Laurie's World

What a day!

At the risk of some of you getting mad at me–I am going to tell you about my day.  You will know what I am talking about when I get there…

Slept like a baby last night–I was so tired, I fell asleep by about 6:30 pm–maybe 6:45 pm at the latest. We had a great breakfast here at the Raming Lodge this morning around 9am. The breakfast buffet is huge and has some very appetizing choices. After a lovely walk around part of the walled Old City of Chiang Mai, the kids fed the fish (and therefore the pidgeons) in Buak Had Park, we stopped by the cookery school that Troy, BK and Jackie are going to take classes at (YUMMY!!) on Monday. We also found a small market that had some nice finds at it–jewelry and the likes.  We got 10 baht ice cream from the ice cream vendor. Then we wandered back to the hotel and dropped Troy off as I was interested in going to see if I could find a place where I could get my hair highlighted. This is the part where I may lose some friends by telling the story…I know that there may be one or two of my friends and family that read this blog that routinely get their hair coloured (you know who you are). So here we go–my highlights were 400 baht–the conversion on that is about $12. No that is not a typo–12 US dollars.

I know that BK has been wanting to get highlights, so we came back to the hotel and when we told her and she was all over that–“Oh and Mom can I get my hair cut too?” she asks. I say, well lets go see…”Yes, that would fine Brooklyn” as the cut was an additional 150 baht ($4.50 USD). HOW do these folks make a living I ask myself on a daily basis…so her and I are sportin’ new hairdos and are quite pleased with ourselves. The lady who owns the salon says–“would you like a foot massage?”  As it happens she also owns the massage place next door and they have 1 hour foot massages for 120 baht ($3.65 USD). SO now I can have my new hairdo AND get my feet rubbed for less than 4 bucks. Count me in–and Troy and Jackie    : )

I think Jackie is going to get her highlights tomorrow and Rachael will get an oil massage–I will be going back for more pampering (have not decided what yet). The lady told us that business is so slow, many places are closing down–even with the low prices, there are not enough tourists coming. We can get a 1 hour Thai massage for 100 baht here in Chiang Mai ($3 USD).

We did briefly go down to the night market and were blown away by the number of vendors. Street after street after street. We left early as we had not eaten yet and Rachael had really bad growing pains in her knees, so we had to get her Advil.

Tomorrow we are going furniture shopping…so are hoping to make our kitchen table etc purchase…I will let you know how that goes. With Troy so under budget on his massages, we might be able to get more chairs or something     : )

A quick shout out to the Red Chair in Kata Beach–Thanks Terry for the outstanding tip to go there. We ventured there last night and spent the whole time wishing that we had make the trek 5 days earlier so we could have gone there every day!! We ordered spring rolls, the Omelette, the spicy pork salad, pad thai, lemon shakes (kids were delighted with the 30 baht price) amongst a bunch of other dishes..Amazing!

We have now made it to the NORTH (of Thailand)!! No more beaches for us…

In the grand scheme of things, our travels over the last day or so have been pretty uneventful. The plan was to take a 11:10pm flight from Phuket to Bangkok, have a 6 hour layover and then take a second flight at 6:45am from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Other than our initial flight in Phuket being delayed by a little over an hour…everything went swell…including the driver from the Raming Hotel we had booked being there waiting for us at the airport when we arrived. OK I have to be honest–I totally liked that! There is peace of mind not having to worry about getting to a strange place you have never been and trying to negotiate a ride with strangers to a hotel that you have no idea where it is either. What is a fair price, am I getting ripped off etc?

The “sleep”, and I use that term loosely, that we (did not) get in the airport was marginal at best–we chose to stay in the baggage claim area, as believe it or not, that appeared to be the most peaceful place in the airport–also using the term “peaceful” loosely! We arrived at our hotel by 8:30am and found that we could not get an early check in as the hotel had totally sold out last night and the rooms we were to stay in had not been vacated yet. The hotel is in fact sold out for the next several nights. We take this as a very good sign as to the quality of the stay we will have.

