Animals, Islands, and Cheese Sandwiches!

Welcome to part 4 of my Thailand blog.
After the fantastic time we had in Chiang Mai, it was time to head to Krabi and the surrounding islands. This was going to be the nice relaxing part of the holiday after all the excited before. It was going to be nice!

Ouch! 5th flight of the holiday and first ear pain I've had. I'm blaming the pilot!
For as long as I can remember I have always had a problem with my right ear and flying often makes to pain in my ear unbearable, especially during the descent. The basic story is that my right ear can't pop during pressure change, causing some horrible pain. Obviously, knowing that I would be going on a total of 9 flights during the course of this holiday, I went to see a doctor before we set off. After being given various medication, coping methods, and chewing gum, the majority of the flights were virtually painless. The flight from Chiang Mai To Bangkok however,  definitely gave me cause for concern when we first set off. Most of the flights we had been on so far set off toward the runway, get there, straighten up, stop for a few seconds, and then start the take off. This flight was a little different. We did the slow drive towards the runway, turned the corner onto the runway, and before we had completely finished the turn, the engines got louder and we set off. No warning or anything. My ears attempted to pop on the way up (which never happens), so god knows what they were going to be like on the way down!
45 Minutes late we started the landing and oh, my, god! That hurt. I mean, really hurt. It honestly felt like my ear drum was going to explode. No amount of chewing gum was going to help. I was just happy that a short flight meant a quick landing!

2nd flight today and no pain. That proves my pilot theory.
After that first flight from Chiang Mai, it was no wonder that I was anxious about the second flight of the day. These flights were the only flight we had had with this particular airline, and if they all flew like the first guy, it was going to be a horrible day! Luckily, I was put at ease when the pilot stopped on the runway before actually taking off and the whole flight was pain free. Clearly, the first pilot was the blame for my trauma.

Nobody said this bus journey would be so long. Where's my bed?
Just a few hours after leaving Chiang Mai, we arrived at the beach town of Krabi. The thing we never realised is that Krabi airport is about an hours drive away from Krabi! All I wanted at this point was my bed. The bus journey itself was pretty uneventful. It was just us on a bus full of strangers that weren't talking to each other except, of course, for that one mandatory chatty guy that always seems to be found on public transport and no where else. This was your typical American traveller that never booked hotels in advance, slept on people's sofas, and was impressed when he saw other travellers (us) with a map of the town we were visiting. Still, nice guy.

Nice bedroom, not so pretty bathroom. Don't think they have ever heard of grout cleaning.
My year of working in a hotel has made me pick up on all the things that can be wrong with a hotel room. This can include the lack of towels, dodgy facilities, or generally cleanliness. This hotel room was pretty basic but ticked all the boxes. That was until I went to the bathroom. After months of having my ex-manager telling us to clean the grouting in each room of our hotel, the awful condition of the tiles here were certainly difficult to miss. I was just glad that this was only a one night stay in this room!

Sandwich and chips. Lovely.
After the long travel day it was nice to finally get to a restaurant for lunch. I'll be honest, Thai food gets pretty repetitive after a while, so seeing a cheese sandwich on the menu was almost a dream come true! And so began the cheese sandwich era of the holiday.

We are so awkward. Ordered a cheese, ham, and tomato baguette with no ham and a spicy chicken noodle dish with no chicken. Poor waiter.
There really isn't much to do in Krabi so after lunch, and a little bit of exploration, we headed back to the hotel, hung out of a bit, then headed out for dinner. After enjoying the English-ness of the cheese sandwich earlier, I decided to mix things up a bit and order a cheese, ham, and tomato baguette... with no ham, since I'm a vegetarian (also, 3 months into being a vegetarian, I still need spell check to help with the word 'vegetarian'). Mike decided to go for the Spicy chicken noodle dish... with no chicken. The poor waitress, already struggling with the language barrier, looked so confused. I was actually surprised when we got the right food. I wonder if anyone spat on it.

