A.S.I.A: Top Chef Chiang Mai

May 6, 2010

Chiang Mai, Thailand

There we were up again at the crack of dawn with yet another adventure before us: a Thai Cooking Class.  We were picked up by a songtaew along with a few other people and headed off for the morning market.  On the way we were given a sheet where we got to decide which dishes we would be cooking and so our guides (named Kook and Nut) knew which ingredients to buy.

Spinning plastic bags to keep flies off the chickens

 

Which part of the pig do you want?



The market was hustling and bustling as we all got out, bombarded by a caucaphony of smells and sights.  Everything from herbs and spices to fresh curry paste, pig heads, whole birds, tanks of fish (some dead, some living) and loads of snacks.  Kook walked us around a bit and explained how certain things were made and what certain sauces were used for.  It was also really interesting to hear about the rice and how different prices determined different grains and also different freshness (for example, a bag in the back row was more expensive as was picked more recently.)  We then had some time to walk around and get stared at by the locals as we just as curiously stared back at their piles of innards and various bloody organs for sale :)  I think my favorite market device is this spinning contraption to which vendors attach plastic grocery bags that wave around over their food to keep away the flies.  Clever!



All the rice you'd ever need



Top Chef: Chiang Mai



After the market we made our way to an organic farm outside the city set against a beautiful, fresh air backdrop.  We took a tour of the very nice kitchen in which we would be cooking as well as of the grounds of the farm.  Many of the ingredients we were using in our food were actually grown right there and we learned what each thing was (things like kaffir limes, chilli pepers, various gingers, lemongrass, coriander, etc)  It was cool to see it from 'the farm to the table' so to speak, but I have to say we were all struggling a bit to focus with it being about 100 degrees outside.  We thought by heading north we had escaped the heat, but in our open air kitchen we didn't stand a chance.

My Masterpieces (Tom Kha, Pad Krapow, Red Curry)

We spent the next few hours preparing our various dishes including Tom Yum Koong and Tom Kha Gai (a creamy red curry soup and a creamy coconut curry soup), red or green or yellow curry, Pad Krapow Moo (fried pork with thai basil) and Pad Thai (a famous noodle dish) as well as dessert.  We did everything by hand including making our own curry paste; I think this is where the term 'someone put their sweat into this' comes from cuz with all the mortar and pestling I may as well have just taken a shower.  I learned that fish sauce is good with meats and soy sauce is good with veggies and tofu, I learned that even the smallest little chili can make your mouth set on fire, I learned that kaffir limes are too bitter to eat but their leaves are great for flavor and, most importantly, I learned that I am an amazing chef!

Our Kitchen

When all was said and done we sat down and sampled our meals and were all pleasantly surprised at what we'd just concocted.  It was enough food to feed a small village, so we ended up wrapping up the leftovers and taking them back with us for dinner.  Our journey home was fairly uneventful aside from the raucous posse of French ladies that had been cooking with us too--good entertainment value though.  As we were all too full to eat we made our way for some live music and happy hour downstairs before heading to the night bazaar.  We walked around for a bit to digest, bought a few knick knacks and made our way to a massage parlor to work out the kinks from standing up in the heat all day.  Not too shabby.

Chiang Mai is definitely a place to spend more than a couple days, but I think we really made the most of it!

A.S.I.A.: From the Islands to the Mountains

May 5, 2010
Chiang Mai, Thailand

One of the gates in the wall around Chiang Mai

It's amazing how drastically the landscape changes with only a few hour flight.  Rather than being surrounded by white sand and blue water we were greeted by majestic mountain ridges and lush northern jungles at the Chiang Mai airport.  A short songteaw ride brought us to yet another beautiful hotel, the Imperial Mae Ping, where we put down our stuff, freshened up a bit and made our way out into the city.

Teakwood Wat

Having been to CM a couple times before I had a pretty good grasp on some of the things we should see and brought Mom and Sue along on a walking tour through the city.  Despite being much farther north than we had been previously it was still shockingly hot as we were walking around.  We were sure to take our time and take ample rests/water breaks amongst the many temples and side streets we wandered.  Now, during this time the red shirt riots were in full swing down in BKK and a large population of the rioters were from the North, CM included.  While we were walking we stumbled across a small vendor stall with some red flags on it and beneath it was sleeping a small Thai woman-actually she looked dead.  A fearless Sue was able to rouse her and, after a bit of confusion as to why a group of tourists had woken her up, asked her if we could buy one of her flags for a souveneir.  She was more than happy to share with us and away we walked with some hand made protest flags (for free!) 



