Krabi

Nov 23 to 26

We’d been talking of the day for a long time, and at last it was time for Auntie Jara(Kyle’s sis) to arrive. She flew into Bangkok in the middle of the night and we got up in nearly the middle of the night to meet her at the airport and make our flight down to Krabi. All was uneventful until midway through our flight we started smelling smoke and the stewardesses started opening the overhead luggage compartments. Soon there was a definite haziness in the air and other of the passengers also started searching overhead luggage bins. There was a general feeling of unease. “We are talking with the pilots and it is nothing in the luggage.” People sat down but no one seemed to feel reassured. The speakers crackled again, “Due to a technical difficulty, we will returning to Bangkok.” And so our early morning flight, didn’t arrive in Krabi at the time anticipated. We flew back to Bangkok, deplaned, boarded a bus to take us to another plane, sat on that bus for minutes that stretched on, boarded, and finally made the hour and a half flight down to Krabi. It was raining when we arrived, which would be a continued theme for the following two days. We didn’t mind the rain so much this day, as we didn’t have a lot planned due to jet lag and getting up in the middle of the night. Lunch, a nap for Alec, swimming for the other two children, and supper at a Mexican restaurant filled the rest of the day before early bedtime. Mexican flavors are some we have missed.

We awoke to cloudy skies and rain, but decided to make the most of it and head out on our adventure no matter. Staying in the hotel room all day would be no fun, and if the sun did come out later we’d wish that we had gone. We booked a long tail boat to take us to Hong Island. The hour ride there felt like a fun adventure, except for the rain and spray splashing us. Besides being a bit cold, I was trying to keep Alec’s wound dry so the tape they had put on wouldn’t come off. Our first stop was a small beach on one of the islands, where the water was warm but one shivered after getting out and tried not to dwell on how beautiful and warm everything could be. Back on our boat, we puttered in and around the Blue Lagoon-so very pretty! Lunch was eaten at a little stand on Hong Island. Tom Yum Kung and Tom Kha Gai warmed us up. (Try one of those next time you’re at a Thai restaurant.) We spent the next few hours swimming and building sand castles. We never saw the sun but it wasn’t actively raining. It wasn’t the sort of weather for relaxing on the beach and lazy naps in the sun, but overall it was a good afternoon before our boat ride back to the mainland. The finale for the evening was watching a fire show on the beach. Actually pretty incredible!

There isn’t much to write about Tuesday except rain. And more rain. We went to a touristy attraction that had a cafe and elephants to feed. Such intriguing creatures those. There were also lions, raccoons and deer. There was one long hour where we sat on the steps of our hotel, waiting for the rain to lessen. Alec napped and Jara read to the children. The rain did eventually let up and we headed out to find a long tail boat to take us to Railay Beach. Wading into the knee deep water to climb into the boat, I got soaked by a wave. That didn’t matter so much, because after the 15 minute boat ride, the rain was definitely falling. We had a ten minute walk to our hotel. No umbrellas. No ponchos. Just us slogging through rain and puddles. We arrived at our hotel wet, not just a little wet, but making puddles on the floor wet where the water dripped from our clothes. Someone brought some big brown towels and wrapped the boys up in them. Our hotel room felt like a luxurious place, altho it was just a normal hotel room by American standards. Soon there were clothes hanging on every available space. Our luggage had not been waterproof and so many things were wet. Umbrellas provided by the hotel kept us slightly drier while we went to find food and walked the beach. Dry clothes and eating roti was a cozy way to end that day.

The morning brought clear skies. We couldn’t have been more excited. Even if we didn’t see the sun, at least it wasn’t raining. The breakfast provided by the hotel was decidedly gourmet, which we enjoyed to the best of our abilities while also wanting to get to the beach as soon as possible. Who knew when the rain might be back..? We ended up with a gorgeous day. The sun came out late morning and we soaked up its rays. Maybe a little too much because somehow we all ended up rather sunburned. In the afternoon we tried to rinse as much sand off as possible and a tired, happy bunch boarded a long tail boat, then a taxi, an airplane and another taxi before arriving at our place of rest in Bangkok.