Leaving Koh Tao, I had no plan on where I was going, as per the usual. On Instagram, I am an avid follower of travel sites, and one of which I follow had gorgeous pictures of a place called Krabi. So last minute, I booked a dual boat and bus ticket. I got to Krabi Town and found out it wasn't exactly like the pictures. I was a bit disappointed at first at the lack of beach and activities until I realized Krabi Town is the perfect spot for surrounding day trips to gorgeous places.
The first night I was there, I met another American girl, Emily, who was on a weekend trip away from her university in Bangkok. We were both staying at a top rated hostel, for good reason, called Pak Up. Every night in their bar they had a free kabob bbq and afterwards drinking games like giant jenga, beer pong, and flip cup. Emily and I participated at Team USA in beer pong. That night I learned the English don't know rules of beer pong, and will follow your rules if it benefits them, and yell at you if they don't like it. Okay, maybe not all, but the couple we played really got quite heated at us winning against them. The next thing I learned is that Germans know the rules of beer pong, and are excellent opponents in the game us American have mastered since we were 15. Needless to say, team USA won the Beer Pong Olympics, along with an awesome shirt, and a bucket, which literally is a sand bucket filled with alcohol, in case you were wondering. I was so blown away the first time I saw one. How great, you can drink out of your bucket the night before, and build sand castles on the beach the day after! Unfortunately I have no idea where the bucket ran off to.
Okay, so I did a lot more than just drink. The real part of my adventures in Krabi came the next several days. On the first day, Emily and I went to go meet up with some of her University friends on Ao Nang beach, a 20 minute tuk tuk or cab ride from Krabi Town. Here, is definitely where most backpackers and vacationers will end up staying. It is definitely a tourist hub with ladies coming up to you every ten minutes asking, "massage?" After about the 10th time of being hassled, patience begins to really wear thin. At first, I would go along with the conversation, but some of them just would not give up. I had to stand firm with my no, instead of going about in my polite no thank you kind of manner.
After laying in the sun and jumping in the warm ocean for hours, we went to go explore a nearby stairway we were curious about. As we climbed, we began to see a few monkeys. The first I had seen in my trip to Thailand! I was so thrilled and obsessed with those few, until we started to climb further, and there were about 50 little tiny baby monkeys and full grown alike. This was such a cool experience. I would see them up in trees with water bottles and I thought that was interesting until the monkeys started coming up to me and a tiny one bit my water bottle open and started drinking from it. I thought it was the cutest so I just let it happen, as the water bottle was too big for the little guy to carry. We said goodbye to the monkeys and made our way back down to the beach and I said goodbye to Emily to head back to the hostel after an awesome, eventful day.
The next day in Krabi, I was planning to go to brave the 1,200 steps and climb to the top of tiger cave temple, but at the time didn't have a buddy to go with. I was fine with it, but surely enough, I overheard two American guys, brothers Ryan and Brett, talking to a tuk tuk driver about going there. Before I had a chance to ask them their plans, they asked me what I was doing and invited me along. We were hoping to find one more person to split the cost with and asked a girl, Joelle, who had just arrived to come along with us. For about 1600 baht, we got taken around the entire day to several awesome locations including the gorgeous smooth rocked Klong Thom, the jade green Emerald Pool, and last but not least the Tiger Cave Temple.
First, we went to the hot springs for an entry fee of 90 baht. The first thing we saw was a man made hot spring pool, that was semi disappointing. As we kept walking, however, we came across the real sight with a waterfall of hot springs and many natural pools to sit in. The rocks were turned smooth and slick, in a beautiful dark green color. You could climb all over the rocks or just sit nicely in the waterfall or many pools. First stop, success.
Our second location was the Emerald pool, which was about 200 baht for an entry fee if you were a foreigner. This was a nice walk through the forest, passed mossy trees and crystal clear but algae covered water. On the way, we found a rickety old lookout tower that we climbed to the top of. Our confidence went out pretty quickly as we started swaying on the top of the rusty thing. However, the view was absolutely worth it.
When we finally got to the Emearald pool, it really was a sight to see. The water was a deep bluish green that really had you in awe. We swam for a little and looked about, but then headed back shorty after to get to the tiger cave.
Of course, our last stop was the Tiger Cave Temple. Our hope was that we would get there in time for the sunset at the top, but when we got there it was already getting dark. That didn't stop us from climbing to the top though. Those steps really were a dog to get up. Many people would say they really were grueling, and I tell you what, they really were some steep ass steps. As we made our way up, there were monkeys covering the stairs. (YAY, more monkeys!). These little stinkers must have heard about me giving water to their friend over at Ao Nang, so they would not leave me alone. One monkey was trying to get my water bottle, while the others were going for my feet. Two others even were grabbing my camera bag, and worse, my camera! Rio the movie really doesn't exaggerate. Monkeys sure are cute but man are they little thieves!
When we finally got through the monkey madness, we really began our exhausting, sweaty climb to the top. I am in pretty decent shape, and man oh man, those were some difficult steps, but the top was absolutely worth it. Unfortunately, when we got to the top it was dark, so we didn't get quite the view we had hoped for of greenery for miles as well as the town below, but the fact that we were the only people up there really had a sort of serenity and peacefulness we probably wouldn't have gotten had we come earlier, when it was packed with tourists.
As great as that feeling was, I wouldn't recommend going there at night. On the way up, I saw lamps that I assumed would turn on when it got dark enough. You know what they say about those who assume. As we began our way back down, it was pitch black. We had to very carefully, feel around at the steps to make it safe. When we got to the bottom, there was no injuries or slips, so I would call that a victory for us. We were all drenched in sweat and exhausted, but damn was that one hell of an adventure we had. Not too many people can say they climbed 1,200 steps to the top of a temple at night (Most likely because they are slightly more sane than us.).
