Mounting Monkeys [Krabi, Thailand]

Krabi reminded me a lot of the mind-blowing Halong Bay in Vietnam, except I think even more beautiful. The spotless beaches, massive limestone mountains rising from the sea, caves, stalactites, crazy monkeys... It really was one of the most spectacular places I have visited on this trip.

We arrived in Krabi early evening, off our overly expensive ferry/bus combination ticket. It actually cost less to get from Bangkok all the way down to Ko Phangan than it did from Ko Phangan to Krabi. I guess once you are on the island your options are limited... Anyway, Krabi is a bit of a difficult place to travel as it is quite spread out. You can stay in Krabi town, but there is not a whole lot there. The surrounding beaches is where it's at. The closest, Ao Nang is the least beautiful but most touristed, as it is the only beach you can access by road. We organised accommodation at the bus station for a bungalow in Ao Nang right near the ferry dock so we had easy access to the other beaches... or so we thought. We actually ended up in Ao Nammao, a small place, almost no facilities, no beach... but it was close to the dock.

We spent a day on Railey beach, the most beautiful in Krabi. And it really was spectacular. Even though the weather was not amazing, the scenery more than made up for it. I can imagine that it is freakin' pricey to stay in one of the resorts there, but it would definitely be worth it. There are all kinds of awesome things to do on or around the beach, including rock climbing, kayaking, boat trips out to the islands, or just relaxing with a beer soaking in the surroundings.

One of the coolest parts was stumbling across a big group of monkeys. It was feeding time so they were all going a little crazy. But the best bit? There were a few small babies clinging to their mothers. Sometimes running off on their own before their mother could scoop them up. The slightly older ones were cool to watch too, with a little more confidence they were swinging and jumping around all over the place. We even saw one trying to mount the other. Go monkeys!

That was pretty much all we did in Krabi. We booked another way overpriced ticket on to southern Thailand - the border town with Malaysia. The lonely planet advises against travelling this region but meh, we will be fine!