Finally BEACHES!
Sorry I haven’t posted lately– I’ve been too busy hanging out on the BEACH!! Ha, ha, ha to all you suckers in the snow.
So ANYWAY…we stayed at Krabi one day on the hot room and went to one of the zillions of travel agents to ask about rooms in Ao Nang– nearby, but with a beach. The guy was very nice and spoke English well and told us about a room in our price range and he would take us there tomorrow for free, and if we didn’t like it we could leave. So the next morning we go back to the agency and the guy said we’d have to pay 200 baht for a taxi to take us. What bullcrap. I’m so tired of people trying to fleece us (and all farangs)… they must really think we are stupid. I mean, yeah yeah, I know we are so fortunate compared to them, but I don’t deserve to be lied to. So we walked right out and jumped on a sawngthaew which cost 20 baht (50 cents). We got a very nice room with A/C and even a fridge. It’s another very touristy area, but the beach is so nice!!!
Did I mention you can see some of the beach from the hotel balcony thing? The room was more expensive than we wanted …
Ok, weirdest thing. This GIGANTIC flying insect was buzzing around by the computers and the lady was trying to get it away, and finally she trapped it under a feather duster and it made SUCH a loud noise it was like a motor. Then it got around and was flipping around and came near my computer, and finally a uniformed guy came over and just grabbed it and walked away and it was buzzing SO loud!! Didn’t even sound like a bug. EW. Wow.
Anyway, it was 1,000 baht, which is like $25. When you think of it, that is very cheap for a nice room but we want to spend less. Anyway we walked to the beach (like 5 mins) and the water was crystal clear and not even that cold. Even me, who can’t swim and isn’t a huge fan of water, was in there within seconds and jumping around having fun. There are huge limestone rocks jutting out of the water everywhere, very very big, and it is dramatic and beautiful. And only to think, this is one of the least nice beaches we’ll see!
[Months later note: Actually, I was wrong. Ao Nang was one of the nicest beaches we saw. I learned to appreciate it more later, when going to beaches with stonefish and jellyfish and tons of coral on the beach that hurt your feet.]
So the next day we went on a tour of the mangrove, which is like a forest in the water, sort of. I can’t wait to show you pictures. They loaded us up on a truck full’o’Scandinavians (although I did impress one Swede with my extensive language skills [thanks to Carl] and knowledge of tennis. Ha.)
Then we got into kayaks and pulled ourselves through the water, (me plastered with sunblock after somehow skimping on it the day before and burning my forearms and legs. I think it was because I was frolicking so fancy free on the nice beach.) Anyway, the scenery was gorgeous and while there weren’t any monkeys, we saw lots of small crabs crawling around in the mud and lots of mudskippers, you know, like Muddy the Mudskipper from Ren & Stimpy? They are fish (I think) but they hang out on the mud and flip around and push themselves with their tiny little arm fins. That was really neat. It was a lot of nice scenery but too much damn paddling. At least we got lots of pineapple to eat.
Pic: The inside of a cave that had a famous old wall drawing.
Pic: Another neat shot of kayaking through a cave.
I almost forgot– after it was done they trucked us to a mountain/waterfall stream, and it was amazing. Imagine a forest with a deep-ish CRYSTAL CLEAR stream flowing through it, clearer than ANY WATER you’ve EVER seen. Unfortunately it was too cold for me but Jim and others had fun there. It was so gorgeous and like something from a book.
So the mangroves & kayaking were ok. We got fried bananas and sticky rice with coconut at the end so that was good too. That’s all for that trip…we felt bad about spending so much money that day so we actually ate at McDonalds for dinner. I hate to admit, but it tastes good and it actually cheaper than most food here. We were spoiled by Chiang Mai and the cheapness there! I asked a vendor the price for a hat, and he said 550 baht (like $14)!!! I got one like it in Chiang Mai for 50 baht! Totally crazy. I mean, do I look like I arrived in Thailand yesterday?
Anyway…..
As I speak, there is a little light gray gecko chilling on the wall next to me!! Like 1 foot away! And I saw one hide under the CPU. I love geckos, they are so cute and on the walls everywhere!! (I am at a computer outside, actually.)
Here is a blog of a nice couple we met in Singapore:
http://www.travelpod.com/members/smyth
Tags: Thailand
Kelly
Is that what kind of bugs they get in their computers? The real kind? Yeh, I know your Swedish contists of one word, right, Carl?? Sounds like its beautiful, something like Pinconning??
“…do I look like I arrived in Thailand yesterday?”
Muhahahaa! – YES, probably! 🙂
Claire, I think Kelly knows a handful of Swedish words *of which she probably shouldn’t use one or two with just anyone… :-)*.
My guess is you said “lycka till,” right Kelly? 🙂
About the problem with the big pics: can’t you just fix so the JavaScript open() function opens the images in windows that are resizable?
change the part where it says:
scrollbars=no,resizable=no
to:
scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes
OR, forget about using JavaScript and just make it a regular link (by removing the onClick event on the links you already have).
A’ight, gotta go grab some grub… Catch ya later, Kelly & Jim! *hey, why don’t you force Jim to write something some day? 🙂 :-)*
You guys take care now!
/Carlito