We are halfway exploring the amazing country of Thailand! Leaving Malaysia, we made our way up on the west side through a smooth border crossing (with some laughs when an American guy from our bus was requested to change his tank-top for something more formal) and onto another boat to whisk us off to the small island of Koh Lipe. The biggest change from Malaysia to Thailand was - and still is - the language and script. While in Indonesia and Malaysia (who share the same Bahasa - language) we were starting to get the hang of basic conversation with locals, we could only grasp at what on earth they were trying to say to us in Thai. Let alone make those same words come out of our mouths! Up to now, all we've accomplished are the basic hello and thank you. But any word other than English is always better than none! The people are a lot more welcoming than their southern neighbours anyway and it didn't take long for us to start understanding why Thailand is so loved among tourists. The only thing that was harder to get used to was Koh Lipe itself, as it was in the midst of pre-season construction. Now it is still the 'green season', meaning cheap prices and less people but also more rain. And on Koh Lipe it also means barges docking at our beach and bulldozers - yes bulldozers! - driving on and off to get their goods until late in the evening. Not so much fun if the main reason of your visit is to live the relaxed island life. The vibe of the island is pretty good though and the laid-back village street with all its cozy restaurants and bars must be a great place in the high season - we were just two weeks too early. We managed to find this more or less on walks to different and more secluded beaches on the island but everywhere we went, we were accompanied by some sort of hammering and sawing noises in the background. So for one day we visited the national park of a neighbouring island so we could finally enjoy the joys of having the whole beach to ourselves. When walking through the island's jungle in search of a waterfall we were joined by a dog - we called her Blackie - who started to fight with the forest monkeys in order to protect us! In the end we were the ones most scared by the screaming monkeys and not the dog but it was an hilarious sight!
Our next destination was the limestone paradise of Krabi! To be more precise, the long stretch of scarcely developed beach surrounded by the most amazing limestone cliffs of Ton Sai - still attached to the mainland but only accessible by boat and therefore with the accompanying beach-bum vibe. Unmistakably the most chilled out place I've ever been too! It is crazy how little you can do in one day: have cheap breakfast at one of the outdoor food stalls/restaurants on a sandy path, move over to the Thai cushions at the beach bar for a fruit shake and some reading, walk over the rocks to the adjoining and even more amazing beaches of Railey and Phra Nang, eat, swim, scramble back over the rocks, enjoy a cold shower, eat some great local dishes and make your way to one of the three reggae bars and share the company of some Changs (our favourite Thai beer) and the guitar play and chatter of fellow travellers from all over the world (who are mainly there to climb). We did get out of our routine to explore the cliffs and surrounding islands from the water on a kayak (or well... a pretty crappy sit on top piece of plastic) and found a whole bunch of hidden caves and the most crazy rock formations dangling above the ocean! And you should have seen the surprised look on other tourists faces when we docked on the islands normally only visited by speedboat!
From Railey beach (next to Ton Sai) we got herded onto a packed boat, onto the pier in to a mass of people all being demanded to pay 20Bhat for island cleaning fees (Thailand clean?), through hundreds of touts trying to sell us expensive resort packages and into a tourism office from where you could take our pick out of other pricey accommodations... welcome to Koh Phi Phi Don. After we got into our place that was nice but definitely not worth the money, we explored the streets and beach filled with everything to entertain "the tourist". The island itself is pretty but that gets overshadowed by the tons of people (think of trashy English, All-Inclusive Americans and obnoxious speedo and cowboyhat wearing Russians - and a few lost backpackers like us) and the high prices you have to pay to enjoy its true beauty. We saw a glimpse of it on our island-hop and snorkel tour that visited a bunch of the two island's (Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley) highlights. Despite the clouds and crowds, we enjoyed the beautiful white sand beaches, hidden coves and the wet and bumpy ride on the longtail boat. But our (and everyone else's) main draw to Phi Phi is the world famous Maya Bay, which we finally got to see on our last stop! The bay was pretty amazing but unfortunately not as breathtaking as we had hoped for... The main reason was that the otherwise turquoise water was all the way out and the sun failed to make an appearance only until the last minute to shine a little bit of light on the otherwise lush limestone cliffs... :(. Nevertheless, it was cool to hang on the beach that they used for the movie 'The Beach' and imagine living on a deserted island surrounded by cliffs - although in our case we were joined by a little larger group of fellow 'islanders'. To make up for our slight disappointment, we joined the crazy fire show, limbo and party on the beach, dancing barefoot in the sand with a bucket of cheap booze in our hand, and made the trip to Phi Phi a bit more worthwhile!
In need to get back in touch with the island-vibe that we lost in busy Phi Phi, we quickly took off to neighbouring Koh Lanta. Only 45min by boat but worlds away! Imagine the longest stretches of sand with barely no others to share them with than the owners of the very chilled out and well designed beach bars. Where we spent quite a few hours gazing into the ocean, playing card games and eating a variation of the now very familiar fried rice and noodle dishes. Since the island is pretty big, we rented a motorbike to cruise around and explore the many beaches, the old heritage town and jungle interior and to see a bit more of the Thai island life. And encountering crossing dogs, monkeys and at one point even elephants! Now we're really enjoying Thailand! Or at least as much as you can on a tourist-orientated island!
