Monday, December 16, 2013
From the border we drove straight to Krabi, only stopping once for coffee. The Southern end of Thailand is still considered a bit of a ‘security’ risk, so better be safe than sorry and not linger.
Once at Krabi we did a drive-thru of the town and decided to continue to the beach town of Ao Nang, about 10 km further. Driving through Ao Nang we progressively moved from backpackers/low end/budget to midrange to high end accommodation closer to and on the beach. After a loop of town we decided on a feel-good lower midrange place with very welcoming and lovely staff. We booked in for one night initially and ended up staying for three.
Finished the day with a stroll around the shops, dinner and drinks. Found a really nice restaurant that had a special promotion, two glasses of wine for the price of 1.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Off to the 7-eleven to purchase a local SIM card which was conveniently located next door to the Starbucks. We talked to our mums in Belgium and New Zealand. Then it was back to the 7-eleven to reload the SIM card.
Spent the afternoon lying low and avoiding the heat of midday. In the afternoon Caroline did a little stroll around town checking out the beach and shops. There are lots and lots of Europeans here, and quite a few Aussies as well. Many of them drunk from the night before. Finished the day with a sunset walk along the beach, followed by drinks and dinner. And then shopping. Caroline got a nice new hat and Stephen some much needed fake Crocs (not very cool but very functional. Caroline has banned me from wearing them in San Francisco).
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Took a long-tail boat to Railay Beach. Spent a few hours chilling on the beach and Stephen decided to swim to the karst (see picture). The waters are amazingly clear and the surrounding landscape is idilic. The beach was a little crowded so we headed back after lunch.
Turns out, apart from eating, drinking, shopping and beaching there is not a lot to do in Ao Nang. So in the afternoon we did a little more drinking and eating.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Time to move on. The morning goal was to buy and hoist a Thailand courtesy flag. Our hotel manager advised us that the nearest shop selling flags was in Karbi Town, a 10 km drive away, so off we set. We were successful and now Sterlin is appropriately adorned.
Next stop was Tiger Cave Temple or Wat Tham Sua. We are having a little difficulty with our Navigation GPS which is making finding these temples a small challenge. But persistence paid off and we had no trouble finding the temple once we worked out how to convince the Navigation GPS to work. The cave system was nothing too special, and only dates back 35 years or so. But we went for a stroll in the surrounding forest which was actually quite nice, cool and yet no bitting insects.
It was getting late and we still had 160 kms (100 miles) to drive to Phuket. Along the way we stopped at Phang Nga Bay National Park to check hotels and long-tail boat costs to visit the “James Bond Island”. Both quite reasonably priced, so we will probably be back once we leave Phuket.
