Today we were up at 6am for our pick-up that would take us to Krabi, a few hours away on the West coast of Thailand.

We drove the short distance to the port, where we'd booked to catch the Lomprayah catamaran to Surat Thani on the mainland. For a change the whole bus to boat transfer seemed to go very smoothly, we were shown into seats in a waiting area beside the dock and the catamaran arrived a few minutes later - we were very impressed! Once on board it was time for breakfast as we were all starving. However, all we managed to find to eat were sandwiches. Chris got a burger but we couldn't face one at that time of day! Two ham and cheese sandwiches and coffee later, we relaxed for the rest of the short journey (about 45 minutes) to Surat Thani. At the other end we were picked up by a minibus as part of our ticket amidst all of the usual transport chaos. IT was all going too well…

We were dropped off at what you would probably call a bus station, but it was more like a holding area where they try to sell you food, drink, transfers, anything, while you wait to transfer to a bigger bus. While we were there, we were pestered by a guy who was trying to get us to pay 200 baht each for a transfer to our hotel at Krabi once we had arrived. We were wise to this and told him we were going to sort it ourselves (we'd read in the guidebook that you can catch songthaew buses for much less) but he wouldn't give up. Over the course of about an hour, he kept coming back to tell us that it's hard to get a songthaew, they take 'many hours', they don't take you to your hotel door, the guidebook we were showing him was wrong, blah, blah, blah! He eventually gave up just before our next bus came! Meanwhile, we had used the services of another 'travel agent' there to book a trip to the Phi Phi Islands for the next day. She gave us the child's price of 1200 baht and she also helped us out with our tickets we'd booked for when we leave Krabi. She rang the company and confirmed where we were staying so they could pick us up, and she did this for free.

Eventually, we got on yet another bus to take us to Krabi. It was meant to be a VIP bus but the air-con struggled to cope which meant that it was one of the most unpleasant journeys of the trip so far. After 3 hours of sweating on the bus, we were all desperate to get off at the other end. Again, we were dropped off at a holding centre / travel agents in the middle of nowhere, presumably so that we had another opportunity to buy an expensive transfer! We declined and walked the 50m to the main road, where we flagged down a songthaew to take us to our hotel for 100 baht each, half the price we were quoted earlier - that's how to beat the Thai scammers!

We settled into our very nice hotel, J Guesthouse, which had huge rooms and air conditioning! We had to move rooms at first because we had a rattling air conditioner, but our second room was much better - time for a few hours rest!

In the evening, we took a taxi from the hotel to the main street in Aonang, on the hunt for some cheap food after an expensive day. We found some in a Thai restaurant where everyone was eating an all-you-can-eat buffet! We ordered from the menu instead and saved loads - lovely Pad Thai! Afterwards, we had a look in a few shops and stalls and then headed back to the hotel quite early so we didn't spend any money!

Looking forward to our trip to gorgeous Phi Phi tomorrow!