Our first venture, after Bangkok, was to show Vic and Dave what Thailand is really famous for; its beautiful beaches. We took an overnight train to Surat Thani, arriving at 4am and then took a short bus ride to Krabi where we arrived by early morning to make sure we would get the optimum time on the beaches! We decided to stay just outside Krabi Town, in a beach area called Ao Nang. The long beach is lined by lapping blue waves and out in the bay are plenty of small islands with isolated coves. The promenade is filled with restaurants and hotels, which as it is still technically low season had some fantastic deals on food and drinks! We were very happy; the holiday had really begun!!

Our lovely hotel had an infinity pool overlooking a landscaped garden, so we spent a fair amount of time lounging by the pool (well, the girls did) and playing in the pool (that would be the boys!). By night we hit the town for food and drinks, where James discovered he has quite a liking for strawberry daiquiris!!

For a few hours of our last day, we hired a long tail boat to take us out to explore one of the islands in the bay. We chose Poda Beach as our destination. Upon arriving there, we found an even more stunning white sanded beach, with warm turquoise sea. And to our surprise we had the whole beach more or less to ourselves. It was a totally relaxing afternoon; we idled in and out of the water, did a little bit of snorkelling and generally laid about in the sun!