We left the lodge this morning at 8:30 for a three hour drive to Krabi. For breakfast we had grilled cheese, muselix with fruit juice and tea. Odd, you’re right, but true. We weren’t excited about another van ride, but it was the way to get to Krabi. Most of us in our van took a nap to kill the time. We stopped at a happy room half way through the trip, and you haven’t seen so many unhappy people when all we saw were squat toilets. Fortunately Amy spoke to someone and he unlocked the western toilets.

The drive to Krabi was rural, green, and tropical. When we arrived, we didn’t go to our hotel, we went to the dock to catch a longtail down the Krabi River to the island of Koh Klang. Getting on and off the boat was not an easy task, but better then yesterday. Our first stop took us about 20 minutes, and we rode by a forest of mangrove trees to a cave which was once home to ancient settlements. On our walk we saw a small monitor lizard. There were stairs leading up to the cave which made exploration a little easier. Besides beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, a number of human skeletons and remains were found buried in the cave from WWII when the Japanese were in Thailand. Every once in a while we could hear the squeaks of the bats above us. On our walk out, the guide told us to hide our water bottles, then all of a sudden about 8 monkeys came down from the trees right in front of us. There were two smaller ones, that were very cute. There was a lady feeding them.

Next we went to lunch at a restaurant on the island called Baan Ma Ying. It was a floating restaurant and a fish farm. After ordering lunch Adam noticed a huge fish in the netted area. When we looked closer there were many big fish. That’s when the “show” began. One of the workers delighted in showing us these fish by feeding them pieces of fish, and we watched them swim and jump for it. There were rock snapper, grouper, blow fish, archer spitting fish, and other fish I can’t remember the name of. BK and I had an omelette with crab, and Adam ordered stir fried crab. Which when you picture that on your mind, you assume lump crab meat with vegetables over rice. Nope. It was a whole crab, in the Shell that was broken into pieces, with no vegetables. Since Adam has never had crab in the shell before, he attempted to use a fork and spoon to eat it, and was not very successful. I gave him a free tips to use his hands and dig into it. I’m sure he left a little hungry, but had fun.

After lunch we all took tuk tuks, which is motorcycle that seated 2-3 people! around the village on this primarily Muslim island. Our driver was a wee young lad, and we had fun with him on these small roads with no cars, only motorcycles. It was quite interesting to see women in their hijabs on motorcycles. But I didn’t get a good photo. Our first stop was a rice patty, that was growing brown rice. This was the only place we’d seen rice since in the northern parts it had already been harvested. We stopped at two small village artisans. First was a batik shop and workshop. The owner gave us a demonstration of how she dyes a pattern on the fabric. Erika and Terri took a turn painting the fabric also. Our last stop was a woodworking shop where the owner makes the longtail boats, and started making smaller models of the boats. He was quite proud of his work, and was making a boat with gold leaf for the new king, to educate him about their community. I didn’t mention this yet, but between these buildings we had to ride in the tuk tuk, and it started to down pour. The driver lowered a plastic sheet to keep us dry, and it had a hole so he could still see out of it. We were going to stop at a mosque, but it was closed, and to be honest we were all wet, hot and getting tired. They took us back to the restaurant and we had to wait there for about 30 minutes until the rain slowed down so we could leave by boat. Honestly I was so proud of Bowman and I for navigating these boats, it was not easy.

We drove about 25 minutes to our hotel, the Deevana, a boutique hotel about 15 minutes away from the beach. It sort of appears out of place from the rest of the town. Krabi was busier than I anticipated. It was around 3:30 and school had just let out, so we saw hundreds of children in their uniforms. One of the most interesting sites was seeing 4 people – one adult and three children fit on a motorcycle, or children standing on the back of the tuk tuk to catch a ride. By the time we checked in, we were exhausted. Still not exactly sure what we’re doing tomorrow since it’s supposed to rain. We considered Phi Phi Island, but since it’s a full day excursion, and risky due to weather, we are considering the beach and the pool tomorrow. Our room is lovely, dinner was delicious, and we even have an arrow on our ceiling pointing to Kiblat, which indicate the direction of Islam’s holiest site: the Kaaba, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. But we still haven’t heard the call to prayer.

Night everyone.