Completing the Snorkel Marathon

Pak Bara (February 4, 2010)

My morning leisure time was consumed with a small project for work, so I had no time for sunscreen as we rushed our bags into the van and headed down to the pier. Breakfast was a small plate of pad thai noodles with shrimp, supplemented with a ripe tangerine and a delicious coconut custard on sticky rice. Before boarding our boat, we shopped the local boutiques for shirts.

In Transit (February 4, 2010)

[Boat Ride / Island Lunch / Snorkel — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

View interactive GPS track on GPSed

Koh Lipe (February 4, 2010)

[Island Arrival / Accommodations / Dinner — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

Koh Lipe (February 5, 2010)

[Breakfast / Snorkeling / Island Lunch / Snorkeling / Dinner — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

View interactive GPS track on GPSed

Koh Lipe (February 6, 2010)

[Breakfast / Snorkeling / Island Lunch / Snorkeling / Rock Island / Dinner / Peace & Love Bar — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

View interactive GPS track on GPSed

Koh Lipe (February 7, 2010)

[Breakfast / Boat Ride — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

Pak Bara (February 7, 2010)

[Noodle Lunch — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

Trang (February 7, 2010)

[Cake Factory — Notes lost in hard drive crash]

Krabi (February 7, 2010)

After driving furiously from Trang to Krabi — along winding roads that upset more than one stomach — we arrived at Varich Krabi Batik shortly after 5:00 to pick up custom orders and consider new purchases. We hustled over to the Maritime where we checked back into a wing with a more ordinary view and set to work separating our bags, keeping only essentials with us and sending everything else in the back to Bangkok in the vans.

For dinner, of course, we returned to Ruen Mai. A light salad of shredded green mango and cashews with a tangy lime dressing provided instant refreshment. This was in contrast to a rich choo chee curry over tender poached fish; a curry of large, flat rainforest beans and shrimp; slices of pork belly flavored with fermented tofu and laced with tiny but potent green Thai chillies; and a rich “fish innards” curry (a bit salty, but otherwise unobjectionable — and extremely hot). We got our greens in a stir fry of leafy pak miang and egg. Kasma delivered some Trang cakes as a gift to the staff at the restaurant, and we ate a few ourselves.

Back at the Maritime, we bid our drivers farewell for a day and a half. Most of us agreed to meet in the morning for an early visit to the market for breakfast, so we could assist one another in finding good edibles and have a solid start to our “free day” here in Krabi.