Thailand - Ao Nang

Thursday 5 July

Nothing was planned for the morning and as it was raining again we had lie in and relaxed at Morning Mist.  Today we were going to a small village and staying the night on a rubber plantation but the first stop on the way was just down the road to see some monkeys.  

We stopped near a temple and saw a group of 30 or more monkeys going about their monkey business.  Some were jumping into a large water tank to go for a swim, others were being fed peanuts, some were swinging on vines and others wandering around keeping an eye on the other monkeys so they kept out of trouble.  


















We arrived at our homestay after a 90 minute drive and received a warm welcome by our host Mr Ae.  The house was quite large with two double rooms and one large bedroom upstairs along with a lovely covered deck area.  Downstairs were toilets, showers and the family’s accommodation.  

Our Homestay

Butterfly

We were taken for a walk around the village and saw rubber plantations and were shown how rubber tapping was done. Also on the farm were pineapples, which they grow between young rubber trees for 3 to 4 years until it’s too shady for them, coconut trees completed the crop.

Rubber being tapped

Pineapple between young rubber trees.

Village house

Village house

Our hosts prepared a lovely meal for us and we spent the evening on the large deck, eating, talking and socialising with our hosts and their two young children.

Dinner is served

Songthaew

Friday 6 July



After an interesting breakfast of sticky rice parcels and other things we had a short mini bus ride to Ao Nang Beach.

We had half an hour to settle in at our hotel before getting a songthaew to the beach to start our Phi Phi Islands trip.  There were 26 of us on a 40 minute “fast boat” trip over a choppy sea out to the islands. We stopped at Bamboo Island and had 40 minutes to swim if we wanted and amuse ourselves before re-boarding and going to Maya Bay.

At Maya Bay there seemed to be more people and boats than beach! There were so many boats it took a while for us to have room to back up to the beach so we could get off.  We wandered down a short track that took us to the other side of the island before returning and getting back on our boat.  By now we were feeling a little bit like packaged tourists. 

Finding a gap to get to the beach

Maya Bay

Long tail boats at Phi Phi Don

We had a little longer at our next stop of Phi Phi Don. We had lunch, which was included in our trip, then we walked down the beach but as the tide was in there wasn’t much room. In December 2004 almost all of the island’s infrastructure was destroyed by tsunami and many people were killed. Today, as before many shops line the footpath as do restaurants, booking agencies and accommodation places etc. 

We boarded the boat again and after about 5 minutes anchored so we could go snorkelling. There was no coral worth mentioning but there were some brightly coloured tropical fish. We had a second anchoring spot for snorkelling and while there were less fish at the second spot there were some different ones. The water was very clear and nice and warm. In spite of the packaged tourist feeling it was a fun day out.

sea urchin

 In the evening after having dinner at a nice Thai restaurant we visited the Ao Nang night market, which was basically the normal shops open at night. It was a nice atmosphere and we weren't hassled to buy.

Main street Ao Nang beach

Saturday 7 July

Nothing was planned for today so we booked a kayaking trip for the afternoon. Our guide Kitty asked for a discount for us and without any haggling it was reduced from BHT 650 to BHT 400 ($25 to $15) . We spent the morning checking out the shops (again).

We had a 30 minute mini-van ride from our accommodation to the starting point for our kayaking. There was a group of about 15 people some of whom hadn’t kayaked before and 2 guides. After the novices spent time working out how to paddle we went out in the sea for a short distance before going up an inlet/river with mangroves and limestone cliffs each side.

We paddled between the towering cliffs, down narrow channels that opened into hidden lagoons and made our way through a maze of mangrove roots. 

a way through the canyon

paddling through a lagoon

past limestone cliffs and into the mangroves

there is a way through the mangroves and fortunately the guide knew where it was.

We spent 2 hours paddling in this marvellous place and without guides we wouldn’t have found our way through the labyrinth of channels.