Today, we asked a tuk tuk driver to take us into the town of Krabi, but he insisted we go to his house first and get his car. The tuk-tuk is maneuverable, light and cheap to run. Vendors sell gas in wine bottles and it's fun to see a driver "feeding" his ride. He took us down a series of tiny rural roads and we were soon quite lost. The thought of never coming home crossed our minds, but it would have made for a cool and adventurous ending!

Kop's house was a tiny concrete cube with a corrugated metal roof and an outdoor kitchen. His 2 boys were playing noisily outside and his wife, wearing the hijab and very polite, welcomed us as if bringing home strangers was all part of her day. It's a good thing we took the car. The road to Krabi is unfinished, fast paced and long. A few minutes into the trip, a truck making a U-turn ahead of us crossed the path of a young man on a motor scooter and the impact was awful. The traffic formed a "y" passing the scene on either side, everyone looking at the victim, lying, bleeding on the road. He was lucky to be alive. There wasn't much left of the scooter. Another good reason to be travelling with an experienced driver! People crowded in to help and as we left the scene, the ambulance arrived, but we were unnerved by the incident for the rest of the day.

Again, the hillsides really take your breath away. On either side of the road, massive walls of limestone tower above you, the vegetation hanging off it is thick and rich and interesting fruits and flowers hang just out of reach. So many kinds of plants- if the human race started somewhere, it must have been near here. You couldn't starve if you tried! It took about 45 minutes of furious turns and more near misses to get to Krabi and the sky was beginning to darken. We had time to run to the big night market before the rains came and the market was a great place to take shelter. We were about the only Caucasians there, so we felt we had come to the right place.

We have been looking for the best of local grub and we hit the mother lode. Everywhere you looked, food was being prepared and it all looked so good! Chicken on skewers, great steaming pots of meat in curry sauces, fruits of all kinds, desserts and drinks...it was heaven. We bought a little from as many vendors as we could and ate as we walked from stall to stall. The rain began to cascade down onto the plastic tarps, canopies and umbrellas. We dodged the torrents as they fell, too eager to hit the next banquet to notice how wet we were. The folks enjoyed our enjoyment and the time went fast. This was truly a highlight and it didn't matter that we had no time to see more of the town.

We were glad to find Kop, our driver waiting for us and the drive back to Ao Nang was even more exciting in the dark. Everyone drives a scooter here. Hoards of young people, tourists, kids, families all course around the turns. Few wear helmets and according to Kop, there were a lot of accidents - too many. Next, we have planned a tour of the limestone caves and a ride on an elephant. When in Ao Nang... do as the tourists do...

We left Phi Phi around noon, yesterday, joining a diverse group of folks at the dockside. Thank goodness we are travelling with small bags, because you have to climb from one boat to another to get to the one you want. This ferry took us across a calm stretch of water, again into a bay surrounded by fantastic sheer limestone cliffs and tiny sandy bays.

Ao Nang is a few miles from the town of Krabi which is much easier to find on a map. Ao Nang a pretty resort town with a high class clientele, clean streets and many international restaurants. The traffic, however is characteristically fast and the streets are no place to dawdle. Vehicles flow in the opposite direction to ours and if you look the wrong way for a second, you can be flattened. Taxis are motorcycles with a sidecar chassis and enough seating for 3. Seven is the max! A canvas surrey keeps you out of the sun and a fast talking driver makes for a fun tour around the coastline. Our hotel is modest and clean and the air conditioning works like a charm. Without it, we would have to really change our routines and our clothing many times a day.

I walked down to the beach this morning and bought a lemon ice from a street vendor. The fruit drinks here are fantastic, flavorful, fresh and cold. We go from stall to stall on our travels trying all the juices and the local fare. Coconut, pineapple and bananas taste so sweet and different from the imported fruit we get at home - we just can't get enough.
A few observations: So many young European travelers have tattoos. This is big business here. Tattoo shops are combined with laundry, travel and manicure businesses and the art ranges from sublime to ridiculous.

Cashews grow here and the nuts are available in every flavor- much like our potato chips. A single nut grows on the end of a pepper-shaped fruit. The fruits are soft, red or yellow and they make a sweet drink- much like apple juice. The nut pod on the bottom of the fruit is so hard it has to be cracked by an instrument built especially for this purpose. I always thought cashews grew like walnuts - this was a real eye opener. No wonder they are so expensive! We bought some packages to give as gifts, but we have no room to keep them, so they have become part of our menu.

Small private shrines are everywhere. You see them at gas stations, in mini malls, on street corners and in front of private homes. Gifts of food and drink are put on the balconies of these shrines as an offering. I rather like these customs; the idea of praying to a fat, smiling man seems so positive - so healthy!

The big community temples provide baskets of miniature food and drink items for you to give as offerings. You can also buy the thinnest gold leaf sheets to press onto the icons. Lotus blossoms on long stems are also a popular gift when making your devotions. Outside most temples, a cone shaped hollow oven provides a safe place to blow off a few dozen rounds of fireworks for good luck and after awhile, the noise drives you crazy! The vendors must be used to it because the tourists are the only ones jumping out of their skins and holding their hands to their ears! This is the Asia I’ve been looking for!

