Saturday 1st February
Yesterday morning
was a Krabi day. We climbed onto a
longtail at 8.45 and chugchugged our way along the spectacular coast, up the
Krabi River, and into town. Krabi is a
very tourist-oriented town, full of shops and cafés, but it isn’t really very
beautiful. The landscape is dominated by
mangroves, with some spectacular rock formations in the background. Nothing like glorious Railay…
But…there are nice
aspects. Life-size statues of elephants.
Lotus flowers
blooming in the ditches
Harbour Master,
Customs, Immigration – a long series of forms to fill in, from one end of town
to the other. We were going to walk
but…it is very hot and after many signs telling us Immigration was 500 metes up the street, they suddenly changed
their minds and said, 4.5 kilometres up
the street instead…
So we took a
taxi. They were very courteous in all of
the offices – such a marked contrast to Mr VERY Rude at Oe Chalong… In
Immigration Jabba and I got out to stretch our legs while Pete filled in yet
more innumerable forms. I said, Let’s go inside, there might be a water
cooler. (As if!) But…YES!
There was a water cooler! With
real glasses, and icy water. And our
Immi man very kindly passed over a tin of delicious little hazelnut
biscuits. I took some out to James and
Bron – we were all very hungry; we had run out of bread on 2XS and we were very
much in need of a café.
By 12 all of our
business was done and we were free to eat delicious Pad Thai and spring rolls
before getting back on our boat (Number 27.)
The sturdy little engine needed fixing – it started to make alarming
sounds halfway back to Railay. Captain
Yob stopped the engine and pulled out a delicate tool…and all was well!
The crowds are
thick on the beaches of Railay again. We
were so very hot we all got in for a swim within microseconds of our return to
2XS. Jabba, James and Bron scrubbed the
starboard hull – it was totally slimy and full of barnacles. (Pete had already tackled the port side, all
by himself, on Koh Lipe.)
It is nearly time
for our small tribe to disband…Jabba will go back to his work at the Australian
Embassy in Hanoi, where he works as their Climate Change specialist. James and Bron will fly back to real life in Tasmania. And Pete and I…well there are quite a few more
beautiful little islands to explore…
We left early this
morning and had an easy cruise back to Phuket.
We are now anchored off busy BUSY Patong Beach.
Our rallyfriends
Jacqui and Ken, SV Tintin are here. They
are leaving very soon, to haul out the boat in Malaysia. They are going home to Brisbane, via the UK, for a year – people
to see, family to be with, dogs to be doted upon. They have had a lovely time
in amongst the glorious Thai islands but…at Koh Phi Phi Don, the boat was burgled. They lost $5000 worth of stuff. $5000 is bad but…the things they lost were
mainly iDevices. Ipads, iPods, iPhones,
Mac computers, cameras… SO devastating…
I would be, as they say, totes devo.
They seemed remarkably calm, but I suppose there is only a certain
amount of time in which one can gnash one’s teeth.
Sunday 2nd February
Last night
was…memorable. James said, a bit sadly,
that it was a pity he had come to Thailand without seeing a Muy Thai
fight. So maybe we would all like to go
to one, at Patong Beach?? Well yes OF
COURSE. We had dinner in a small
restaurant along the esplanade and set of in a little bus at 7.45, to go to the
nearby stadium. The fights didn’t begin
till 9.00… We had narrow wooden benches to sit on. I showed the whites of my eyes at this; I
would have been a sobbing mess by the time the fighting even began had I sat on
one of these torture devices. (poor
little princess…) Fortunately there was
a bar, with reasonably comfortable stools, with a great view of the ring, so I
sat there, drinking my water and reading the local paper they had
provided.
So what was it
like?? Well, VERY noisy, for starters,
with ghastly music playing at fever pitch.
Some sort of wind instruments, with a thin bagpipe-y effect and no tune or
rhythm. LOUD. There were seen fights in all, with five
rounds each fight. Mostly professional
Thai fighters, starting at 12 years old… Three Australians, one enormous
Russian*. It is all very high energy,
with lots of skill involved, but I (predictably) spent a lot of time wincing as
they kicked and punched and thwacked away at each other. (The Australian fighters did really well and
were thrilled to bits. Opponents – totes devo…)
I was sitting just
behind a popcorn seller. He worked away
very diligently and keg looking at me hopefully. So I bought a big tub of his pop cron, 50 bath** and took it to The
Tribe on the benches.
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| No photos of kickboxing...but here is our longtail, from my vantage point... |
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| Children fighting - not quite Hunger Games |
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| The Tribe on the benches - taken with my underwater camera so not all that good but never mind... |
It was midnight by
the time our driver dropped us back at the beach. Time for bed?? Well no…it was our tribe’s last night
together, with all of the opportunities afforded by Patong Beach. Nightclub!
Drink! Make merry!
The Tiger Bar, in
Walking Street (by now I think I have worked out that Walking Streets
are…car-free zones…) is probably one of the biggest bars in the world. In fact the whole Walking Street is lined
with enormous bars. Ladyboys pose
prettily, cruising for trade, music plays, it is one gigantic non-stop party.
Except when there
is an election… We arrived in Walking Street just after midnight on 2nd
Feb. And…all of the bars were
closed. Ladyboys still posing prettily,
a confused crowd wandered aimlessly but…everything was closed down. No alcohol at all to be served from midnight
on Election Day…
So…back to our own
bar on 2XS. Ladyboy-free but cosy and
welcoming. Bron and I drank large
amounts of water and tottered off to bed just before 3am. Our men…well it was nearly 5am when they
finally tore themselves away from their cheery conversation…It is now nearly
9am and I am up, obviously, drinking delicious cups of tea and looking at the
lovely sparkling sea, smooth as glass.
Everyone else is in Sleepyboboland.. Good thing James and Bron’s plane
doesn’t leave until 9pm.
* The big fat pale
Russian launched himself into the fight with a barrage of punches, hoping to
beat his opponent into speedy submission.
Failing that he tried to crushing him, like a python, against the
ropes. But the Thai fighter (heavyweight
class but not as gigantic) was more than a match for him and he very soon ran
out of puff. And threw in the towel,
literally!
** Just possibly
he meant pop corn, 50 baht…Oh dear,
the picky pedant, ever vigilant…
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