[Day 47-49] Emerald Pool and Krabi weekend market

I left Tonsai on April 16th (day 47), because I wanted a few more days in Krabi to visit some things and try some more fabulous food.

A dead puffer fish someone had put up at Tonsai beach.

Once back in Krabi, I checked into the same hostel as last time (Good Dream) and treated myself to a blue cheese burger :). The afternoon was mostly spend arranging various things for my stay in Australia.

The standard insurance for the campervan I’m renting there has one pay up to AUD7500 in case of an accident. So I got an excess cover insurance with another company to reduce that to around €150 (plus around €650 for that extra insurance).

During the past week I have been trying to find a place to couchsurf in Darwin, since I need to wait 4 days before I can pick up the campervan. Unfortunately, it seems a vast majority of Darwinians is not interested in responding to requests. It’s not that they refused me, I would have been fine with that. It’s that they read the request and then don’t bother answering it, which you can imagine is rather annoying. Luckily, my 22nd (!) request got swiftly accepted by Dee and Dave, whose place in Southport (about 50 km south of Darwin) I will be staying at for 4 nights.

Sending out all those unanswered requests took a few hours though, by the time I was finished, it was evening, so I just watched some series and got a good night’s sleep.

The next day, I rented a scooter and drove 60 km south, to the Emerald Pools. This is basically a mangrove/swamp with extremely clear water. There’s a few spots, most famously the aptly named Emerald Pool, where you can swim as well. I didn’t do so, since the pool was very crowded. Walking through the mangrove and visiting the Blue Pool, where no swimming is allowed and the water has an astonishingly blue shade, definitely made the visit worth it though!

Whoever's building this temple loves bees.

Super clear water at the Emerald Pools.

The Blue Pool, a pretty fitting name!

Some tree covered in crazy big (>5cm) thorns.

What I was really looking forward to was the Krabi evening walking market, which is organized each Friday until Sunday and where you can get food, clothes and souvenirs. There’s also a big stage set up on which locals sing, playback, dance, do fire shows, … I would say it’s worth it to spend a day or two in Krabi just for this market. The variety of available food is amazing and everything is really cheap, so you can sample to your heart’s content. Which I did of course :).

Really crowded at the Krabi evening walking market.

Lots of freshly grilled fish.

Mystery foods!

Fire juggling show on the big stage.

My last day in Krabi, I drove around a bit with the scooter and revisited the Tiger Cave temple complex in order to have a walk through the jungle there. It was really nice and quiet there and I saw some beautiful animals.

I would have been clueless without the sign. Thank you, monks :)!

The jungle also had a few temples set inside a cave.

Beautiful red dragonfly.

Look how cute and cuddly it is! Look!

Mostly though, I was just waiting for nightfall, because… evening walking market :)! I once again stuffed myself with various (often unknown) things and just enjoyed the atmosphere. There was one weird moment where a break dance show was repeatedly interrupted to let a 10 year old girl do some sexually suggestive dancing… No clue what that was all about, the rest of the show was pretty good though.

Spicy chicken and beans with an egg.

I believe the sign mentioned octopus?

Quail eggs covered with fish paste.

Coconut ice cream covered with salted cashews.

Absolutely no idea what this was, except for sweet and delicious :).

And that was it for my stay in Thailand! Tomorrow I’m boarding a plane to Darwin, Australia.