Liquid cocaine and off-menu fried bananas. This is good!
We decided to head back to the hotel, but on the way we decided that we wanted some pudding! We found a bar that was conveniently just next to the hotel and whilst browsing at the menu we we're approached by some guy that works there. As with every place, he was trying to talk us into going in for food. We told him we only wanted a dessert and they didn't do them there so it was no good to us. Being the salesmen that all Thai men seem to be, he offered to make some fried bananas with a chocolate dip just for us. Anything to get people in, but it sounded yummy so we said yes. This place had the best cocktail menu ever, including something called Liquid Cocaine. It was just Whiskey and various other strong drinks, but who could pass up on trying that? For a dull town, this place was pretty cool.

Argh! Mini bugs everywhere!
The morning in Krabi consisted on mostly packing. We first nipped out for breakfast (not a cheese sandwich), then came back and packed up our things ready to get the boat to Koh Lanta. I picked up my backpack, discovered a lot of tiny hitch hikers, and threw it back down again. These tiny little bugs were everywhere. All over my bag, clothes, and in the lining. Ergh. They were horrible. I made Mike carry that bag.

Turns out that they found my pizza.
Ah. Oops. Turns out that the free pizza that I got on the flight the day before was the reason for all the tiny bugs in my bag. I was saving that pizza for lunch on the boat. Sadly, it only saw the bin.

The bus will be here at 10:30am to take us to the 11am boat. It is now 10:50am. Should we be worried?
We booked the ferry to get us to one of the islands just off Krabi town, and with that ferry package was the transfer to the port. We were told that the ferry leaves at 11am and that we would be picked up at 10:30am by bus. After the whole bug incident, we made it downstairs at 10:20am and waited patiently. 10:30am came and went. Then 10:40am. 10:45am. At this point, I think we were right to be getting worried.

Apparently the bus has already been here 10 minutes ago. Funny, since we've been sat waiting here for 30 minutes.
At 10:50am we were told by the reception (who had rung the company) that the bus had already been here 10 minutes ago and that we had missed it. At this point we weren't the only people sat waiting for this bus and it was actually a little bit insulting that he thought we would believe that crap. He then told us that they would come back for us and would be here in 10 minutes.

The mini bus is finally here! Only problem is that there are 5 seats, 6 people plus an infant, and all our luggage!
15 Minutes after the conversation with the receptionist, (and a quick run up the street to check if the other taxi on the road was ours... it wasn't), the 'bus' finally arrived. This was no bus. It was a car. There was no dressing it up. It was a car that could get 7 people in the back plus their luggage. As there were already 2 people in the car and another 6 people and an infant waiting to get in, we wondered how the hell this would work. 

All packed in the bus like tuna in a can. Luckily it's only a 5 minute journey... apparently!
It took a lot of work, but we were finally in the vehicle. We all managed to get a seat (one guy got the ride up front), and every single bit of available space was taken up by luggage. It was simple for us as we only had two bags each which could sit on our knees. The couple with the child, however, apparently brought their entire home with them. I think I counted 6 bags and a buggy before I couldn't see any more because of the mountain of luggage. On the bright side, if we crashed there was no where for us to fall. It was like being covered with air bags. The driver told us that it would only be a 5 minutes drive. I'd believe that when I saw it.

The boat actually leaves at 11:30am. Thanks for telling us!

So, after all that hassle and worrying and squeezing into a car, it turns out that the boat actually leaves at 11:30 and we are 20 minutes early. Whilst rushing though the port we get stopped and asked about how we are getting back and needing to buy tickets there and then. Once again, I suspect that this isn't true and tell him that we already have everything sorted. He bought it and off we went, finally!

So, where are our bags supposed to go?
It started raining as we got onto the boat, but luckily we can see a nice pile of luggage on the boat that is being covered by a waterproof sheet, so at least that should be safe... right? Wrong. That pile wasn't for us apparently. After telling one of the guys that we were going to Koh Lanta, he pointed to the other side of the boat. This side had no protective sheet for bags. This side just had a slight overhanging roof that was mostly open, and a pile of bags on the boat floor. Having no choice, we put our bags on the pile and just hoped for the best.




