Thailand Chapter 6 - New Year's Eve in Krabi

So much time has passed since my last entry and I have to think a lot to remember what I wanted to write about... I'm not good at thinking, but I'll try...

Well, good morning, good day, good evening... Depending on the time it is for you....
And above all:
Welcome to the new decade!
I hope you all had a good transition into the new year.

Both of us were unsure for a long time about where exactly we wanted to spend New Year's Eve.
Barefoot on some island beach.... in an expensive private pool villa in Phuket.... With thousands of people at Central World in Bangkok or on a hotel rooftop with a mega view and practically in the middle of the fireworks...

Decisions, decisions - sometimes it's a dilemma.
And yes - first world problems. ;)

In the end, we chose Krabi because we wanted to go in that direction anyway.
And because we thought it would be a good mix of everything.
In the end, we made all the right choices and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.

After leaving Koh Mak and heading towards Bangkok, all we wanted was to return to paradise.
But just the thought of being back in the loud and smog-filled city 10 hours later... Ugh... I really didn't want to...
When we finally arrived after an endless bus ride in the evening, I immediately wanted to turn around on my heel.
Ew - the noise!
So many people!!
It was overload.
The contrast to Koh Mak was so intense. 🙈
I was just glad that it was already so late and we only had to get through the night because we had already booked a flight to southern Thailand for the next day.
But 'just getting through the night' turned out to be my biggest problem haha.
(No, it wasn't the bed this time.)
We had booked 1 night in the parallel street to KhaoSan and unfortunately there was absolutely nothing in the room that would dampen the noise from outside.
I'm usually not so sensitive to noise - on the contrary, in fact - but we could hear loudly 3 different songs from outside (at least).

And the bass and the screaming people.
I have no idea how Juli managed to fall asleep so quickly, but I might have gotten a total of 2.5 hours of sleep and I felt so exhausted the next day.

We didn't experience much in the hours before our flight, except for an hour-long and incredibly relaxing massage, where both of us almost fell asleep...

The flight was also uneventful, except that we arrived in Krabi with a two-hour delay.
It was around 10:30 p.m., I believe, and when we arrived at our accommodation, we just collapsed into bed and enjoyed the last night of the year 2019, because the next day was New Year's Eve.

When I pulled aside the curtains in the morning, I held my breath for a moment.
I almost forgot why I wanted to go back to Krabi.
This view. 💙
I even woke up Juli, which I usually don't do, but I wanted her to see it.

Yes, Koh Mak is paradise.

I fell in love with the jungle island Koh Chang in 2017, but:

K R A B I is different.
Scenically, it is just unbelievably amazing.
Krabi not only impresses with its white sandy beaches, but above all with countless huge limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea.
No matter where you look, everywhere these high cliffs, some of them so gigantic that they measure about 300 meters.
Southern Thailand is mostly Muslim, so we were prepared to keep our 'affection' to a minimum in public.
However, we were not prepared for how nice and cheerful everyone is here.
People don't have too many good things to say about Krabi, especially about Ao Nang Beach (where we stayed).
Many complain about mass tourism, about all the people, about the hustle and bustle, and so on...
But the thing is, if you don't come with false expectations and know what to expect, it's just mega impressive.
Yes, there is a certain Ballermann feeling.
But with a fantastic view all around.
A backdrop that you don't often get in the world.
At least from my point of view.

On New Year's Eve, we rented a kayak on the famous Railey Beach and spent about 3 hours with it.
It was so so beautiful, as you can see on the pictures above.... :))
Then we returned to our accommodation and got dressed up to welcome the new year in style.
Party was everywhere.
The Thais, whether Muslim, Buddhist, or Jehovah's Witnesses (hehe), don't normally celebrate the new year when we do, but they don't miss an opportunity to party.
They were in such a good mood, carefree and cheerful.
They turned the street into a disco, danced, laughed.. Small and big BBQs everywhere, happy faces and cars with scantily clad girls dancing to the music.
The fireworks started long before midnight, but we're used to that from Berlin. :)

We walked along the streets and just went with the flow.
In the end, we bought sky lanterns and released them.
Yes, we know, in Germany those things became sadly famous in Krefeld on New Year's Day, but we found it overwhelming to look up at the sky and see countless lanterns above the ocean on the horizon.
Especially funny was watching some people struggling to release them.
It was very windy that evening.
And you had to hold the flame against it for a while until it caught fire.
Then the lantern had to fill with hot air before you could really let go of it and it would fly away.
For some people, the lantern burned down completely before that or landed in the water, or flew just above the ground towards other people - the panicked owners ran after them.
It was funny.... 😁 

There were fireworks all around us at midnight. 

There was no countdown, everyone just did as they wanted.
Despite everything, it was beautiful.
And I love fireworks.
Firecrackers can be abolished as far as I'm concerned, but rockets are essential for me.
And luckily, there were plenty of them. :))

I think we were already in bed by 2:30 a.m. and since we didn't drink much, as good as we are, we didn't have a hangover, instead we booked a boat trip for New Year's Day.
Again.
It was called the 7 Islands Tour and was supposed to take us to 7 spots.
Start at 12:30 p.m., end at 8 p.m.
Well.
It started at 2:45 p.m. and ended at 8:30 p.m.
And if Juli were to choose a day to forget from our entire trip, it would be THIS one.

