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Published: November 17th 2008
Banchaofa Guesthouse
Our last look at our guesthouse in KrabiThis morning we decided that we wanted to stay in Ao Nang for something different. Although we love Krabi and how quiet it is, we need to stretch our legs again. Ao Nang is really touristy so I'm sure things will be interesting.
I was treated to another morning of workers getting ready for the day. I watched the crew of street sweepers come out and clean up last nights leaves and garbage that had blown in.Kids passed by on their way to school. I could have sat all morning and just watched.
Candace reminded me about getting to Ao Nang early to find a decent guesthouse. We quickly packed up and went down to have breakfast. The guesthouse owner gave us directions to the closet place to catch the song thaew to Ao Nang. On the way to the corner of the street, we passed the 89 cafe. We had hoped to see Jay having breakfast but he was not there. We probably won't meet up with him again as he is going to Phuket to meet up with some people he had been traveling with earlier. He's a super nice guy!
We were a bit scared about knowing which
Making a clean sweep
I was told that these people are paid by the government to clean the streets. The pay is about 7000 baht a month but health care is included. song thaew to get on and off course, the one that stopped was going in the opposite direction. The driver waved down another pick-up for which was going the right way. We climbed onto a full truck. Candace was able to sit down and I had the opportunity to stand on the back like a fireman. I was pretty proud when I convinced 6 more people to squeeze in giving us a total of 17 people sitting and hanging on.
Once again the road to Ao Nang was a very beautiful drive. We came into Ao Nang a different way this time and saw some very large houses. Not sure who lived in them but they were big enough to be mansions in my opinion.
Another odd thing we have noticed is how many homes have gates across their driveways. Seems like Thais like to keep people out.
As we entered "downtown" Ao Nang, we once again knew that we were in tourist land. McDonalds, 7-11s, restaurants and suit shops lined the strip.
Being later in the morning, we were worried that we may miss out on getting a good guesthouse and started through a list of places that we
had compiled. Each one was full. Not wanting to admit defeat, we opened the LP guide to get some names and that's how we found Bernie's Place which happened to be a couple of doors down from where we had decided to stop.
Already jonesing for something cold to drink, I went up to look at the fan room they had available. On my way back down from the room, I stared at their big cooler of beer. Sold! Candace did not have much say in this room and before she knew it, she was being ushered upstairs with the key while I signed us in. On the way upstairs, I grabbed two beers (the girl behind the bar said to help myself) and went to stand in front of a fan. The room we got had a queen and a single and two powerful fans. The shared bathroom looked a little sketchy but how much time were we going to spend in there anyways!?!
Today we wanted to have some down time and perhaps enjoy the beach for awhile. We gathered our things and headed down to the water to find a ride to Railey.
On the way, we
heard someone call out our names. We were surprised to see Nok standing up in a door way waving at us. We stopped and chatted with her for a bit and she gave us her number to give her a call sometime. She is a really crazy girl. She pointed us in the right direction to catch a long tail and advised us to keep all of our tickets that they give us as sometimes they will take all your tickets and then you have no ride back and have to buy another ticket on the other side. Very enterprising.
The queue for tickets was very short and we were in a long tail very quickly heading for Railey. Fifteen minutes later we were sitting amongst a throng of tourist who wanted a beach day as well.
Both Candace and I aren't really the type to sit on the beach for long and even after going in the water, we were bored. We even tried to watch some of the small ant like figures, scaling the rock wall which draws tons of rock climbers to the area. Candace wanted to go exploring and I was only too happy to follow.
89 Cafe
As mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide books. A really nice lady runs this joint. You can sit and watch movies as long as you want. We crossed the island forgoing a paved walkway for a sandy path. We saw the remains of old buildings that the 2004 Tsunami wrecked. It appeared that this section had been forgotten about by the developers. While the west beach is just that, the east side is not as idyllic. Large mud flats replace the sand that one would expect to find. As well, there is a lot of garbage washed up on the shore. The most likely culprit was only a few yards down the "beach". We watched long tails being loaded with garbage. I asked one of the guys loading the boat if they dump it in the ocean. He nodded his head yes. The volume of waste created is so huge, the land so valuable and the method so cheap that long tails run out and dump all day long. I don't even know what to say about this.
We stopped at a small store for some more drinks and some fresh fruit. Everywhere we walked, there were people chillin' drinking beer and eating fresh pineapple and watermelon. This area has lots of cheap places to stay and backpackers where everywhere. Of course there were the requisite
Trustafarians practicing with unlit fire sticks. I could smell the weed but could not see anyone smoking it!
We walked up the flats to the end and followed a path which we were told would lead us to heaven. Phra Nang beach.
The walkway snaked around and through the mountainous limestone walls. We almost walked into a web that had a huge spider on it. Another tourist told us it was a banana spider. Candace made me (who hates spiders) take a picture. Yikes, the thing was frickin' huge.
We stopped at the cave on Phra Nang beach where fishermen leave an offering to the Princess Goddess lives in the cave. The unique thing is that the offerings come in the form a phallic symbol. So there are a lot of woodies lying about.
Once you tear yourself away from all the dongs, you get to see the beauty of the beach starting with the large Karst tower directly out in the ocean and down the beach was the nice powdery sand one thinks of when in beach heaven. We found a great spot to sit and watched people for the next couple of hours occasionally taking time to go
Song thaew ride to Ao Nang
We stuffed 17 people onto this truck. Most were locals. in the water to cool off. The coolest thing were the people walking along selling ice cold beers, hot roasted corn and the boat the Muslims pulled up in, selling noodles and curries. I felt that the people staying at the only resort on the beach (which they paid dearly for) got the raw deal as all of us "other" people came and enjoyed the beautiful beach for the price of a long tail ride.
Thoroughly tired from the sun and surf, we started to make our way back as the tide forced the water to cut the beach down to a small sliver of sand. Our ride back to Ao Nang was nice as the water sprayed up into the boat soaking us. By the time we climbed back up to the main drag, we were dry and ready for supper.
We happened upon a travel agent that had a really good price for a bus/ferry combo ticket to take us to Surat Thani then over to Koh Samui. When we said we would think about it, the agent said if we went tomorrow morning, she would drop the price even lower. We had been checking out the prices
and although it seemed to good to be true, against our better judgment, we gave in and bought the tickets.
We discussed our decision to buy the cheap tickets over a pizza dinner that tasted just as cheap. We should have had the buffet over at Bernie's but did not want to stand in line. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we may just have a very long day tomorrow on the side of the road for a bus that may never show or a hotel in Surat Thani because our bus "missed" the ferry.
We then walked up and down the strip, watching for trinkets to buy that would make good presents for either our kids, family or close friends.
I'm amazed how prices in Thailand seem to fluctuate depending on where you are. In Krabi, at the night market, we saw stall upon stall of knock-off watches. Our son wanted us to get him one that was diamond studded. We had found one for 400 baht but thought it was too expensive. In Ao Nang, for the same watch, they were asking 3800 baht. I listened as a Farang did his best haggling job and walked away
Coke in Ao Nang
They are everywhere feeling superior after paying 2000 baht. All about supply and demand.
By the time we got back to Bernie's, the line up for the buffet was still going strong. We quickly grabbed a few beers and went up to our room to get some much needed rest before our next travel day.
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