Day 113 (Friday 28th March 08)

Mum and Dad leaving very early this morning so up to see them off. Luckily it was a quick departure so no tears shed. Sad to see them go. Asked Stephen when they could take us to be dropped off for the bus to Krabi and said he would sort it out later so we went back to bed for a couple of hours. Got up again at about 8:30am and sorted our bags out. Had our breakfast and used the internet and then got dropped at the side of the road to wait for the public bus to Krabi. Luckily it came pretty much straight away so got on. Lucky Mum and Dad didn't have to go on the public bus as they didn't like the minibus and this was even worse. It was constantly bumping up and down so much so that the one beer that we had left that we took with us started spraying out of the top. The only advantage of being on the bigger buses is that you can't see as much of just how close they get to the vehicles infront. Also how dangerous the driving is and felt like we would topple over a couple of times, it was very nice to arrive 2 hours later. Once we were off the bus Em dumped the can of beer that had been spraying everywhere in the bin. Straight away one of the women that was hanging about got it out. We then followed this other lady that said she could help us sort out a taxi to where we wanted to go. In the end paid for a taxi to Ao Nang as it was about a half an hour drive. Walked around with our heavy backpacks in the heat of the day and started trying to find somewhere to stay. Found it very hard to find anywhere cheap and saw some rooms that looked like prison cells, some without windows. Eventually settled for a room that was 800Baht a night and said that we would carry on looking once we had dumped our bags. Checked in and left our bags and went for another walk to see if we could find anything else. Unfortunately we had found the cheapest area and that was the cheapest accommodation in Ao Nang. Stopped to use the internet and then went for something to eat as it was quite late now. Struggling to get back into the backpacking after a really good 2 weeks.

Day 114 (Saturday 29th March 08)

Had a lie in this morning and went for a wander down by the beach to find somewhere cheap for some food. Once we had finished we walked around looking around Ao Nang and again stopped to use the internet to carry on uploading photos from the last 2 weeks. Surprising how much time it takes! We then stopped somewhere for a milkshake. Asked on the way back to our guesthouse about boats and accommodation in Koh Lanta to see if it would be any cheaper. We thought by the sounds of it the accommodation would be much the same but in the end booked the boat so we good go and see what it was like as it is meant to be popular with backpackers. Back to our guesthouse for a while. Ventured out later to find some cheap food and in the end decided we would have to eat off the sidestalls as that was the only cheap way! Em had some Pad Thai and Mark had fried chicken curry with rice. He was still hungry so ordered a corn on the cob. Just as it was bought to where we were sitting a massive storm started and the rain came down. We paid as quickly as we could and made our way to a shop we had seen further back near our guesthouse to take cover outside under the roof. Saw yet another scooter accident but the two girls just picked the scooter up and carried on the way and the rain was so heavy. The rain didn't seem to let up so in the end just ran back to the guesthouse to play some cards. Some pretty impressive lightning and thunder carried on.