We arrived on the beach front - which looked like a seaside strip in Spain. There were bars, restaurants and shops.
I sat in a bar with the bags whilst Lee went off looking for somewhere for us to stay. Just as I was about to drink his drink (because i'd finished mine) he came back. Lee found out that all the cheaper accommodation was up the hill - which was around the corner from the main strip. Lee cooled down for a bit, drank his drink then we headed up the hill. On the sea front rooms were around 1,500 bahts, a little up the hill (opposite Starbucks and subway) we stayed in a room with a fan and a fridge for 500 bahts. (How lazy do they think tourists are)?! The shops on the front bend up the hill anyway so it's not like the rooms up the hill were out the way?!
We settled in then went for a little wonder. At the top of the hill was a mosque then road..... On the way back down there was a Mc Donald's, a 7/11, a bank, Starbucks, restaurants, a Subway, hotels, guesthouses, bag shops and souvenir shops.
The beach isn't very big. There's a few meters of sand from the road to the sea so we didn't bother going on it, instead we found somewhere to book a trip to the 4 islands. We wanted to do something a little different because we've been snorkeling loads so we booked the trip with a spot of squid fishing. They make up the prices for trips! We'd asked a few places so we knew a general cost so when the woman, at the place we were booking overstated the price by a few hundred bahts we knocked a bit more off! We booked the boat to phi phi (for the day after the trip) again she gave us a discount - which was the actual price rather than another overstated amount. Cheeky carrot! She tried!
As we were about to walk off the heavens opened and thunder and lightening struck. The power went down twice whilst we were hiding from the rain in the shop. We were only in there 5 mins too! We got bored and decided to get wet and go for food. We sat in a restaurant a couple of doors down and watched the lightening bolts hit the sea whilst the thunder roared. It was scary because it all sounded a little too powerful! The place were we were eating was completely open at the front so we weren't looking through a window. We were open to the elements (well if it wasn't for the roof and canopy over our heads we would be). The rain stopped but the thunder and lightening continued so we walked across the road onto the beach. We got an amazing picture of a huge bolt of lightening covering the dark sky. I've never seen lightening so clear (normally I'm hiding in the house). As we stood watching, the dark clouds parted to let the sky shine through. It really did look magical.
At night a market is set up along the pavement going up the hill with food and more souvenirs so we browsed the shops and market then went back to our room.