It was a boat trip to Surat Thani, a 3 hour bus ride from the East to West coast, a hour long wait in the Krabi bus station and a 25 minute taxi ride before anyone mentioned the Thai pants incident. As I got out the car in the middle of Krabi town, in the rain, the smart-arse from Newcastle said ‘dohn’t loose your trousers ahgain eh?’

I found a very nice, very cheap guesthouse and dumped my stuff and went for a wander. Krabi town is, well just a town really. It’s a go-through place to boats to the islands of Phi Phi, Phuket and Lanta.

Needing some friends, I thought a tour would be most sensible… Okay. We got Quadding (expensive), Trekking (bit boring). Rock climbing (just had manicure), Elephant Treking (NO!), 5 island tour (it’s going to rain and I don’t care where you are in the world, beaches in the rain ain’t as beautiful as beaches in the sun) Cycling (YES!)
The leaflet for the ½ day cycle all around the Krabi Province showed the activities along the way and lots of people all thumbs-upping and generally having a lovely bikey time. So I booked.

8.30 the next day and my tour guide ‘Wut’ or Woody to his friends picked me up in his van and informed me that I was the only one booked on the tour. Unless I could convince Woody to hang out with me for a few days, this friend-making exercise had failed miserably.

I was, however determined to get my money’s worth so I asked Woody a million questions about everything we saw. We rode all along the provinces’ coast, through a rubber plantation, a pineapple farm, a Batik factory, tiny villages and a marine research centre Along the way he told me stories about the Tsunami and how his family were affected. This part of Thailand was not hit buy the big wave itself but the after flood was about 10ft tall and still ruined everything. He took me to a wooded area near the sea where the memorial stands in a woven hut, on stilts. The statue is two pairs of golden hands reaching out of the waves- It was a bit eerie- very quiet and atmospheric. Until of course I dropped my lens cap and it fell between the wooden planks in to the deep mud and water. When poor old Woody, now muddy and soaking, returned from kindly retrieving it for me, he looked like he’d just been in a frigging Tsunami.

Brilliant tour 34km tour completed, most of it in the most torrential yet warm rain, Woody dropped me at an area a little further north called AoNang. This seemed to have a little more going on and was a bit like a seaside down back home. I found a place to stay and booked 2 nights. There are bound to be some pals for Julesy here. Surely?
I went to an Italian for lunch and smiled insanely at anyone that walked in, hoping they would befriend me. I went to a restaurant in the evening and got placed at a table next to another English looking girl eating alone. ‘Hey’ I said, ‘eating alone?’
‘Yeah’ was the reply.
‘Shall I join you?’ I smiled.
‘Nah It’s cool, ya’alright’

English people are so bloody rude. You would not catch an Israeli saying no. So I then had to try to enjoy my meal knowing full well that 3 foot away was someone that definitely did not want me any closer than that. Hhhmmmf!

So I went to bed early and watched Broken Arrow (too many continuity errors to mention) and Die Hard on the thai-tv. I love Die Hard. Like Kellogs Corn Flakes, I’d forgotten how good it tastes.

Weather has changed! It’s not raining. Quick! Book a tour! 5 Island tour. Me and, yep, you guessed it some Israelis! They were very nice actually but on their Honeymoon so I didn’t suggest we hang out. The speedboat took us about ¾ of a mile and had to turn back- it was so windy and rough that we wouldn’t make it to Phi Phi safely. So back on dry, windly land I booked a cookery course starting that afternoon. When I turned up it was just me, again. I left.

First time of feeling a bit low hit me. I knew I’d be okay, I was just a bit lonely having not really spoken to anyone in 3 days and so frustrated that everything was being hard work. In a sulk, I went to bed and watched 2 episodes of season 5 of The Wire. Suddenly everything was a-okay. Tomorrow, I thought, tomorrow’s my day.

The next day I went to Railay Beach on a long-tail and slobbed. Read about ½ my book, had a massage, ate Papaya salad. If I was going to be lonely, my god I was going to be lonely on a beautiful beach surrounded by incredible cliffs.

Railay Beach

On the boat on the way back I sat next to Coo and Scott, 2 friends from Guilford who are travelling together. We sat at the front of the boat and got absolutely drenched. United by our wet underwear, we arranged to have some dinner that evening. They were travelling with another guy, from Bidborough Oli. He was off diving.

I met them all and we went for a funny meal and then an even funnier game of pool and ‘kings’; a card game I should never play again. I was a bit poorly the next day. I could have been something to do with the Bloody Mary I had at the Chang Bar in AoNang. The lady at the bar (could have been a boy though to be honest as I was well oiled at the time and you can never be too sure round these parts) didn’t know how to make a Bloody Mary so I asked if I could. I did. Obviously it was strong but they had no pepper or salt and she probably would have thought celery was a sex toy so that was missing too. Chang Bar score 6/10: Nice strength but bad tomato juice, no spices, celery and was too drunk to enjoy it properly.

Ko Lanta seems to be the next stop for everyone and after beating Oli at Connect 4 TWICE, both times playing for a night’s accommodation, I have a couple of nice free sleeps. Happy days.

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