed to have been sucked from everything. There weren't many people on this side of the island, maybe a dozen or so that we saw at a few spots on the beach. There was quite a bit of building going on as I think they are still trying to restore a lot of the resorts and commercial establishments that once stood on this side of the island.
All in all, a fabulous day of beach trekking and snorkeling. We returned to Ao Nang, went home for a bit of a nap, and then met up with the German couple that we'd hung out with during the day for some dinner (any maybe a couple beers, too). Dinner was had at a beach-side Thai restaurant, just listening to the waves and enjoying the breeze.
