Ao Nang

We slept in as best as we could, but it's hard to sleep in when the sun comes up, and it starts getting hot in the room. We were up by 8:30AM.

Caught a bus (actually, the busses in Krabi are just pick-up trucks with the box converted into seating with a roof overtop) to Ao Lang, a beach resort near Krabi. 20 baht. Crappy beach, 80% of the people are old (50+ years old), and some of the grandma's are even going topless! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yuck!!!! And I'm not exagerating, 80% would be about right. And the beach wasn't anything that good anyway, but the strip along the beach was tourist shop after tourist shop after tourist shop. I guess this is one of the few beaches near Krabi that is actually accessible by road.

We took a local boat (all the local boats at Ao Nang are just local fisherman's boats converted with seats to carry tourists) to a beach called Hat Tham Phra Nang, which is about two headlands away from Ao Nang. AFter the first headland are a couple of nice beaches, but according to our Lonely Planet Thailand book, the one we went to was supposed to be the best near there. Much nicer (not as nice as Koh Lanta, though), not nearly as many old people. A lot of topless sunbathers here (younger ones...I wasn't complaining).

We laid on the back, went swimming, enjoyed the scenery (the landscape scenery, not the topless scenery). A lady was walking around the beach selling whole pineapples, with the pealing cut away, so you could just eat the whole thing. It was delicious. (As an aside, I never liked cooked pineapple in my food before, but in Thailand it's different...it's so juicy and fresh, I love pineapple in everything now!!!) (Oh, and I'm still in love with coconut milk!!!) I didn't put any sunscreen on, and I burned my face a lot, and my legs a little bit. I wanna get to a point where I don't have to worry about that stuff. Court is getting quite dark, and I am too. I can really see it when I compare my white bum to the rest of my body (in the shower).

At this beach, you can hike to on inland lagoon, so Court and I went and did it. Holy CRAP!!! It involved rock climbing to the extreme. It was wild. Literally scaling up rock cliffs to get up, and then back down to the lagoon. They had ropes strung everywhere for us to use, but still, it was incredible. One slip, and, if you're lucky, you'd be breaking bones, not so lucky, well......

It was quite incredible to get to the lagoon, though. It was salt water surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs. Must be an underwater waterway or something. We got lots of nice pics, but, once again, kinda screwed because of slow, crappy internet here.

Caught the boat back to Ao Lang. When we had caught the first boat to this beach, we paid the boat driver 100 baht each for a return trip, he was going to pick us up at 5:00. We failed to make a note of his boat number, though, so when we got on a boat back to Ao Lang, we thought we were on the same boat (the guy kinda looked the same), but when he dropped us off, we had to pay 50 baht each for the ride. It wasn't the same guy. Oh well, live and learn.

Anyway, a comment on the area around Krabi: Paradise. Imagine, if you can, huge limestone cliffs (rock climbing is a big thing here) falling to the sea, interspersed with lush, green jungle, and white, sandy beaches. That's why a lot of the beaches are not accessible near here, you either have to climb to them, swim to them, or take a boat. It's absolutely breathaking, especially when viewing it from a distance in a boat. This is WAY better than Cancun.

We have a major announcement!!!! Court and I found ZipLock bags tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been searching and searching, and found them in a supermarket tonight. Courtney doesn't have to throw out any more clothes now, she can pack them in ZipLock bags!

We got a Crepe tonight. Court had never heard of them, so we got a banana and chocolate one at the supermarket. Mmm, good.

After supper, Court and I had a game of chess. She's good!! I was surprised.

Anyway, that's about it for now.