Leaving Koh Lipe :( & Arriving in Krabi

Time to leave Koh Lipe. Ah, I really didn’t want to. I love it there.

I was scootered to the ferry terminal with all my luggage and couldn’t find my ferry/speedboat company anywhere. So I just went to one, showed them my booking, hoping they’d direct me to the company in question. However, they just grabbed my luggage and gave me a boarding pass. I was rather taken by surprise, but content that it was so easy.
We boarded the speedboat… I was sitting somewhere in the front, to the side. Meaning, once the boat accelerates, one part of the butt has undue pressure put on it. That was anything but comfortable for the 1.5h ride.

Every single seat of the boat was taken, and more. Some children sat on the floor.
It was all rather crowded and I was so yearning for the moment I’d step off the boat. But time was in no hurry to progress.

At around 45 minutes into the ride, the crew suddenly gestured for us to put on our lifevests quickly. I was a bit puzzled as to why they only now thought to announce that. A lady next to me translated a bit of what the crew was saying:

Apparently, the boat was too heavy and a few people in the back were at risk of falling off. And also, we were about to drive into a black cluster of clouds not boding well. Uh oh.
It started to rain and despite having spray protection — a roof and side panels of some kind — we still got wet.

The waves were becoming higher and higher, clashing with the boat roaringly. There were countless moments of free fall on the boat that ended with a rough reintroduction to the water surface with a clashing collision.

There was also nowhere to hold on to - no railing whatsoever.

I was nothing short of enthusiastic to get off the boat after finally arriving at the port of Pak Bara Pier.

From there, I was carrying my luggage in the midday heat to find the office that would provide me with onward transportation. No signs anywhere, nothing. Just occasionally people asking where I was going and then pointing me into directions by giving me more directions in broken English. Those are the moments when I really feel at a loss, my auditory processing disorder that goes hand in hand with my underdeveloped sense of navigation just can’t deal with directions. So I just walked. And walked. And would you look at that? I arrived at the right place. 😄

I was put into a van with a few others and had a 4h ride in front of us.

Also not very comfortable. But by far better than the boat.

The driver was a funny one. He spoke a little, a tiny bit of English, not even touching on A1, but he kept mixing up words. Therefore, I frequently didn’t know what he was trying to communicate which greatly amused him, so he giggled away.
An example: When we arrived at my hostel, he parked next to a building, looked at me and said “Where’s hostel?”

I gave him the name of the hostel again and started to open Google Maps to see how far away we’d be. Simultaneously while doing that, I saw on the map that we were directly in front of it and he was giggling again, saying “where’s hostel”, pointing to my right. Ah. He meant: “There”, not “where”… 😄

He kept giggling all through giving me my luggage and again enquiring if I’ve still got my phone as he did throughout the ride because he was convinced that the way I stored it in my pocket, I’d likely lose it. Ah, so much giggling. 😄

My hostel is well-rated but huh. It’s really nothing special. I’ve got my own room, which is only a mattress on the floor with stained grey walls closing in on you.. It’s like bunk beds are split over different rooms. They also aren’t soundproof in the slightest, actually. You hear everything. 😄

In the late afternoon, I was headed to the night market that was luckily a few hundred meters around the corner. Street food galore - from smoothies, juices to sushi, desserts (rumour has it there was mochi - I wouldn’t know anything about that), Thai kebabs, chicken feet, a variety of insects (only one stall, though, to be fair), and lots of hot pot stalls. Hot pot means you choose from a variety of vegetables, proteins and mushrooms whatever you want to be prepared with a soup base like tom yum, tomato, or miso etc. Usually, you get some extra rice or noodles as well. Seems to be very popular, and healthy, actually. I tried it in Perth for the first time. It’s quite the experience. Can recommend. 🙂”Read more