So we hung out at the pool for a couple hours, and then decided to head out in search of some lunch. We found a nice quiet little place that had great food for very low prices–lunch for all 5 of us was 340 baht ($10USD)…

Then we went for an exploratory walk to try to locate the famous night bazaar. We did come across what we believe was the vendors setting up for the market–if the amount of carts and stalls is any indication–this will be a sight to see–and many bargains to be found. I am unsure if we will succeed in hauling our tired carcasses down there tonight, due to our getting a total of less than 2 hours sleep between all of us last night. But if not tonight, then tomorrow (and the night after that–and the night after that) you get the idea. I do need to save my stamina for the big Saturday market and the really big Sunday market apparently–so I will try to pace myself…

and keep you posted…

Hi–Good morning all. I am back to sitting on my balcony in the morning. It is currently 25 degree Celcius (77 degree F) with 89% humidity at 8:40am. That is VERY pleasant for me right now. I understand it is scorchingly hot at home and will be so for the whole week.  Sorry guys! The weather forecast here is almost comical. Everyday, no matter where we are, it will say scattered thundershowers and 60% chance of rain. I can say with all honesty–this has NOT been our experience. Other than Khao Lak where we had 1 & 1/2 days of rain, we have had full on gorgeous and hot every day. Temps vary from 86 to the mid 90s depending on the clouds. We expect highs today of around 88. The old me would have died at this number especially with 89% humidity–but that seems very reasonable and I feel a very pleasant pool day coming on…

We have been in Kata Beach/Phuket for 3 nights now and we are very happy! The hotel is GREAT…amazing place actually. It is almost full which is kinda nice considering that we have stayed at places where we are the only guests (and while that sounds like it might be nice–it can get creepy!) We have spent the last 2 days basically playing in the pool and shopping (and as always eating : )

With a full house–they can offer an amazing breakfast buffet–so that was a nice change…the kids particularly like the big breakfast buffet. But it also allows us to eat a big meal at 10 or so and then we are not hungry again until suppertime closer to 7pm. If we are out and see something yummy (which we often do) we will get a snack in the afternoon–but that kinda does us. Must be the heat–but I have not felt hungry since i got here…

There are many really good shops close by here in both directions from the hotel. There is a night market right next door to our hotel that BK got a nice coat in last night and we found a fun store yesterday that had all kinds of trinkets…

Troy is not feeling well, so he stayed home yesterday while we girls trundled off to hard core shop–Maybe he is faking not feeling well so he can stay home and not have to shop–I will have to investigate that!!

I booked our hotel in Chaing Mai last night. Lots of good options up there–so it took me a fair amount of time to get to the decision. It is hard to book a hotel in a place you have never been, and do not even know exactly where you want to be when you get there or what you are going to do. But I have a few key things I look for to narrow it down. Pool, Price, Complimentary internet, reviews–not always in that order. I am getting to be a bit of a pro considering that other than one place–all the hotels we have stayed at have been wonderful

So we have a couple more nights here…more to come…Troy will be updating the pictures also–so check back in…

Well…we have spent 5 nights here in Khao Lak. It has been great! The place we are at is kinda remote from the town, so our time here has been much quieter and relaxed than in previous places on this trip. We went to “town” one day and other than wandering around and walking to a waterfall-Ton Pling (that is about a kilometer from our hotel), we have pretty much just hung out. What a treat!! We are getting so LAZY!!

It started raining yesterday afternoon and it poured BIG TIME last night with a lot of thunder. We woke up to rain and it has been showering all day–so other than putzing down to the travel place to book our transfer to Phuket for tomorrow–we have been hanging out in the room and on our balcony, playing cards and eating caramel covered yam chips. This is a little treat that we discovered in Ko Samui. I personally like yams in real life, so thought how could anything made out of a yam be bad?? Well sure enough, they are quite tasty. They come in a bag like potato chips and are just tasty–no other way to put it. I do not think Troy or BK are huge fans, but Ruby, Jay and I are buyers : )

There is a mini mart just outside out hotel with a nice assortment of really cheap snacks–so we go down there for 5 baht fudgsicles (15 cents) and oreos–that is where we got the yam chips–I think they were 10 baht though…we also got german sausage flavored potato chips (but we have not tried those yet!) I will keep you posted on that…the mascot on the sign for the minimart is a turtle, so we call it the Turtle Mart…

With the rain–the temperature drops a little, so that is nice–the day after we got here–we all got a little too much sun, so it takes a few days to recover from that. BUT the humidity goes up–so you never really lose that sticky feeling…

