Our last day. A sunset.

Day 14 – Sunset

Fact of the Day – Thailand has one sunset each day.

The place we’re staying out here in Ao Nang is right on the beach. It was a bit cloudy today. Although, it didn’t stop today being a beach day, with a bit of pool action thrown in. Enough said.

We also keep coming across signs like this. ‘Do not feed the monkey’. THE monkey.

It would appear that there is just one monkey around. Signs for one monkey? That makes it somewhat scarier.

So after tonight’s drinks at O’Malley’s Irish Bar…

One of the cheapest bars we have come across, the walk back to the room, the mind can wander…

Day 13 – Beach. Monkey.

Fact of the day: Thailand has 3,219 km of coastline.

Firstly, a little update on yesterday. A/C issues – it stopped working. Had to move rooms late last night. All good now.

Today was one of those full on days, beginning with early breakfast for an early start, scooting around some of the local islands…

Railay Beach and Pranang Cave Bay.

Beautiful. As is pretty standard here, you come across lots of shrines. This one was all about a Princess who will fulfil wishes – there was a plaque that told you so. When the wishes are fulfilled you should leave an offering. If you leave a special offering you will ensure fertility and prosperity to the whole earth and mankind. It also says, ‘Do not place things of worship that are inappropriate’. Hence, a cave full of willies.

Tub Island

This was a weird sort of place that at low tide you can walk between three islands – can’t remember the names of the other islands. It was at this place that I had an encounter with a monkey, I think he was eyeing up my bag, when I refused he had a grab at my leg. He wasn’t happy. I should be ok, no need for rabies jab!

We didn’t ‘walk’ across to one of the other islands because you had to swim it!

Chicken Island

Rather strange name for an island, I ‘think’ because it looks like a chicken? Also, did a bit of snorkelling here.

Poda Island

Another beautiful island. We stopped for something to eat here – meal in a box – chicken drumstick, rice and a bag of super spicy ‘something’. Not the best food we’ve had here in Thailand, but probably not the worse either.

Day 12 – Islands.

Fact of the Day: The Thai flag is made up of three colours; red, white and blue. Red symbolizes the nation, land and people. White symbolizes the purity of Buddhism, and blue symbolizes the monarchy.

We had such a relaxing day yesterday that we didn’t actually get round to booking anything for today. So it was spent chilling at the pool and wandering around town. It was another very hot day, although it was a bit breezy. At one stage the wind got hold of a couple parasols and sent them flying around the pool. Unfortunately one of them hit an old boy who promptly went off to put in a claim no doubt. It could have been worse though, a water polo net that was out of the pool on the side nearly took his wife’s head off when it got blown over. All very exciting!

The highlight of the day was stopping at a little street stall and buying some beautiful banana pancakes. Although, we did have a piece of advice for a Thai woman behind the stall: get a bigger hot plate to cook the pancakes on. Only enough room to cook one at a time.

It was hot (hence the face) – but even so I’d nearly finished mine before Helen had even got hers!

Spent the evening in the Full Moon Bar drinking massive beers, cocktails and Jack Daniels.

We’ve booked to go to a few islands tomorrow, including some snorkelling. Cushty.

Day 11 – Pool. Pancakes. Cocktails.

Fact of the Day: Whistling in the evening is said to call ghosts into your presence. Refrain from whistling outside at night, as you’re likely to spook the locals.

After yesterday’s day of travelling, it felt only right that we should relax and use the resort facilities. Coming from the calm and tranquility of Ko Lanta to this resort is a bit of a shock. Firstly, it’s not packed solid, plenty of sunbeds available at the pool, plenty of empty tables at breakfast, but even so, from what we’ve been used to, it’s a bit different.

Breakfast: the normal deal of absolutely any food available. Who would normally eat chicken nuggets? Or stir fry? For breakfast? Well I suppose some people must. The issue today was making the 10am breakfast cutoff!

The Pool: definitely the feel of a resort. The water polo nets are up and there are plenty of kids splashing and screaming about. Also, they play a lot, and I mean a lot, of Sam Smith. We even heard a blast of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’!! Having said that, you can swim to the pool bar and get a drink! Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

We headed out into town tonight, a lot more touristy than we’ve been used to: tattoo parlours, lady boys, massages, souvenir shops and neon lights. We had dinner in La Casa, not great, probably some of the worse food had so far. Ended up in quiet bar on the beach.

Day 10 – Pool. Town.

Fact of the Day: It is illegal to leave the house without wearing underwear.

Today we said a fond farewell to Kaw Kwang and made our way to Ao Nang.

First up was breakfast. Breakfast here has been one of those help yourself to a variety of breakfasts that catering for all: cereals, croissants, toast, pancakes, potatoes, meat, fruit, salad, other indistinguishable food stuffs, as well as the obligatory egg station.

Next it was time to pack. On the way here Helen’s rucksack had strangely gained in weight, in that it had become bloody heavy compared to mine, so we needed to sort that out. After a bit of trading we came to something that would work. My rucksack now being heavier, I am ‘the man’ of course.

We had to wait an hour between checking out and making our way to the pier. Picked a book for the boat:

So another visit to Ban Sala Dan pier – the personification of organised chaos. Where we were stickered up and placed, hopefully, on the correct ferry.

On the way to Ao Nang we dropped off and picked up a few passengers at Railay Beach (it’s on our list of places to go next week) – although dropping and picking up passengers at sea is a hair raising experience. Railay looks fantastic, looking forward to the trip there.

The boat took about 3 hours in the end, and as is the way, we ended up in the right van heading to Krabi Resort, our base for the remainder of the trip.

Krabi Resort is a pretty posh place – some would even say luxury – we were even taken to our room by cute little bell boy cart.

This evening we had a quick look round the resort before having something to eat. More tomorrow.

Day 9 – Ko Lanta. Ao Nang.

Fact of the Day: The Thai language has 44 consonants and 32 vowels. Plus six tones that are critical to pronunciation. For example, the word ‘mai’ means ‘no’, ‘wood’, ‘new’, ‘silk’ and ‘burn’, depending on which intonation you give it.