78 km

We got our first flat tire today, just entering Krabi. It was my back tire, caused by a piece of broken glass. We’ve had to ride through big puddles of glass the last couple of days, as we were forced to stay on the shoulder by traffic. As we inspected the tire we found a couple of deep cuts in the tread, and decided we needed to check the tires more often. We fixed the flat and headed into town to find a guest house.

Entering Krabi, we see many stores selling yard animals and alters.

Krabi is a popular tourist destination, a stepping-off point for climbers seeking the huge limestone cliffs, divers heading out to the Phi Phi islands (Koh Phi Phi), as well as the usual backpacker and family tourist seeking a hot-spot in Thailand. We weren’t too excited about staying right in Krabi, we wanted to get to the beach. But I was tired and getting grumpy, so we found a guest house.

Prices here are expensive, so we looked for a fan-only room, and found a nice one at the Chang Guest House, on the road that goes by the pier, just up the hill a couple of blocks on the opposite side of the road. It’s a clean and very pleasant place run by several members of what appears to be one extended family. They also have a restaurant up front, and we ended up eating both dinner and breakfast there because the prices were good and we found the food to be great. They even had a special vegetarian section on the menu!

As we were out looking for dinner and finding expensive prices elsewhere, we met Damien & Judy, a couple who are bike touring the opposite direction through SE Asia. They were vegetarians too, and knowing they were probably on the same kind of budget we were we asked if they wanted to come back with us to our guest house’s restaurant for cheaper vegetarian food. They did, and we spent most of the evening talking about our trips, and we got even more useful information on which to base our route decisions. Once again we heard that Laos is the favored place for touring. The roads are quieter, the mountains are beautiful, and the people are welcoming. We’d really like to tour there, so we’ll give it a try, taking care not to do long days when the mountains are steep, and hopefully my knees can adjust if we go slow enough. If not, there are rivers everywhere, and we could simply load ourselves and our bikes onto a longboat and continue seeing the country.