Monday, September 8, 2014

Thailand part1: Krabi, Koh Phi Phi and Phuket

After getting to Thailand, our first steps led to the west coast. South of Thailand is the most touristy part mainly visited for its islands with beautiful beaches with turquoise water. But, there is more than that, and we wanted to experience as much as possible:

1) Krabi - Krabi is quite a small town located on the west coast of Thailand's mainland. It is basically a gateway for visiting the nearby islands. We stayed 2 nights in Krabi (in one of the nicest hostels I have ever stayed at) and found out that it has to offer more than just the ferry to the islands.

Long-tail boats in the port

One of the beaches in Krabi area

One of the highlight's of the trip so far for me: buddhist temple on the top of the hill (I almost died after running up the 1260 very steep steps. Totally worth it though.). We got there for sunset and it was truly magical. I was totally speechless. On the picture Ben and 2 monks contemplating life...

View over the hills from the temple before sunset

Same shot on sunset

Buddha statues and sunset

2) Koh Phi Phi - Koh Phi Phi is very popular island (basically 2 islands but you can only stay on one of them) for its beautiful beaches but also party life.. As it is well-known fact that British people love to party, there was no doubt that we will meet some of them here.. But we would never expect that they made a second home out of Phi Phi - it is just flooded by young Brits (e.g. our hostel was me, Ben, maybe one more German and 20 to 30 Brits). As it is still off-season now, it was not too crazy busy, but I can imagine it can get really mental here.. One thing I really liked about Phi Phi - same as in Gili islands, there were no motorized vehicles as it is so small that you can get everywhere walking or by bike.

Shot from the ferry before disembarking in Phi Phi. The island in the back is the uninhabited second Phi Phi island with its beautiful bays and beaches (including the beach from movie "The Beach")

We stayed in a hostel+bar on the main party beach which is full of beach bars, so there was no other option but to stay up late for us as there is no way you could fall asleep in that noise.. On the picture is the day-view from the beach bar.

And here the sunset view on the same beach. Btw. it was a perfect place for a party beach because it was knee-deep shallow for about 300 meters (see the guy on the picture) so it is harder for the drunk people to drown 

And once more - same view during the day and low tide

We did a half-day long-tail boat trip around the islands to see all the remote bays and beaches of both Phi Phi islands. On the picture one of many small beaches that is only accessible by boat..

The cliffs over the beaches are remarkable.. Probably would be nice spot for rock climbers as well..

Caves on the sea

We stopped at several places like this to go snorkeling or just for a swim. 

And of course the main attraction was Maya bay - well known for its appearance in the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. It is such a big thing here that the locals decided to introduce a special tax (100 baht = 2.5 euro) for visiting Maya bay (on top of the tax (20 baht) for visiting Phi Phi as such.. We were quite lucky here as it was not too crowded (off-season) because I have heard people hating this place due to the fact that it was just flooded with people and boats..

Leo, is that you??

3) Phuket - every single person that we met on our travels told us not to go to Phuket.. Only this was good enough reason for me to go and see myself why is everybody hating Phuket so much... After I experienced it, I must say: DON'T GO TO PHUKET! EVER! 

  Here we go. The main reason why people visit Phuket: Patong beach (there is a "beach" at the end of this road) and the Bangla street a.k.a. the filth factory... This street during the night is that kind of place where you can get anything.. It's full of bars, strip-clubs, prostitutes, lady-boys, drugs and god knows what else.. (Un)luckily I didn't have opportunity to experience it myself properly (I got struck with food poisoning on the night we planned to go out) but I can easily tell that it is one of the most disgusting places that I've ever seen. The thing that amazed me was how big it can get.. the bars and strip clubs were huuuge and full of people (even off-season). Another slap to open my eyes and see how fucked-up the human race is.. The picture is made at 7AM and even at this time some clubs were still open and I got number of offers from the local ladies... YUCK

Except Patong beach we visited some quite nice places during the ride around Phuket Here are the houses in the old Phuket town.

Buddhist temple in old Phuket town

Big Buddha statue overlooking all the action that is happening on Phuket

The highlight of my Phuket stay - I went surfing on Kata beach (one of the beaches on the picture). It felt so good to be on the board again..


So much for the SW Thailand. After 'beautiful' Phuket and my night spent on the toilet, we've spent 13 hours in buses and boat to get to the islands on the East - first we headed to Koh Phangan where the (in)famous Full moon party is happening tonight... Rock on!
 


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting this info. I just want to let you know that I just check out your site and I find it very interesting and informative. I can't wait to read lots of your posts.
    Thanks for posting this info. I just want to let you know that I just check out your site and I find it very interesting and informative. I can't wait to read lots of your posts.

    ReplyDelete