Phi Phi to Krabi

Mummy and Daddy look fondly on as their sons take on the locals in tag street kick boxing competitions
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We set off for the mainland on the early boat, and caught the ferry from the teeming pier. Krabi is a jumping off point for visitors to the islands, so it’s busy and tourist orientated but  not so westernised that it has lost its Thai character. We checked into the K Guesthouse, which is a nice wooden Thai house with large very clean, cool rooms and lots of plants. Krabi is not huge, so we took a turn around it in the afternoon, checking out the markets and shops.

The food market was luscious - we saw women making tiny pastry pancakes filled with sweet things (hundreds and thousands, raisins, angelica, and - um - spiced carrot?), and soup or curry being served in plastic bags like goldfish at the fair. It was thundery and at one point rained (haven’t seen rain for a good while), the skies were full of amazing clouds and the light was beautiful over the dramatic cliffs along the coast. Later we ate at the night market and watched as a guy on the next stall to ours tossed mussels in batter with eggs, fish sauce and bean-sprouts to make the most mouth watering smelling food. We’ll definitely be having that tomorrow night...

The pancake lady doing her stuff
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Our priority here is to sort out the next couple of weeks travel online, we’re trying to stay at least a fortnight ahead at all times with room bookings and train tickets etc, but with the last month spent flitting between remote islands with dodgy electricity and no internet we have a bit of a backlog to catch up on. Wireless internet is available but patchy, and of course after 4 weeks there are a few pressing issues we need to sort out online (let alone planning the next leg), so it was a fraught couple of hours trying to do this whilst trying to placate the kids who were bored senseless waiting for us to finish, poor things.

View from Krabi pier
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In Kuala Lumpur I heard that my film ‘The Beloved Ones’ had got into a prestigious festival in the US, and that I was eligible for funding to attend (from the British Council, and also Screen West Midlands who commissioned the film), so today I could finally sort out some very complex plans for flights. It sounds a bit bonkers but in two weeks I will be heading off from Bangkok to Aspen, Colorado (via Taiwan and LA) for a week of schmoozing and festival going, leaving the kids with daddy in Chiang Mai having a ‘jolly boys time’. They are already planning their junk food and bowling fest (KFC? Mummy would SO disapprove!) with alacrity. Meanwhile I am concerned that our ‘slash and burn’ policy of leaving behind or posting home clothes as they become unnecessary to the next leg of the trip (so far several fleeces, two pairs of walking boots, jeans and flip flops have bit the dust) has left me very unprepared to go from Bangkok (35+ degrees, 90% humidity) to Aspen (snow on the mountains still and pretty chilly). Bikinis and cut off shorts will not do. There’s no way I’ll get away with complaining about it however (fair enough) so I think that some strategic retail therapy may be in order... This whole ‘hand luggage’ thing is clearly on its way out.