A Week Down South
Long before we even left for Thailand, Andrew and I had pinky-promised that we would go scuba diving sometime while we were there. As the time flew by, the pressure increased to fulfill the promise! We finally decided that it would be best to head down south for a week after we finished teaching. Once that was decided, we started to put the plans in place!
Due to time and money, we decided to take a 12-hour, overnight bus down and then we flew back. After the long night on the bus, we arrived in the charming, but overrun-with-tourists, town of Ao Nang in the province of Krabi on Friday morning. This was one of the places greatly affected by the tsunami in 2004. We rented a motorcycle on Friday and spent the day checking out the areas and getting food from the market for Sabbath.
The town is located right on the beach and it was only a 2 minute walk from our hostel! But our favorite hangout was Ao Nopparattara Beach, just next door to Ao Nang Beach ("ao" actually means "beach).
The view from Ao Nang Beach
Another view from Ao Nopparattara Beach, where we spent most of Sabbath..... it was wonderful!
Like my hat?
We didn't waste any time..... first thing Sunday morning, we were on a boat to go diving. We dove 2 days: Sunday and Tuesday. On Sunday, it was about a 2.5 hour boat ride out to the Phi Phi islands where we did 2 dives. And then another 2 dives on Tuesday around the local islands around Ao Nang, so that was only a 45 minute boat ride. It was so great to be back under 60-70 feet of water again! And we saw lots of beautiful things...... sorry no photos since I don't have an under-water camera :(
Andrew, with a view of the cove that we dived in for our first dive.
We dove with Manta Point Dive Center. Since it was low season, it was just us and they treated us really good, with everything from transportation to & from the dock, lunch, and drinks & fruit on the boat! If you're heading down to Krabi, call them up!
This was our boat and you can see a glimpse of our captain..... a local man who has grown up on the sea and pretty much lives on board.
Enjoying lunch up top
On Monday, between diving, I took a half-day trip out to Railey to go climbing. I had pinky-promised myself that I'd go climbing, so even though Andrew didn't wanted to go, I was still determined to get some climbing in! And it was well worth it!
I went with a company called Ao Nang Climbers, and again, since it was low season, there was only one other climber besides me. My new friend Jeff was my climbing buddy for the day...
On the longtail boad headed to Railey for some great climbing!
Tying in for the first, warm-up climb of the day.... with Mors, our climbing guide, in the background, getting ready to belay me.
After the first climb, we hiked to the otherside of the bay to Phranang Beach were we did several more, harder climbs. It was great climbing and the view from the top was always stunning!
Then, we followed our guide through an intricate cave system to this lookout point....
.....then we rappelled from the mouth of the cave to get back down. Fun!!
That afternoon, we headed back to Ao Nopparattara Beach...... just to chill. There are SO many cool shells everywhere!! I don't really like to collect shells or anything because it takes up too much space, so I took a bunch of pictures....... I guess I'm a collector of pictures!! My friend, the Beachcomber, could probably identify all these beautiful shells! I wish he had been there with me!!
We also stopped to check out a tsunami memorial built near the road..... so sad :(
This was our "i-teem" man (Thai coconut ice cream). We only bought from him because he was so dedicated to great service and we later found out that he was deaf. We bought from him several times....... he probably thought we were crazy for tracking him down so often!
Wednesday, we took a longtail boat out to a couple of the local islands for the day. We first stopped at Chicken Island, but we only stayed there for about an hour because there wasn't very much beach to sit on and it was very small and crowded.
Andrew doing a little snorkelling.
A cute little Indian family enjoying the sand and sun! I couldn't resist..... :)
A nearby sign.....
They weren't joking...... this monkey came and stole our mangoes while we were swimming. Good thing we had eaten most of them already!!!
Thursday, our last full day down south, we planned to have no plans..... just a chill day. We spent most of it at the beach, ate "i-teem", drank thai ice tea, and enjoyed the weather and each other's company. It was a perfect day :)
Friday morning, before heading to the airport, we ate one last breakfast down on the beach. We had found this baby durian a few days earlier while running on the beach and so we enjoyed cutting it open and eating it! Yummmm.....!