The first stop on the boat consists of 4 small wooden boats driving up to the our boat and 

passengers jumping between them with their luggage!

I have never seen anything like this before. We stopped in the middle of the sea for what seemed like no apparent reason. Then we saw the 4 small wooden boats drive up to our ferry and tie up onto the side of us. Either we were being boarded by pirates, or this was how people were getting off the boat. Neither of those options seemed very likely, however one of them was true. People were having to climb off our boat and onto these little ones. They had to climb from one little boat to the next to fill them all up. Such an odd thing to watch!

This would be a beautiful journey is it wasn't raining and if I could see the islands.

Seriously. In the foggy distance we can just make out the islands and it's a shame to know that this journey would be absolutely gorgeous.

Hello Koh Lanta!

2 hours and a ferry and we finally arrive at the island of Koh Lanta. We grab our slightly damp bags and head off to first find some lunch. It turns out that it's more difficult than you might think. Not the finding lunch thing, that was easy. But the fighting through all the drivers that want to give to a lift to your hotel thing. It is possibly the most I have ever said 'No thanks, I just want food', ever. Although that line does work, it doesn't seem to stop the next taxi driver from asking if you want a lift, despite the fact that he has just seen us reject the person stood in front of him. I must admit, their commitment is outstanding.

It may seem mean, but teasing this driver is fun.
Whilst eating some lunch, (yes, a cheese sandwich), we noticed a couple of Thai people hanging around. One lady was sat in her Tuk tuk, just hovering, and another guy had seen us, said hello, and was then just standing around the shop opposite the café we were in, making small talk with the owner. It was more than obvious that they were waiting for us to finishing eating, but what they didn't know was that we had already arranged for our hotel to come a pick us up. Eventually the woman disappeared, but the man was still just hanging around. We continued to eat as slowly as possible and then slowly ordered the bill. We slowly paid, slowly started getting our stuff together, and bam! He pounced. "Taxi? You need taxi?". Even though the poor guy had been waiting for ages for us, I still got satisfaction out of saying 'No thanks. We're being picked up'. Ha!
Even while we were waiting for our lift, we got approached 3 times by drivers. Really? You think we would just wait in the middle of the street in the rain for someone to come and ask us if we wanted a lift?

Checked in at Time for Lime and there are cats everywhere. I love this place already.

Time for Lime is a fantastic place. Having been here only 5 minutes, it was clear that I was going to love it. The whole of the outside place had cats just wandering about and cat homes everywhere for them to sleep in. Even better was seeing that the hotel was right on the beach. I'm talking step out of the bar and onto the sand. This was going to be good.

Everything is wet!
So, remember that boat trip and the lack of cover for our luggage? Well everything in my bag is wet. Mike's bag managed to survive, even though mine was the one with the waterproof cover one (The one that was stapled through in Mae Sot!). On top of that, a couple of things in my bag were now broken, thanks to the girl who decided to use the pile of luggage as a seat. Not a good start to the relaxing part of our trip, but these things happen.




It's nice to see some toilet instructions.
Toilets in Thailand are pretty different from western toilets. For one thing, they can't handle toilet roll and secondly, a lot of them have to be flushed manually. It may sound confusing, but it was nice to get an instruction sheets to help us out.

We now have 3 foster cats. Ginger, Fussy and Arthurtwo.

After checking in we were told that Ginger, a ginger cat (obviously), rather likes our particular bungalow and that we may have to fight him to send it out sometimes. We were also told that if we do not want cats in the room then we could just kick them out. Not a chance. By the end of the afternoon we had Ginger, Fussy and Arthurtwo. Admittedly we made up two of those names, but for the next few days they were our cats and we could call them whatever we wanted to call them.

Best Mojito ever! Check out this view!

Every guest gets a free mojito when they arrive and my, what a mojito it was! Absolutely beautiful and it's kind of sad knowing that I'll never have one like it after leaving this island. More to the point though; Look at this view!

Whoops! Locked out!