Inside one of many temples



I brought Mom and Sue to one of my favorite sites in CM, the women's prison/ rehabilitation center, for a quick look around-Sue brought some handmade table cloth to support the women :)  Our next stop was at a nearby massage parlor where some of the inmates are given jobs upon their release and where I've had a couple of my best massages in Thailand.  I must say it's a bit strange being massaged in a calm environment with some of the women looking a bit rough and tattooed, but they do a great job! (Unfortunately there was no impromptu comedy show as Mom was actually given the massage she had asked for) I treated Mom and Soup as a Mother's Day gift and after we were all tiger balmed up and relaxed we headed back to the hotel.  As was routine, we spent some time in the lobby with a happy hour special and background music provided by a young Thai girl and her khim (a small stringed instrument that you hit with mallets sort of like a you hit a xylophone.)  After a wonderful dinner we caught a bit of the Elvis look a like who was now performing in the lobby and then made our way to bed--after all, we had stayed up the entire night the day before!

A.S.I.A: All Day, All, Night

May 4, 2010

Langkawi, Malaysia

Despite it being our last day on Langkawi (oh, how we wished we’d had more time) we took full advantage of the morning sun down by the pool. Around lunch time we had At come pick us up and he agreed to take us on a half day tour of the island before we had to catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. It was the perfect way to end our stay as At drove us to many sites and was able to give us the lowdown on the history and life on the island.

Langkawi Cable Car

1st Stop: Batik. Langkawi is known for its very talented and traditional Batik artistry. We visited a Batik center where we got to watch the artists in action; basically Batik is the art of using cloth, wax and dye to create beautiful designs and motifs. An artist will use a small brush or pen to put wax on the cloth and then dye the visible fabric. In the end you are left with a painting like any other except it’s embedded in the cloth and is visible on both sides unlike paint and brush. We spent a good amount of time in the shop sifting through Batik paintings, clothes, sheets, etc. I had never heard of it before coming to Malaysia so it was really interesting to see it firsthand.

Langkawi Sky Bridge

2nd Stop: The Langkawi cable car. We hopped into our little cable car and made the 2km ascent up the side of Gunung (mount) Machinchang. It’s a bit daunting going up that high as there are points as you’re swinging in the breeze above the jungle at seemingly 90 degrees. Once you’ve made it to the top you climb onto the first observation desk and take in the sheer vastness of Burau Bay and the rest of the island. A short trek leads you up to the even higher second observation deck where you are even more surprised by all that lays ahead—I read online that some of the land in the distance is actually the South of Thailand! The highlight of the trip though was probably the sky bridge which is one of the world’s longest cable suspension bridges. As you walk along this bridge, which is literally hanging in the air, suspended between two mountain peaks (at over 2000 feet), you can feel the wind swaying you back and forth. It’s definitely not for those with acrophobia or vertigo, but the view is stunning and worth getting over your fears for! It’s like a layer cake as you look out and the blue sky meets the deep green jungle which rests gently upon the sea. Wow. Our descent was kind of scary as you are now looking straight down at the jungle below rather than up at the mountain top, but we thankfully made it down safely where At was waiting to take us to Stop #3.



View from the top of Gunung Machinchang

3rd Stop: Krafts Center. No it’s not a center sponsored by Kraft, but rather the way the Bahasa Malay language spells ‘craft’ (one of the words our racist taxi driver in KL was describing.) Here we spent a bit of time perusing the stalls and booths of all the artisans and typical paraphernalia—it seemed to be more geared toward tourists and as such we didn’t really come across anything original. We decided instead to head out and have At take us to one more stop before the airport.

4th Stop: ‘Black Sand’ beach. I use quotations, because the black sand beach was about 4ft x 4ft. It actually just looked a bit dirty as opposed to something unique. At told us, though, that the beach is unique, because the black sand isn’t the result of volcanic activity, as is the case in most of the world, but rather iron oxide. So, I guess we can check ‘see iron oxide black sand beach’ of our bucket list :) It was so nice to see the other parts of the island and At was very proud to show us around.



