Krabi Town

Intion, the Thai-west owner invited us to join her on a trip into Krabi town today. She said she had some business to attend to and we could go along for the ride. She wasn’t sure how long she would be but she thought maybe 2 to 4 hours……so we left the resort at 7.30 this morning and got back at 7.30 this evening!!
It took 2 hours to get into the town in the first place – meant to be a lot shorter but the boatman turned back twice to pick up more passengers……. Once dropped in town we set about exploring it…. Was quite a nice town, with amazing traffic lights (see pic) – lots of tourists around and lots of opportunities for various trips to other islands – all of which looked quite interesting but impractical from “our” island. The plan was that Intion would phone us when she was ready to collect us. We had just settled down to lunch when she rang to say she would be another hour…. Perfect timing or so we thought. An hour and a half later she rang again to say she was coming back to pick us up and drop us off at Tiger Cave because she would be at least another hour or so……her non English speaking brother was acting as the taxi driver.
So, we were dropped at Tiger Cave – apparently the last place a leopard (???) was seen in Thailand! Anyway it is now a temple of some sort which incorporates various caves…. Very little English signage but we saw “the big tree” and “the big cave” so called.
Intion and her brother reappeared at around 3.30 and we headed for Tesco (!!!) to do a bit of shopping – David was hoping to pick up a bottle or two of red wine as we haven’t had any wine, gin etc, since arriving on the island although we have managed to quaff the local beer. But we were too early…. They don’t sell alcohol before 5.00pm…… oh well – we had an ice cream instead and waited for Intion who had said she should be half an hour max but was nearer an hour!
Last ferry goes at 5.30, so the brother, our driver, put his foot down – Intion rang ahead and we made it to the pier at about ¼ to 6.00. All good except that it was low tide and to get to the ferry we had to wade out through muddy water to reach it…..see pic of David and the brother carrying the shopping and heading up the gang plank!! Apparently, the ferry was stuck in the mud and so we had to wait for higher tide and as it turned out, more passengers…..as the sun set over the water – we finally left and headed for home……the island looked very welcoming, but everywhere pitch black – remember there is no electricity on here….. no matter – our tuk tuk was waiting with Intion’s brother in law at the wheel…..ah, problem – the battery is flat….seems that is very common as a pair of jump leads and a spare battery quickly appeared and at last we were on our way!
An eventful and interesting time – tomorrow we will go back to sitting on the beach all day!