So we boarded the overnight bus departing from Bangkok and made our way down the southern coast of Thailand toward the city of Surat Thani. We were lucky enough to get on a bus that had "Air-Conditioning" as well as an "en route" Western (as in from the Western World as opposed to a cowboy western) movie which unfortunately had been dubbed (as opposed to subtitled) in Thai. As such, our iPods safely rescued us from the built in bus speakers which were blasting throughout the night. From there we arrived at the port of Surat Thani where we boarded a ferry headed to Koh Samui (in other words, Samui Island). We watched the sunrise as we chugged our way to the island and it was just before lunch when we reached Samui's landing port. We stopped for only about an hour before we boarded another ferry headed for our intended destination of Koh Pangnan. We arrived on the south part of the island and haggled our taxi down to an affordable price to take us the 20 minute drive to a fishing village on the north side of the island. Once in the fishing village, our (blind in one eye) long-tail boat captain (Captain Dan) took us by a rickety long-tail boat (the engine of which was a slightly modified car engine with a long propeller attached) to Had Khuad otherwise known as Bottle Beach (only accessible by boat). Once there, we stayed for a few days at the "Smile Bungalows" the set of camp-like cabins with mosquito nets and all. We enjoyed the calm quiet shore with about 40 other visitors and after 4 days we were ready to move on. From there, we backtracked our way back to Surat Thani and took a 3 hour bus trip across the mainland to the West coast of Thailand to the city of Krabi. As the sun rose in Krabi town we quickly realized that the town itself must not be the attraction and within a couple of hours we found ourselves a boat ride away and landing on the shores of the majestic Railay Bay. Mangroves on the east shore, caves, monkeys, limestone cliffs and even a lagoon all within walking distance from our room at the Ya-Ya bungalows. Krabi, as we would soon realize, was a place we wouldn't soon forget.
We took the first day to enjoy the blue skies and sandy beaches and soak up the sun. The next day we thought we would try to make our way up the red-mud cliffside to find the hidden lagoon some other travellers told us about. While we "saw" the lagoon, we had to turn back when the combination of vertical cliffsides and a sudden rain interrupted our journey. On our way back however, we encountered a real sleeping beauty that you can take a close look at in our slideshow.
Sun, Surf, Sand - Castles... Krabi has it all.
So we boarded the overnight bus departing from Bangkok and made our way down the southern coast of Thailand toward the city of Surat Thani. We were lucky enough to get on a bus that had "Air-Conditioning" as well as an "en route" Western (as in from the Western World as opposed to a cowboy western) movie which unfortunately had been dubbed (as opposed to subtitled) in Thai. As such, our iPods safely rescued us from the built in bus speakers which were blasting throughout the night. From there we arrived at the port of Surat Thani where we boarded a ferry headed to Koh Samui (in other words, Samui Island). We watched the sunrise as we chugged our way to the island and it was just before lunch when we reached Samui's landing port. We stopped for only about an hour before we boarded another ferry headed for our intended destination of Koh Pangnan. We arrived on the south part of the island and haggled our taxi down to an affordable price to take us the 20 minute drive to a fishing village on the north side of the island. Once in the fishing village, our (blind in one eye) long-tail boat captain (Captain Dan) took us by a rickety long-tail boat (the engine of which was a slightly modified car engine with a long propeller attached) to Had Khuad otherwise known as Bottle Beach (only accessible by boat). Once there, we stayed for a few days at the "Smile Bungalows" the set of camp-like cabins with mosquito nets and all. We enjoyed the calm quiet shore with about 40 other visitors and after 4 days we were ready to move on. From there, we backtracked our way back to Surat Thani and took a 3 hour bus trip across the mainland to the West coast of Thailand to the city of Krabi. As the sun rose in Krabi town we quickly realized that the town itself must not be the attraction and within a couple of hours we found ourselves a boat ride away and landing on the shores of the majestic Railay Bay. Mangroves on the east shore, caves, monkeys, limestone cliffs and even a lagoon all within walking distance from our room at the Ya-Ya bungalows. Krabi, as we would soon realize, was a place we wouldn't soon forget.
We took the first day to enjoy the blue skies and sandy beaches and soak up the sun. The next day we thought we would try to make our way up the red-mud cliffside to find the hidden lagoon some other travellers told us about. While we "saw" the lagoon, we had to turn back when the combination of vertical cliffsides and a sudden rain interrupted our journey. On our way back however, we encountered a real sleeping beauty that you can take a close look at in our slideshow.
Sun, Surf, Sand - Castles... Krabi has it all.
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