Black Sand Beach

5th Stop: Langkawi airport. We said our goodbyes and made our way inside the little airport. Realizing we weren’t allowed to bring liquid on the plane with us we decided we need to do something about our extra beverages. Not wanting to offend anyone, keep in mind it’s Muslim, Mom went to Starbucks and got some cups for us and we speedily finished up what we had. We dined at Malaysia’s finest for dinner, Kenny Rogers, which we thought was hilarious; in the middle of this small island off the coast of Malaysia we were eating greasy spoon American cooking. What a treat!

6th and 7th Stops: KLCC/KLIA: Being the ‘experienced’ traveler I am, I convinced Mom and Sue that we didn’t need to book a hotel for the night, because we could just get one near the hotel when we landed. That’ll teach me. We landed at KLCC and hopped in a taxi to the hotel we looked up online where the proceeded to look at us like we were crazy for not having a reservation and informing us that the hotel was hosting a convention and all the rooms were filled. Great. They were nice enough to call the discount hotel next to KLCC (which we found out was also full) and then offer us a spot on their free shuttle to KLIA (the int’l airport where they said was open for 24hrs and had a hotel attached.) Our hopes were soon dashed as the airport’s cheapest room was a couple hundred dollars which wasn’t worth it at that point-it was after 11pm and we had a departure at 7am.

Being savvy as we are, we wove our way through the other travelers who had either chosen or were forced to stay over at the airport and plopped down at the 24hr McDonald’s. We got some food and Mom and Soup got their coffee and we made the group decision to just stay awake all night. I felt horribly that I’d gotten us into this situation, but I lucked out that I was travelling with such easygoing people (I mean how many moms are willing to do something like that?!) Good thing they have such good experience with all nighters due to their nursing and the three of us ended up having a great night talking and laughing. There were definitely a couple of lulls in which we debated catching a quick cat nap, but it was nothing a good story or refill of coffee couldn’t cure. 5am finally rolled around and it was time to make our way to check-in at the other airport for our flight back to Thailand. Selamat tinggal Malaysia!

A.S.I.A.: Langkawi or Bust

May 2 and May 3, 2010

Langkawi, Malaysia

May 2, 2010

Our First View of Langkawi

Breakfast was nothing to write home about with cold hot dogs and some traditional Malyasian dishes which were a bit salty and fishy in flavor.  A plus, however, was that our hotel was within walking distance of the pier where we were to catch our ferry to Langkawi.  Whilst we were waiting for our boat to arrive we were met by yet another overly friendly man who took a liking to Mom; we thought Sue's Iranian man (who offered her a tour) was funny, but hs guy took the cake.  He had one arm and knack for talking.  You have to give him credit for his confidence, but I think what made us have to bite our lips from laughing was the fact that he kept talking about his arm and how due to his situation he had a special pass (laminated around his neck) that allowed him to ride the bus and other modes of transportation for free.  He even used the pass as a pick up line for Mom saying he could get her free rides too; at this point Sue and I couldn't even watch for fear of bursting out laughing. 

Jacuzzi, Pool and Swim Up Bar

The ferry finally came and we made our way to some seats only to be found once again by our new friend.  I think he realized Mom wasn't going to be travelling to Langkawi with him and he moved on a little bit into the ride.  We got of the ferry and were greeted by lightning blue water and warm tropical sun.  We walked through the duty free shops (which are a huge deal, because as a Muslim country, certain goods are heavily taxed on the Malaysian mainland) and made our way to a travel agent counter to book a hotel.  Malaysia is known as one of the countries with the most and cheapest 4- and 5-star resorts in the world, so we had a fairly large selection of very nice places.  We opted for a 4-star recommended to us by the agent and, man, were we happy about that!

Our Own White Sand Beach

We were driven from the port to the Holiday Villa Resort by an extremely nice man named At who helped us bring our bags inside and taught us some basic phrases to practice during our stay on the island.  The resort was absolutely beautiful with wonderfully cool rooms, and an incredible series of pools/jacuzzis, beautiful gardens and it's own private white sand beach.  Paradise.  After a quick bite to eat a Chinese restaurant up the road we grabbed our gear and headed to the pool.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered after our bus fiasco the day before.  We made our way to the swim up bar for a nice happy hour (how can you not be happy when you can have whatever you want without having to even get out of the pool!) and then to the beach for a perfect sunset over the water.  After some great pictures and washing the sand from our well-rested feet we showered and went do dinner at one of the resort's restaurants.  It's amazing how one day you can be so tired and exhausted and the next day you are in a state of complete relaxtion and everything seems to move calmly--if you hadn't guessed it that's how we felt that night and went to bed some very happy travellers.

