Luckily our fears with regard to the safety of the speedboat from Koh Lipe were ill-founded and we soon set off on a calm cruise into the Andaman sea. It was quite nice being out the front of the boat, where we had the cool breeze in our hair and a great view of the ocean and islands around us.

We scudded across the waves for around an hour, most of which I spent snoozing leaning on my arm. When I woke up, we were pulling into a calm inlet on a very lush island lined by sandy shores and with great angular limestone rock faces emerging from the sea. This was Ko Tarutao, where we stopped at a pier to drop off a few people and pick others up. Jeroen and Linde had stayed on the island, which is the main island in a series making up a national park in the area. Although the island was beuatiful they said the accommodation, run by the government, was basic and still being set up after the start of the season, with staff who didn't really care.

For these reasons we had opted to continue on to the mainland and we were soon headed that way, cruising along the slanted, layered cliffs and lush jungle of Tarutao before crossing the open sea past numerous other small islands until we approached an equally lush coastline on the mainland.

We came down a wide channel with sandy banks on either side, moored at a pier and piled off the boat with everyone else. We soon located our contact, a lady who led a few of us down a street near the pier to a travel shop. Here, we attempted to pile our bags into a minibus along with about 12 other people, soon filling the small luggage space in the van as we all had backpacks. We then all squeezed into the bus, finding that we were one seat short. This caused an argument between the Scandinavian guy who was left without a seat, and a little bit of concern on our part since, as well as him, there were still about 6 bags on the pavement outside which we needed to get into the van. After some to-and-fro with the travel company lady, the guy ended up sitting on a plastic stool in the aisle of the minibus with a partial refund. We packed all the bags in around him and everyone else and then set off, not particularly comfortable or happy.

Despite the conditions, the journey to Krabi was fine for us. The bus was air conditioned and the countryside outside very pretty. As we neared the coast again near the end of the journey, we could see numerous picturesque limestone karsts rising up from the jungle which had been all around us for the whole journey.

We were driven to a bus station a few kilometres from anywhere, somewhere outside Krabi town, and hopped out. We then had to decide where we actually wanted to go as Krabi town was about 15km inland, and we wanted to be near a beach. We knew that the main beach nearby was Ao Nang which was accessible by road but was quite 'developed', and that the other beaches along the coast, accessed by longtail boats from Ao Nang, were more picturesque but more expensive due to their removed location.

We opted to take a taxi to the beach just along from the main stretch of Ao Nang, Nopparat Thara and see what we thought of it. We could then either stay there and go out to the nicer beaches on a day trip or, if we didn't like it just go out and stay at those beaches. We agreed a price with a local travel agent for a taxi, in our tired state paying probably far too much but we were eager to get somewhere and get settled.

Therefore we ended up in a little air conditioned car in which we were driven the 15km or so to the coast, along a road winding through the shadow of the towering limestone cliffs dotting the area. Along the way we had the misfotrune of seeing the aftermath of a crash, where two young boys were lying in the middle of a junction beside a shattered moped being helped by locals. Worryingly, one of the boys was lying very still, with blood pouring from his head. With this disturbing image in our own heads, we passed the remainder of the journey in a contemplative silence.

When we arrived at Nopparat Thara, a long stretch of beach backed by hotels and guesthouses in amongst trees, with an outlook to rugged limestone islands off the coast, we were dropped at the boat pier. From here we walked down the street, enquiring at a few different lodgings until we found Blue Ba You bungalows, a little place with a restaurant and some motel-style bungalows arranged around a little garden behind it. We looked at one of the rooms and discovered it to be big, clean, with great facilities for a reasonable price.

We took the room and relaxed in the room for a bit with a drink, on the laptop before going to the restaurant for some food. We had a superb meal here, making up for our lack of lunch with our staple spring rolls, as well as a spicy tuna salad, a beef mussaman curry and some chicken cooked in garlic and pepper. Even after this feast we were a bit peckish so we ordered some banana in warm, sweet coconut milk, which we found immensely comforting although very very sweet.