It was such a great time and a lovely way to spend our last few memories in Thailand...... but it was sad because it meant that it was time to leave soon :(
(These pictures are just a few of the many that I took. If you'd like to see more, you can check out more that I put up on Facebook, although, those are still only about 1/5 of the pictures I took.....but it gives you a taste of our time in Krabi!)
Due to time and money, we decided to take a 12-hour, overnight bus down and then we flew back. After the long night on the bus, we arrived in the charming, but overrun-with-tourists, town of Ao Nang in the province of Krabi on Friday morning. This was one of the places greatly affected by the tsunami in 2004. We rented a motorcycle on Friday and spent the day checking out the areas and getting food from the market for Sabbath.
The town is located right on the beach and it was only a 2 minute walk from our hostel! But our favorite hangout was Ao Nopparattara Beach, just next door to Ao Nang Beach ("ao" actually means "beach).
The view from Ao Nopparattara Beach
The view from Ao Nang Beach
Another view from Ao Nopparattara Beach, where we spent most of Sabbath..... it was wonderful!
Like my hat?
Getting ready to dive!!!
Andrew, with a view of the cove that we dived in for our first dive.
We dove with Manta Point Dive Center. Since it was low season, it was just us and they treated us really good, with everything from transportation to & from the dock, lunch, and drinks & fruit on the boat! If you're heading down to Krabi, call them up!
This was our boat and you can see a glimpse of our captain..... a local man who has grown up on the sea and pretty much lives on board.
Enjoying lunch up top
On Monday, between diving, I took a half-day trip out to Railey to go climbing. I had pinky-promised myself that I'd go climbing, so even though Andrew didn't wanted to go, I was still determined to get some climbing in! And it was well worth it!
I went with a company called Ao Nang Climbers, and again, since it was low season, there was only one other climber besides me. My new friend Jeff was my climbing buddy for the day...
On the longtail boad headed to Railey for some great climbing!
Tying in for the first, warm-up climb of the day.... with Mors, our climbing guide, in the background, getting ready to belay me.
After the first climb, we hiked to the otherside of the bay to Phranang Beach were we did several more, harder climbs. It was great climbing and the view from the top was always stunning!
Then, we followed our guide through an intricate cave system to this lookout point....
.....then we rappelled from the mouth of the cave to get back down. Fun!!
Railey was perfectly picturesque!!
That afternoon, we headed back to Ao Nopparattara Beach...... just to chill. There are SO many cool shells everywhere!! I don't really like to collect shells or anything because it takes up too much space, so I took a bunch of pictures....... I guess I'm a collector of pictures!! My friend, the Beachcomber, could probably identify all these beautiful shells! I wish he had been there with me!!
We also stopped to check out a tsunami memorial built near the road..... so sad :(
This was our "i-teem" man (Thai coconut ice cream). We only bought from him because he was so dedicated to great service and we later found out that he was deaf. We bought from him several times....... he probably thought we were crazy for tracking him down so often!
Wednesday, we took a longtail boat out to a couple of the local islands for the day. We first stopped at Chicken Island, but we only stayed there for about an hour because there wasn't very much beach to sit on and it was very small and crowded.
Chicken Island Beach
Andrew doing a little snorkelling.
A cute little Indian family enjoying the sand and sun! I couldn't resist..... :)
Our view from where we hung out and ate lunch on Poda Island.
A nearby sign.....
They weren't joking...... this monkey came and stole our mangoes while we were swimming. Good thing we had eaten most of them already!!!
Lots of longtails lined up along the beach.....
Thursday, our last full day down south, we planned to have no plans..... just a chill day. We spent most of it at the beach, ate "i-teem", drank thai ice tea, and enjoyed the weather and each other's company. It was a perfect day :)
Friday morning, before heading to the airport, we ate one last breakfast down on the beach. We had found this baby durian a few days earlier while running on the beach and so we enjoyed cutting it open and eating it! Yummmm.....!
It was such a great time and a lovely way to spend our last few memories in Thailand...... but it was sad because it meant that it was time to leave soon :((These pictures are just a few of the many that I took. If you'd like to see more, you can check out more that I put up on Facebook, although, those are still only about 1/5 of the pictures I took.....but it gives you a taste of our time in Krabi!)
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