We ate at Jo’s Seafood again (3rd time) last night…probably the only reason we did this is bcz it was raining and the place we were at the night before, we noticed when we were there, that there were a lot of holes in the roof, and we commented at the time that it would certainly be suboptimal if it was raining..but what a shame as I had by far the best Phad Thai I have had since I arrived in Thailand at that place. We call it the Smile place…bcz that is the only word we can read on her sign. Maybe the rain will let up and we can go back tonight. The lady was very sweet when we got there, she sat us at a table with a plate of Thai fruit on it (mangosteens, rambutan, lychee nuts) and we disturbed it and a whole tonne of ants came out and started crawling everywhere–so we moved tables and took the fruit plate (very carefully) off the new table and put it on the other one—she came rushing over and asked us if we wanted the fruit plate back–she got a resounding “NO” from us all…we have had our fill of ants with the debacle in the kids room a few days prior. Not sure why they were invading them, but there have been no problems since they moved rooms…

Anyway–that is the news as I see it…See how relaxed I am about the little critters…it is the new me.

Hi everyone!

We are still at the Briza in KhaoLak–just woke up from our third night here and I think we are going to stay 3 more. We did “venture” into town yesterday to go to the tsunami museum and to the “market” . The museum was not like we were expecting…kinda small and nothing there we have not already seen on the internet–other than the 100ft long Police boat that was guarding the king’s nephew that washed one and a half kilometers inshore with the wave. They just left it where it landed–very weird to see. Troy took pictures, I am sure he will put in his blog…

The market was different than I was expecting also. Rachael too–she is sitting with me as I type this  : )  It was more like a market for the local people than a tourist attraction. There were some stalls with souvenir trinkets, but more that were just everyday clothing as in underwear and pajamas, blue jeans etc. There was one that had only 20 baht stuff and it was like what we would call the dollar store kind of stuff.

Then there was the food. There were a couple stands where we got cooked food–these little deep fried donut hole things (which everyone, especially Rachael, liked) and waffles, but most of it was like where restaurants and food cart owners would go to get their supplies for the day–huge piles of whole fish and chickens with their feet and pig skin with ears still attached…those are just the things I saw—I looked away then as I was worried I would never eat meat again if I continued to look.

After we got back from the adventures in town, I spent some time researching accomodations on the net and then we all headed down to the pool. The pool here is awesome–very warm water. Which is different than the Chada where the water was very cold–despite the warm air.

We ate at Jo’s Seafood again last night–very yummy…I see why they get such good reviews and are open during the low season…they are at the end of a deserted lane on the beach but at the end that gets no foot traffic–but still manage to have several tables occupied. I think the resorts that are open are sending folks there…I am glad we heard the word  : )

So I have a rough sketch of the rest of our journey–we are going to stay here for 3 more nights, then go back to Phuket (It was so awesome there!) But this time we are going to stay at Kata Beach. We will stay there for 5 nights, and then catch a flight back to Bangkok late on the 29th getting in at 12:30 am on the 30th. Our flight to Chiang Mai leaves at 6:45 am onthe 30th, so we will hang out in the airport in Bangkok for a few hours and then head up north to the mountaneous region of Thailand. We will be in Chiang Mai until the afternoon of August 8th when we fly back to Bangkok. We stay in Bangkok for a couple of days and then we catch our flight home from Bangkok at 10:10pm on August 10th–getting home to Seattle at 9:30am on Tuesday Aug 11th.

Wow—we made it to our next pit stop! We are staying at the Briza Beach resort in Khao Lak. It is the area of Thailand that was most decimated by the Tsunami in Dec 2004. I think there is a museum that we will go see…I am sure it will be very sad, but is something we should do.

Anyway–on a happier note–we love our new hotel. It is, of course,  rebuilt since the tsunami. It has complimentary internet (WAHOO!)  and a gorgeous view–nice rooms etc…

www.brizakhaolak.com

The trip here was uneventful–we did get to ride in an AC minivan the whole way with only one transfer–so in the grand scope of our travels here—a pretty easy one!

We ventured out of the hotel in search of food for supper and found this little restaurant on the highway–not too sure at first–but it ended up being very good and as always, the staff is so friendly. The lady in charge gave us a bag of mangosteen and rambutan to take “home” with us. She has a garden of her own and has too many to eat, so she shared with us…How sweet is that??

We are going to be very happy here at this hotel…The beach is gorgeous…private so no touts buggin’ us. The lounge chairs are free (finally) and we can just hang out. There is a great market we have heard about but it is not there every day. We are probably going to go on Monday  (which is its next open day).