When we finally got back to our hostel, we thanked our driver for lugging us around all day, and had a much needed, might I add, WARM shower and a nice cold beer after a long, adventurous kind of day.
The first night I was there, I met another American girl, Emily, who was on a weekend trip away from her university in Bangkok. We were both staying at a top rated hostel, for good reason, called Pak Up. Every night in their bar they had a free kabob bbq and afterwards drinking games like giant jenga, beer pong, and flip cup. Emily and I participated at Team USA in beer pong. That night I learned the English don't know rules of beer pong, and will follow your rules if it benefits them, and yell at you if they don't like it. Okay, maybe not all, but the couple we played really got quite heated at us winning against them. The next thing I learned is that Germans know the rules of beer pong, and are excellent opponents in the game us American have mastered since we were 15. Needless to say, team USA won the Beer Pong Olympics, along with an awesome shirt, and a bucket, which literally is a sand bucket filled with alcohol, in case you were wondering. I was so blown away the first time I saw one. How great, you can drink out of your bucket the night before, and build sand castles on the beach the day after! Unfortunately I have no idea where the bucket ran off to.
Okay, so I did a lot more than just drink. The real part of my adventures in Krabi came the next several days. On the first day, Emily and I went to go meet up with some of her University friends on Ao Nang beach, a 20 minute tuk tuk or cab ride from Krabi Town. Here, is definitely where most backpackers and vacationers will end up staying. It is definitely a tourist hub with ladies coming up to you every ten minutes asking, "massage?" After about the 10th time of being hassled, patience begins to really wear thin. At first, I would go along with the conversation, but some of them just would not give up. I had to stand firm with my no, instead of going about in my polite no thank you kind of manner.
After laying in the sun and jumping in the warm ocean for hours, we went to go explore a nearby stairway we were curious about. As we climbed, we began to see a few monkeys. The first I had seen in my trip to Thailand! I was so thrilled and obsessed with those few, until we started to climb further, and there were about 50 little tiny baby monkeys and full grown alike. This was such a cool experience. I would see them up in trees with water bottles and I thought that was interesting until the monkeys started coming up to me and a tiny one bit my water bottle open and started drinking from it. I thought it was the cutest so I just let it happen, as the water bottle was too big for the little guy to carry. We said goodbye to the monkeys and made our way back down to the beach and I said goodbye to Emily to head back to the hostel after an awesome, eventful day.
The next day in Krabi, I was planning to go to brave the 1,200 steps and climb to the top of tiger cave temple, but at the time didn't have a buddy to go with. I was fine with it, but surely enough, I overheard two American guys, brothers Ryan and Brett, talking to a tuk tuk driver about going there. Before I had a chance to ask them their plans, they asked me what I was doing and invited me along. We were hoping to find one more person to split the cost with and asked a girl, Joelle, who had just arrived to come along with us. For about 1600 baht, we got taken around the entire day to several awesome locations including the gorgeous smooth rocked Klong Thom, the jade green Emerald Pool, and last but not least the Tiger Cave Temple.
Our second location was the Emerald pool, which was about 200 baht for an entry fee if you were a foreigner. This was a nice walk through the forest, passed mossy trees and crystal clear but algae covered water. On the way, we found a rickety old lookout tower that we climbed to the top of. Our confidence went out pretty quickly as we started swaying on the top of the rusty thing. However, the view was absolutely worth it.
When we finally got to the Emearald pool, it really was a sight to see. The water was a deep bluish green that really had you in awe. We swam for a little and looked about, but then headed back shorty after to get to the tiger cave.
Of course, our last stop was the Tiger Cave Temple. Our hope was that we would get there in time for the sunset at the top, but when we got there it was already getting dark. That didn't stop us from climbing to the top though. Those steps really were a dog to get up. Many people would say they really were grueling, and I tell you what, they really were some steep ass steps. As we made our way up, there were monkeys covering the stairs. (YAY, more monkeys!). These little stinkers must have heard about me giving water to their friend over at Ao Nang, so they would not leave me alone. One monkey was trying to get my water bottle, while the others were going for my feet. Two others even were grabbing my camera bag, and worse, my camera! Rio the movie really doesn't exaggerate. Monkeys sure are cute but man are they little thieves!
When we finally got through the monkey madness, we really began our exhausting, sweaty climb to the top. I am in pretty decent shape, and man oh man, those were some difficult steps, but the top was absolutely worth it. Unfortunately, when we got to the top it was dark, so we didn't get quite the view we had hoped for of greenery for miles as well as the town below, but the fact that we were the only people up there really had a sort of serenity and peacefulness we probably wouldn't have gotten had we come earlier, when it was packed with tourists.
As great as that feeling was, I wouldn't recommend going there at night. On the way up, I saw lamps that I assumed would turn on when it got dark enough. You know what they say about those who assume. As we began our way back down, it was pitch black. We had to very carefully, feel around at the steps to make it safe. When we got to the bottom, there was no injuries or slips, so I would call that a victory for us. We were all drenched in sweat and exhausted, but damn was that one hell of an adventure we had. Not too many people can say they climbed 1,200 steps to the top of a temple at night (Most likely because they are slightly more sane than us.).
When we finally got back to our hostel, we thanked our driver for lugging us around all day, and had a much needed, might I add, WARM shower and a nice cold beer after a long, adventurous kind of day.
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