Island Life: Krabi region, Lanta, Langkawi

Starting in Ao Nang beach, Krabi, I began ten-days of beach and island time. In Ao Nang I stayed in Glur hostel which was a 25 min walk to the beach. The hostel beds were raised on separate platforms with your own wardrobe and curtain. This was a nice chill out hostel for me, one evening there was torrential rain so I stayed in, watching Aladdin in the common area!

Krabi, although not an island but a starting point for visiting the islands, is quite touristy but a day trip to Railay Beach was just what was needed. Apparently Railay is normally quite crowded but it was relatively quiet when I was there. The water is clear and blue (if the sky is blue) and the sand is soft. The limestone cliffs and islands as a backdrop are quite impressive. You can also climb up one of them to reach a viewpoint of the bay and climb farther, a perilous journey or so it sounds, to reach a lagoon. You have to climb down a vertical cliff to get to the lagoon and then of course climb back up.

I was quite disappointed with myself but also with the weather. It had been raining the two days prior to my visit, meaning that the climbing (scrambling really) route was very wet and slippery. There was a sign of course saying not to attempt it in these conditions. Nevertheless others were going up in flip flops and slipping a bit. I was wearing my hiking boots so I gave it a go. Unfortunately a combination of them being too wide to fit in any footholds and it being very slippery and my fear of not being able to get back down, despite there being a rope which was also slippery, caused me to give up after about 5 metres. I'm sure that had I been with friends such as my hiking guide, Ieuan, I might have managed it and seen the amazing view like the one an Argentinian man showed me on his iPhone after coming down.

Next stop was a ferry to Koh Lanta. Lanta is a very chilled out, relaxing island with not too many bars or high rises, or a McDonald's. A lot of the locals still live where they always have lived and sell whiskey bottles of 'gasoline' outside their houses for 40baht. Sitting with a mai tai and a pad thai and enjoying the sunset in one of the beach huts became an almost daily tradition. Even if it is alone, the peace and time to think was a treat. I was surprised to see so many other solo people lying on the beach and leaving your bag while you swim seems to be safe. I often stayed on the beach or on the beach bar until sunset. The best sunsets I've ever seen, and I couldn't believe how well they came out in the photos.

Another common thing to do in Lanta is a 4 islands boat tour. You head out on a traditional style long tail boat and stop off at Koh Ma and Koh Cheuk for snorkelling. A lot of people don't find the snorkelling that great, however I've never really done it before so even though I couldn't use the breathing tube and decided just to hold my breath, I found it really interesting. There were nemo fish, ones with stripes like zebras, bigger shiny blue ones and little timid silvery ones and sea urchins. No idea what their real names are. After that we went to Koh Mook to swim through the 80m long dark cave to reach a not so secluded lagoon with many other tourists. We then reached Koh Ngai or Koh Hai for lunch. Never before had I seen such clear blue water and white sand. It really did seem like a paradise, although there are only a few places to stay and not that many places to eat, which for me would prevent it from being paradise!

Koh Ngai

Koh Ngai - our longtail boat

Koh Mook - swimming through the 80m long cave to get to the lagoon

Another great thing to do in Thailand is a cooking class. In fact I met people who did a cooking class in every asian country they visited. I did mine at Time for Lime in Koh Lanta. This is a well known restaurant and cooking class on the island. The lady who runs it also runs the cat and dog rescue centre. The cooking class was so much fun. The teacher, Mia, was a jovial, joker who poured out her enthusiasm as we ground spices and chopped with giant knives, and sqaushed or 'kill it' as she would shout. We also got to decorate our creation and present them in coconut bowls and with banana leaves. This class was very vegan friendly with fish sauce kept separate and tofu used instead of chicken. I can't wait to get home with my Time for Lime apron and recipes!

After that I spent just over 3 days in Langkawi, a northern Malaysian island. This island is very different to the Thai islands. For a start, most of the food is Indian or Malay and some Chinese. They are also a lot less pushy than the Thais or the Vietnamese. The people are predominantly Muslim. You can often hear the calls to prayer coming out of speakers on the streets and there is no local beer; mainly just carlsberg.

Langkawi has one of the oldest subtropical rainforests in South East Asia and this area has been recognised by UNESCO. There are three rainforests. The one I visited is named the Kilim Geoforest. I went on a mangrove river boat tour. The mangrove trees are fascinating with their roots growing above land.  We saw monkeys and some people were feeding them bread so that they would swim towards the boat, not great for protecting the natural ecosystem. We also saw eagles, a giant lizard and a lot of bats hanging in a cave.