There is an elephant that we have named Tiny that lives across from the resort we are at.  Apparently there are 6 elephants in all, but the rest are not back from “work” yet. They have a much better life than the ones we saw in Ayuttayah and even the ones in Ko Samui…so that is nice to see! There is a big grassy field with lots of food and trees for shade..no concrete. They take people on one hour elephant treks to a waterfall…so we might do that one day…we will see.

We have been in Krabi for a few days now and would like to go to Railey Beach. The only way to get to Railey is by Longtail Boat. From what we can glean from looking at the ocean over the last few days—it would be unwise to do do this as the waves are big and there are no longtails out there. In fact the stand that sells the tickets has been closed. BUT today we open the curtains and it looks not too bad…so we decide to walk down and check it out (that and the power is out in the whole town today–so there is not much else to do). We find the ticket booth open and consider this a good sign–so we buy our tickets and hop in a tuk tuk (yes all 5 of us–and I think this maxed out the capabilitues of the little motorcyle). We get down to the pier and our longtail pulls up and we get in–so far so good!

We take off and it is not long before we see that the sea is very rough–I am remaining optimistic and feeling very adventurous despite the rocking and rolling, splashing and general scary nature of what was happening. About half way along, I made the executive decision to have everyone put on their life jackets (WOW eh? not sure in hind sight why I did not think of this the moment we got in the boat–but I am getting very relaxed here about safety–pretty much all safety standards here are very different than what happens in North America! More about that later). I continued to remain optimistic given that the longtail “driver” was working the boat very well and had a big smile on his face. I think he was enjoying the challenge–and was just as interested in getting to Railey as we were–that and he did not at any point put on a life jacket himself. Anyway–we got there fine–but in the back of my mind I am thinking “we still have to get back!” That and “What would Russill have thought of this??”

While on Railey–we saw several cool things–we saw the place where all the rock climbers like to come to climb, we went into a big deep cave (with bats and all), we saw a couple very nice beaches, there was this one beach where a big tractor had to take people out and bring people in from the long tails as the water was so shallow for such a long way out, the highlight was when we climbed 100 meters (pretty much straight up) the side of a cliff to go see a viewpoint. It was pretty awesome and we all 5 did it–even Rachael in her flip flops–if we had known, we would have known she would have had different footwear. Needless to say, I found some new muscles that will be very sore the next day  : )

So after all this, including one quick monsoon rain storm–we decided to get back on that longtail and head back to AoNang Beach. SO our fellow and his boat are still there where we left him and heis all smiles so we decide it will be just fine getting back despite the large swells we still see…This time, we put our lifejackets on immediately!! The ride back is very VERY wet–the jury is still out as to which direction was more crazy–Troys thinks getting there–I am thinking both ways were nuts! We took so much saltwater to the face our eyes were burning–BK spent the whole way with her head IN her lifejacket and Rachael and Jackie were just trying to hide in the middle of the boat–but there was no escaping the sea water really.

Our driver seemed very VERY grateful when we got back as well as we were too!! Even with the conditions out there that day—we were lucky to have gone when we did as it was windier and much rougher waters today–I suspect we would not have been able to go if we had waited.

We discovered a small friendly restaurant at the bottom of the hill also where we had an amazing meal for the 5 of us for less than $23 USD–including appetizers, drinks, meal and dessert. One thing that I have noticed that small businesses here have this way of doing many things–You can usually, get your laundry done, have a meal, book a tour and maybe get a ride somewhere or check your e-mail if you like and all at the same place–Haha!!

Sadly today is the day I have to take Russill to the airport. He and I bravely set off on the 4:20pm Airport Shuttle–my belief being that we will eventually get where we need to be–it may take longer or go by a route I was not expecting–but we WILL get there. Indeed all went well and we arrived in plenty of time especially since our flight was delayed by an hour or so. The airport in Krabi is pleaantly small and we slide through all checkpoints quickly. Our flight is uneventful and voila–we are back in Bangkok. Now the tough part–we have an overnight layover in the airport as we arrived just shy of 10pm and Russ’s flight does not leave until 8am the next morning.

