A deviation from simplicity: Krabi town and my last days in asia

So in a surprisingly fast period my time in asia is coming to an end.
i have had a fantastic time and met some wonderful people. i am writing this update from Suzies hostel in chinatown Kuala Lumpur. metres across the road from my first hostel where this whole journey began, its nice to be moving onto the next leg of my journey from a familiar place. almost like i have come full circle in my asian journey
My last week was spent in Krabi town on the west coast of thailand, I arrived here just after i left Saumi island and luck was on my side, As our ferry left the island the torrential rains began, and two days later the population of samui had to be evacuated by the Thai Navy!! I have never seen rain so heavy last for so long, flash flooding and rivers bursting their banks all over thailand, 38 emergency zones were declared and we felt extremely lucky in krabi being based on a hilltop!!
During my time in krabi i stayed in the Pak-up hostel, certainly one of the nicest places i have stayed in thailand, I got on very well with james the manager and all of the staff there. I rented a bike the next day and drove around krabi and the surrounding area, one of the nicest places i saw was Tiger Cave Temple, it is a massive buddist temple with some very nice scenery and a jungle trek to see some of the caves. However the greatest part of the temple is a 1237 step climb to the top of the mountain where there is a statue of budda and a 360 degree view from 600 metres above sea level!

Krabi town itself is a very nice quiet place with a friendly local population. I stayed here for 6 days as we were basically trapped by the torrential rains,
Busses and trains were cancelled in places and leaving the hostel was the same as taking a shower. thankfully the hostel had great facilities ranging from tv, internet, restaraunt, and a great common area at the back.

In the town there was a great food market with a wide variety of thai treats,

After my week in Krabi i got a bus ticket to kuala lumpur,
Now upon booking this ticket i assumed i would be taking a direct bus journey from krabi to malaysia. However in thailand nothing works like that, so after 3 pointless stops, and then 5 hours in a cramped minibus with an entertainingly irate driver we were dumped in Hat yai city, I wandered around for a while with Phil and Dom two diving instructors on their way to KL, we were all reasonably sick of travelling this way with cramped bumpy vans and cranky drivers, but all of our complaints were quelled when we saw the "fancy" bus we were going to spend 7 hours on. it was luxury compared to anything we had seen in thailand so far. So equipped with charged mp3 players, junk food, and three reclining seats on the top deck in the very front we cruised to our destination, the only delay being the border checks at the malaysian border, which although boring and time consuming went off without event.

So now i am just relaxing in my hostel writing emails and drinking coffee, taking it easy before my flight at 9am, arrive at the airport at 6am, Until then i will sign off and hopefully i will update again in the next week once i have found my feet in the land of oz.

And i leave you once again with another random selection of photographs

Food Market