After our banquet, we repaired to our room where we called home on Skype to catch up with our families then pottered about and read until going off to sleep quite late.

In the morning we woke in the air conditioned cool of our room but didn't want to leave it straight away. Lucy napped on and off and I read until we finally got up at around 11. We had some breakfast at our place, then went back to the room to pack some stuff in a bag to head out, planning to get a longtail boat down the coast to some of the more picturesque but less accessible beaches. No sooner had we got our things together than the heavens opened in a torrential downpour. We decided to wait for a while to see if the rain went off, but it kept on and off for ages.

In the end we opted just to have a quiet day pottering around the local area, and decided we'd stay the following day and go to the other beaches then, whatever the weather. We therefore spent the afternoon reading and relaxing, until about 3pm when there was a knock at the door. We answered to find our friends Jeroen and Linde outside, having just arrived from Koh Lanta. We chatted for a bit then arranged to meet up in the evening.

We decided at this point we'd head out and get some fresh air whatever the weather. My ear, which had been a bit funny since Koh Lipe, had become quite sore and I was keen to visit a pharmacy and get something to sort it out. We took our umbrellas and headed out of our accommodation, then followed the road which ran between the various guest houses and restaurants and the beach, across an incredibly rickety wooden bridge with missing planks and broken handrails and behind a huge outcrop of rock to the next beach along, Ao Nang. We approached the beach down a main street lined with shops, where we found a helpful pharmacist who furnished me with ear drops and some anti-inflammatory tablets.

The beach here was similar to that at Nopparat Thara where we were staying, which is to say it was long, made up of rough sand and shell particles and had numerous longtail boats sitting off it, as well as being backed by a road lined with shops, restaurants and resorts. It was busier than our place though, and we felt we'd made the right choice staying where we were.

We had a wander on the sand, then doubled back and walked along the road. We realised we were a bit peckish, and an appealing menu at a cafe, evidently owned by a Swede, lured us in. We had a great meal here. After spotting the Swedish meatballs with mash and lingonberry jam on the menu, I knew I had to have that but I ended up ordering it as part of a 3 course set menu, in a fit of excess. Therefore my meatball dish was preceded by prawn cocktail with dill on toast and followed by swedish apple pie with custard, which was shared with Lucy. She ordered spring rolls (which contained mozzarella and shrimp, something we'd never seen before but which worked) and a big plate of stir fried morning glory. The whole lot was great, and we left satisfied to walk back to our beach.

Once we got back near our bungalow, we realised the rain had stopped and it was turning into quite a nice evening. We decided to nip back to the room and change into our swimmers then go for a dip in the sea before sunset. We did this, wading out into the shallow, muddy-bottomed water and floating around, under a sky which turned more and more pink as the sun set.

After this we went back, dried off and just lazed around for a few hours until Jeroen and Linde popped round later in the evening. They took a seat on the stylish maroon leather couch in our room and we set the world to rights until around 1am. We said our goodbyes, for the third time, as the guys were leaving in the morning for Bangkok, and then got off to bed.

The next morning we got up around half 9, to another overcast but decent day. We had some breakfast, picked up our laundry that we'd dropped off the day before and bought some tickets for the boat to Koh Phi Phi for the following morning, then once again packed some beach stuff in a bag and this time made it out of the room. We crossed to the beach and wandered down to where a group of longtail boat drivers were gathered around a ticket booth, with their vessels moored out in the bay beyond the muddy flat expanse of sand left by the low tide.

We bought some tickets from the booth and hung around for a while to see if anyone else would turn up for the boat before the driver led us, along with another couple, down to the shore. We waded out through the shallows and climbed into the boat, which soon sputtered to life and propelled us away from the beach and around the towering, overhanging cliff face to Ao Nang around the corner. We sailed past Ao Nang, towards more impressive cliffs and towers of limestone at the far end of the beach, then rounded them to the stunning sight of Ton Sai and Railay beaches, surrounded by massive cliffs, overhanging dramatically and coated with clinging jungles plants.

