After our mammoth journey we checked into the Tip Anda Bungalows on Nopparathara Beach. Truly nature-full. Neither of us slept very well thanks to the millions of different creatures who sounded as if they were literally right next to our windows! We also had an interesting moment when we noticed the fried gecko, and what looked to me like a squashed frog, in the lampshade. Poor things. My lack of scaredness when it comes to geckos has amazed me! I thought I'd hate having to see them in our rooms every day, but it's fine. They're quite cute really. Until they move, then their scuttling little legs freak me out a little!

We set off to Ao Nang the next morning and were greeted by what seemed like a European tourist town. It was kind of just what we needed, as there was shopping and eating to be done! The weather was a little grey that first day, so we spent it wandering in and out of shops, cafes and restaurants - it's a lovely life! We managed to book into the Ao Nang Grand Inn (less of the grand in reality!) for the next couple of nights and moved our stuff over first thing the next morning.

It was a little grey again, but a lot brighter, so we spent most of the afternoon lying on the beach - not actually that great a beach due to millions of broken up shells. The view was lovely though and surpassed anything we'd seen on beaches up until that point. The picture attached to the blog is completely wrong. We had rows of palm trees behind us, ocean in front of us and the huge rocks of the coastline jutting out to either side. If the light was right you could just make out many of those tiny little islands in the distance. The long tails were lined up to our right and every so often you'd hear a little vroooom and see one sailing past towards the beauty of Railay.

We had a lovely few days in Ao Nang and extended our stay by another night to make the most of the gorgeous sunshine. The only downside was that the first day on the beach we discovered (me for the second time) that you can burn a little through cloud! Luckily it faded over night and the pink turned to brown! Every day was kind of similar, a mixture of lying out on the beach, cooling down in the water, eating in some lovely restaurants (especially our favourite - Thailandia) and watching the sunset over the ocean from the beach every evening. Days like this are what makes me realise how lucky I am to be in Thailand.