Our first visit to Ao nang (Krabi)

We arrived at our hotel at 14:00, checked in and went for a swim in he pool. The hotel is very Thai, nothing I have seen before, everything is open outside apart from each apartment. The lobby is under a thai style "Gazeebo", and we were greeted with some kind of juice that was really strong but beautful. (As with the other blog posts, you can click the pictures to enlarge).

This was us arriving at the resort, before our swim in the hotel pool.






As I said in my earlier post, the apartment cost us about 9 pounds each per night including breakfast which is really cheap for being near the main beach and near all the restaurants and bars.






We relaxed for a couple of hours, Jamie had a sun bathe whilst Ben had a swim, and I had a swim and also wrote the previous post. :)

The above picture shows the pool surrounded by the chalet style apartments.

We then used the hotels bicycles to ride into the town centre, giving us a look at what is going on in the area. It was about 4ish, and we were "a bit peckish" so we rode the bikes into the town, locked them up and went and had a pizza from an "Italian Restaurant".

Ben's first meal was a Lasagne, which was stone cold in the middle, Ben then realised that changing to a Pizza was a safer option as he knew that the chances were, that wouldn't be microwaved! The pizza's were delicious, we paid the bill (around 3.50 pounds each including a sprite) and went to explore more of the local area.






We unchained the bikes and walked them along the promenade, I then looked after the bikes whilst Ben and Jamie went into the shop for a drink. Whilst they were in the shop, a thai family (all generations), asked me where I was from and how long I was in Thailand etc, they were really nice, and very happy to see us being interested in their home country. When Jamie and Ben came out of the store they asked if we could be in a picture with them (sounds strange to people from the rest of the world, but in Asia, taking a picture with people you meet is actually a normal process).






It was funny for us, as we were sat on a bench, and then they all started to get set up for what appeared to be a "Family Photo". They were very happy people, nice to see and nice to be welcomed by a family who were enjoying their day out on the beach. Below is a photo they took with our camera.

After we said goodbye, they came up to us and said "Welcome gift from Thailand". They gave us some fruit which is very popular in this region of the world. We have been eating it since we landed in Singapore and for them to give us one of their branches from the fruit tree, as a welcome gift was extremely kind and we were very grateful. It shows how nice the local people can be and how different the actions of people in this region of the world are, when meeting and greeting knew people into their country.






When they first asked for a photo, it wasn't a big surprise, as many people we have met on our travels have said "Thai people love to take photos of you and their family, when they meet you" and it also appeared in our research books before we came on our trip.






I placed the branch with the fruit in my bike basket, thanked the family for being kind said "Koh kun Krab" which means "Thank you" in Thai and when we next stopped at the next shop, we took a photo.

We cycled back to our hotel and rested by the pool. Later on, around 9ish, when planning what to do tomorrow, we realised that the best day to have a "Trip out" would be tomorrow, we walked from our hotel to find a tourism agent, walked the opposite direction to what we normally do and found a laundry/Tourism agent/shop "All-in-one".We booked a day for tomorrow to visit 4 islands. This includes a hotel pickup, boat ride to each island, a picnic, snorkaling (which we are looking forward to the most) and the transport back to the hotel.






After a slight barter, we managed to get this for 350 baht which is just under 7 pounds. This is a full day trip, picking us up at 9 and dropping us off back to the hotel at 16:30. We felt that was incredibly cheap for a full day out including food to the local off shore islands.

Our bus ride to Krabi

Today we have arrived in Krabi, we are staying in a resort near the main 'Riley' beach in Ao nang, Krabi. We got here by bus, the only real option as it is low season so the ferry from Phuket to Krabi doesn't run. We booked a mini-bus that would pick us up from our hotel and take us from our hotel in Patong, Phuket to Krabi town. We have also now booked all our flights and transport which includes getting to Chang Mai, Australia and Bali. After researching alternate ways, the cost wasn't that much more to fly and in some cases, flying was the only option. We could have got a mini-bus from Krabi to Samui but that could take all day and there are many budget airline companies that serve asia, we are using AirAsia for most of our flights.

The Mini-bus came to pick us up at half 7, after the man taking us did many circles trying to pick up all the passengers we eventually had everyone on board and were ready for our 3 hour bus ride to Krabi. The bus was fun, we were all going to Krabi, and we got chatting to 3 people, one from Germany and the other two from Slovenia. They were really nice and spoke great English, we chatted the whole way, and played cards to make the Journey much shorter than it was.


We also got advice off the two girls from Slovenia as they had previously been to Bangkok, so they told us the best areas to book a place to stay, in a good location to access all the places that are key to visit. It was great to get chatting and talk about the funny things we have found from our trip so far, including our findings of both the male and female versions of Mr Bean which certainly raised some laughs. We had to stop and change bus, and the three people we were chatting too were going to the same region in Krabi as us (Ao Nang) so we waited for the next bus, had some food and played cards and I attempted some of my poor magic tricks which failed as per usual :).

The man driving the mini-bus then dropped everyone off, and as it happened we were the first on the bus, and the last off the bus as our hotel was the final destination for the passengers travelling to the Ao Nang region of Krabi.

The hotel is great, another great but cheap find from Hotel finder Ben. It costs around 9 pounds each, and that includes breakfast. We have a dining room, TV and 2 bedrooms and its my turn to have the big Double bed, which is certainly going to guarantee 3 nights of comfort.

We are about to go out hopefully using the free advertised bicycles available at our hotel, if there are bikes available, we will cycle down the beach towards Ao Nang beach and to get a bite to eat and go into a few shops.

