On The Hunt For Hidden Gems ... Island Hopping ...

Day 73 ... After a slight delay with Air Asia (to be expected after our few flights with them!) We landed in Krabi and got a taxi to our hotel in Ao Nang. We are staying at Mini House for 3 nights and then moving to a different hotel just up the road called Marina Express for the next 4 nights, which is the hotel Carolyn Sorry told me she'd stayed in a couple of years ago. First impressions, Krabi isn't our kind of place, its like Thailands Blackpool, although the weather and the beaches are nicer to be fair!! But we knew Ao Nang in Krabi was a great base for island tours so we decided to stay here for a week before we head to Koh Samui for Christmas.
We went out for a walk to find the beach and it wasn't far to walk. We had a drink in one of the beach bars where the Christmas decorations were out

and it feels so strange, not like the run up to Christmas usually feels at all! Then it was time to find some food. We came across Cafe 8.98 which looked nice so decided to give it a go. I order miso salmon with noodles and Adam ordered the chicken fajitas. The meal was lovely but it was on the pricey side at £23 with a beer and a water. Just as we'd finished our meal and paid our bill it started to rain so we thought we'd wait it out to see if it stopped. It did but soon started again so we decided to walk back in the rain as it was only a 5 minute or so walk. Half way there the rain turned torrential so we took cover underneath a palm tree for a few minutes, while we were stood there the power went off and on about 3 times within 90 seconds and finally went off and didn't come back on again for 2 hours. By that time we had braved the storm and got back to our hotel a little drenched but still warm. Unfortunately our room was like a sauna and the air con wasn't working while the power was off. So we opened our Christmas cards from our parents, mine almost made me cry with the note from my mum and dad inside. Then we watched a bit of Netflix on our phones and just before we decided to go to sleep the power came back on and we were nice and cool again in no time. Unfortunately our bed had some unwanted visitors, ants, and I wasn't too keen on them! Every time I had a look in the bed there was another one, it could have been worse but it made me feel really uncomfortable! I'm missing my

home comforts, I won't lie! Sometimes all you want is your own bed!

Day 74 ... We have blackout curtains in our new room, which we have come to find are really not good for us! They help us sleep way past the time we should be getting up and making the most of our days, but thankfully we also have a window with wooden blinds which lets all the sunlight in. So I was awake at 7am. We got up at 8am and went for breakfast which is included at this hotel. Finally, a hotel that offers just fruit, yogurt and muesli. Adam had an omelette on toast which looked great too so we finally have some healthy breaki options, yay! We then went on the hunt for sim cards for our phones, easier said than done! The local 7/11 shop only had one tourist sim card left, and after a right fiasco we got one sim card and a top up that was 10Gb which last for 15 days. I then managed to find one for my phone and we were sorted. Next stop...the beach! It's already getting busy with tourists catching their long tail boats to neighbouring islands and others just setting up camp on the beach for some sunshine. So that's what we did...we lasted just over an hour in 33 degree heat (feels like 39 says the weather app and I can vouch for that!!), the hottest weather we've had since we set off from good old Bolton! And the humidity hits you in the face as soon as you open the door. The weather app said it was 89% humidity this morning. Although it's now saying it's around 60%. Either way, it's a bit too hot just to lie on the beach. So we went to find a place for lunch. There was a guy on the beach with his portable bbq on his shoulder and a big tub of corn on the cob, chicken, spring rolls and pineapples which looked fab, although not sure I'd risk the

chicken! We went and tried a cheaper food place and ordered our first Pad Thai of our Thailand trip. It wasn't too bad, until i found a long black hair in my food and kind of proved my point that I just don't trust the hygiene in some of these ropey looking cheap places. This wasn't even a street food stall either, but it just puts me off trying them even more. Who knows, we'll see! We found a place called Massaman for dinner which got good TripAdvisor reviews and looked pretty cheap too so decided to try there for dinner. We had chicken and cashews, chicken sweet and sour and a pineapple rice, which was served in a pineapple. The whole meal cost us less than £10 and was nice enough.

