Week 60 - Ko Phi Phi, Phuket, Ao Nang (Thailand)

We decided it was time to leave Ko Phi Phi and caught a lunchtime ferry to Phuket. The ferry was delayed an hour and it was late afternoon by the time we checked in to our hotel in Patong. We’d found a great deal and the hotel was amazing, boutique rooms all with their own theme and sofa area - Karen’s was chitz with a four poster bed and ours was a sailor theme. Rhys and Karen were desperate for Macdonalds so we tracked one down, had a bite to eat and turned in for an early night to enjoy our snazzy rooms.

We woke late and spent the morning making the most of staying in a decent hotel with a pool. Around lunchtime Rhys and Karen headed out to explore Patong and check out the beach, I stayed by the pool as I had caught Rhys’s bug. They passed through a fish market, ate some BBQ ribs and sat on the crowded beach watching the acrobatic parascenders and sun burnt tourists. From the way they tell it, I didn’t miss out, Patong is not somewhere any of us would recommend unless you’re a dirty old man looking for a Thai bride or a lady boy or if you’re on an 18-30’s holiday. That night we headed out to Bangla, the main bar street in Patong. We visited the obligatory free ping pong show where we had to pay £18 for a beer and were pretty disappointed in the lack of theatrics, other than darts being fired at a balloon Rhys was holding, it all seemed a bit suss and we could even see a padded nappy contraption one of the girls was wearing to pull needles out of. After the ‘show’ we stopped by another bar where we played the Austrian hammer and nail game before deciding to call it a night.  

Cocktails and nails in Patong, Phuket.

We had a transfer to Ao Nang booked for 8am the next day but Karen went missing. She turned up an hour later and we sent her out to buy tickets for the next minivan, leaving at lunch time, going to Krabi from where we could get another van to Ao Nang. The drive was uneventful but uncomfortable, Karen spent the three hours with a very chatty Danish guy sitting next to her when all she wanted to do was sleep and me and Rhys had the hot engine and no leg room to deal with. Once in Krabi we were told the next bus wasn’t for an hour so we jumped in a taxi along with the Danish guy who kindly paid for the trip for us. Our hotel was decent, me and Rhys had a huge room and Karen had a roof top terrace with views out over the bay. It took us a couple of hours to get up to date on all our chores then we wandered out for a cheap dinner and had an early night.

We booked a boat trip for the following day and were picked up and taken to the pier where after a lot of faffing around we were finally allocated to a long boat with twenty other people. We all squashed in and the boat started out for our first stop at Phranang Cave in Railay. Although heaving with tourists, there was a beautiful beach with crystal clear turquoise waters and towering limestone karsts. The base of the cave itself had become a fisherman shrine and was filled with phallic statues of all shapes and sizes and the rockface had huge stalactites stretching down to the sea. Back in the boat our next stop was a photo opportunity at Chicken Island (surprisingly enough, an island in the shape of a chicken). We then moored up in a cove by the side of Chicken Island for snorkeling. Although the visibility wasn’t great the marine life was good, lots of interesting coral and brightly coloured fish. Next, we headed to Tup Island, a tiny little island joined to another and to the backside of Chicken Island by sand banks, the latter only being visible at low tide. We had a couple of hours to eat lunch, wander along the sand banks and relax before our boat headed to the last stop of the day, Poda Island. The last island had a long curving sandy beach and views across to some craggy limestone towers. We had ice creams and beers and sat enjoying the last of the sun before we headed back to Ao Nang. 

Karen grabbing breakfast from a floating cafe, Railay.

Rhys and Karen enjoying the sun, Tup Island.

White sand beaches, Poda Island.

In town, Rhys headed back to the hotel and me and Karen finished off her souvenir/gift shopping. After showers, we congregated in our room for a pre dinner rum and coke before ambling across the road for an Indian banquet, we ordered so much we had enough for breakfast the next day. As it was our last night with Karen we throught we should end it with a few drinks and headed to a little alley lined with bars and found a biker bar. We were all so stuffed the only thing we could manage were shots (and Karen and Rhys couldn’t even manage that...). We didn’t give up and instead headed to another bar with live music for a final nightcap before bed.

The weather had turned and we woke to rain the next day. Instead of the beach day that we’d anticipated we ended up wandering around Ao Nang. There isn’t that much to see in town and before long we found a bar with cheap wine and stopped for a couple of glasses and a pizza. Rhys went back to the hotel and me and Karen decided to get massages. We started with a back, neck and shoulder and it was so good that we ended up getting foot massages too (although i’m still a bit confused as to definitions, the first included face, legs and bums and the second included hands and shoulder?!). Two hours later and we went to check on Rhys who was waiting in our new accommodation, a shed at the bottom of garden of some smart bungalows. We had a couple of hours to spare before Karen’s airport transfer would arrive to collect her so we found another bar with cheap wine and settled in. Karen headed off at 6pm, we were very sorry to see her go although glad that our livers would have some recovery time, we’re definitely not as hard core as Karen. She was a great travel buddy and couldn’t have been easier, just going with the flow and filling in gaps entertaining herself. There is talk of another Thai adventure in April...

Once Karen left we retired to our shed to watch TV. At about 8pm, it being full moon, we decided we should really make the effort to at least walk to the beach even if we didn’t intend to join the party. We bought floating flower candle/incense things on the way and made our offering to the sea with a piece of hair, a nail and some coins. It was quite magical seeing all the chinese lanterns being set off and the floating candles (although they didn’t stay lit for long and most ended up being washed back ashore).

Our floating candles, Ao Nang.

We had a lazy day the next day and didn’t even leave our shed until it was time for our pick up to take us to our Thai cookery course at 4pm. When we got there we realised we were the only people booked on to the evening course so we had the tutor to ourselves, jackpot. We were give a choice of dishes and each chose six, starting with spring rolls and pad thai, followed by chicken in coconut soup and tom yum soup, then papaya salad and a seafood salad, next came stir fried chicken in ginger and sweet and sour chicken, then we made curry paste from scratch and made panang curry and red curry (Billy and Ian would be jealous) before finishing it off with bananas cooked in coconut milk. We got to eat everything that we cooked and by the end of the course we were completely stuffed. We will definitely be trying our new recipes when we get home.

Engrossed in our Thai cooking class, Ao Nang.

We had another trip booked for our last day in Ao Nang, half day rock climbing in Railay. After we were picked up in a truck ad transferred by boat we picked up our equipment and headed to an inland rock face were we would spend our morning. All up we only did 3 climbs each but that was enough, it was so tiring and the routes were so much longer than any indoor climbs we’ve done in London. Two of the routes were quite technical and required a lot of perseverance. At lunch we left the people who had booked on to a full day and headed to the beach to pass the time until the boat back to Ao Nang. We were a little jealous because the afternoon climbs were on the beach as the tide had gone out. That night we’d worked up an appetite from climbing and ended up having pizza before bed.

Rhys rock climbing, Railay.

Relaxing on Railay beach.