Ao Nang, Krabi

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7th Jan: My flight was a quick one, only taking a little over an hour to reach Krabi airport. From the airport I took the shuttle bus to Ao Nang, which stopped off at Krabi Town on the way. The journey took maybe two hours and I was deposited in front of the hostel, Pop-In, where I would be staying. From the outside it looked like a pure party hostel, the music was blasting and there were loads of people drinking in the bar. My kind of hell as I am too old for this kind of shit. Check-in was quick and when I inquired about tours was told that the hostel offer their own as well as all the ones offered by other operators. I was interested in doing their tour for the next day, I think it was the one where you walk up a million steps to a temple. I was told to sort it out the next day, as it didn't leave until late in the day, so headed up to my room. Well, this hostel was pretty pricey, over a tenner a night, but fairly impressive. I was in an eight bed dorm and there was plenty of room. I had also scored a bottom bunk. The beds had nice, clean, thick bedding, personal reading light, charger, a big drawer under the bed to put all you shit it and the best bit a proper curtain so you could get some privacy. I also liked that I could hang some clothes at the end of the bed to give me total privacy, awesome!

Since I was hungry I decided to venture out to get some food. I didn't have to go too far, there were quite a few restaurants next to the hostel, so I picked one of those, a place called Bamboo. I ordered a chicken rendang curry and a juice and made use of the free wifi while waiting for my food to arrive. It didn't take long too long to turn up. Yay for rice art! My bowl/plate of rice was shaped like a starfish. The curry was good it had a nice little kick to it. I decided to go for a little walk after dinner, as I wanted to stretch my legs a bit and felt it was too early to call it a night. I took a walk down the street to the beach. I passed quite a few bars along the way. Ao Nang definitely has the feel of a Med beach resort.The beach was really quiet when I got down there, so I took a walk along it. It was nice to feel the sand between my toes. The hostel is situated across the road from the mosque and it looked beautiful all lit up at night. I was going to have a drink at the hostel bar when I returned as they had said they shut at midnight. It was about half eleven quarter to twelve when I returned and they had already shut up shop. I suppose this is a good thing really as it had meant the party had moved on and hopefully I would get a good night's sleep.

8th Jan: I had a great night's sleep, making a dark little cave is definitely the way forward. I went down to reception to inquire about doing some tours while I was here. There was a tour that afternoon, but they didn't know if it would be running because if the weather. I went down to the nearest Seven-Eleven to get some breakfast. I need to conserve some cash, so it would be a convenience store toasties for breakfast for me. The thought of it made me smile as it reminded me of my trip to Bangkok a few summers ago, where we lived off them. I found out later that the tour wouldn't be taking place later that day or the next day. I felt like i had wasted a lot of time waiting for reception to tell me what the crack was. I spent a lot of time reading in the hostel. When it was only raining lightly, I headed for a short walk out. I wanted to find somewhere else that wasn't the hostel to sit and chill. A change of surroundings would be nice and stop me from going stir crazy. I headed to a restaurant, Cheap Cheap, that was a short walk away. I wasn't feeling to hungry so I just ordered a drink and had some more quality kindle time. Just as I was thinking about leaving the heavens opened. With that idea well and truly nixed I decided that I better order some food and another drink to extend my stay. Since I still wasn't feeling that hungry I ordered some stir-fried veggies and rice. The rain continued to bucket down as I ate. I definitely wanted to make my food last as long as possible. In the end though I had to give up and admit defeat. I ran back to the hostel, getting drenched in the process.

Later on, I ventured downstairs to get my free food. The hostel gave me some tokens on check-in for free food each night. There were two options available, either chicken kebabs or corn on the cob. I decided to get two of the chicken kebabs, they were coated in sweet and sour sauce, and were delicious. I washed them down with a bottle of beer, the hostel bar was a bit expensive. Still feeling a bit peckish, and since it wasn't raining anymore, I headed down to the pancake cart I had spotted the night before. I hoped that it would be as good as the one I frequented when I was in Chiang Mai. I ordered a banana, peanut butter and nutella pancake. It was delicious and just as good as the ones I'd had in Chiang Mai. I was a bit annoyed as today had, in reality, been a total waste.

9th Jan: I awoke to find that the weather was much better outside. Hurray! However, since I had been told none of the boat trips would be happening due to high seas, I was still stuck in Ao Nang. Even though I am not that enamoured with the place, I feel like I will have to return, so that I can see more of what the area has to offer. Hopefully the weather will be more agreeable then. Since the western breakfast I'd had in Bangkok hadn't really hit the spot, I thought I would try again here in Ao Nang. Presumably with the vast amounts of foreign tourists they get here, somewhere would be offering one up. I ended up walking all the way down to the waterfront and finding an Italian restaurant, La Casa there, that had a breakfast menu. I was buzzing when I saw that they had an English breakfast complete with tea. I think I confused the bloke though, as I ordered an iced coffee as well. What can I say, I need my caffeine fix. This breakfast, whilst not perfect certainly hit the spot a lit better than the one in Bangkok did. The baked beans were huge, they looked like they had been on steroids.