But back to the beginning:
Apart from the fact that it was quite hot where we chose to wait for the pick-up that was supposed to take us to the pier, it was annoying to stand there for so long without knowing if anyone else was coming or not.
After a 100-year delay, we finally got on the boat (well, nutshell), which was truly uncomfortable, we noticed how stormy it actually was that day.
The weather changed in minutes.
The sea was so rough.
The sky was cloudy.
Just perfect for spending the whole day on a boat.
Perfect snorkeling weather. *cough*

As we set off, it got worse and worse.
Darker and darker.
Windier and windier.
Waves as high as 2 meters at times.
Seriously.
I'm not exaggerating this time.
(or any other time, of course)
The strange wreck ploughed through the waves, so deep in the water that sometimes you thought it would go down like the Titanic any second.

We sat all the way at the back where no one was, because everyone crowded onto the upper deck and we thought we were so clever to have secured the apparently best seats.
Haaaaa!
In reality, we of course had the worst seats because with every wave (and there were many), the spray landed in our faces.
The part of the boat where we were was the worst you could have chosen and we were soaking wet after just 5 minutes.
When we arrived at the first snorkeling stop, we just stayed in the boat with our asses.
I mean, what could we possibly see in the gray and turbulent ocean, right?

But in retrospect, this was the best decision.
Because we had sooo much time to observe the spectacle around us.
The people who joined us on the tour were so much more interesting than any fish could have been.

There was, for example, a couple in their mid-twenties.
We noticed the guy at the beginning even on land because he was wearing such strange clothes and even stranger sunglasses.
When he jumped into the water, he moved so uncoordinatedly like I have never seen before.
And then he even had a matching frog face.
We first thought he was doing it on purpose, but after about 2 minutes of bizarre splash movements, he actually went back to the boat to get a fucking life jacket.
And even with that, he could barely keep himself above water.

But even worse was the Indian woman.
She was there with her boyfriend and another couple.
Not only did the women go into the water at the beach beforehand in complete attire, with jeans and shirts... When everyone got into the water from the boat, she went in too.
Also with a life jacket.... 5 minutes later I looked again.... There was some commotion... And I'm not talking about the sea.. It turned out that the Indian woman couldn't swim!!
I mean, not like that weird Kermit, who could at least sort of swim... No, not at all... She couldn't swim even a little bit... I know, it's not funny or anything, but you didn't see her because it was funny! 🤭
She had these huge bulging eyes.
They were, like, inverted.
Well, they were like that naturally.
But when she (despite the life jacket) became more and more panicked, all you could see were her 2 bulging eyes in the water, that's how big they were.

Why would you go into the water if you can't swim?
Why in a place where you can't possibly stand anymore??
And especially on a day when the sea is so rough?
Well.
In the end, she was rescued from the rough sea by a crew member.
I have never seen such a fearful face before.
But at the same time, I have never seen such a funny one either.
She was still in a state of panic even when she was back on the boat.
Crying like a baby.
Forever.
We didn't have any sympathy.
Unfortunately, it just looked too funny.
😝

It was really nice to just observe the people and the whole time we prayed for the trip to end soon.
However, the sunset on the sea was mind-blowing.
Since some stops were canceled due to the delay, we eventually ended up at a beach for dinner.
We walked all the way to the end because there was a cave... and hey... You won't believe it (we wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes), but inside there was something like a dildo altar.
Penises in all shapes, colors, and sizes you can imagine.
We have no idea what all those phallic symbols mean, but if we don't forget, we'll google it sometime....

Then the last stop.
The best one.
The one I eagerly anticipated.....
Snorkeling.
In the dark sea.
It was already completely dark.
And I was so hyped.
I knew what was coming.
B I O L U M I N E S C E N T P L A N K T O N.
It's sooo amazing.
Imagine you're in the water.
Everything is black.
And then you move and everything turns blue.
Like thousands of little flashes of light every time you stir something up.
Nothing but the stars above you and space beneath you.
It's hard to describe, but it's something you'll never forget.
At least I won't.

That was just the perfect end to the rather mediocre day we had experienced.

We also got to enjoy a small fire show, which was included in the (overpriced) price.
It's not really worth mentioning, except that it was performed by 9-year-olds among others, but yeah,... one thing was strange.
There was a big cardboard box where we were sitting and waiting for the show.
Suddenly, there was meowing coming from it.
Um.
Scratching noises.
The box was completely sealed.
Then a claw breaking out.
A little nose where the claw had been sticking out earlier.
We helped her free herself.
It was a young cat.
Not a baby anymore, but not really old either.
How did she get in there,... what were they going to do with her,... what would have happened to her... We don't know! .... And maybe we don't want to know....

At 9 p.m., we were finally in the bungalow.
We were dead tired but for reasons I won't go into right now, we still had a very exciting (in a negative sense) evening ahead of us... Also, a very short night and a morning that, like the previous evening, was rather unchill.
We barely made it to the ferry to the next island at noon, and btw, the sea was quite rough that day too, and we got sprayed with water until not a single centimeter of our clothes was dry anymore.
But you know what?
This time it wasn't us who cursed our stupid spot.
Fortuna was on our side and we had 2 really nice hours in the best spot on the boat this time.

And so I stop here for now so that I have something to talk about next time.

Ciao! (or as the Thais say)