 

May 3, 2010

Perfect Langkawi Sunset

Today was our full on, no plans, relaxation day.  We ate a nice breakfast after which we immediately claimed some prime real estate next to the pool for late morning/early afternoon ray soakage.  It got a bit cloudy around lunch time so we decided to do a bit of exploration near the hotel (a.k.a. Mom and Sue were ready to get some shopping in.)  There some really nice strips of shops featuring a cool mix of local and tourist-oriented goods and being the curious shoppers they are, Mom and Sue were actually able to get a store to unlock it's doors to let us in because they said they liked something in the window.  The people were really friendly and told us about their restaurant that was going to be opening for dinner later and were so happy and excited about us being there that we naturally said we'd come back later to eat dinner.

Traditional Malay Dinner

Continuing on with our theme for the day we headed back to the hotel for some more pool time and then some room time.  Don't you wish every day could be like this?  When hunger struck we kept our promise and headed back to the Sunday Bistro from excellent food and wine.  We were even treated with some dinner entertainment as an extremely rude and vocal group of Russians wouldn't stop complaining about their food.  Our waiter kept apologizing for them and how much time he had to spend with them (he said that groups of Russians and tourists alike come in all the time and order the expensive fish and then continue to send it back to the kitchen and moan about the service in hopes of getting the meal free.)  Who does that?!  The food was extremely good--I indulged in a traditional Malaysian multi-course meal--and the service was the same if not better, so were more than happy to sympathize with the staff.  In a state of food coma we waddled back to the resort for another night's sleeep.

A.S.I.A: A few hours doesn't mean 8

May 1, 2010

Kuala Lumpur-->Kuala Perlis, Malaysia

Petronas Towers

We woke up early the next day and headed downstairs for a filling breakfast before making our way to the famed Petronas Towers. When we got to the Towers we were all set to get our tickets to head up to the observation deck only to find that the rest of KL and its tourists had had the same early morning idea. After standing for a bit-and Soup being hit on by an overly friendly Iranian man-we decided instead to walk through the city to the KL Tower. Walking around KL you realize that it is an overall very nice city with clean streets and well manicured landscaping, however, it seemed to me more empty and less lively than BKK. Anyway, we finally reached our destination and took a free shuttle up to its base. Basically, the KL Tower is a giant communications tower that also has a revolving restaurant and loads of cultural activities, all while being surrounded by a nature preserve.

KL Tower

At the top we did a 360 degree walk around with a headset and handheld video guide that pointed out the various landmarks around the city. I'm actually glad we went here, because we were able to see the Petronas Towers in the distance and got some great shots looking down on the city. Included with our ticket was a walk through the cultural village so we spent some time taking a look at traditional houses, food and dances of the various Malaysian subcultures from throughout the country before we got a cab back to the hotel and then to the bus station.  As the main bus station was under construction we were driven to a massive tent in a parking lot outside the city. It was one of the most chaotic and insane places we'd ever been. You step foot in the tent and within milliseconds you're hounded by about 33098 people all trying to direct you to their bus and their destination. We finally found a bus that would take us to Kuala Perlis which they said was just a few hour bus ride that would get us to the pier in time to get the ferry to our actual destination, Langkawi.

Sue and Mom are happy listeners

Getting on the bus we were in fairly high spirits with spacious seats, loads of leg room and plenty of Dots for eating (think we ate about 25 boxes of Dots during the 2 week trip.)  We made a stop on our way out of the city where we were uprooted from our seats by some unhappy women, even though we were told that we could sit where we wanted.  Needless to say those women were not offered any Dots (although a bit later, after the steam had stopped pumping from our ears we realized they were actually really nice and helpful...still, no Dots.)  The bus ride was pretty smooth and I was so impressed at Mom and Sue being up for a cross country trek through Malaysia.  The scenery was really beautiful as we went from the city to some flat lands and suddenly up amongst the greenest highlands you could think of.