After leaving the restaurant, I headed over to the beach. I took a walk along the promenade for a bit before heading down to the sand. The beach was absolutely rammed. I hadn't seen that many white people for a long time. I headed off to the right as it looked a bit quieter. It was but only a little. I came to the end and climbed up the small set of steps to get a better view looking back along the beach. Despite the millions of people, the beach still looked pretty and I loved the dramatic cliffs that jut out into the sea. I can see why it is so popular, the view is gorgeous. I took the paved path further round and was greeted with less people. There was a tiny little cove, which looked truly gorgeous, like a real hidden paradise. Quite a few people were coming here to take photos, it looked so unspoilt, I would have loved to go down there, but I don't think it was possible. I tried to climb the path heading up, but can to a dead end after about ten steps. Being in my flip flops I didn't really want to go rogue. Also there was some kind of policeman/security guard there and I bet he would have stopped me. I enjoyed looking out over the ocean, too.

I walked back along the beach, I headed to the side I had walked along on the night of my arrival. I eventually found a spot to sit down in, under the shade of a tree, so I chilled there for a while. There were a million touts on the beach selling all kinds of crap. I was really tempted to buy a pretty sarong, as it would have been useful to lie on, but the thought of haggling and getting ripped off put paid to that idea. I managed to sit still for about half an hour before boredom set in, so I went for a wander to the end of the beach. I could see a boardwalk leading up the cliff so I decided to explore what was up there. I crossed the stream that was heading out into the sea, I loved the old style home telephone that was sitting on a rock in the middle, so random! The boardwalk wasn't too steep, it gently climbed the cliff. There were quite a few other people coming and going. There wasn't too much of a view as the trees were obscuring it. I could see that people were stalling up ahead and as I got closer I could see why: Monkeys! There were quite a few of them in the trees and on the boardwalk. They didn't seem too fazed by all the people, and they weren't aggressive looking for food from us, too. I managed to get some good photos of them.

I continued to follow the path and it started to descend rather steeply. There were a few more monkeys about. At the bottom of the stairs there was a fairly nice beach. It was a lot quieter than the main beach. I think it belong to the resort that was on it, but I am not 100 percent sure about that. There was a security guard getting people to sign in and out, but since some people had walked past and ignored doing it, I decided to do the same. This beach wasn't too big so I took a little walk along it. It was very picturesque, with the karst cliffs sticking out of the sea. There were also a few longtail boats coming and going. I sat chilling on the beach for a while. I managed to fit a bit that was partly shaded, while I was sitting there a few monkeys came down to the beach and started being a nuisance. The security guards had a slingshot and used that to scare them off. All was good, then about a million monkeys descended on the beach! It was madness! I grabbed all my stuff, as I didn't want them nicking owt. Luckily, they didn't stay, they ran and jumped off into the resort. It was a bit creepy, I'm glad I wasn't staying in that resort.

I was feeling hungry on my walk back from the beach so I headed into a nice looking place on the main road for a very late lunch. The staff were very kind and friendly. I had the shrimp Pad Thai, even though I am not the biggest fan of Pad Thai, I can't believe it has took me so long to order one. I think I am starting to like Pad Thai more, as I really enjoyed this one. I think I was a little sunburnt so I headed back to the hostel to get some shade. Since it was still so nice, I decided to head down to the beach for sunset. I grabbed a beer on the walk down. I got to the beach, sat down and opened my beer. Perfect! only it wasn't, I literally took my first sip and it started to lightly rain. Well, I'm English a little light rain isn't going to stop me from watching the sunset, so I stayed put. However, the rain only got heavier and heavier. It had become torrential in only a couple of minutes. I legged it off the beach, beer in hand. There was no way I could make it all the way back to the hostel, it was a good 10-15 minute walk from the beach. I was able to find some shelter next to the longtail boat office. There were quite a few of us crowded in the gap keeping dry, under the roof. I finished my beer and waited and waited. It must have been a good half an hour or so before the rain went off enough for me to leg it back to the hostel. A dry change of clothes were needed. It was free kebab time again, so I headed downstairs to get my chicken kebabs. They were identical to last night's and just as delicious. I headed back to the pancake man. The queue was pretty long today and I had to wait a while to get served. I got the same as yesterday, I can be such a creature of habit at times. I also got another beer from the convenience store to have in the room with my pancake. Overall, I can't really say I had an amazing time in Ao Nang, good weather definitely plays a big part in making a trip successful. I would like to return to do all the trips that this place has to offer.

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Photos

Monkey
Ao Nang Beach

Monkey
Ao Nang Beach

Monkey
Ao Nang Beach

Monkey
Ao Nang Beach

Monkey
Ao Nang Beach

Monkey
Ao Nang Beach