Blogs from Ao Nang, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 3

After our tear through Vietnam, we flew back to Thailand to wrap up our trip together. Ton Sai is a tiny car-less beach town in the south of Thailand near Krabi, and was a fine place for some serious 'R and R'. The surrounding scenery was fantastic, what with steep cliffs on both ends of the small beach and jagged karst islands everywhere. Here are a few memories of our relaxing time in Ton Sai: watching rock-climbers show off their stuff; Fraser playing beach volleyball while Nancy enjoyed some yoga classes; getting massages; finding some bioluminescent millipedes; and enjoying some fine Chang and Singha products. A few memories that weren't quite so relaxing: being surprised as hell to see base jumpers throw themselves off a cliff face directly above us; fending off bag-stealing monkeys; and hearing ... read more

Last night the lovely people at Palmview resort were so pleased to announce that they now had red and white wine. Unfortunately it was undrinkable. On a par with that found in Luang Praang last year. Also the tempura vegetables Sam had been looking forward to were a complete disappointmen, being infiltrated inexplicably with chicken nuggets, so we decided eating elsewhere was sensible. Armed with our torches for coming back we went to find a minimarket to stock up on snacks and water and went back to the lovely pizza restaurant. Pizza, 2 nights in a row, my son-in-law Jon would be most impressed! We walked back in the dark along the path through the palms, such a great shortcut, a bit spooky when you hear a scooter coming. Got back to the room and we ... read more

Yesterday we had a super relaxing day at the beach in Ao Nang, paid 100b to use the sunbeds at massage hut 15 again, this time confident about the free fruit and mats. I had a back and neck massage, 30 not very relaxing minutes. I didn't think that bum would be involved, surely it would stop above my bikini bottoms? Oh no, tried not to tense up. He had both thumbs in my bum, then tried to disengage my ribs from my backbone. A lot of pressing and pulling. Very ouchy!! And it was a him, which I didn't prefer at all, but too late to say without hurting his feelings! i needed cash from an ATM, mistake, as there is a fee for withdrawals although my bank doesn't charge. 200b for taking 2000b out. ... read more

What a terrible night of not much sleep. We are both finding it very hard to get over jet lag, so feeling a bit zombie like today. We got up at 4 and packed the last of our stuff, including the takeaway breakfast we'd asked for last night in the restaurant. Bless them, they kept asking questions to get right exactly what we wanted. We went downstairs and the transport was waiting already at 4.30. Not a very nice guy, yawning loudly. Of course when we'd set off he tried to say 150,000, new road, blah blah (see last blog). We said no, the hotel, said 100,000, but I didn't want us to get kicked out at the side of the road so said we'd pay when we got there. And guess what? We were there ... read more

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, ... read more