March 3rd to 9th: R&R in Krabi
Day 141 to Day 147
My parents are here! That means we now have an excuse to do touristy things and explore in style. Krabi is an excellent base for exploring the area. Abundant accommodations come without a costly price tag, and there are plenty of authentic local scenes among all the western conveniences.
My dad has only one wish – fishing in the open sea and we have been longing for a change of scenery. Even though fishing is not a popular activity among the beach goers, we had no difficulty finding one out of multiple tour agents to help us charter a long-tail boat for fishing (of course the agent was motivated by a handsome amount of commission out of the deal). However, just as almost all TripAdvisor reviews complained, fishing here is more of a child’s play. It was great that we were picked up from the hotel and dropped off at the pier where the long-tail boat was ready to go, but we felt like it was more like the captain’s personal fishing trip and we were just tagging along. Nevertheless, my dad, Chopper and I had a great time pulling small fish out of the water while my mom suffered from seasickness . She was a trooper to stay with us till the end. Although she was confined to the boat, so she couldn’t have escaped anyway.
We also took the 5 islands tour, which was worth the trip. We were a bit turned off by the crowded Phra Nang beach but snorkeling off the islands was quite enjoyable. Once we swam away from the roaring motorboats the visibility and environment were greatly improved and we saw a variety of fish in the clear waters.
Crowded Pra Nang Beach
Unfortunately my mom fell sick after the fishing tour, but we had the chance to spend some quality time together and explore Krabi town. This quirky little town quickly inspired Chopper to wear a pair of voluminous fisherman’s pants (by the way local fishermen do wear this type of pants, they are not just for hippie white travelers), and I was guilty of purchasing a brightly colored dress. Having soft cotton clothing in our wardrobe choices again was so glorious that we decided to keep our new purchases. We rationalized the luggage weight gain by mailing our climbing equipment to Australia, our next climbing destination after Ton Sai. However, I’m not sure if we can find a justification for our personal weight gain after climbing in Ton Sai tomorrow.
Local fisherman wearing fisherman’s pants