We approached the muddy flats off Ton Sai and our driver turned off the boat's engine so we glided in to rest on the bottom. We hopped out the boat, craning our necks to peer up at the cliffs all around then set off up to the beach proper.

From here we took a concrete path leading back from the beach into jungle, which rose up from the beach towards more distant cliffs. We followed a loop of this concrete path through the jungle past basic guest houses and bungalows and under cliffs on the far side of the bay, before popping back out on the beach.

At this end of the beach, we found a group of rock climbers, for whom the area is a massive attraction, tackling some fantastic overhanging routes where the base of the towering cliffs had been eroded away. We were impressed by the skills on display, and watching the climbers made me eager to give rock climbing a try again, if not on the trip then when I got home.

After watching the climbers for a bit, we continued at the foot of the monstrous cliffs to the end of the beach, where we then picked our way around a rocky outcrop which stood between Ton Sai and Railay beach. Because the tide was out, we were able to get around to the other beach without getting our feet wet, but we had to move slowly and carefully as the route involved climbing along razor sharp igneous rocks which, although taking the most fantastical forms, would have caused serious injuries if we'd slipped or fallen on them.

We managed to get around the rocks unscathed and found ourselves on the long sandy expanse of Railay beach, bracketed at either end by towering limestone outcrops and with great views back to the cliffs around Ton Sai. The beach was backed by numerous resorts and peppered with sunbathers and sightseers like ourselves. We walked amongst them to one of the bars attached to a resort, where we had a drink and took in the picturesque scene. Although it was still cloudy, the view was really stunning, but we couldn't help imagining what it would look like on a clear sunny day.

After our drink we made our way away from Railay beach down its concrete 'walking street', passing first shops and then staff accommodation for the fancy resorts down on the shore. We found ourselves in a sort of grassy wilderness between West Railway, where we had been, and East Railay, which we tried to get to. We ended up taking a wrong turn on the maze of concrete paths at the foot of massive cliffs and behind the resorts and wandered around for a bit, seeing more rock climbers along the way, before we found our way down to East Railay.

Before taking our accommodation at Nopparat Thara, we had been planning to come to East Railay but when we saw the beach we were glad we hadn't. A rubbish-strewn flat expanse of gritty mud, dotted here and there with clumps of mangroves, was all that stood between the concrete path and the sea. Although backed by the dramatic cliffs, East Railay was not very pretty.

We still opted to stop here for something to eat, and got some tasty Thai food at a little restaurant before wandering along the narrow concrete promenade. We passed some really nice looking resorts which seemed a bit incongruous overlooking the rather grim 'beach', before cutting up another path which took us back to West Railay.

Back on the pretty beach, we bought some tickets for a longtail boat back to Ao Nang, then hopped in and bobbed about for a while as the driver tried to get the engine going. He eventually succeeded, and we puttered back around the rocky headlands, past kayakers and snorkellers, before being dropped off at Ao Nang. We grabbed some supplies from a convenience store and then caught a little motorbike-and-sidecar taxi back along the coast to our accommodation.

Once back in our cool room, we relaxed and updated some of our blog for a while then went for some dinner around 8. We had another tasty meal at Blue Ba You, going for the same tuna salad as we'd had before as well as some tom ka with chicken and some prawns in a garlic and pepper sauce. After dinner we just relaxed in the room for the rest of the night.

In the morning we got up early, packed everything and had a shower, then got some breakfast before our pickup just before 9 o'clock. We loaded our bags onto the back of a big lorry with two rows of seats in the back, then hopped into the front seat with the driver. This lorry took us along the beach to a pier, where everyone piled onto a fast ferry.

Unfortunately, the day we we were leaving was lovely and sunny but we did get some great views of the cliffs behind Ao Nang as we pulled out of the pier on our way to Phi Phi.