After three weeks on islands, I was ready for a bit of civilisation. If you can call Krabi civilisation - anywhere monkey men carry the traffic lights is a bit suspect in my mind!
That's a bit harsh, Krabi is just a typical Thai town - scruffy and chaotically vibrant. Like everywhere I've been since Singapore there's a faint odour of sewers everywhere, but the town itself is perfectly pleasant if very tourist focussed and it's a great hub for heading off for the various parts of southern Thailand.
The town nestles on a river and is very picturesque, so I busied myself trying to take arty photos of the 'sea gypsys' who lived on the opposite bank.
One evening there was a spectacular storm on the horizon - it's pretty hard to photograph lightning on a little point and press, but on the fiftieth attempt I got lucky.
The food in Krabi was superb, particularly the seafood. One evening I went to a recommended seafood restaurant and gorged myself fo the princely sum of one pound fifty.
The garlic and chili fish was probably the hottest thing I have ever eaten though.
And that was about it for Krabi. I was there for three nights, using the internet to listen to the start of the first Ashes test, getting laundry done and planning my next move. I was unsure about where to go next - whether to go to Phanga Nga Bay, where The ManWith The Golden Gun was shot, or press on to Koh Samui and Koh Tao.
In the end my mind was made up for me, when I accepted an offer of work at Emap for the end of July. I confirmed my flight a bit earlier than I'd originally planned and realised if I wanted to get some diving in I was going to have to miss Bond Bay. A real shame, but Krabi has some cool rock formations of its own, so I wasn't too upset.
Going home was now very real. I was desperate for friends, family and familiarity, but the shock of not living this lifestyle was going to be huge and I was worried how I'd cope.
Hopefully with the calm of these Buddhist monks who strolled past me at dawn on the morning I left for Koh Tao.
