On Tuesday 15th June, we arrived in Krabi, Thailand after flying from Bangkok with AirAsia having booked a couple of days earlier. The flights were pretty cheap at £111 in total for both of us; no problems at all.

We paid just £12 a night for a room in a hotel called "Goodwill" and believe it or not it was really nice, very clean and has a balcony......just a shame that we were on the top floor with no lifts!!! We stayed here for 2 nights but then extended by another night........with a further discount!!!

We stayed at the Ao Nang resort which was nice but a little quiet during the day. We only spent 2 hours on the beach during the entire stay mainly because the tide comes in at lunchtime and the beach largely disappears as the waves come in. It would have made sense to get up earlier for more beach time but we found ourselves sleeping in 'til late morning each day given the late nights ;-)

There were a lot of tours, restaurants and pubs here so we had enough to do to keep ourselves busy.

In the evenings, we found ourselves gravitating towards the "Lovely Bar" as the last port of call. It was a pretty small bar but had great Thai people working there. We had some entertaining nights which would enviably end up with the locals playing connect four, drive, giant jenga and a game which involves banging nails into a tree trunk.......don't ask!!! The staff were so different....Susi dancing on the ice beer container with Pimmy, who seemed to be managing things constantly shouting "Eh, lady boy" to him......which wasn't too far from the truth. The son of the owner, who kept wearing Liverpool tops while constantly telling me that he "hates Man U"!!! Jane, Panyanut and a couple of others who, on the face of it, were ladies of the night!! In fact the whole street was full of Thai women.....say no more.

We enjoyed Krabi; the Thai food, the cheap prices and also the hot weather, although it was very overcast. It is Monsoon season and we experienced this yesterday when the heavens opened.

Mark finally decided to shave off his beard (after >1 week) as he realised that the suntan on his face wouldn't be all over and that I told him he looked like he was in his 40's. He prefers the baby face look! It may also have something to do with the poor England performance against the USA in the World Cup. It doesn't look like Rooney will be scoring anytime soon (which was when he was going to shave it off).

We did a lot of walking up and down the streets until our legs were fit to drop. This probably explains why Mark tripped up and took the skin off his big toe. We had to go to the chemist and get some antiseptic cream and a plaster. The next day he banged his head on the wall (not intentionally) when he was getting stroppy with the wi-fi not working in the room. I am not sure the planned bungee jump out of a cable car in New Zealand is a good idea given that he now seems accident prone.

Anyway, we toured the various "tourist offices", which are basically tour operators not official tourist offices (which don't seem to exist), trying to barter a discounted price with the locals for a full day tour elephant trekking and kayaking in the mangroves (at Ao Thalane). We found a nice girl who was able to do a good deal so this was our adventure yesterday (17th June 2010). We met a great couple from Scotland on the trip and ventured to the kayaking in an open sided tuk-tuk van in the pouring rain.....and we mean "pouring". The trip was tops although the kayaks got stuck in the mangroves as the tide was low. The tour guide had to get out and pull us free. Mark would like to clear up that this was not down to the weight in our kayak as the Scots had the same problem and they were considerably smaller!! After a few pictures and mosquito bites we moved onto the second part.....the elephant trek. This was great fun but left us a bit uneasy at one point when the man riding on the elephant head (!!!), giving directions, got off for a fag and the elephant starting walking around with only us onboard. More pictures, Lisa fed the elephant a few bananas and we were off to the hotel. The trip was well worth the £20 per head.

We had already decided to move on to Phi Phi island (still Thailand) the next day so agreed on an early evening as we had to pack. At midnight we were still in the Lovely Bar......plans clearly out of the window. We told the staff that we were off and may venture by on the way back from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam at which point we got a BIG surprise. Now, to set the scene we should say that the girls do not earn much money and have to result to other means to live but are really sweet. So, we were sitting at the bar and three of the girls came over and gave us a present; Lisa lovely embossed mirror with elephant on one side and Mark got a Thai elephant key-ring. It was really heart warming as we had struck up a real friendship with all of the staff in just 3 nights. A few minutes later, one of the girls presented us both with scarves that she had knitted. Come to think of it knitting seemed to be a theme, as Susi also got the knitting needles out one night as he was closing the bar. We felt very humbled. Needless to say that we are more likely to pass through Ao Nang later in the trip. We departed after buying all the staff a drink. The girls chose a bucket of some cocktail which we shared. Given the size of the bucket and the girls, they will probably still be drinking it when we return.

We had a great time in Ao Nang and now have some new friends. It was just a shame that we had a crap meal in a restaurant (Tanta's - avoid it!!) on the last night. The food was good but Mark received his starter and finished it before mine arrived (I gave him permission to start!!). As soon as my starter arrived the main dish appeared. Both were finished before Mark's main dish arrived....Thai red curry first and eventually the rice. We wouldn't mind but there were only a dozen people in the restaurant and as many serving staff!!!!

This morning (18th June 2010), we got a ferry to Phi Phi island. It's about 1 ½ hours off the Thai coast. We grabbed lunch, searched for accommodation online, found a hotel down the main round (if you can call it that; more of a sandy path), spent an hour round the pool and are now writing this blog........from a bar. Surprise, surprise. Tonight is our first night here and from what we can see it will be good.....busier than Ao Nang (Krabi). We have just spoken with another friend who is in Phuket. The plan is to go there on Monday (21st). In the meantime, the plan is to see what Phi Phi has to offer 

That's all for now and hope all is ok back home.

Lisa and Mark