AO NANG, KRABI & PHI PHI ISLANDS

Nov 25

DAY 38 – NOV 22 – AO NANG, KRABI, THAILAND

I am staying in a beach town called Ao Nang in the province of Krabi in Thailand. Rita and Bancha own this AirBNB. It if farther from the beach than I envisioned. I will quickly realize that this place and the owners are amazing and I love this place after all. Rita and Bancha (pronounced Buncha) – have 1 adult cat and 2 kittens, so cute

I ordered grab food last night, a margerita pizza and spring rolls, took 75 minutes to arrive lol… and it was not good. I guess I won’t do that again. But I guess I will stick it in my fridge and eat for fast lunches.

I woke up to a fancy beautiful breakfast. Pad thai omelet, donut with honey glaze, pineapple, mango with edible flowers, potato, and 2 different homemade type treats. And coffee. WOW. The owners of this AriBNB are so super sweet and they include breakfast for all their guests.

I took one of their bicycles for a ride and quickly realized, this town is too big.. I rode back home to ask Rita about renting a scooter. She got on her phone and about an hour later, a company delivered a scooter to me. My growing up years serve me well at this age sometimes haha.

I grew up on dirt bikes my whole life so I am very confident driving a scooter. Only thing is, they drive on the wrong side of the road..haha . also known as the left side. So that is the only real tricky part for me. Well, that and driving rules here are fend for yourself type rules. Which I kind of had to do anyway with 2 very skilled driver brothers growing up lol…

So off I went, exploring Aonang. I drove away from the house on the right side of the road, with Rita yelling behind me… WRONG SIDE OF ROAD!!! Haha .. after that tiny mishap, I woke up to which side of the road I belong on.

Ao Nang Beach is 2km long so I drove a huge loop to check out the whole beach, parked numerous times to walk around, check out a few shops and take some photos.

I randomly pulled into a dental shop because I heard of so many tourists here getting tooth whitening. I paid 100 Baht ($4 Cdn) for a consult with the Dentist to ask a few questions. I was too afraid to carry out this procedure because I already have sensitive teeth and it sounded like it might be painful for a month or more. I declined. I ended up in the Dental office on a facetime with Jorg for over an hour. When the kids call, and have time, and want to open up and share, with the time zone difference, I’ll make it work wherever I am.

I have been having more facetimes with both my kids lately. It has been the best part of my days. And they are facetiming eachother too. So grateful for technology these days. And grateful they are starting to miss me a tiny bit haha .. never know with young adults. <3

Ended up having an amazing facetime with Jado in the afternoon as well. Then I headed to Ao Nang pier for sunset.

Did I forget to mention, the entire week I am in Krabi the forecast is rain, rain and more rain??

So the sunset really was not too much to write home about, but beautiful area wow. And I witnessed a tiny tourist wedding on the beach. So great.

After sunset, I drove to Ao Nang night market. Amazing little market with so much good food, great live music and shopping. The place to be every night in Ao Nang.

Got home and discovered a rash on the back of both my legs. Tiny red bumps on both calves, fully covered. Not horribly itchy, but a little itchy.

I had pad thai from the market for dinner. Took it home, put it in my scooter seat to get it home. Put on a movie in my room and had the best long sleep.

DAY 39 – NOV 23 – AO NANG, KRABI

I am battling with the fact I am in Ao Nang a week and it is raining the entire time. I could fly up to Chiang Mai for 3 days before Bangkok. I could go to Koh Sok National park for 2 days, I could do many tours. But something keeps me here.. I guess I know the rest of my trip is more tours, more travel, so maybe just rent the scooter for a week and chill in Krabi for a week? Anything different will also cost another $500 Cdn or so. This spot has already been paid for.. so.. I think I will stay put and enjoy a slow week.

I woke up to coffee and another beautiful breakfast. Took my scooter and explored Ao Nang again. Needed to get a couple of things from a Pharmacy so I ran a couple of errands.