Dat 75 ... We got up at a decent time, had our omelette breaki at the hotel and headed down to the beach to purchase our tickets for the 15 minute journey to Railey Beach. We got on the boat straight away with 6 other tourists and off we went. The boat literally went around the corner of the cliffs and pulled up to the shore and off everyone got. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, although it was a pretty beach, just quite a small, narrow beach and not many people around apart from people rock climbing. It was only when we were walking along the beach and Adam spotted 'Tonsai' we realised we had got off at the wrong beach. The driver on the boat didn't say a word when we pulled up and we just presumed he

had taken us to Railey Beach as that's where we bought our tickets for and that's what the guy was shouting telling us to follow him when we had bought the ticket. Anyway, we were on the wrong beach, we could walk to Railey from Tonsai when the tide was down, but it didn't look like that was happening anytime soon. We then thought about hiring a kayak for the day and kayaking over. Then we found out one other couple on the boat had made the same mistake we did. So we went in search of a boat to take us to Railey, we could even see the beach from where we were it was that close! The boat guy said he could take us for 50 Bhat pp but we needed 6 people, so we just paid 150 per couple and got him to take us across. We finally landed on the beach and the views were amazing so glad we decided to go, the limestone cliffs surrounding the beach were immense, so high! We relaxed on the beach and in the sea for a while. The sun was so strong so we didn't want to stay in it too long (getting sensible in my old age, my mum will be so proud!). So after just over 2 hours we hopped on a boat back to Ao Nang where we are staying and went to Lion and Shark for lunch, it's more of a breakfast place but I really fancied a smoothie bowl. When we got back to the hotel, we realised the wifi was throwing a wobbler and wasn't working too well, so we headed out, laptops in hand, to find a cafe with wifi. The first place we came across was Starbucks, so that's where we are now. Updating our travel diary while Adam gets some Experimentlog work done, watching the rain start to fall, it's like clock work each day, some worse than others. Still super humid though.
Booking our flights for Miami today for our wedding in October while we have some decent wifi. So so excited! Only just over 6 months until our wedding when we get back from travelling in March! We found a

great place for dinner, Thailandia. Great food, atmosphere and live music. Reasonably priced although not the cheapest we've had but worth the extra for a fresh(er) cooked meal!

Day 76 ... Moving day...300m down the road. Breaki, packed up and walked up the road to Marina Express. The hotel that Carolyn Sorry had recommended and it's lovely, really glad we picked this one. Clean rooms, nicer view, pool and a mini gym. After we had checked in we went to find somewhere for a massage. We went to a place we had walked passed a few times, there are so many massage places to choose from, it's hard to know which one to try. If only we could have seen inside before we made the decision...after deciding I was having a back, neck and shoulder massage with oil and Adam was having a Thai massage (I don't think he knew what he was letting himself in for!) We were taken through to the back of the building where a lot of construction was going on inside, and up stairs to what can only be described as thin mattresses on the floor with curtains around each mattress to hide you from the guy lying next to you on his mattress getting his massage. We both looked at each other and laughed but thought we'll just see how it goes. Adam was pulled, squashed and twisted in every which way you can imagine, no oils, fully clothed with a towel over him. We couldn't help but laugh, but he seemed to enjoy it. Mine was more civilised with just a deep tissue back massage with oils. Unfortunately the drilling, sanding, people having conversations in Thai, and lights being turned on and off kind of took away from the relaxation of a typical massage atmosphere! But how could we complain, we were

there for an hour and the whole thing cost less than £13 for both of us! It was ok, but not sure I'd go back again. Then it was time to pick one of the hundreds of tourist stands trying to flog boat trips to the nearby islands. I decided we were going to Bamboo Island, Maya Bay and Phi Phi Don and found a trip including these places and a few more with snorkelling which is just what we wanted. The leaflet the woman handed us said it was 2800pp (£64) but as soon as we asked about it we didn't even have to test out our bartering skills, she tapped at her calculator and showed us 1300pp (£30) which was more like it after my limited research I did on TripAdvisor over our Pad Thai lunch. Fingers crossed the speedboat trip is okay. We'll soon find out, we're being picked up at our hotel at 8am tomorrow!

