We planned to leave Hanoi early evening on an airport shuttle bus scheduled for 6pm, which left plenty of time before our flight. It's just as well we did as the driver wouldn't leave until the minibus was full, and we set off nearer 7pm. The flight was under 2 hours, and half empty, yet for some reason we were seated at either side of the aisle. It wasn't really a problem though as we just spent the time reading our books. When we landed at about 11pm, a small boy that had looked queasy throughout the flight decided to unload his lunch all over my foot, much to Amy's amusement. I was just glad my flip flops were wipe clean!

As we were only staying in Bangkok for a day or two, we decided to get a taxi over to Khao San Rd, which is right in the centre of the backpackers area, and a little noisier than the area we stayed in on our first trip here. It was still busy when we arrived around midnight, and we spent a while looking for a guesthouse that was cheap enough. We settled for a basic twin room on the 6th floor of some grotty hostel, then went out for some street food before getting to bed.

The next day we got up early and went to a couple of travel agents and internet cafes to find out the best way to travel down to the southern part of Thailand. We decided it was worth paying $45 each for a short flight to Krabi, rather than $25 for an 18 hour seated bus journey. We couldn't fly until the next day, so we went to find a nicer guest house and moved over before check out time.

We spent the rest of the day catching up on the blogs in the internet cafe, eating street fgood and shopping for some new clothes on the stalls. I bought a couple of t-shirts and Amy bought some vests and some baggy hippy shorts, with the entire haul coming in at under $20. In the evening we watched some crappy action film in a pub, then went back and packed up our stuff.

In the morning we went out for a quick breakfast then got a taxi over to the airport. I thought the flight was fine, but Amy got a little travel sick. Once we arrived we got on a shuttle bus that dropped us off at a guesthouse in the centre of Krabi. They had nice bungalows at a reasonable price, so we decided not to shop around.

Once we settled we decided to have a look around the town - which acts as a travel hub to the islands and Phuket - and we realised there wasn't a great deal there exept a really good local food bazaar, where we ate twice that day. We did have a good map of the surrounding area though, and it looked like there was loads to do, so we decided we would get an early night and get out and about in the morning.

We were up early to rent a rather fetching orange scooter that would act as our transport for the day, then headed off out of the town. The tourist map we had mentioned loads of attractions around the peninsula, including caves, national parks and beaches, but we decided to take in a route that included hot springs and the rather enticing 'Emerald Lagoon'.

The roads were a little boring compared to the mountain trails we had driven in Pai, as we spent most of our time on highways, but once we turned off we had great fun on some windy forest roads towards the hot springs. We had been to some hot springs before, which were interesting, if a little plain, but the springs near Krabi were awesome, with loads of individual pools carved out of the rock, and a few rope swings in the nearby river. We spent about an hour relaxing there before moving on.

We reached the area for the emerald pool after another short drive, only to find that it was within a national park, and the entrance fee was $10 each. We decided that we'd had a cheap day so far, so we stumped up the cash and went for a walk through the jungle towards the pool. When we finally reached to pool, in a jungle clearing, we couldn't belief that it was natural, as the water was so clear and the surrounding rocks were bright yellow and orange. We spent loads of time swimming about and taking photos before continuing on through the jungle to 'The Blue Pool'. I broke my flip flop on the way, so I kept having to hop on the parts of the path that were too hot in the sun. Once we reached the pool we realised we weren't allowed to swim in it for some reason, but true to it's name it was really, really blue. I'd certainly put it in my top 3 blue pools of all time.

Afterwards we headed back out to the bike and tried to find a nearby waterfall, but we gave up after a while as it was starting to get dark. Amy drove most of the way home, which took about an hour, staring right back into the setting sun, which took a bit of effort. When we got back we ate at the food bazaar, booked our boat tickets to Ko Phi Phi for the next day, and called our folks over the internet, before packing to leave the next day.