After spending quite a bit longer on the southern islands than we planned, we somewhat reluctantly left our island paradise and made our way to mainland Thailand. A (thankfully) short ferry ride took us to shore, and then we took a bus to the town of Krabi on the east coast of Thailand.

The Sites

A short drive from Krabi Town is the Tiger Temple. Located at the top of a mountain, logically we should have realized that visiting the temple would involve an intense climb. Yet somehow it took us by surprise and the 1,260 incredibly steep steps in the unforgiving Thai heat were a feat to overcome. We made it to the top – after a brief standoff with aggressive monkeys on the way up – and were rewarded with absolutely gorgeous views. Even better, we made it back down the mountain with literally 30 seconds to spare before a huge downpour started. Finally a change of luck in our favor!

The other main activity people do in Krabi is rock climbing at Railay beach. Neither of us are rock climbers, but we didn’t feel like we could leave the area without experiencing it! We signed up for a class that was advertised as good for beginners and it really was a great experience. We ended up in a giant group of all skill levels with instructors lined up along a cliff side that varied in difficulty. The instructors were great – they were so encouraging and pretty much refused to let you fail/give up. If you were struggling they would yell exactly where to take your next step so you would make it to the top. John was definitely more the natural climber between the two of us (but he also has significantly longer limbs so if you ask me he’s cheating!) After the class John stuck around and hung out on the beach with some of our classmates while I took a long-tail boat back to the hotel to prepare for a work interview – the first signs that our trip is coming to a close and the real world is creeping back in. However as part of my prep I got a Thai massage (okay so not so real world 🙂 )- which I discovered is such a rookie mistake! It was the most intense massage I’ve ever received and by the time my interview started I was feeling physically sick – which apparently is a side effect of deep tissue massages. I learned my lesson, but it was a surprisingly uncomfortable night!

The Food

One of the best parts of Krabi (in our opinion) is the daily night market. Dozens of food stalls serving a wide variety of food, we had a hard time not trying them all! Surprising no one, we had to try a couple unique items –

• Bua Loi: colorful rice flour dumplings in a coconut milk soup. Tasty but by like the third bite it became too sweet for us.
• Oysters: we were maybe a little too bold and got raw oysters in a spicy sauce. They were delicious but we didn’t want to push our luck too much and only ate a few. And we survived!

I also haven’t talked about mango sticky rice, which is crazy because during this period of our time in Thailand we literally got it every night after dinner. Fresh sliced mango on top of sticky rice with a coconut milk drizzle – doesn’t really get better than that!

Phang-nga

In an effort to stay in some non-tourist places along our trip, we made a stop over in the small town of Phang-nga. It is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains and caves, and definitely had the non-touristy vibe we were looking for. In fact, from what we could tell there was only one taxi in the entire town, and every time we needed a taxi we had to get someone to call one and the same driver always showed up.
As much as we enjoyed this town, we didn’t get to experience much of it. We both got food poisoning on our second day (because we just can’t catch a break) and it incapacitated us both. We decided this was the sign that we needed to start playing it safer with food – though honestly we didn’t feel like we were being that risky (except maybe the oysters). But of course since this town isn’t a tourist spot, we couldn’t find a restaurant that looked safe to enough to our fragile stomachs. We ended up eating bread, crackers and cup of noodle the entire time we were there. 

Beyond not getting to experience the food, we also had the hardest time visiting a nearby cave with a river running through it. You hire a guide to paddle you on a boat through the cave and it looked so cool! The first day I was too sick, the second day John was too sick, and then finally the third day we were both healthy enough and even called a cab to come get us – and then it started torrential down pouring. I don’t know a lot about caves but I feel like avoiding them in intense downpours due to flash flooding is always a safe bet. So we unfortunately took it as a sign we weren’t supposed to visit the cave and rerouted our taxi driver. 
We did get to visit the Tham Sam cave which was full of old drawings from ~1900 which was really cool. It is also surrounded by a whole bunch of monkeys that really put on a show. We also visited the Tham Ruesi Sawan park that had a series of cool cave-like structures to walk through and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. When our cab driver dropped us off he got the roof of his truck stuck on a rock formation – clearly he doesn’t drop people off there often!

Once our stomachs felt like they could handle a several hour bus ride, we finally made our way to the next destination. I promise most of our time in Thailand was healthy and food-poisoning free! It only gets better from here.

Christine