First night, first time we leave the room, and we leave the key inside. Idiots. The owner said that she'll sort it for us eventually as she was busy at that particular moment. Best thing to do was to simple go out for dinner and hope it was sorted later. Off down the beach to find food!

Plates of food arrive and the lights go out. Not sure what I am eating now.

We headed down the beautiful beach which, even in the rain, was beautiful. There were so many restaurants to choose from, but this one looked pretty and had a giant whale tail outside, so of course we went in and sat down.
As you do in every restaurant, we ordered and waited for our food. The view was definitely a little different from what you get in a standard place, but it was nothing to complain about. How often do to get to watch the sea at night in Thailand whilst sitting in a restaurant? After a short wait a couple of plates arrived, landed on the table and immediately went dark. Apparently Power cuts happen quite a lot when it's raining. Lanta just isn't built for it. This, however, means that the staff are used to it, which was proven by all the tea lights that suddenly appeared on the table. It was kind of romantic if you forgot about the rain and the fact that a lizard just ran over my foot.

Power cut over. Turns out that I was eating ...

Yep. A cheese sandwich! A nice one at that! I don't know what it is about the cheese sandwiches on the west coasts of Thailand, but they are lovely.

Was that a cockroach?!?

Remember that lizard that ran over my foot in the dark? NOT a lizard. It was, in fact, a huge cockroach! I now need to wash my feet. Twice.

I love this place. Shame about the rain though.

The main reason for coming to the islands was to relax in the sun a bit and just chill out. Sadly, the rain doesn't make it very easy at all. Having said that, this place is so cool that I kind of don't care.

Went for a wander and bought an engagement ring. Cool.

We decided that it was time to explore the non beach side of Lanta. Turns out that is was a bit dull, but I still managed to get a cheese sandwich for lunch and afterwards we found a little silver jewellery shop to have browse in. There was some lovely things in there and being recently engaged, it made sense to have a little look at their rings. There were so many pretty ones it was hard to choose one, but after a little deliberation we finally settled on a little £20 silver ring. Not a bad haul for a wander. To be fair, this ended up being a temporary ring, but still, worth it! (And yes, Officially I ended up having three engagement rings!)

Pretty stones and tiny crabs!
Whilst heading back to the hotel we decided to walk back along the beach, purely because it was nicer. Looking at all the cool stones on the sand I started to feel like a kid collecting them up. For me, they were unusual and very pretty. Even though the stones themselves were awesome, we found something else even cooler. There were thousands of tiny see-through crabs and thousands of tiny holes that they would crawl in and out off. They were so fast that it almost became a game of trying to spot them, and photographing them was just impossible.

 <--- Can you see the crab?

             

 <--- Can you see the crab?





Dog walking on the beach. Mike lost his dog and mine won't go back on it's lead.

Dog walking was at 5:30pm, so we headed back to the hotel ready to take some dogs out. It was pouring it down with rain but it didn't matter. As every dog owner knows, dogs need a walk, no matter what the weather. Rain or not, it was awesome. I was handed a dog and off we went to the beach to let them run around. Mike's completely disappeared into the trees, whereas mine just refused to go back onto his lead when it was time to go back. It was good fun.

Stranded! All the ferries off the island have been cancelled. Best go find a hotel then!

The next morning after all the exciting dog walking is was time to head over to the island of Koh Phi phi (pronounced pee-pee. Insert girl like giggle here!). We went down to breakfast and stopped off at reception to book the ferry. Turns out that we were out of luck. All the Ferries off the island had been cancelled due to the bad weather. We were literally standard on the island, and what was worse, Time for Lime was fully booked. There was a chance that somebody would cancel because they can't get onto the island, so it was time to find a new hotel for the night. Hopefully someone will have some room!

The Lanta Animal Welfare Sanctuary is amazing. The work done here is fantastic!

