Thailand 2 – Diving, Krabi and concluding on Koh Li Pe

Martin: After this looong night we leave Bangkok at 6pm… thanks to Flo guiding us out of the city, otherwise we would still be trying to find our Way out. The reason we decided to leave was that we booked a 4-day diving safari starting the next day in the morning and didn’t want to postpone it on short notice. We estimate the 850km ride to take us max. 8 hours, so enough time to take a nap before our first dive. Well, as usual, so we thought… -:)

It’s getting dark shortly after and the first 500 km we follow a mostly straight road, the only thing keeping us awake is the zig zag overtaking of cars… and loads of Red Bull. After 500km thanks god the road changes and we follow an incredible curvy road that leads us through a jungle passing through small villages. Riding at night has the advantage that there are almost no cars on the road…and the disadvantage, that it’s quite hard to see, not to mention suicidal street dogs that decide to cross the road exactly while you drive by. For the first time on our trip I hear Sebas whisper a prayer after almost taking down two of them, missing them only by inches. Tiredness overcomes us more and more and we decide to take several power nap breaks…well, WE, as we are sure that if the both of us take a nap we will sleep through, one has to stay awake (guess who?!).. so while Sebas slumbers contentedly in some wooden huts next to the road, there’s me fighting the sleep by smoking one cigarette after the other.

Instead of 8 hours we end up driving 12, arriving in Khao Lak completely devastated at 6 in the morning. Khao Lak is a small village that stretches alongside the road surrounded by one beach resort next to the other. The dive shop had booked us a hostel for that night and, telling us how complicated it is to find it, left us a note at the shop. Funny guys have drawn down the dive shop, the McDonald’s on the other side of the street but forgot to indicate the hostel… as we are supposed to get picked up at 7 in front of the shop we decide to stay there and wait for them. At 7 they arrive and are nice enough to show us the ‘complicated to find’ hostel in front (!) of the shop where we can park our bikes and leave our luggage. We are taken to the speed boat and 1 1/2 hours later we are on the diving boat at the Similan Islands, having our first dive 20 minutes later.

After 3 dives that day I can hardly keep my eyes open anymore and so we decide to have a good night beer before finally catching some sleep. Well, as usual, it turned out differently…-:) While sipping at our beer we get to know a dive instructor from Switzerland and a German lady, who tell us that when entering the boat they thought we were the guys from the ‘hangover’ movie -:) The German seems to successfully fight her sea sickness by downing one beer after the other and, facing the challenge, we quickly realize it’s impossible to keep up…but of course we don’t give up 🙂 After numerous Changs Sebas gets the idea to remake a scene of a quite famous German x-rated movie, the shooting leading to piss ourselves laughing the whole night. At 1 am, after more than 40 hours awake, we fall into our beds..

The next few days we dive around the various dive spots of the Similan Islands and seeing the other dive boats, we again realize how lucky we are. Most of them are crowded with people whereas we share the boat with max. 5 other tourists, which let’s us really enjoy the various dive spots almost on our own. The Similan Islands is a group of islands in the Andeman Sea and said to be one of the best dive spots of the world, where you can see mantas, sharks and, at Richelieu Rock, even whale sharks…if you are lucky. Well, I’m not and after 3 days trying hard but not seeing any of them, I end up with an ear infection, so we decide to go back 1 day sooner to mainland. Sebas takes a last dive and of course, at the only dive I didn’t join, Sebas sees a shark…bastard -:)

Before visiting our next Children’s Village in Phuket we decide to drive a loop through the Kao Sok National Park to Krabi and from there to Phuket. The road takes us through the jungle and the landscape is just spectacular… pretty much flat with incredible tree-covered limestone rocks which occasianally jut out of the ground and at Krabi, even out of the sea! Btw., here’s where they shot the James Bond movie ‘the man with the golden gun’. We reach Krabi in the evening and are lucky enough to meet a group of nice Serbs with whom we spent a great evening. Besides of this great evening, the town itself is nothing special. The sea at the beach is even for me too warm and the town itself super touristic. Heading to one of the limestone rocks in the sea must be great though!

After 2 days in Krabi we have yet another impressive visit of a Children Village (article will be out soon, click here for fundraising initiative) and driving around the north of Phuket we get to know a couple of 50+ Austrians who, even though very funny, unfortunately very much encourage the dark side of Thai tourism. Definitely not wanting to stay in Phuket and having to leave Thailand soon, we head direction to the Malaysian border and decide to spend some days on Koh Lipe, another, said to be, paradise island. We hit Pak Bara and get to know a funny lady that right away checks us a cheap guest house for the night and talks us into booking the ferry ticket and the accommodation on Koh Lipe with her too. Usually we try to organize things on our own but this lady is so motivated that we can’t decline… How can you resist someone wearing dental braces who explains you she can’t give you a cheaper price because she needs the whole margin for make up, tooth brush and tooth paste? 🙂

It turned out to be a wise decision to stick to her as Sebas loses his return ferry ticket right after arrival and, thanks to her, doesn’t need to buy a new one. Also, by luck or kindness of the owner of our resort, we don’t end up in the cheapest hut in the back row facing another bungalow, but get a free upgrade to sea front. Furthermore, the lady booked us into the seemingly only resort on the otherwise pretty touristic island, with almost no people and no long-tail boats parking in front of the beach. Our stretch of beach is absolutely perfect, palm trees and crystal clear water…

After two beautiful days we go back to mainland and head right away to the border. It’s Christmas… and coincidently the last day of our visa. Instead of taking the main border we drive to the small border of Wang Prachan and after only 10 minutes and a nice ‘have a good trip’ from the border guards we are through. This month in Thailand had just been incredible! As none of us has any idea nor did any research on Malaysia we are curious what’s gonna await us here. Let me tell you this, Malaysia turned out to be yet another great surprise for us… but that’s another story. Stay tuned -:)