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  • Day 6

    JP Mansion (not actually that big) Krabi

    October 9, 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Yesterday our 1 hour boat ride from koh mak was assaulted by wind and heavy rain that shredded through the small vents in the top of our boat which resulted in us getting absolutely soaked to the bone. Luckily our bags were nicely tucked away and remained dry. Once in Bangkok massive thunder and lighting shook the terminal with a torrential down pour that I've never seen before in my life. Boarding for our flight was delayed at least 2 hours and we sat on the apron in a huge line all waiting to take off into thick fog filled with lightning and turbulence. Upon takeoff the captain quickly climbed through the madness to 30 something thousand feet only to quickly descend as our flight was only about an hour long to Krabi. We tried to budget a little cheaper this next place we stayed in Krabi but we went too far off the deep end. A rather dismal, large tiled floor room with art from 1970s with a terribly loud squeaking queen bed, a not so friendly owner, shared bathroom with mystery light switches everywhere. This morning Beth was quick to rise as her neck and shoulders were so sore that it was less comfortable to just get up and out of bed. We spent the morning in a nice coffee shop around the corner plotting our time here and decided to go to the Tiger Cave Temple. We set off shortly after riding on individual taxi scooters manned by friendly locals for 100 baht each. 4$ cad. Traffic here is organized chaos for sure but nobody excessively speeds and only use the horn to let people know that they are getting close to you for awareness. Rather than back home I honk at people for being idiots all the time. Not because I get road rage but because people are idiots and don't know how to drive there.
    It was a basic (wat)temple at the entrance with lots of shops selling fruit shakes and souvenirs etc. Monkeys running around everywhere and of course lots of dogs with the occasional cat sprawled out in a unimpressed apathetic manner. The slog to the real temple involves 1237 steps straight up a small mountain. Now that doesn't sound like a lot but doing in 30 degrees Celsius and 80% humidity might make you sweat and suffer tremendously or in my case, a lot! Needless to say there weren't many local Thais doing the hike, rather they took pictures of the sign at the bottom and probably made fun of us. Mostly foreigners with an agenda for bragging rights and a drive for the next epic picture thrusted themselves along with us up this cruel endeavour. There were painted numbers along the staircases indicating how many steps you have accomplished and served as a constant reminder that you are terribly out of shape. As we broached the top it was all made worthwhile as there was a beautiful mezzanine encompassing 360 degree panoramics with free wifi! A massive 5 story golden Buddha and some other small shrines all symbolizing different aspects of Buddhism. The temple sat on a larger size mountain in the area and gave an inspiring view of the landscape. We befriended some Irish sods, gave a donation, paid respects and carried on down. Legs shaking and wobbling reached the bottom and quickly swallowed some mango/dragon fruit shakes. Made our way back to the shitty hostel where all of our stuff was for a regroup session involving long periods of standing/lying in front of our air conditioner. Once recovered set out for some food, coffee and a Thai massage. We got a 90 min Thai massage for 400$ baht each. Wow! That's like 15$ Cad and knowing what I know about biomechanics these poor women need a massage after they treated us. So we tipped well....We then headed over to the Krabi Town night market which was epic. All delicious street vendor food and trinkets of all kinds. I got some chicken and Beth got some coconut ice cream for dinner. Our next plan is to head over to Ao Nang which is not too far away and go check out the beach.
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