Time for Lime is a hotel and Thai cooking school that was started by a Norwegian woman called Junie. When Junie noticed all the stray and mistreated cats and dogs on the island she decided to help them, hence all the cats living on the complex. Though I am not sure exactly how many cats there are there, I believe there is about 9 dogs living there, which guests can help to walk on the beach everyday if they want to. Unfortunately there are far too many animals on the island in a bad condition for them all to live at Time for Lime.
That's when Junie decided to start  the Lanta Animal Welfare Charity. Lanta Animal Welfare is home to (from what I could see) about 40 dogs and a significant, uncountable, number of cats. All the profits from Time for Lime go to the Lanta Animal Welfare facility, to treat the sick animals and to sterilise strays to prevent the island from being overrun. They have volunteer helpers, vets and sell merchandise to try to raise funds for the organisation. The work they do there is amazing and the care and treatment the animals get is outstanding. Visitors to the centre get to look around the facility and meet some of the animals. They can even help out by taking some of the dogs for a walk to the nearby beach or stream. There is even an adoption program to help some of the injured or stray animals find a real loving home. It really is a fantastic place.

Please read more about all of this at http://www.lantaanimalwelfare.com/ and visit their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lantaanimalwelfare

Please note: All donations are welcome and go to a fantastic cause for the island! This is the only organisation in the area that takes care of the animals here.

I want to take them all home!

Some of the kittens here are absolutely adorable and so tiny! If I could, I would take them all home with me. It's nice to see them just wandering around the place too. The only cats that are in cages are the ones that are ill, and even they get to move cages a few times a day for a change of scenery. One of the things that they said was that this was not a sad place. These animals are getting the best care possible. It is a good place to be.

More dog walking for the charity. We have Booshy and Woody.

Time for some more dog walking. My dog is called Booshy and Mike's is called Woody. It's just us and a Spanish couple walking them this time and it was really nice. The dogs clearly love being out and they are really strong! He nearly pulled my arm off! Very loving animals though.

Booshy found a stone to chew on and is refusing to move until he finishes it. Everyone has left me!

It is amazing what dogs can find interesting. There was something obviously fantastic about this stone that Booshy found because no amount of pulling was going to stop him from licking and chewing it. Meanwhile, Mike and the Spanish couple just left me to fight with him as they disappeared into the distance. Thanks guys!

So sad to leave this place. I want to stay and help out.

We eventually got the dogs back to the centre but the whole place just makes me want to stay in Lanta and help out. It really would be an amazing experience and they need all the help they can get. Sadly, for now, I'll just have to voluntarily overpay for a t-shirt. I guess it helps a little.

Best cheese baguette ever!

Okay okay, so by this point I had eaten a lot of cheese sandwiches. But here, in this hard to find beach restaurant was the best cheese baguette I had ever had. Ever. In my entire life. And of course, I had to tell the lady that worked there. She seemed pleased.

New hotel looks nice and it's right on the beach.

Surprisingly it was pretty easy to find a new hotel. We headed over to a different section of the island and found a beautiful looking hotel, complete with a pool and once again was the closet that you could get a hotel complex to the beach.

Holy crap, that was a big frog!

Seriously. That was huge. I'm guessing that it was actually a toad, but it was still an unexpected thing to see just hopping around around the hotel apartments.

What a joke of a restaurant. So much tip-ex on our bill and not a single waiter seems to know what's going on.

The hotel restaurant looked nice. There was lovely music playing and the view of the beach at night was lovely. But then we sat down and it all went wrong. Firstly, there must have been a shortage of furniture in this place as we were sat down at a table with four chairs, but at the end of it there were only the two that we were sat on left. I'm just glad that I didn't need the toilet or anything because I doubt my chair would have been there when I got back. Even the sauces disappeared from our table! We were also offered a number of different dishes and drinks that we had never actually ordered and none of the waiters seems to have a clue as to who did actually want them. They all looked slightly annoyed every time we said 'No, that isn't ours'.  We daringly asked for the chicken curry to have tofu in it instead of chicken and this seemed fine with the waiter, but I have no idea what was actually in the dish when it had arrived. It looked very suspiciously like the squid we had been served a week before in Chiang Mai. Either way, it did not get eaten! Neither did the 'sandwich' I was given, although I didn't have a lot of choice, as the waiter attempted to take it from me before I had even finished with it. On top of all this, a woman arrived afterwards to actually take our plates, saw the small bit of curry that Mike had spilled, looked at him in disgust, and then wiped it away while we were still sat there. The nerve!
Luckily, we found it pretty funny, especially when the tip-ex covered bill arrived. It was clear that nobody there had any clue as to what was going on!

