We left Georgetown and the island of Penang on a crammed minivan that we assumed was taking us across to the mainland where we would catch our bus. It turns out, this crammed minivan WAS our bus. The next 11 hours cuddled up with strangers – unable to put our feet down naturally since the luggage was tucked in under our feet had us ready to start looking for our first Thai massage. When we arrived in Krabi – they asked each of us where we were staying. For a couple of folks, the driver knew where they were headed and would take them there. Others were very close and could just get out there. Us? Well, the driver didn’t know where our hotel was, so we were told to just hop out there and ask at the tour agency. Luckily, the tour agent had a small map of town that gave a general sense of where we were headed.
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We first stopped for dinner with Marlena and Cedric (our German friends we’ve been traveling with) at a great little Italian restaurant and then made our way to the hotel. The locals told us we would want to take a cab since it was “too far to walk” and “very far out” before adding “you have to walk maybe 15 minutes.” Ha! They’re apparently used to a very different breed of tourist. We made our way there just fine and even got to see the night market on the way. Walking also allowed us to check out the town and their eccentric traffic lights along the way. Each intersection has a different theme but this was one of our favorites.
The next morning, we met up with Marlena and Cedric for a trip to the Tiger Cave Temple just out of town. The temple on the ground was small and had a few monks offering blessings and a gift shop with trinkets for sale. Also, despite it being Tiger Cave Temple there was a random whale skull by the entrance marked with a sign that said, “Whale – Beware Monk Stealing Thing.” We assume this was a mistranslation and they meant to warn us about the monkeys, but we kept an eye on the monks just in case.
From this point, it was a mere 1,272 steps up to the primary feature; a huge golden statue of Buddha atop the mountain. We made our way up, wishing that we’d started out earlier in the day when the sun was lower or perhaps even when our knees were a few years younger, but continued in good spirits – emboldened by the people passing us on their way back down who promised it was well worth the hike. The moment we reached the top, the stairs to get there were forgotten. The view was incredible! And the statue of Buddha, seemingly being held up by dozens of carved demons, was indeed huge.
When we arrived back at the bottom, we met families of the nicest macaque monkeys we’ve seen on our trip. People would hand them grapes which they would gently take from their hand and eat. Some even preferred to peel their grapes and leave the skins behind. They must have been quite well fed to be that picky. We also saw a woman set down the cap to her water bottle and fill it with water which the monkeys drank from. At Batu caves the monkeys would have simply stolen the bottle, chewed through it and drank the water at the top of a tree.
After that we went for a well earned massage. It turns out that a “traditional” Thai massage takes 2 hours, and for $10, who are we to mess with tradition? Thai massage is clothed (they provide loose fitting shorts), includes a lot of intense stretching and focuses primarily on the legs and low back.
After that we went to dinner at Mr Krabi (thank you Chad and Becky!) which was delicious. The portions were large, the service was great and the food was yummy. The mojitos weren’t bad either.
At this point we were feeling fat and happy and were ready for bed, but on our way home we passed a number of other massage studios and decided that our backs and necks had been somewhat neglected in the earlier massage and it wouldn’t be right to deprive them. So, off we went for another hour of massage on our upper body. I’ll tell you, traveling is tough!