THE BEACH - Thailand

Last week I offered my take on the amazing city of Bangkok (BKK). As I flew there on an impulse, I didn’t have much time to plan my visit. But I did manage to talk to a few friends who had already been there and asked for their input. And the advice was to try to get out to the Thai islands for a bit. This notion was further cemented when locals in BKK told me and my friend Mimi the same thing. Our first thought was to fly to maybe Phuket, a place many Swedes find themselves at when they go to Thailand. However, our local friend Patty mentioned the city of Krabi with it’s surrounding beaches. And one night, while enjoying mangoes and sticky rice at soi 38, Mimi and I met a Chinese couple who said the same thing: we should go to Krabi and not Phuket. With Patty’s help we booked flights and a hotel, spending very little money. Gotta LOVE a bargain! In Thailand, 7-Eleven is where you can buy many things and you even pay for flights there. After a bit of a mix-up we paid for our side trip...catching a very early flight to Krabi 4 days later.

After a taxi ride from hell and one flight later we arrived in Krabi, a city on the west coast of Thailand. Our hotel was alright and only a 5 minutes walk from the beach. The beach itself by Ao Nang, where we were staying, was not fantastic. I sound like a spoiled child, but if you have had the very good fortune, like I have, to have visited beaches with white sand and blue/green/turquoise waters at Grand Cayman Island, Australia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, it takes something special to blow my socks off.  I did however, on the third day in Ao Nang, climb up a wooden path, walked barefoot through a muddy area to descend onto a private beach. That beach was a lot nicer than the public one. Always trying to get off the beaten path I guess…

After experiencing my first rain in Thailand, it was monsoon season after all, we enjoyed our first dinner in Ao Nang. Food was more expensive there than in BKK, most likely due to the fact it’s a touristic area. After dinner we decided to purchase an excursion to get to the islands. After realizing we could indeed go to Maya Bay, where they filmed the movie “The Beach”, the decision was rather easy: Catching a speedboat to Phi Phi Islands, departing early the next morning, was what we wanted to do.

We got picked up by a truck that took us to a pier. Together with some other tourists, mostly from Asian nations, we climbed onboard the boat and left Ao Nang behind. Our guide was a Thai local with tattoos all over his back. We were so intrigued by his tats I even took a picture of him. His English could at best be described as broken, but he was a terrific guide, making sure everyone was alright. He handed out snorkels and life wests for everyone to use. Here is where I again will sound like a spoiled child: I am not super comfortable with organized group excursions. And I have been on, as I am sure many of you my readers have too, these kinds of excursions before. A whole bunch of people that may not be too comfortable with being in water are descending into the ocean at the same time. The result is that many climb on each other. Organized chaos – island style. I like to stay behind for a bit and a few minutes later slide into the water, without the life west. How are you supposed to be able to dive down with a life west on?! Oh I am such a rebel! However, the water was amazingly warm, clear and we found ourselves surrounded by fairly large fish in all kinds of colors. It was thrilling to say the least!

Up on the boat again and we rushed over to Maya Bay. It was such as a surreal moment. To step foot on the shore and make a 180 degree turn and see the stunning view that fictional characters Richard, Francoise and Etienne sees in the movie “The Beach”…it was magical. A very strong emotional riptide went through my body. The one time I felt something similar, what I can recall, was when I visited the café “Café des 2 Moulins” in Paris where they filmed another favorite movie of mine, “Amélie”. Okay back to Thailand. The feeling was amazing, although I was sharing the experience with hundreds of other tourists that anchored their speedboats in the bay at the same time. But bear in mind, this was low season. When it’s high season, there are usually thousands of people on the shores of Maya Bay.

We left “Paradise” behind and visited a few other spots, such as Pileh Bay (a lagoon) and did more snorkeling. We even stopped with the boat outside a cave called Viking Cave. My people were here?!?! Ate lunch at Phi Phi Don and ended with a visit to Bamboo Island, where we saw no bamboo. We asked the guide and he said the tsunami destroyed the bamboo forest.

This is something that was on my mind a lot when we were by the coast.  I cannot even start to imagine the horrors that the people experienced here on December 26, 2004. But the Thai people are amazingly resilient and so are actually the tourists. Many that were here, that survived, have come back to visit the wonderful Thai islands. Tourism is clearly a very important aspect of Thai life and economy. Many speedboats were anchored alongside ours at Bamboo Island, but also some long tailed boats. Those are the majestic traditional Thai boats that often have flower garlands in the front. With the blue water as a backdrop, these boats offer a picturesque sight. Bamboo Island truly was paradise. Looked like the amazing beaches you see in travel magazines. They are definitely up there with the beaches I mentioned previously, no doubt about it. 

We returned to Ao Nang after a wonderful day and spent the next day just chilling at our local beach. Headed back to BKK the following day.

When I tried to paint a vibrant picture of the Thai capital last week I mentioned two categories of experiences: the”expected amazing experiences” and the more random, “unexpected amazing experiences.” Here are some examples of these, island style:

Expected: entering Maya Bay and being amazed by the overall crystal clear water and white beaches at for example Bamboo Island. Unexpected: chatting with local school girls at lunch. I walked away for a bit from the restaurant and found myself by a school. The girls were drawing and proudly showed me their “Hello Kitty” –inspired works of art.

Expected: seeing Thai wild life up close when we snorkeled in waters filled with rainbow colored fish. Unexpected: getting real familiar with wild monkeys. A group of maybe ten monkeys descended on our local beach at Ao Nang where Mimi and I were reading. I was making sure to stay at an appropriate distance from them while snapping a few pictures as some of them were carrying babies. Well I had the appropriate distance from one monkey, not seeing the one that snuck up on me from behind. The monkey jumped on my arm and hang himself there. As an impulse I threw him off. Accidentally in the direction where Mimi was, but luckily she did not end up with him in her arms. The monkey then decided to take Mimi’s plastic bag containing a full bottle of water, climbed a tree and poured out the water. To teach us a lesson I guess.

I am so glad we took this side trip in order to experience another side of Thailand. To chill in paradise with one of your best friends, yeah no complaining there. I do feel most tourists go to BKK for maybe 3-4 days (at most) and then head to the islands to spend 10 days there. For me personally, I am glad I did the opposite. I loved the islands and seeing Maya Bay was truly amazing. But like I have said before, I am a city girl and I honestly missed BKK so much when we were gone. Getting back “home” felt so right. Even sitting stuck in a taxi for quite a bit, as we came into BKK at rush hour, made me happy. Bangkok is my place of choice in Thailand.