Day 73: Ao Nang

Claire: Just a short and sweet stay in Krabi ending with our best breakfast yet at The Family Tree Hotel. One of the sons roasts coffee and the cafe smelt deliciously of freshly roasted coffee so we bought 250g to take on our travels, although we have no idea how we'll prepare it yet.

Weather has been a bit wet but we boarded our songthaew, albeit very cramped, and took the 25min journey to our next destination. Ao Nang wasn’t actually on our list as we knew it was quite touristy and overdeveloped but we’d left it too late to book accommodation in Railay so we decided to use Ao Nang as a cheap base. Pulling into the town we saw some awful sights... it seems this place is full of overweight, sunburnt westerners with every restaurant offering pizza and every bar selling drinks by the bucket. Thankfully our hotel is off the beaten track and we can escape!!!!!

Although it’s not quite the idyllic Thai destination we had in mind, we hadn’t expected too much to be let down. It's okay if you just look out at sea.

Gav's day 73 takeaway

• As someone who doesn't recollect facts and stats too well, the internet is generally a brilliant resource for someone like me. But, I've been questionning its wider social value recently and two things out here have added fuel to that fire:
  • Tuk Tuk's
    Before you get to another small South East Asian town, it's good to know what the going rate is for the journey you'll need to take to your hotel or whatever. Because otherwise, you'll basically get ripped off by some lad who taking a good punt on the fact you have no clue how much it should be. So you hit up the 'Google' and see what some of the 'trusted' blogs have to say. They all usually come in around the same which sounds pretty reasonable to you and off you trot into the big wide world ready to show those drivers you know the score!
    Only it never really works out like that does it? No, instead you're left looking like an English idiot when you get quoted five times more than you expected with no room to haggle, standing at bus station with a face that says, "Mum, what do I do now?".
    And so whilst it's all good and well for these bloggers who have probably never left Croydon to give you well meaning advice, I'm beginning to think I might be better off not knowing in the first place!? Ignorance is bliss and all that.
  • Beaches
    The thing about foreign beaches generally is that us English are sold this idyllic dream of beautiful sunshine, golden sand and tropical blue oceans. Y'know the kind of thing we have absolutely none of back home. Google search any tropical beach destination in the world and we're given this picture postcard image that might send shivers of excitement your spine (although not mine, I rarely get excited).
    The problem being, is that the reality never quite lives up to the promises that the photo makes us. A cleverly cropped and edited photo fails to capture all the realities of a place. But rather than trying to explain, I feel this blog captures the essence of the argument rather well.