Lizard silhouettes on every light.

By this point of the trip we were more than used to seeing the little lizards everywhere, but there was something amusing about seeing their outline on every light we past on the way back to our room. There really do like the warmth!

It's so early and I have no idea whether we're getting a ferry or a bus!

Woke up at around 7am and I had no idea what mode of transport we were taking to get back to the mainland. After the fiasco with the cancelled ferries the day before, we decided that it would be safer to head straight back to the mainland and miss out Koh Phi Phi all together and visit Aonang, near Krabi. It was a shame, but we didn't want to risk missing our flight a few days later. So we booked a ferry with the hotel and we would be picked up at 8am. The confusing thing was that we asked for the ferry bus the ticket said bus. Maybe this was the ticket for the bus that would get us to the ferry. Nobody seemed to actually have any answers for us as to how we were getting back to the mainland. All we knew was that we were getting picked up and dropped off at our hotel in Aonang. What happened in the middle was a complete mystery.

It's a bus. 3 hours of this. Ergh!

Mystery solved. Despite paying for the ferry, we were stuck on a minibus for three hours which had to go on a mini ferry crossing across all the islands to get back to Krabi. On top of that, the bus was cramped and the driver was pretty ignorant. I couldn't wait to get off the thing.

Bastard hotel! Paid extra to get transport all the way to our new hotel in Aonang but instead we 

get left in Krabi and the hotel denies the whole thing!

For gods sake! At the hotel we had been told that if we paid a little extra then we would be taken all the way to our hotel in Aonang (just outside Krabi). Turns out that this was a lie. We stopped in Krabi and the driver told us to get out and get onto a bus. We asked him if there was a particular bus we needed to get on and if we needed our ticket and he told us that we have to pay. Confused and annoyed we got him to phone the hotel and sort it all out, but the hotel denied the whole thing, claiming that the bus never takes you to your hotel and the girl that sold us our ticket wasn't there for us to talk to. Absolute nightmare! Luckily we managed to get a relatively cheap bus to Aonang, although we then had to walk the 20 minute walk from the beach to the hotel with our bags. Not impressed! At least they got themselves a bad review from me on Tripadvisor.

Finally there. This place is beautiful!

Exhausted and annoyed, we finally arrived at our new hotel. We were about an hour too early for our room, but it didn't matter. This place are absolutely stunning! It was like a mini paradise. Not bad for a last minute change of plan hotel.

The hotel is such a great place that we decided to stay an extra night!

After checking out the rest of this hotel complex, especially the pool, there was no way that we were going back to the un-grouted rooms in the Krabi hotel that we were supposed to go back to the next night. We enquired at reception about whether they and rooms left and they did; a deluxe suite. Sorted!

I love this pool. Now the relaxing can start.

This swimming pool is not only beautiful itself, but the view of the cliffs was spectacular. This was finally the relaxing we were supposed to be getting during this part of the trip.

Italian food in Thailand. I wonder if it's authentic.

Eventually we had to leave the greatness of the pool to find some food and for once, I didn't get a cheese sandwich. Instead, I settled with a pasta dish which was simply okay. Shouldn't complain too much though since Italy was a few hundred miles away.

Stop chasing us down the street asking if we want to buy a suit. No. No we do not!

I thought Bangkok was bad, but it turns out that Aonang was a lot worse! It was a very tourist area, but that was still no excuse for the amount of salesmen that attacked you in the street. These were more aggressive that the ones in Bangkok too. They would block your path, start a normal conversation with you rather than just saying 'suit?', and then they pounce. One even tried to get Mike while he was literally running down the street. He was clearly in a rush, so did they really think that he would just stop to buy a suit? Unbelievable!

