Krabi

It's raining.. or it was when we arrived in Krabi, Thailand. We are spending the week here to have a little bit of a holiday to end our three and a half month visit to Asia. Whilst we have visited Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, we haven't spent our time lying on beaches so to make sure we get the whole experience we are forcing ourselves to lay back and enjoy the sunshine (yes it stops raining occasionally) before we leave Asia for Oceania, lovely New Zealand next Monday.

Krabi is an unspoilt small tourist town east of Phuket. It is surrounded by mango groves and small stone hills covered in lush vegetation. It doesn't have any beaches near the town so people travel to Ao Nang and take long tail boats to the many islands dotted around the Andaman Sea. We are staying in a small hotel in Krabi town , which means we have had to hire a scooter to get us about the area.

Yesterday we went to Ao Nang beach which is very touristy. It has a small narrow beach at which we spent a couple hours. The water was very warm, but a bit cloudy. There were hardly any waves and the tide was right up on the beach so we were sitting under the trees by the sea wall. There were only a few people on the beach so it was very peaceful.

Today we went north of Krabi to Tha Pom Klong Song Nam, a Mango grove with a raised walkway that meandered through the grove. It was a 15 km drive by scooter, but a wonderful way to explore a Mango grove. The water was full of fish and we really enjoyed walking through it using the walkway.

It has been a lovely week here in Krabi and very relaxing. Although it rained when we arrived the weather has been good most of the time and hot and sunny with the temperature reaching about 34°. Whilst we were on the beach the other day a rain storm blew in and we were suddenly pelted with massive drops of torrential rain. Most people ran for cover, except for us, we ran excitedly into the sea enjoying the rain bouncing off the waves. We swam about laughing like the mad old English people we are. Now you know where the saying only mad dogs and English people stay out in the .... midday rain? As quick as the rain arrived it disappeared and the baking hot sun came out and dried everything off and it was back to sun bathing again.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and tomorrow we are off to New Zealand. Not by the most direct route however, as we booked our flights from Kuala Lumpur before we knew we were going to Nakkon Si Thammarat and Krabi, so we fly back to Bangkok and then Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and then Kuala Lumpur to Auckland New Zealand, via an hour stopover on the gold coast of Australia. Well that is the plan, what could possibly go wrong?