Aonang, Krabi (13th - 16th Nov)
We arrived on the ferry in a small town called Satun in the Thailand as we made our way on a tuk tuk and bus to Aonang Beach in Krabi, where we would be meeting Cherie's cousin Gemma and her husband Owen. We checked into our beach hut - Adam's Bungalow and then met up with Owen and Gemma and headed to the beach and found a nice bar for a few drinks and a good catchup.
Catchup drinks with Owen and Gemma
During the 3 nights in Aonang we spend a day chilling around the pool and beach and a day trip to Phi Phi islands. Despite the rainy weather the snorkelling was awesome at a few different spots near the islands. The huge schools of fish were literally eating the bread out of your hand under the water which was cool. The trip also stopped at Maya Beach which was where the film 'The Beach' was based - nice to see but with so many boats there, there was hardly any room on the beach. Back on Aonang Beach, it was great to have someone to play beach games with and Owen stepped up whilst the girls worshipped the sun. I had found a shuttlecock game in Cambodia (similar to badminton but you use your hands or feet instead of a raquet) which was awesome beach game and had also bought a frisbee to chuck around the beach.
Beach Games 2014
Phuket (16th - 20th Nov)
Cherie, Gemma, Owen and I then headed to Phuket, although with two sore heads (Cherie and Gemma) following a night spent playing card games and drinking gin, the girls struggled with the long journey whilst Owen and I enjoyed the drive! We arrived at our luxury 2 bedroom apartment courtesy of Owen and Gemma, which was awesome - we had forgotten how good hot water, aircon and bathrobes were after staying is some of the cheap places so far!!
The hotel was on Patong Beach, near 'Bangla Road', which was pretty crazy but having a nice room with kitchen and lounge was a good escape from the madness below. We found some nice restaurants for lunches and dinners each day, with the exception of one place we stumbled for lunch which after sitting outside we realised after ordering that the whole kitchen was being redone at the time and it was a building site inside...still not sure how they cooked the food but by the taste it was with the bare minimum.
Owen and I found a nice bar to play a few games of pool whilst the girls soaked up the sun at the hotel's rooftop pool.
On our last night with Gemma and Owen we went to an art galley / restaurant place and had a nice meal there followed by cocktails at a Mexican Bar (with sombrero for all of us) on the beach front. Was so good seeing Gemma and Owen, thanks again for coming and meeting us, and the awesome apartment!
Cherie and I spent one more night but changed to a cheaper guesthouse before getting a boat to Phi Phi island where we were meeting up with another couple we had met in Cambodia and Krabi - Sam and Caroline.
Phi Phi (20th - 22nd Nov)
Sam and Caroline met us at ferry pier and we found a nice guesthouse to stay at and headed onto the beach for a few drinks. In the evening we had a nice Thai meal and found a cool bar and had a few more drinks and some Sheesha.
We decided to explore some of the other beaches on the island and headed to Long Beach, from Long Beach there were signs to another beach so we headed to that one and from a distance we could see it was empty. Along the way we walked passed some monkeys who were getting a bit cheeky and one of them started hissing at us. Soon they all seemed to be forming a semi circle around us. We picked up some sticks and started to make some noise and charge at them. Thankfully it seemed to work as they all scattered and we continued unscathed but kept hold of the sticks! The beach was awesome and worth the near rabies incident. We got caught in a rain storm on the way back and were suitably soaked when we got back to our room. That evening we found a local bar on the island that held Thai Boxing fights and else included members of the audience getting up and fighting in the ring which was pretty entertaining - I had to decline Cherie's offer for a fight though as my gumshield is still in my rugby bag at home in the UK.
Classic Thai Photo - Longtail Boat
Cherie's best photo in Asia - hermit crab running away from the storm
Thai Boxing on Phi Phi Island
Koh Lanta (22nd - 25th Nov)
From Phi Phi we caught the ferry to the mainland town of Koh Lanta and jumping in one of the free tuk tuks to a guesthouse was a bonus too! We had a look at a few different places before checking into 'Green Chilli' with a fairly newly built bungalow. The beach near our guesthouse wasn't the greatest but on one of the days we had a long walk and found a nice bay. We probably would have stayed there longer but we had been out with Sam and Caroline the night before to a cool beach bar and were all hanging that day so all we wanted was some food.
Cherie and I had found some cheap flights online (£14!!) to Bangkok which meant we had to make the half day journey to Krabi Town and spent a night there. In Krabi, we had a final meal with Sam and Caroline at a street food market before and early start for the bus to pick us up for our flight.
Bangkok (25th - 27th Nov)
The short flight to Bangkok was pretty good knowing the alternative was a 16 hour bus journey, we had also booked a nicer hotel with gym so I was looking forward to getting in there again. Our final two days in Thailand we pretty much spend shopping...Cherie shopping and me being dragged behind her doing the bargaining! We hit the big MBK shopping centre where we could by pretty much everything and anything although we still needed two trips just to make sure we had everything! We had a nice Thai and also Indian meal on our last two nights in Asia and we sad to be leaving after such a great time here but excited for the next part of the trip in Africa.
Scared and excited to go shopping at the MBK Shopping Centre
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