These border crossing minibus companies are as shifty as they come. They lie about how long the drive takes and about how many people will travel in the van (if there is an inch of space they will squeeze someone or something in there). They smuggle in goods, avoiding the duty by hiding things under foreigner's bags. They charge locals less to fill up any empty seats and then drop them off door-to-door first. They sometimes leave you stranded in a midpoint city, as we were for nearly two hours, while they transfer people to different vans.

Sorry, I could go on about all the annoying tricks they pull. Honestly, I'd rather pay twice the price and just have a straight drive across the border without any funny business. In a way I blame the stupid tourists for putting up with it, but it is not in the Thai spirit to make a fuss, so I confine my protest to not paying the ten baht.

Once I'm in Krabi I'm ridiculously happy to be there and to have that needlessly interminable drive over with. At least I was lucky enough to have some pleasant young Canadian guys to chat with and make the time go by. It's good to hear from young men with so many ambitions. I'm sure their characters will be built up nicely after they don't get all that they want.

It's a bit shocking to walk into farang infested Thailand after the relative solitude of Malaysia. I'd certainly hate to be here in the busy season, but now it is great to be here. As usual, I take the first decent looking room I find and go room comparing for future nights. A woman tells me that one place has the cleanest washrooms she's seen in six weeks of traveling through Thailand. I'd already looked at this place and ruled it out for staying because of the hordes of Euro-smokers presently camped out there. However, I had noticed the unusually clean washrooms. I immediately decide to eat dinner there.

Good choice! Excellent green curry soup and a side dish of noodles. I have to send back a yogurt that is too sweet for me. The proprietress studies the label and tries to convince me that it isn't too bad: "only 2% sugar," she says. The last place I stayed at made great homemade yogurt and I will later find some places that do the same here.

When I'm feeling in the mood for sweets, you can get some great stuff here -- black sesame seed crisps, sesame peanut brittle, or those Chinese sunflower seeds flavored with anise and cherry bay. I wash these down with the multitude of mixed vegetable and fruit drinks found in boxes. My favorite combinations is: carrot 45%, orange 25%, tomato 10%, celery 10%, passionfruit 5% and pineapple 5%. I don't know how they ever came up with that one. If I feel like a sweet yogurt, they make one with chunks of nata do coco in it -- clearly an improvement on grass jelly.

Krabi has some weird price variations. Rooms are ridiculously cheap at around 100-150b, as is street food. However, a very cheap looking pair of pants cost 800b. A small jar of non-imported honey can run 260b. Internet access is costlier and slower than Malaysia, but most other things are cheaper.

I decide to play it by ear as to whether to stay in Krabi for another night and visit Tiger Cave Temple or to take a longboat to Raileh Beach on the Pranang peninsula. A long, hard morning rainstorm suddenly lets up, so I check with the boatmen. No one for Raileh yet and I'll need six people to make up the normal 70b fare. I know better than to wait when the boatman asks me to, so I have a leisurely breakfast and return 40 minutes later -- only one guy waiting. I leave again, making the excuse that I'll find more people, but really I'm just about to give up and check into a guesthouse. Before I can get out of shouting range however, the boatman calls me back. He's suddenly found four locals who are going over. I believe they have these locals waiting around until they are desperate to fill up a boat and make a run.

Doesn't matter, we're off in the tiny boat, splashing through the choppy water past the incredibly scenic karst mountains that the area is famous for. When we pause to refuel I get an unsplashed look at the gorgeous peninsula, the many rocky islands in the distance, and the colorful fishing boats.

We land in east Raileh, but well south of where I was expecting. My fellow foreign shipmate is an English guy named Neil. He wants to stay at west Raileh, which has the nicer beach, but we both have to wade up the east beach, now swelled with high tide. Neil turns in through the ugly construction sites (more on this later) while I continue on in search of cheap lodgings. We know that we're bound to see each other again before too long.