We are off to continue the adventure, so I'll sign off for now. Sa-was dee, ka!

Early yesterday morning, we packed and left Kata on our continuing journey towards enlightenment. We packed ourselves into one of the small tour vans and joined a long line of tourists and locals carrying kids and cargo en route to the island of Phi Phi. The ferry is fast and spacious. We were given a cup of strong coffee and a croissant. Again, the mix of languages is a symphony of sound.

Phi Phi (pronounced P.P.) is a long bow-tie shaped island. The flat center has a white, sandy beach on either side and it's an easy walk from beach to beach. At either end, the land juts up out of the sea, forming vast cliffs which are all but impossible to scale- one would think! The "poker chip" shapes I said could be seen from the air are now massive walls and if I had to build this in miniature, I'd take dominoes, poker chips and cubes of wood, stand them on end and then push clay around them to keep them stable. I'd then cover the tops with a fine, crushed sphagnum moss and paint it a rich tropical green.

This is a party place. Few people over 50 inhabit Phi Phi unless they work here. The rest are scuba guys, rock climbers, vacationing kids and young, global wanderers. Alleyways of clothing vendors, travel agents, massage shops and food stalls form a colorful grid as you make your way to your hotel. Ours is the "Palms" and it's new. Everything here is new. When the big wave hit, everything here was washed away. There was nothing here to stop it. The loss of life was significant and if you think about it, this is something of a shrine! The locals will tell you it's better here, now.

It's an attractive, funky place to hang your hat and to do some underwater exploring. Still looking for the Thailand we've seen in the photos, we hired a young man to take us to the neighboring island of Koh Phi Phi where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. This again is a massively high piece of land- a marvel of twisting limestone formations, outcroppings, tiny bays and caves. Our "long tail" boat was old, wooden and interesting. The long, curved bow was ringed with colorful plastic wreaths, a plastic purple canopy kept us from the direct sun and the motor was a Chevrolet engine to which a long shaft was attached. The propeller at the end was able to skim above the coral and plunge into the channels, making it a very useful craft. Our driver," Ed," was a beautiful young man with the most amazing smile.

High up in the cliffs we could see what looked like sticks, just propped here and there. What they are is climbing poles and they are used by men who gather birds nests for birds nest soup! People risk life and limb, scaling these impossible cliff sides to collect nests- and on the mainland, we marvel at North Americans in safety gear who make it to the top of a hill! Ahh, cultural differences!

Speaking of cultural differences, the Thai people tell us that Canadians are among their favorite visitors, which makes us feel great. Kate and Lane have gone to check out of our hotel so we can prepare for the next adventure. In search of even more natural phenomenon... and air conditioning, we'll write again, tomorrow!

LJ

Kate and Lane have gone to the beach and I'm staying out of the sun and out of trouble. With so many shoe and handbag shops out there and no space for STUFF in my luggage, I'm banned from bargaining unless it's for stuff that's edible!

I've noticed there are no more mysterious, veiled women here in Phuket province. In Kata, anyway, everyone is in western beach wear and on the beach...the flesh hangs out in copious folds, flaps and formations. Lovely young things in tiny thong bikinis and handsome young men with tight stomachs blend in with red, rotund gents and large gelatinous women, none of whom seem to care about dress or decorum. I sat on the seawall for awhile and wished I'd brought a sketch book. No camera could capture this richness of imagery.

The streets teem with food vendors. Tasty looking cubes of fish, meat and chicken, veggies and fruits of all kinds whet your appetite and then it hits you. Like a blast from a hidden jet of evil, a powerful whiff of sewer gas knocks you into closing your wallet and moving on. Where does this come from? There seems to be no obvious source.

There are no timeshare people here. This obnoxious and exasperating animal is somehow absent from Thailand, but it's likely a matter of time before they, like other invading species find a way to thrive on this turf.

Tsunami sirens tower high above the entrance to the beach. This area was hard hit and people will tell you how the devastation affected them and their families. Nobody was exempt from suffering. Still, the resilience of the human spirit abounds and the local advertising is peppered with slogans reminding tourists that it's "better now it's rebuilt" and "we're STILL cleaning up!" (clearance sale)

Vendors are MULTI lingual. They call to you in every language and it's a game for some of them to see how many they can use. "Are you from Holland?" and they offer you their wares in Dutch. "Are you from France?" And they will bargain in French. Kate has already started to memorize some phrases in Thai. She knows the numbers up to 10, the names for a lot of foods and the very useful "Don't shoot! The drugs aren't mine!!!" I'm still working on "hello and goodbye"

Well, I've held onto this machine for too long and have to give it up to others, so will sign off for today. Tonight it's my turn to choose the cuisine and I think I'd like to hit the shop that offers "shark and fried". This must be the equivalent to Thai fish and chips. Maybe they serve it in newspapers! Cheers for now.

LJ