Krabi

Hello Family & Friends -

As Sam said, we bid him farewell at the Bangkok airport and set off to start the island portion of our trip.  We were super excited for some fun in the sun!  Well, as we approached Krabi, the color of the sky said it all.  It was the darkest, dreariest weather I'd seen in a long time.  And it was pissing it down.  So we could only hope this would pass.

 We collected our bags and got a taxi, which we had to pre-pay which felt a bit dodgy.  Then the driver proceeded to tell us the weather had been like this the past 5 days and would end on Tues (the day we leave Krabi.)  We assumed he had no idea what he was talking about.  At least we hoped. 

The drive was quite long and on lots of dark, winding side streets.  I think we all were a bit on edge.  But we arrived at Phupimaan unscathed.  Yep, the name of our hotel was pronounced (we think) Poo-Pee-Maan.  Haha, we got a kick out of saying that a lot.  :)

During check-in we received a welcome fruit drink and tried to understand what the dudes were explaining to us.  We thought he said they needed to take a deposit so I handed him my card for mine and Yazz's room.  Well that was a mistake as they proceeded to charge the total for both rooms, both nights on my card.  The English level was pretty non-existent.  I don't expect it to be great, given we are in Thailand.  But all of the other places I've stayed, you could at least communicate.

Anyhoo, we dropped our bags and set out in the shuttle into town for dinner.  The rain had stopped and we were so excited.  We were walking along the street trying to find the famous "Seafood Street" when the heavens opened.  It was like in the movies when it just comes out of nowhere and you know it never happens like that.  Well it does in Asia during wet season I can confirm.  We were drenched and took cover under an overhang.  We weren't in the best of moods.

We finally found the restaurant and had a great meal (thank goodness) and even got to see the Thai Elvis show us his magic tricks.  Let me tell you how excited Yazz was!  :)  Meanwhile, behind us on the ocean there was a raging typhoon with horizontal rain blowing the lamp completely parallel with the ground.  Details!  I'm sure it will pass!

We ended the night with a drink in this cool little bar playing music with US license plates all over the wall.  We got a kick out of that!  Walked home praying for the rain to hold off!

Monday we awoke to blue skies and sun???  Nope, it was still a hurricane out there.  We grabbed breakfast and tried to figure out what to do today, as our original plan was to get a longtail boat over to Railay Beach and do some cliff jumping and hiking.  We decided that wasn't going to happen.  The rain did take a break for a bit and we were able to swim and take advantage of the great pool at the hotel.

After our swim we went into town and got some lunch from a street vendor.  Is it sad that this is one of our highlights?  Pad Thai for just over $1 USD?  :)  It was so good!!!

We then wandered down to the beach where we were still able to get some good shots.  Luckily the rain has stopped by now!

Then we split up and me, Kim and Matt went to get twisted and cracked in a traditional Thai massage and Yazz did some shopping.  After the massage on the beach Kim and Matt ran into their favorite animal - a monkey!!!  I saw the dude up ahead and I'm thinking, "Just keep walking, don't look at him, I don't want to pay to hold a monkey."  But Kim and Matt clearly did!  LOL.  It was hilarious!  I mean, it was only about $3 USD so I guess you can't really argue too much.  We did have a scare when Matt couldn't find his wallet and we thought the monkey yanked it.  But luckily it was just in a different pocket!  Phew!  :)

That night we grabbed Indian for a change from Thai and it was excellent!  We stuffed ourselves and then had a quiet evening in to pack and get ready for tomorrow's adventure to Koh Phi Phi.  Hopefully the weather will clear up.  Fingers crossed!

- Jenny & "hard at work" Sam