As I went to walk across the street at the crosswalk, another girl went to walk at the same time as me, only the 2 of us. We looked at each other and both started laughing. We were dressed like twins. We ended up talking on the street for an hour.

Hiara (pronounced Rayara) is an engineer from Brazil, living in London, England. She had a Bible verse tattoo on her arm so we connected as both being Christian as well. We will try to meet again this week.

I went home because I had booked a painting class with Bancha. Bancha is an architect, but also a professional artist.

We had a few hours together in his studio. It was super fun. He took 2 photos from my travels so far and said we will paint those 2.

After that, I went back to the night market – got my standard watermelon smoothie, this time with yogurt on the sides. My Thailand addiction has been watermelon smoothies. It is so hot here all the time, a watermelon smoothie goes down so well. They blend watermelon, simple syrup and ice. Yum!

I also got a twisted deep fried potato, I have always wanted to try one, with sour cream and a bit of cheese on it. it was great! But it’s the only thing I could eat I was so full.

Nice chill Krabi day.

DAY 40 – NOV 24 – AO NANG, KRABI

I had booked a Phi Phi Islands tour, which Rita rebooked for me. I had booked an early morning tour, she said the sunset one is better. Though this week there are really no sunsets, I followed her lead and changed my tour.

I was picked up at 9:30am. It was almost 10 hours before I was home again.

Our guide, Ariel explained that our speedboat only has 4 open seats at the bow, otherwise – everyone sits in the enclosed back part. I happened to be the first one walking behind Ariel when ‘they’ announced this. Just as we got close to the boat, 3 girls scooted past me on to the boat and walked straight to the front. Since I was now the 4th, and most people are in couples, and I was 4th on to the boat – I followed them to the front and asked if they mind if I joined them up front. They said for sure join!!

I ended up spending the day with the 4 girls, Jo, Anna, and Carina. They are mid 30’s age, all nurses from Portugal working in London, England. The 3 of them are all single and all travel the world together. I tagged along as their 4th for the day. We had a great day. I was grateful to them to include me on a ‘girls day’ on my trip.

We visited Ko Phi Phi Don, Viking Cave, Pileh Lagoon, Ko Phi Phi Le, Loh Samah Bay, Maya Bay, Monkey Bay, Bamboo Island, and Chicken Island. We didn’t really get sunshine, but really no rain either – it seemed like a perfect day except we didn’t really get a sunset.

I chatted with one of the staff named ‘Bill’. They tend to give themselves American names. He was 24 yrs old, already divorced with a 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. This culture gets married very early. The driver of our boat was 22 years old. This is a huge speedboat with a lot of people, what a responsibility for a 22-year-old wow.

Came home, showered, chatted with Rita for a long time – shared kids stories. I had an ichiban noodle cup I had bought in Patong so I had that for dinner.

Another amazing day in Thailand.

DAY 41 -NOV 25 – AO NANG, KRABI

Woke up to another amazing breakfast. There were 2 new German couples who had checked in, so we all chatted over breakfast.

I had already decided to stay in all day today to work on laptop. I turned on Prime with a movie and worked in my room while it poured rain outside. Perfect timing on my part. Feels so good to have a chill day working from my room, I am enjoying it. Though, admittedly have a small part of me saying – you could have flown to Chiang Mai for 2 or 3 days!! The adventurous side of me has a hard time doing nothing,.. or relaxing I could say.

My kids tell me all the time, and others as well that I do not know how to relax. Trying hard right now in Krabi to relax and not get on myself about doing more. Probably a good lesson in life to learn to slow down.

PICS BELOW

1 My daily breakfast served free at my AirBNB

2 Breakfast with other guests from around the world

3 My view of the main area in my AirBNB

4 Yay, got my scooter for the week, here I go!

5 Checking out Ao Nang Beach

6 A standard scene in Thailand, this scooter has 4 people on it, parents and 2 kids

7 Bamboo boats everywhere in Krabi

8 My scooter view

9 My FaceTime view #love

10-15 Ao Nang Pier Beach

16 Ao Nang Night Market