Krabi

The excitement was palpable as we released the first of the pre-Great Race quizzes to the teams on Wednesday morning. Well, not really. But some teams had a very quick response time, so they are most definitely competitive. 
By Wednesday I was ready to test out my knee in Bidadari and we had a lot of birds for company which was lovely. Unfortunately we also came across felled trees and soil testing equipment which indicates the developers are advancing on us, despite the fact that the rare trumpeter hornbill was sighted there this week. Rare in that it has never been recorded here before as it is native oto Africa. We saw hill mynas, lineated barbets and a lone Chinese pond heron in breeding plumage among others. 

On Thursday Eric and Neil set another leg of the race and I swam. After work we met up with Peter at our local hawkers and were joined by Simon, the guitar playing local who approached us for some help with the lyrics of a song he has just learnt. "I come from a land down under". I'm sure that was just for our benefit. 


By Friday Eric had set the last of the legs and June and I had checked another. Then it was time to start collating the results of the quiz. It all gets pretty busy really, but fun. Had the chance to skype with Bev in Canberra who has just today received final clearance to begin the job she won last October. How she has managed to stay positive in all that time is beyond me. A very tenacious character.

By Sunday night we had knocked over five weeks of term already so it must be time to get out of Singapore for a few days. Monday's flight was a little late leaving Changi but still arrived on time, 2 hrs later in Krabi, Southern Thailand 11am local time. We arranged a driver who took us to the Ao Nammao jetty and from there we caught the scheduled long tail boat to Railay Beach. They leave whenever 8 passengers turn up. Fortunately it wasn't long. Our Sand Sea Resort was just a short walk across to the west side of the tiny peninsula. On the map below you might be able to make out Penang Island right at the bottom, left of the mainland. Phuket is the larger island just west of Krabi where our Sand Sea Resort is marked. 

Once we had checked-in, we found our cabin tucked away in the shady gardens and then some lunch down at the water's edge. The sun was blazing, many people were baking in it, their sunburnt pounds of flesh overhanging their micro swim suits. It is quite disarming to see the lack of consciousness. Thai people being so discreet, they would never appear offended by it all, but I am sure they are. I guess most who work in the tourism industry have seen it all, too much in fact. 

Then we took a siesta. In the afternoon we went for a walk back to the east side, out along the point and then took a path back to Pranang Cave Beach back on our west coast. It was beautiful but what we were looking for was the outlook point and lagoon. Unfortunately we eventually found the path but it was vertical and required rope climbing so with my knees not at their best we had to give that a miss. 

The walk had been interesting though, following the edge of a limestone karst and its cavernous bottom with stalactites and stalagmites. 

And the beach was very pretty.

I walked on to the far end of the East Railay Beach in the hope of seeing birds but there were few. This side is very different to the west. It has mangroves and is rocky rather than sandy, a good thing for the boats that operate between here and Krabi town that bring in all the supplies and workers for each shift.  

Eric went back to our resort and I met him later in the pool and we only emerged when the sunset demanded we get out and take a picture. Then we had sun downers on our cabin balcony before strolling out for dinner.  We bought some wine and beer then ate at the restaurant next door to our resort. Absolute beachfront with a fabulous onshore breeze to cool us. It is interesting that none of the resorts serve alcohol but they are happy for you to buy it and they will provide openers, suitable glassware and ice buckets as required. It has been a very relaxing day, not a thought of curriculum or fire drills or classwork correction. 

Tuesday
Slept soundly then took an early morning stroll back to the east side in search of birds and photographs. After breakfast back at the Sand Sea Resort we relaxed for most of the day. 

There is the opportunity to take boats out to the different islands, go snorkeling and canoeing but for today we are happy to relax. In the afternoon we took a boat to Krabi town where we had read about a boardwalk through the mangroves which we expected would be good for bird watching. This is the home of that ruddy kingfisher we saw in Bidadari last migration. Blue flycatchers and mangrove pittas are also seen here, and they would be new sightings for us. It was hot but there were only 6 passengers for Krabi Town so we each agreed to make up the difference and not wait for two more people to arrive. The tide was out so it was quite a walk along a floating jetty to get to our boat. Two Canadians, who were also passengers to Krabi that we had been talking to, asked to come too as they had never been into a mangrove environment. We really had no idea where we were going or what we were expecting to find and just had to trust our boatman. Turned out he knew exactly what we were talking about and did his best to help us find birds along the way. The boardwalk was not quite what we were expecting all the same. Not a board to be seen once we cleared the ramp from the river, and most of those boards were missing! 

It was very quiet in terms of birds, either too early or not early enough and the tide well out, but still very interesting as always. The few calls we heard we were mostly unable to identify. Perhaps we would have been better staying in the boat to explore the many networks of creeks that branch off the main river. We did manage to find ashy tailorbird, green Iora and olive-backed woodpecker. Our boatman then refueled and we returned to Railay just on dark. 

Wednesday
After breakfast we waited under the shade of the trees for our speed boat to arrive at 9am and take us on an island hopping trip. Our boat was very comfortable and had plenty of power, being driven by no less than 3 outboards. We first stopped at Pranang Cave Beach, the one we walked to on Monday looking for the lagoon. A quick dip there to cool-off as the sun is already making itself felt. I was impressed by the enterprising family that supply freshly cooked food and cool drinks from their boat which pulled up while we were there. 

On to Tub Island, within the National Park where sand bars link a number of outcrops together at low tide, we were able to snorkel. It was lovely but very crowded. I can't imagine what it is like here at high season, we are at the end of it. One of the islands is fondly called Chicken Island, because it has a rock which looks like the neck and head of a chicken (to me a turkey). We were able to snorkel at two different spots within the park seeing many colourful reef fish, spiny urchins, sea cucumbers and clams. I even found a set of goggles which we took back to the resort and left at the pool for children to play with.

Our final stop was Poda Island which has a large white sandy beach shaded by Casuarina trees. We had lunch provided here, as did many other boats and their passengers so shady spots to sit comfortably were hard to find. The highlight here was finding a pied hornbill keeping his eye on everyone from a vantage point high in a coconut palm. By the time it was 1:40 we were well and truly ready for our siesta. It was a quick 10 min jaunt across to our Railay West Beach home. 

We re-emerged to read on the balcony of our cabin but my book was just so well written I cried and cried so had to put it down. Who else has read 'Still Alice' and not done the same thing? We wandered through the resort next door whose gardens looked like they may have more birds, but it was just too hot I think. So, took a stroll up to the bar at Walking Street then watched the sun go down for the last time here. 

We had organized for the resort to arrange our transfer back to the airport. This involved being driven in a golf cart the 500m to Railay East Beach, then transferred by tractor to a waiting long-tailed boat, it took us to a different jetty again from the ones we had used earlier and we were met and driven on to the airport in a minivan from the SandSea Resort's Ao Nang site near the hot springs.  Quite a journey and we were glad we hadn't had to rely on our luck that we could make the connections on our own with a plane departure time looming at the other end. Some of us do have to work this afternoon!
Birds found
Grey-eyed bulbul
Stripe-throated bulbul 
Streak-eared bulbul
Olive backed Sunbird
Large billed crow
Reef egret
Ashy tailorbird 
Green Iora
Olive backed woodpecker
Brahminy kite 
Black kite
Rufous bellied swallow 
Pacific swallow
Chinese Pond heron
Collared kingfisher
Common sandpiper
Pied hornbill
Magpie robin
Sparrow