Kilim Geoforest Park, full of mangrove trees, rivers and wildlife

In my last evening I went on a rainforest evening trek. The trekking was quite easy. The guide Jerome of Dev's Adventure Tours was very enthusiastic, informative and made it very interesting. We saw flying lemurs which only awake in the night, giant red squirrels, and termite mounds (both active and inactive). The active mound had a snake hole not far from it and Jerome told us that the termites and the snake have a symbiotic relationship. He also showed us the snake bite scar he got from a venomous snake! The inactive mound had become so because the queen died. The worker termites apparently seal up any holes in the mound and leave, in respect for their queen and it becomes a sort of shrine to her. The trees had termite tunnels and lines going quite far up. We learnt a lot about the flora of the forest as well.

If you want to spend extr money in Langkawi you can do the sky cab and skybridge where you see the forest canopy and views of the island. Aside from nature, the shopping is duty free, and the beach and beach bars with bamboo mats, candles and shisha are fun. It's not really an island for partying. I met some great people there.

I then moved on by ferry towards the Malaysian mainland but only made it so far as Georgetown on the island of Penang, which has a short bridge or ferry to the mainland.


Georgetown is like another world. Quiet at night, but busy during the day, with tourists taking photos of street art and old colonial buildings.Some areas are very run down. There is a large china town as well as a large 'india town'. I really did feel I was in india there. The Malay people speak Malay but for the most part they speak their own dialect of chinese or indian and tend to stick within their respective community. It felt very strange to be in a place with two distinct races and nationalities living so close. However this gives rise to the streetfood and diversity of the food in Georgetown, which is renowned. I had some really good curry platters and tofu dishes and also found some vegetarian cafes.

Some of the street art

I briefly popped into Fort Cornwallis, the fort built in the late 1700s by Captain Francis Light, the English founder of the city, during the rise of the British Empire. 

Fort Cornwallis, the fort built by Captain Francis Light, the English founder of Georgtown

Some of the old colonial buildings. Some parts of town were very run down.

My particular favourite cafe was the Sushi Kitchen on Gat Lebuh Acheh. This place is a quiet oasis near a busy main street, where tourists pile onto the Clan Jetties. They keep the door closed to maintain the atmosphere, so you just need to push it open. I had a delicious tofu noodle stirfry for lunch, and came back for sushi for dinner! Both were absolutely delicious. The owner Milk, who is also vegan, was so kind and took me to a nearby hawker stall which served a lychee dessert.

Vegan Sushi

Vegan lychee dessert at a hawker stand

The clan jetties occupy a section of the Georgetown port. They are a form of shantytown build by the chinese over the last century. They are still occupied today by various families. There are different names: Tan Jetty, Chew Jetty etc. They also now have electricity and running water though I did see some outdoor toilets, where it was just a hole opening out to the rocks and sea below! They live tax free as they don't live on the land.

One day I took the bus out to the Kek Lok Si temple. Someone called it a sort of disney land for buddhists. I could agree. The colours were vibrant, and almost tacky, with shops selling incense, buddhas, sandals, bags. There was also a vegetarian cafe within the complex. I climbed the steps up to the top of the white temple, pictured below. It was a cloudy, misty day and there was a great view of part of the city, beneath the mist.

Culture of a different kind

It's been a while since I posted, mainly due to laziness and being bogged down (literally) by what I presume was food poisoning. The symptoms began on night one of the two day slow boat journey from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Kong, Thailand. The idea is that you spend 8 hours each day on the slow boat with recycled car seats and one night in a small village half way. I ended up there for two nights and visiting the medecins sans frontiers clinic to check I wasn't dying. Fortunately the check up and medications were free, though I did make a donation. The village is very remote and apparently the hospital there is of very poor quality.

Dosed up on anti-everything medication, I was able to continue the journey to Thailand and spent a couple of days each in Chiang Kong and Chiang Mai...doing not very much at all.

A week into the sickness, when I gave into getting antibiotics, a very kind missionary family from my hometown church took me in for a few days in Chiang Mai to recover. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, with the old town being walled and surrounded by a moat. There is also a lovely mountain called Doi Suthep where the Royal Family has their summer palace and wonderful views of the national park can be seen.

If you're wondering what caused the food poisoning aside from my own stupidity, well, that would be the cold vegetarian buffet at the night market which had probably been prepared about 4 hours prior. Interestingly there was a perfectly good cafe beside which served a vegan burger but I opted for culture...and ended with cultures of quite a different kind!

Recovered, I headed to Bangkok on a comfortable overnight bus and spent 2 days there. Bangkok is an interesting city, some call the old town the Venice of the East. The river boats which act like buses were very handy to reach the old temples (called Wats) and famous roads. The BTS and MRT 'skytrain' system is a great and cheap way to get around the newer parts, much like the London Underground...but above ground.

And now for some rest and relaxation on a Thai island and a Malaysian island.