I'l be updating shortly, (Internet seems to be getting harder to get a hold of) and I'l be attaching some pictures we have taken over the last couple of days.

First Day Pictures of Phuket, Kata Palm Resort

Here is a selection of some the pictures taken from our first day in Phuket...


Later on we enjoyed a our evening meal in Phuket Kata Resort. Tucking into sumptuous Italian pizza and spaghetti bolognese. Not your typical thai food but we fancied a change.








After traveling in a hour long mini bus drive to the Kata Palm beach resort, we were starving. So popped out to the local cafe for a quick bite to eat, before exploring the rest of the Resort.











Guzzling a refreshing Sprite in the Hot Mid day sun.















The entrance to Kata Palm Beach Resort...
















Arriving safely at the entrance of the hotel ready for a shower.















Eagerly anticipating our flight to Phuket from Penang. A few snack were purchased for the relatively short (1hr 15min) flight.

Arrived in Phuket

Yesterday, we arrived in Phuket at around mid-day. We initially thought that the flight from Penang to Phuket was 15 minutes, as our flight card said .."Depart 11:30 Arrive 11:45". We didn't think anything of it, just thought it was amazing that a flight of 15 minutes existed.When we boarded the aircraft, their was an announcement that the flight time is 1 hr 15 minutes, because Thailand is an hour behind Malaysia! So, we did kind of land 15 minutes after, but thats only because our clocks went back an hour.

Phuket is alot different to the other places we have visited, when we landed, we got a minibus to our resort. For the first two nights, we are staying on Kata beach, and on the last night in Phuket we are staying on Patong beach. (Patong is the lively area of Phuket).

Its been relaxing and more of a touristy place compared to the other locations, lots of people trying to pull you into their restaurants with many different techniques, most on the hard sell.


Today, we woke up, went down to breakfast and are going to have a relaxing day chilling out around Kata beach and the hotel pool.

Jamie's going to update the blog with another post with some pictures shortly :)

Fishing, Monkey Island, BBQ and a visit to Georgetown

For 1st July:

Today was fun, very active and became very tired later on in the night.


On tuesday night, a hotel "tourist attraction" salesmen offered us a day fishing, a visit to monkey beach and a BBQ on monkey beach, picking us up and returning us to the hotel. We had seen this advertised around for 150 ringets (30 pounds) each, however he offered us it for 100 ringetts (20 pounds) each. After a small negotiation we managed to get the days trip for 70 ringetts, (14 pounds) each, for a full day fishing, and some good grub.

The minibus came to pick us and 4 other people up at 9:30 am. There was a Saudi couple and an Australian couple. The australian couple we're really nice, in the 50s/60s and were chatting to us throughout the day. They told us they paid 100 ringetts for the trip (we didn't tell them we got it cheaper, we just nodded as if we payed the same price), this made us realise we paid a good price in relation to others on the trip.

We got to a beach, in a town in penang near our hotel, other people joined us and we boarded a motorised fishing boat to set sail on our fishing quest to catch some fish and then eat some on the BBQ.

The fishing was a success, Ben caught the first fish, reeling in a comfortable catch with a good start to the days fishing challenge. I then equilised and managed to catch a few more making it at one point 4-2, Jamie was continuing to wait patiently for his first catch, the fish were strong believers that his bait was not as nice as ours and obviously placed the trust in our bait. As we kept on reeling them in, Jamie became anxious and (as Alan Hanson would say) he persued with great "Grit and Determination". Ben came back into the competion with an initial consilation which was then added to another quick catch levelling off the fish caught to equal with me. Jamie then surprised us with a whopper! Weighing in at just over 500 pounds came the biggest fish ever seen, some may call it the 'Killer Whale' however the Man hosting the fishing trip had no English translation for such a fish. Whatever it was, it took 4 men and a midget to help Jamie drag in the whopper. (See picture below to see the size of Jamie's catch).

Also, a member of our fishing crew was a middle-aged alone Austrain man, who performed similar characteristics and appearance reflecting that of Mr Bean. We had previously met the Russian and Female version on our flight, however this was incredible!


Ben was the first one to notice Bean, however it was confirmed to the rest of the group when he started throwing sticks at the monkeys and running back in a "High knee's with high pants" manner with a cheeky grin. Mr bean like manner. He even told the fishing staff when it was "time for dinner", and his voice was even similar to Bean. He was one of the funniest characters to meet, he even walked into the sea patting his belly and roaming the ocean is a similar way to how he roamed the land (With his hands constantly on his hips).


He started chatting to us, and we asked him to take a picture of us three with the sea behind us, after he took the picture he gave me the camera back and without him knowing, I took a picture of him, for the sole use of the Blog, to show you what the real Mr bean looks like. Take a look yourself and see if you can see the Mr Bean in the below man.





If anything, we did feel sorry for this lonely man coming on holiday filming himself abroad. However, it did add to the trip giving us a few laughs when looking back over the day.

The monkey beach was great, the monkeys were aggressive but happy when we fed them.

We then recieved a barbeque, which was fish, chicken and lamb, also Chicken hotdogs. A great dish for vegetations on the trip (good job there wasn't any :) ).

After the BBQ we relaxed on the beach and then got a boat trip and drive to the hotel. Arriving back to the hotel at 3:30pm gave us a great oppurtunity to have a dip in the pool. We chatted to an Australian man who told us about his experiences he found in Krabi (Thailand) and the best places to visit when we're there.

Later on we went to Georgetown, to a shopping centre and had a browse through shops, got some food and then got a taxi back to the hotel. We went to the bar had a cocktail, played some cards and watched a live band. It was a relaxing night before checking out in the morning to goto Pelau Jerejak.