Ao Nang Beach, Krabi, Thailand

In the early morning, before the heat has become oppressive, 

Ao Nang Beach wakes up in stages.  

The Muslim fruit seller is already at her stand down the street from our hotel, offering delicious iced, fresh coconut, ready for us to drink the abundant coconut water, and to use our plastic spoons to scoop out the fresh white coconut meat inside.  

At 40 THB for both fruit juice and snack, it is truly a bargain!  

As we walk down to the road that parallels Ao Nang Beach, tourists are already taking longboats over to nearby Raily Beach, which is such a popular destination for cliff-diving and rock climbing, that photos we've seen of it online suggest that there isn't even much room available there to relax and enjoy the cool waters of the Andaman.  

The T-shirt and souvenir shops are already open, their brightly colored goods beckoning to the passing tourists, while the young owners who tout their wares are at the moment silent, enjoying their breakfasts of rice topped with either an egg, or chili paste, or a few vegetables, packed into white styrofoam containers. 

The Indian tailors, perhaps suspecting that their target market of older and more conservative tourists are not yet up and about, haven't yet bothered to open, while the women of the massage parlors prepare for the long day ahead by eating their own breakfasts, often homemade, scooped from aluminum pots they have brought from home.  

Some of the Thai restaurants do serve breakfasts, while the Egyptian, Italian, and fresh seafood places are just beginning to get ready for the lunch and dinner crowds to come.  

The sound truck advertising the next Muy Thai boxing match to take place at nearby Krabi stadium - "You haven't seen Thailand until you've seen Muy Thai!  Monday night, Monday night, Monday night!!!  See the greatest champions compete Monday night, Monday night, Monday night!!! - is silent at this hour, lending a peace and calm to this busy beachfront strip of asphalt, sand and shops.  

In both Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, the Muy Thai trucks also tout competitions among great champions, but the posters plastered everywhere feature photos of Aussies, Brits, and other European guys earnestly posed in traditional fighting postures - not a Thai fighter to be seen anywhere!  I wonder if it is the same situation here in Krabi...

We find a superb little eatery down an alley off the main drag, with an Indian man running the front of house, all six tables of it, and his Thai wife cooking in the kitchen in the back. 

He informs us when we stop by that they are fully equipped to serve vegetarians - they even use a separate set of kitchen ware and dishes for vegetarians - and that we are welcome to sit and order whatever we'd like.  

While his wife cooks, the owner tallies yesterday's receipts, not with a laptop, but with a  small battery-operated calculator and the food and drink orders written out on paper.  Once he finishes with the tally, he rips up the receipts and tosses them in the trash.  

There is time to observe this small family operation, since everything is prepared to order, right down to the rice for the vegetable fried rice we order to go with a vegetable green curry and a papaya salad.  The food is excellent, and they smile proudly when we tell them so.  

After we relish every bit of our delicious breakfast, we head to a small cafe offering free wifi, coffee, tea, ice cream, and tattoos, courtesy of a tattoo studio at the back of the shop that has huge reclining chairs like you'd see in a dentist's office in the 70's.  

It's too hot and sunny to head for the beach yet, so this is a perfect time for a tea and some journal writing.  

We sit in the cafe and nurse our teas, undisturbed by the young owners, who yawn and chat with each other, waiting for the next tourist to stop in, for a coffee, or perhaps a large winged dragon on his back.  

Ao Nang at this hour manages to be both frenetic and laid back, all at once. 

Phi Phi Island, Thailand

Ao Ling, (Monkey Bay), Koh Phi Phi.

While staying on Phi Phi Island, we took a day-long speed boat tour of nearby Maya Beach, did some good snorkeling on Phi Phi Ley, and visited the amazing Viking caves, where they collect the Swift and Swallow nests to sell as gourmet delicacies in Bangkok, Phuket, and of course, China.

We were then unloaded onto Monkey Island to see the monkeys who lived in the jungle there, and are said to come and eat out of your hands.

Every year some tourists get bitten by those monkeys, which for some bizarre reason, does not seem to deter anyone from trying to get up close and personal with them.  They are wild animals and not tame creatures, after all.  But if anything, these reports of severe bites and subsequent rabies shots seem to add a certain adventurous cachet to the idea of trying to feed and handle them.

On the day of our visit, there were only two pretty fat and lazy monkeys on the beach.

The rest stayed in the steep jungles above.... 

While the rest of the tourists offered the two lethargic monkeys bananas and packets of fruit juice, I found my own mind wondering about what was REALLY going on here:

It was the day of the annual meeting between the Associated Phi Phi Tour Boat Operators (APPTBO) and the representatives of the Union of Monkey Entertainers, Phi Phi Division (UMEPPD). 

A long table made of bamboo is decorated with tasty bowls of bananas, pitchers of Coconut water, and plentiful ash trays.  The APPTBO executives sit on chairs at their assigned side of the table, nervously strumming their fingers, waiting for the UME reps to arrive.  The executives don't know quite what to expect, as this year's visitor numbers have been down recently, because of the political unrest in Bangkok that has made worldwide news headlines, and tourists' inability to distinguish between Bangkok and Koh Phi Phi in making (or canceling) their vacation plans.  

The senior monkey negotiators enter, wearing dark glasses, smoking cigars.  They are not smiling as they sit at their side of the table.  They immediately adopt a hard line attitude.  

"You must know we're not happy.  Numbers are down.  We're not getting the bananas we expect.  If you want our best monkeys, you're going to have to raise your guarantees." 

The TBO executives try a conciliatory approach.  

"You know, we've had a long and fruitful relationship.  You provide the monkeys, guarantee a few bites of juicy tourists, just to make it interesting, and we provide the bananas.  It's worked to our mutual benefit for years...  Surely you can't blame us for those crazy government protestors driving down our numbers..."

The UME monkeys are in no mood for conciliation.  

"Listen, relationship, shrelationship," (sometimes the monkeys spoke in gibberish, especially when they got excited), it all comes down to the bananas.  You guarantee enough bananas, we provide our best boys...the ones who know how to bite, who can put on a good show for your tourists...Do you want our best boys, or not?  You know, we can always find a few of our retired music box dancers instead of our young acrobats.  The old guys will work for less..."

Beads of sweat are visible on the foreheads of the TBO execs. 

"Of course we do, you know we do, and that's why we're prepared to make you a very generous offer.  How does 3,000 bananas and twelve bites sound?"

The monkeys snort in amazement and disgust.  

"You can't expect our best boys for those kind of numbers.  Like we said before, it all comes down to the bananas...you want our best boys, our good biters, you're going to have to do better than that..."

The TBO execs huddle and confer in nervous whispers.  

"How does 4,000 bananas and eight guaranteed bites sound to you fellas?"

The monkeys light fresh cigars and permit themselves a smile.  

"Now you're talking.  For 4,200, we'll even bite a few extra tourists for no additional charge."

"Friends, monkeys, fellow labor leaders, I think we have a deal!"

Gassan