Krabi, Thailand

Krabi was our favourite place! As well as being the most beautiful place we've visited, it also had the friendliest people and the most chilled out vibe. We spent about 2 weeks here, starting with a half day trip to the local hospital to get Derek's infected toe fixed. We stayed most of our time in Krabi town and made trips out of there. Our first was to Ao Thalen and Hong Island (Room Island). At Ao Thalen we kayaked between massive limestone cliffs to mangrove swamps and hidden lagoons. Very peaceful. Then on the way to Hong Island, we stopped into "Paradise Beach" which looked very similar to that out of the movie "The Beach". Here we saw loads of coloured fish and jellyfish. Then off to Hong Island. Hong means "room" and the middle of the island is "hollow" to create a lagoon effect. It can only be entered by small boats and kayaks at high tide. Here we saw star fish and a huge catch of squid caught by local fishermen. The whole island was surrounded by loads of huge jellyfish! We'd never seen so many! You could almost walk across them (not that you'd want to!)
We made a trip to Railay Beach one of the days, and loved it so much that we went back to stay for a couple of days. The West Side of this small peninsula has the more beautiful beaches, but the accom. etc was a bit out of our price range, so we headed to the East Side, which was way more chilled out and we met our best Thai friends there. We were just a few minutes from the most beautiful beach we've seen here called "Ao Phra Nang" which is also surrounded by the limestone cliffs. These cliffs also over-hang the sea so you can be swimming around, and watch the many rock-climbers doing there thing at the same time. Good times in Krabi!
Now we're back in Bangkok and getting ready to leave here for London. See you in the UK!

Mangrove forests at Ao Thalen

Kayaking at Ao Thalen

Paradise Beach

Fishermen's Catch.

Vanessa on Long Tail boat inside Hong Island.

Cheeky monkey on Railay Beach.

Limestone cliffs at Ao Phra Nang.

After a few: Toffee, Derek, Vanessa, Brian.

The "Almost Full Moon" Beach Party.

Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand

Hello everyone!! Finally we made it to the islands of Thailand. We headed straight for Koh Pha Ngan on the recommendations of many good friends. We spent a couple of days on small, secluded Bottle Beach. It was great in the afternoon when the entire beach shut down its power for about three hours everyday making for a very peaceful atmosphere. Looking for a bit more excitement we boated over to Thong Nai Pan Noi on the North East Coast. Both beaches were very beautiful. We felt most relaxed on Thong Nai Pan, where we spent three nights in a 'toilet block' posing as a bungalow directly on the beach, but then moved to a flash bungalow on the hill. This was a place to gather our bearings and take some very well-deserved deep breaths. We enjoyed swimming, snorkelling (Derek cut his foot and got it infected, and Vanechan turned green on the boat in the middle of the Gulf. Yippee.), frisbeeing and body boarding. Prices were a bit higher than we expected here though, and after our guesthouse was bombarded by a massive dorky tour group, we boarded a ferry back to the mainland. All in all, a great time at Koh Pha Ngan.

Our "toilet block" on the beach, Thong Nai Pan Noi

Thong Nai Pan Yai, next beach over

At our favourite restaurant, Thong Nai Pan Noi

Haad Yao, west coast Koh Pha Ngan