A view from KL Tower



We made a pit stop a little while into the trip and the 3 of us indulged with a bit of corn-in-a-cup.  I know, I know it sounds like a really exotic treat but it's pretty much exactly as its name states: corn with butter, sugar and coconut milk served in a cup with a small spoon.  It's one of my favorites and I'm pretty sure Mom and Soup are converts as well as we couldn't stop raving about it (and it's kind of an unwritten rule that you have to refer to it by its full name which lends to a bit more fun when discussing this relatively simple dessert.)  Anyway, I digress.  The ladies went off for a touch of rest stop shopping while I headed back to the bus and I'm really glad I did.  About 30 seconds after I got on the bus started to pull away and I jumped up to say they were still shopping, but the seat-stealing ladies were already on it (you remember the really rude and nasty ones from before :) )  The bus honked it's horn for about 2 straight minutes until we were able to see Mom and Sue sprinting through the parking lot in the rain and fog until they reached the bus and we could continue on our journey.

It started to feel like this was taking longer than it should as we realized that everyone else seemed to be getting off the bus except for us.  Then it dusk came, then sunset, then darkness.  We kind of figured that we probably weren't making the 6pm ferry when our bus pulled in after 9pm to a seemingly abandoned bus station in a seemingly abandoned Kuala Perlis.  Not seeing much other choice we made our way to the nearest hotel, the KL Seaview, which, according to its brochure, was at one point very high class--something had changed.  We were immediately greeted by the overwhelming odor of Durian fruit which can at times literally smell like a mixture of onion, puke and sewage.  I went out to help Soup with her bags and was met with an excessively overwaxed and sllippery ramp on which my feet slid right out from under me and I landed completely flat on my back on the hard ground (thankfully I'd kept my back pack on or I think I would have cracked my skull!)  In tears from laughing so hard we went back in to meet Mom and see our rooms, which weren't terrible; I mean what more can you ask for than aircon, enough clean beds to sleep on and arrows on the ceiling pointing us in the direction of Mecca...oh yea, this part of Malaysia is very Muslim.

Starving from our endless bus journey we ate at a pretty lively restaurant, Azira, which was serving local and very tasty Muslim dishes next door.  They clearly didn't get many foreigners in there, but we tried to blend in as much as we could, bobbing along as the locals stepped up to karaoke one after the other.  Our facade was shattered however, when Mom decided it would be a good idea to launch her chocolate milk across the table and spill it over everything.  Embarrassed we continued to bob along and speedily ate up before sneaking away to the luxurious Seaview for the night.

A.S.I.A.: From Krabi to the Muddy Estuary

April 30, 2010

Krabi, Thailand-->Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Our time in Krabi had come to an end and after a bite to eat and some packing we were ready to head back to the airport.  Ming was there waiting to see us off in the van and as we waved goodbye we couldn't help but laugh at the hilarity that had taken place on our short visit.



Petaling Street, KL, Malaysia



The flight was uneventful, as was customs, and we made our way outside of the Kuala Lumpur airport to search for a taxi.  The service is run pretty well at the airport, with everyone paying a set fare to get into the the actual city without having to worry about bartering/getting duped.  Our driver was a Chinese Malaysian and provided us with literally non-stop talking for the entire drive (which turned out to be about 2 hours.)  The airports are about an hour outside of KL itself and, with rush hour traffic, we were kind of at the mercy of our driver's endless stories about the palm trees, his Chinese heritage and his very obvious racism towards the Malay government.  He kept ranting about how when he was growing up kids learned 'real' English, but that the new implementation of Bahasa Malay as the national language had all but butchered the language with awkward phonetic spellings and pronunciations.  We weren't really sure how to react so we kind of nervously laughed along as he described the differences in how we say and spell cucumber and how his kids were being taught to say it.  I guess it was nice though that he taught us that Kuala Lumpur means Muddy Estuary... We were very relieved to reach our hotel.

Sizzling Chinese dinner

The Swiss Hotel definitely seemed nicer online, but as we had just gotten to the city we decided it would do for the night and made our way to Petaling Street.  This street is probably the more famous in KL and is known for it's endless shopping and hawkers.  Seriously anything fake or knock off you can imagine is available on this street.  After looking around and feeling a bit suffocated by the crowds we eked our way out to a less packed side street for some dinner.  We ended up at a delicious Chinese restaurant with streetside seating giving us prime real estate for people watching and giving us our fill before we headed back to the hotel for bed. 

A.S.I.A. No being crabby in Krabi IV

April 29th, 2010
Krabi, Thailand

'Orange sticker deees wayy'  'Pink sa-ticka deees boooattt' 'Brue satickahhhr come wis meeeee'  We were amidst a throng of foreign and Thai tourists all waiting around like livestock to get organized into our respective tours and when our stickers were finally called we sheepishly (catch the pun?!) made our way forward and grabbed our snorkel gear.  It was a beautiful morning and the sun was just coming out and the 3 of us were excited to get started on our 4-Island speedboat tour. 

