Our place, first anniversary, and birthday

Two weeks ago we were finally able to move into a place we can call our home here in Krabi. It is a little outside of town in a pretty quiet neighborhood, but everything is still within close proximity.

Here is a little tour of the house:

It is a townhouse and right next door are our landlords. The couple speaks no English, but they are very nice and go out of their way to make things comfortable for us.

Entering the house you come into the living room; complete with pictures of the Thai king and queen. Pretty much every house and building here has them.

A pretty big kitchen with access to a tiny backyard.

On the second floor are the sleeping quarters and a very large deck.

Here we have the guest bedroom. This place is quite spacious for the two of us, so if you are in the area or just would like to visit us, come on by!


Slowly we are making this place homey and comfortable for us. But we are also quite busy getting to know the surrounding areas.

For our first anniversary (last week) we spent some quality time at a quiet beach in a secluded bay. We didn't know about this bay before, but ended up here while looking for another place recommended to us.

In order to get to Phaiplong Bay we had to walk past the more touristy beach in Ao Nang and walk over the monkey trail through forest and cliffs. We actually saw the monkeys before we even knew the name of the trail.

Climbing the steps of the monkey trail

View through the trees into the bay

There is only one resort located in the bay. They don't make their guests walk the monkey trail (and actually discourage it) but transport them via boat shuttle. We used the floating dock for a nice picture opportunity.

On the way back from the bay we spent a little more time with the monkeys. They were very tame and (especially) Konrad took a great liking to them...

... and they to him.

This type of monkeys are called long-tailed or crab-eating macaque, which would explain why they reside on the beach side.

One of the little ones even stretched out his hand to me.

This wet macaque (it was playing under water with another monkey) was very curious and interested in Konrad's camera. Had he not held on to it tightly, the macaque would have taken off with it.

We ended the day spending some more fun and quality time in Ao Nang.

For my birthday the next day we wanted to try a new culinary experience and went to a fresh seafood restaurant.

The catch of the day is displayed in a stall on your way in.

Neither of us are great seafood lovers, but we both were positively surprised.
Konrad chickened out literally on the main course (he got chicken instead of seafood), but as an appetizer we had something like fried wontons which we suspect were filled with crab meat. Very delicious actually.

I ordered a shrimp dish and had probably the biggest, freshest, and best tasting shrimp of my life.

That is it for today's update. Stay tuned though - we had a surprise visit from Canada and will be sharing the juicy details of that (along with our other Thai adventures) in our next update.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas,

Konrad & Regina

Arrived in Krabi, Thailand

We are here in Thailand for over a week now, nearing two, so it's definitely time for an entry about the place we'd like to call home for the next little while.

Interestingly, in all of our time here we didn't take half as many pictures as in the 3 days in Beijing. I guess, we are "home" in a sense. There will still be lots of picture opportunities.

This is one of the first pictures we took while having breakfast one morning:
A monkey "walking the line".

Krabi Town itself has no beaches but is right at the river that leads to the ocean. A lot of boats go out from here to some of the nicest beaches that can't be reached by any road or to the gorgeous islands around here.

We often enjoy walking along the river taking in the view of karst mountains and mangrove forests on the other side and convincing the boatsmen that we are not planning to go on a boat trip, which they so eagerly offer.

Konrad enjoying a coconut on the pier.

There are many of these karst mountains that you see in the background around here. If you ever watched James Bond "The Man with the Golden Gun" they might be familiar for you.

"James Bond Tours" are offered which will take you to the exact same ones from the movie.

This particular formation they call the "Dog Ears". I took the picture on a walk in the morning. Notice the high water level on the pier and also the mangroves.

This picture was taken not too far away in the evening, right before it started raining pretty good. In the evenings the tide goes down and water level is very low, exposing all kinds of crabs and other critters in the sand.

We are enjoying very good and inexpensive food around here. There are many restaurants, street stalls, and markets to choose from. This is a traditional dish called Pad Thai.

I had it three times at three different locations already, and it is slightly different every time. But every time it is fried noodles with a choice of chicken, shrimp, or sometimes beef, with different greens and sauces.

This is Pad Thai as well, this time from the night market.

Konrad had a fried rice dish that night.

We also enjoy going to the city market often, mainly for the great abundance of fresh fruit. Some are unknown and exotic for us, but so far we have not been disappointed.

There are no pictures of our place yet, because we are still renting a room in a guesthouse.

On our search for a place we are really learning the meaning of "Thai Time". People live a laid back life style which we really enjoy, but are not very used to when it comes to important decisions.

But, Lord willing, sometime next week we should be able to move out of the guesthouse into our own place.