Day 77 ... Boat trip day...which means a 6.50am wake up call, which was actually a 5am wake up call from the mosque next door blasting their call to prayer noise waking half the town up! We went down for breakfast at the hotel which was a nice buffet with egg options as we've come to find on our travels which is great for us! We can just ask for eggs anyway we like them! Anyway, after a half hour wait we were collected from our hotel and checked in at the office for the boat tour. We were put into groups and after half an hour, taken down to the beach and put on a speedboat. In total there were around 40 people on our boat including 4 crew. After another half an hour they managed to get the boat started, not sure what the issue was! Then we were told the waves were huge and we wouldn't be visiting Bamboo Island (the main reason I wanted us to book this boat tour!). We arrived at a place called Nui Beach and stayed there on the beach for around 20 minutes, then were back on the boat heading to Monkey Island. At least 2 people were sea sick, literally, which wasn't too pleasant but not surprising! As the waves were too big we were told we weren't going there either so take a picture, then we're leaving. Next up was Maya Bay where they filmed 'The Beach'. As it is a bay, the waters were a lot calmer but this meant every man and his dog on a boat trip today was heading there and apparently already on the beach! We couldn't get close, the boats were literally lining the shore and you couldn't see the

sand for people. So we snorkelled at a nearby mini beach for 20 minutes or so until Maya Bay quietened down so we could get off the boat. It's such a shame it was so busy, it was a mammoth task just trying to get some half decent photos without other people or boats in them! We stayed here for 30 minutes then we were shipped off to Phi Phi Don where lunch was served in the form of a mass buffet which was purpose built/prepared for the hordes of tourists arriving by the boat full, literally! Safe to say it wasn't the best food we've had and we swiftly went back to the beach for some sun before being loaded back on and shipped back to Ao Nang. It was the roughest boat ride of our lives, I think we could sue for whiplash! I'm glad we got to see the sights we did, but it's a shame so much of the trip was missed! A little gutted to say the least. I think that's us and boat trip done for a while! Apart from the mini 15 minute trip on a long tail boat to Railay Beach tomorrow.

Day 78 ... After breakfast we made our way down to the beach to buy tickets to Railay again. This time we made sure the boat dropped us off on the right beach! We chilled in the sunshine for a while but after getting sand blasted by the winds on the beach, we went to hire a kayak for an hour. Great little adventure with plenty to see. We're going to go back again tomorrow with the gopro for some good pics! After a little more relaxing on the beach we caught the long tail boat back to Ao Nang and went for lunch at Lion and Shark. Then found a shop that sold The North Face backpacks (fake obviously but will do the job!) as Adams black hand luggage backpack is literally falling apart at the seams and won't last much longer than a week! After using my haggling skills to get him down, Adam remembered we only had enough money for lunch so we'll go back tomorrow! After getting back to the hotel, giving Adam another one of my pro haircuts and finding out the WiFi was rubbish in the hotel again we headed down to Starbucks where I got one of my new fave (but naughty) drinks! A caramel frappuccino! I really can't make a habit of drinking these! Anyway, I got chance to update our travel diary and Adam got another chance to do a bit of work. We'll probably have a late dinner tonight as we didn't have lunch until 3pm. Then another lazy, relaxing evening at the hotel. Ready for our ridiculous wake up call from the mosque next door at 5am! It didn't even wake Adam up this morning, how, I have no idea!

Day 79 ... Back to our favourite beach, Railay Beach, this morning for another session topping up our tans before hiring a kayak again. This time armed with my phone, waterproof pouch and selfie stick to get some pics of the scenery. When we got back to Ao Nang we went to purchase Adam's replacement backpack. After visiting the shop yesterday and getting them down to 1100 baht the guy said it was 1850 baht, to which I replied we came in yesterday and this guy said it was 1100, so will you take 1000? So we got a decent North Face copy backpack which should hopefully last the next 3 months for around £22. We picked up some water and nibbles for our trip on the VIP bus and boat to Koh Samui tomorrow on our way back to the hotel. As the wifi wasn't working well again, it was another caramel frappuccino kinda afternoon again to use Starbucks free wifi for a few hours. This is becoming a really bad habit, but I love it! It got to about 6.30pm and we headed down to the beach bar we found on our first night for a cocktail and to watch the sun set before we went back to Thailandia for our last supper in Ao Nang then back to the hotel to pack before an early start tomorrow but enough time for the hotel breaki which has been great at this hotel!