First stop:



The Phallic Statues

Phra Nang Cave beach.  It was explained to us that this cave was very important to local fishermen and folklore.  The story goes that the spirit of a beautiful princess resides in the cave and it is her blessing that keeps the fishermen safe on their journeys and as a result, locals come to the cave to make offerings to her spirit as well as to the goddess Shiva.  The cave is really beautiful as you look up and are overpowered by ornate stalactites and stalagmites set against the backdrop of Rai Leh island and the surrounding sea.  However, it's when you look down that you are in for the real eye-opener; the mouth of the cave is literally filled to the brim with phallic statues of all shapes, sizes and colors.  We're talking 10 feet to 10mm scattered all over the walls, floors and spilling over onto the beach.  It was hard not to laugh, but you have to remain respectful, so we just followed what the other tourists were doing and posed with some of the statues.  They are supposed to be symbols of protection and fertility for the spirits in the cave, but to those who aren't aware of the cave's history it looks a bit Red Light.



Beach Monks



Postcard

Second Stop:

Next we headed to Poda Island for a swim and snorkel.  Although the fish were beautiful and there were some nice coral formations and sea cucumbers, the best part of stop #2 was probably Sue.  Mom and I were able to convince her to try snorkeling for the first time-such a trooper- and there she was along side us with the whole kit and caboodle: from snorkel to mask to jacket to flippers.  Mom was trying to explain to her that to snorkel best you sort of just float on top of the water and let the waves and current move you around.  Sue was trying her hardest to listen, but she kept rolling over.  I don't mean once or twice, but it was as though someone had put her on a rotisserie and she just lost control.  I swam over from my snorkel post to see how they were doing and there's poor Sue trying her hardest as Mom has completely lost it and has tears rolling down her face as she is 'helping' her friend.  It was one of those hilarious moments where no one can stop laughing--even as Sue would say 'stop it,' she'd burst out laughing as around she went again which just got Mom going and then me.  Soup wouldn't give up though and she found a happy medium; she held onto the anchor rope for one of the boats and used that as a stabilizer for the rest of our time in the water. 

Third Stop:

Chicken Island

Next we found ourselves dining on our lunch next to Chicken Island, so named for it's chicken shape (I think it looked more Turtle-like.)  We made our way around it's neck and beak and were brought to an open water snorkelling spot.  We were warned before we hopped in that it was the time of year when jellyfish are abundant, and we were definitely aware as we'd seen many of their little pink bodies jetting around since we'd been in Krabi.  I couldn't pass up another snorkelling opporunity in water where you can literally see to the sandy bottom below; however, I was quickly out of the water after playing an impromptu game of 'Tag' with a massive smack of my jelly friends (and yes, I looked it up, it is called a 'smack' of jellyfish!)  They are beautiful and mesmerizing to watch in the water, but it's pretty terrifying to be watching one group of them and feel a smooth jellied-head move against your back or your foot.  Somehow I escaped unstung, but my adrenaline was definitely pumping. 

4th stop:

Sand bar starting to emerge at Tap Island

After I'd made sure I was sting free we were already at our final destination for the day: Tap Island.  Mom and I decided to do some more snorkelling while Sue set up camp on the beach.  The sand was unreal--pristine white cut out perfectly by the crystalline blue waters slapping against it.  We spent our longest time at this beach, because as the tide went out, a sand bar emerged connecting the three surrounding islands and you could literally walk all the way between them.  Amazing.  Soaking up some sun in the water we happened to befriend a group of local kids who were enjoying the beach on their day off school.  They were so curious about us and it was hilarious watching them show off and then swim away and then huddle together en masse until the designated leader came up to us with the question they had just debated about asking. 

One of our jellyfish friends

We found ourselves back on Ao Nang beach and more than satisified with our perfect sunny afternoon.  It was back to Ming and some final afternoon rays by the sun before we ran some errands and headed off to dinner.  We opted for our new favorite joing, Jeseao, where we continued to be chatted up by the staff.  After our meal we all exchanged emails and took some group pictures together to remember our time.  It's so easy sometimes to just connect with people--one of the many perks of travelling I guess!

Even if you're surrounded by phallic statues, groups of kids or smacks of jellyfish: No Being Crabby in Krabi!