Hi from ao nang,

this our last evening in krabi tonight we are leaving for samui at 6 in the morning. we have really enjoyed a week in krabi its a really clean place and more of a holiday kind of place.

our place at minis hotel has made the stay even better and we loved returning back to it everynight /day. it has been a great place for us to relax and enjoy our travels. we told our friends chris and judy about the place and they stayed here aswell for four nights and also loved it .

we spent our first couples of days on the beach enjoying the sun and the lovely mountain views. there was a lovely monkey section at the end of the beach and they had their own swimming area and they were great entertainment. they are very cheeky they tried to pull some ladys bikini bottoms off for food so that made us laugh, one even tried to jump at lauren and then turned to me for my sarong which is bright yellow we think they must of thought it was a bananna. you can imagine lauren shes now terrified of them poor girl.

our first real adventure here was to hire out a moped and explore some of the island. the hotel owner hong reccommended us to visit a place called hot springs and crystal lagoon. we asked for directions and she drew them on the map i had, it seemed quite easy. so we set off on our journey and it seemed to be going very well. i drove very safe and slow so lauren felt comfortable. getting close to our destinatation i stopped and pulled over on the highway to check the map . we were on track and we were very happy with ourselves. as i was folding the map up a stray dog appeared from nowhere. there was a mad panic to get rid of that map and get going . it was the first time lauren told me to go "FASTER LEE FASTER LEE" that wasnt a problem for me ;) . so as we pulled away the dog began to chase us and was literally inches away from laurens foot!!

so we arrived at the hot springs in one piece and it was worth the journey! this place was remarkable ..... the water was 42 degrees it was like the best bath you could ask for, and to top it off it was also a waterfall. our next stop was the emerald pool , again another marvellous natural place. we loved the swimming and got some great pictures.

we would of loved to have stayed at these places alot longer but the journey was a solid two hours (70km) and we wanted to get back before sunset. we made good progress and an hour in we stopped for refreshments at 7/11. we sat on the kerb and our usual crisp roll and talked about how good our day had been with no bad luck or getting lost .

as we pulled away from the shop loads of thai chilren started giggling at us ,we think it was because we had our silly crash hats on and no locals wear them not even babies, but we didnt care we felt safe. however our luck ran out as we sat in rush hour traffic loads of locals were tapping lauren on her shoulder and pointing at the rear of the moped. we couldnt understand what they were trying to say and continued abit further up . we pulled over to check the bike and discovered the rear tyre was flat as a pancake . not what we needed when we were chasing sunset and were still 40 km away from our hotel. i didnt panic and luckly enough there was a local tyre place nearby they put some air back in but it didnt solve the problem we had a bad puncture haha.

i walked the moped two hundred metres up to a garage where they would fix the puncture for us, as by now it was undrivable. turns out i drove over a massive bit of metal which made a massive hole and we needed a brand new innertube. this could only happen to us ... we just had to laugh about it. we were lucky to be somwhere near a place like that otherwise i dont know what we would of done.

we finally got home after two and a half hours it seemed to take abit longer , one due to the servere wind in our faces and two because we got lost haha. but we did eventually get home safely to our hotel in one piece. dispite afew problems we really enjoyed our day and we really felt as if we saw the whole island. were looking forward to doing it again in ko samui but i think i will still drive haha !

hong told us of some island we ought to go to. you could only get to this island before 4pm otherwise you would be stuck and wouldnt be able to get back because of the tide. it took us ages to walk there and we were shattered by the time we got to island and was worried we wouldnt be able to get back up before 4pm haha. it had some great views and it was a nice thing to discover.

yesterday we took a longtail to Railay beach , this was a nearby island and we went with chris and judy. the beach was on par with maya bay and we loved it loads. we found a pool quite close to the beach and set up camp there for a while. we really appreciated the sunbeds a nice change from the floor .

after lunch we went over to the other side of the island and wanted to go up on the viewpoint even though we got told it was very challenging. as we got there the monkeys seemed to be playing up. 3 australian boys were on there way down and the monkeys wouldnt let them pass. me and chris found this hilarious but lauren and judy were off on there toes. they called for help but no one would take them serious they were really starting to panic. chris found a branch and lauched that at two of them enough for them to get by , it was funny. the viewpoint was really challenging you had to pull yourself up with rope and theres no stairs it pure rocks and gravel. after the monkey incident and the fact we all had the wrong footwear we decided to give it a miss and resort to the beach. shame there would of been some great pictures.

while i chilled on the beach topping up on my tan the other three went to explore phranang cave . this wasnt for me as i dont like things hanging over my head and small spaces. they climbed their way through to the other side over the rocks to the ocean . they seemed to enjoy themselves and loved all the limestone. we got a longtail back to our island and had a great day .

i forgot to put on our last update i have had my first full body massage it was so nice and was so so cheap . i think ill be having another one very soon over xmas.

ive had two indians while being here theyve been great so spicy and as good as home . im also addicted to these cheese and ham toasties from 7/11 the cost as little as 70p and coem with a big drink. i send lauren to get one for me most mornings ive also tried my first pancake which was good.

were off to book our boat for tomorrow were getting the early one to make the most of our hotel over xmas. were really excited to go to ko samui everyone keeps on telling us how great it is and weve got another great place to stay. it doesnt really feel like xmas to us we cant believe its only 4 days away crazy!! were really hoping we can find a roast somwhere ......especailly some yorkshires.

got to go as man united kick off in an hour and weve still got to eat , hope your all in the festive spirit and hope to facetime you all soon

xx