I’ve spent the past few days trying to squeeze in as much as possible in my rapidly dwindling days of leave. I signed up for three tours in the area, including speedboat trips to beautiful islands, hot-spring soaks, sea-kayaking excursions, snorkelling, swimming, beach time, and a visit to a forest temple.
I’ve decided that the town of Krabi, where I’ve based myself for the week, is probably better and cheaper than most of the alternatives. Unlike the ugly, sterile resort towns I’ve come across in the area, Krabi retains much of its pre-tourist flavour and has lots of great street-side food stalls and markets to snoop around in the evenings.
I took my first tour yesterday, where a local company whisks tourists out on a speedboat to famous beaches and snorkelling spots around islands in the area. It used an itinerary that had been in place for several years, but modifications have been necessary since the tsunami hit here on December 26th. Most of the deserted beaches (including “The Beach” beach) and superb snorkelling spots we visited are probably the same as they were before. They all have crystal-clear water, long, white, sandy beaches, and spectacularly huge karst limestone cliffs that rise from the water and line the coastlines.
On the other hand, the coastline was clearly lined with a demolished seawall, and some of the islands with developments we were supposed to visit remained closed to visitors because they were so devastated.
On Ko Phi Phi Island, where we were originally scheduled to have lunch, we now just cruised the boat up close to gawk at the destruction. It is estimated that between 750 and 6000 people died there alone. All that’s left is a long line of demolished beach shacks and lots of demolition taking place — with backhoes loading the debris onto ocean barges.
It seems as though everyone around here has a story to tell about the tsunami. Our tour group leader was on one of the beaches we visited where he held onto a palm tree with one arm and his wife with the other to prevent being swept out to sea. They said there were three waves that came in. The first was small and kind of cool, but the second and third were the large, devastating ones. Fortunately, the initial small wave scared many people into seeking safer, higher ground.
Today I did a tour that I thought was going to be a jungle trek that circled by some hot springs, cool crystal-clear pools, and a famous forest temple. Unfortunately, we just seemed to drive from one destination to the next, so I didn’t get the workout I’d been hoping for. I guess the tour company is trying to maximise its potential client base by opening its trips to anyone (including the chronically inactive).
The forest temple was really pretty cool. I actually visited the place a few days beforehand to scale up the 1237 (!) steps to the top of one of these huge limestone cliffs you find all over the place around here. It was really gruelling, as you can imagine, but the views from the top were really quite amazing.
The Buddhists seem to like to position temples on top of high hills, but this had to be one of the highest I’ve come across. It was almost as difficult walking back down again, using different muscles. My legs were complete rubber by the time I got back down to the ground. I spent a few hours up there, just relaxing, recuperating, and enjoying the views. Other visitors seemed to act as if they sprinted up there every day.
When we visited this temple today, we didn’t bother scaling the steps on our inactive tour. Instead, we visited some other interesting parts of the temple, including a secret valley positioned between several of the cliffs. Monks were living in shacks and caves all over the grounds. It’s a pretty neat place to explore.
Tomorrow I’m heading off on a kayak trip around a local island, where I will also have time for more snorkelling, swimming, and beach time. I think I will finally get the active day I’ve been looking for.