We listened to a fantastic performer this evening. Lovely music, a beach view, and a very seedy (as in full of seeds!) mojito.

Aonang was a lovely little relaxing beach town at night, and the best place we found was a little cocktail bar by the sea with a beautiful sounding singer. The only thing that would have made it more relaxing would have been if someone was giving me a massage. The mojito was nowhere near as nice as the one at Time for Lime though. Nothing would ever be as good as that was.

Best breakfast yet. Yum!

The breakfasts in Thailand have never been the best for me but as long as they had toast, I was usually okay. This place had everything. Toast, cereal, tea, coffee, and a vast selection of baked goods. I actually wanted to take some of it away and save it for lunch. This detour part of the trip was definitely the best thing we could have done.

Day at the beach.

Today is finally the day we get to have a lovely beach day. The sun in shining and we had been told about a lovely little closed off beach called Railay beach, just a 15 minute boat ride from Aonang. Sounded like a good idea to me.

Argh, if you want to get into the boat you have to go bum deep into the sea first.

Tickets to Railay bought, the boat is on it's way in and we're ready to go. The only problem was that nobody told us that we had to go into the sea. I'm not talking about paddling either. I'm talking about wading through the water at waist height, fully clothed! The worst part was that I was wearing white trousers. I was just lucky that I was wearing white pants too, or that could have been a disaster! Climbing into the boat wasn't much fun either. There was a temporary step ladder we had to climb up, but my little legs couldn't quite reach probably. I eventually got in but there was nothing elegant about it!

Wow. This place is gorgeous. It's like something from a film.

Holy crap. I mean seriously. This place is stunning. It genuinely looks like something out of a film. Saying that, one of the islands around here was used to film parts of a James Bond film, so I should have expected it really. It's difficult to describe, but check out the photos.

The Taylor tradition continues in Thailand.

As with every beach holiday a Taylor goes on, a sandcastle has to be made. Just because we were in Thailand and it was scorching out there, doesn't mean that the tradition can't be upheld. Mike started the digging and I started the sunbathing.

Swim time! Wait, is that guy reading a book?
It was so incredibly warm on this beach, so the natural course of action was to take a swim in the sea. It was beautiful and I never wanted to come out. Mind you, it was the saltiest ocean I have ever come across. Whilst swimming and floating around we noticed a strange sight. There was a man reading. This may not seem that unusual, but he was reading stood up and knee deep in the sea. It must have been a bloody good book.

Ouch!

Sunburn. Everywhere. I hurt, a lot. I had sun cream on, but clearly sun cream is no match for the hot Thai sun. Time to find some shade and a nice cheese sandwich.

Back in the water for a boat back. Just waiting for two more people...

The wait for the boat back almost killed me. We had to wait on the beach for more people that might also want to head back, which could have taken hours! My shawl was not enough to protect me from the heat, but luckily we were allowed to go and sit on the shaded boat while we waited.

Run for the bus!

The shuttle bus back leaves in 5 minutes and we're not only a 10 minute walk away, but my limbs are really not working properly. I have never been so happy about a bus being late before!

Ow. Ow. Ow. Everything hurts.

My legs have never tanned or burned for as long as I can remember, but today was the exception. I have never burnt this badly before and my god, it hurts! The only relieve I could get was by putting towels in the fridge in our room and then laying them on my back. It this were a cartoon, you'd see the steam coming off me. The towels didn't say cold for very long. Not a good way to spend a night in a deluxe suite.

I have never seen 6 planes queueing up to use a runway before.
Still hurting, we headed back to Krabi airport ready for our flight back to Bangkok. This was possibly the saddest flight, since being in Bangkok was basically a stop off point before we went home. It felt like the holiday was over. We got on the plane and headed for the runway. We got most of the way there when we had to stop. Turns out that another plane had to land first before we could take off. So we waited for it to land and still nothing happened. By the time we did eventually fly out of Krabi, I realised that we have been in a queue of six aircraft all waiting to depart. It was impressive.