So we have a light meal and then scope out any semi comfortable benches for the night. Hmmm…it appears that this is the airport that never sleeps. That and there are a LOT of other people that are doing the same thing as us…so what we are able to score is a bench that is really about the right size for one small person. So Russ gets out his inflateable pillow (for him) and an airplane blanket (for me) and he cleverly puts his luggage cart at the end of the bench for his legs to extend onto and after a rowdy game of “I Spy” and some card games, we do a few puzzles in our books and decide it is “bed time”. We may have gotten a couple hours sleep when we rise at around 4am due to hordes of people invading “our” space. Oh well—my back was not going to tolerate any more time on the bench anyway…

After some breakfast for Russ and some horrendous coffee for me (that I really thought they were trying to kill me with–I have got to find some decent coffee in this country!!), we went down to check Russ into his flight…he is on schedule…and has to go through passport control 90 minutes before his flight. So I say my tearfull goodbyes (these are always hard for me–sorry Russ!) and go to check on my flight–Yes–lucky me, my flight has been delayed until 11:35am…so I have 5 more hours by myself now…

Anyway—After I do my time and get on my flight–I fall asleep the moment I sit down and wake up just as we start our descent…Best 80 minutes of sleep of the day–I get off the plane with no solid idea of how I will get back to AoNang…but lucky me—the shuttle is still running and I only have to wait 15 minutes for it to leave. NOW–the best part of this whole journey is that since I am getting to be a bit of a professional on cheap Thai travel I am now a valuable resource for two other couples who are lost in the system…Can you believe it?? I helped someone else who had that scared “WHAT THE ???” look on their face when the bus stops on the side of the road and the driver yells out in broken english “Going Phi Phi–get off!” I reassure them that this is OK—that they will not be abandoned–another bus will come and get them–it may not be fast or pretty–but it WILL get them where they want to go.

I arrive safe and sound to my family at the hotel and am feeling very VERY much like Mrs Columbus : )

Without me getting too Crabby (get it??)

So much to my dismay–I should have KNOWN better!! Our best laid plans for a short, comfortable and peaceful trip back to mainland Thailand were not really meant to be. On Friday night after we were out all day touring Ko Samui…our pal James found Troy in the pool and told him our driver that we had scheduled cancelled. Something dodgy about the ferry not allowing him to book his car onto the ferry or something–we suspect it had to do more with getting a better offer for another driving job that day–oh well!!

So off to town Troy and I go to try to hook something else up…it ends up being a similar kind of arrangement as to what we took to get to Ko Samui 6 days earlier…We could have booked private arrangements–but that would have costs 7000 baht. Troy wanted to go for it (I could tell)–but he said nothing when I said–no way–too much money—we will take the shared accomodation shuttle for 3000 baht ($85 USD). So the plan was set for an 8am pick up, with a ride to the ferry in a nice AC van, they would move our stuff to a larger bus when we got to pier and we would catch the 10am ferry with our stuff travelling on the bus, then we would get on that same bus to go to Surat Thani where we would probably have to change buses due to low numbers of people travelling to Krabi that day…but that bus would go to Krabi then and we would be there by 4:50pm. Krabi town mind you—then we would have to get a taxi from Krabi Town to AoNang where we had a hotel booked. So that sounds OK right??? Here is what really happened…

We did get picked up shortly before 8am by a very nice driver in a very nice large AC van–once again we were the first pick up (which I have decided is very preferable to being the last pick up). We drove around picking up 6 other people who progressively got less desiraeble seats in the van and their baggage progressively more squished (ours WAS on the btotm of the pile though–so maybe tha is not so good) by 9:15 we were dropped off at the pier that has the “fast” ferries, so we got a little excited thining that our journey would be a little shorter. Hmmm—not so!!  We moved our stuff onto a big squeaky bus and then at 9:30 they started up the bus and drove us to the other pier where the regular ferries leave from. Oh well—it was fun to think about a fast ferry. So we have to get off and walk onto this ferry that is scheduled to leave at 10am. Our bags remain on the bus so at least we do not have to carry all our stuff up the pier…so far we are not too unhappy–it is not nearly as hot as it was when we came and we are keeping an open mind. So we get on the ferry and of course not that we are seasoned ferry travellers–so we scoot as fast as we can to the VIP room which we know is air conditioned…we make it there to get seats and we are all OK and happy—so far so good!

The ferry trip is 2 hours–and uneventful–thankfully. So we have to walk off the ferry and get on the bus with our stuff in the parking lot–still OK and happy!!

The bus takes us into Surat Thani–this unpleasant nasty town–but we have to plans to hang around…the bus stops in the middle of the street and we are told to get off…but I see no transfer station like we had before—oh that is OK—we just have to walk a couple blocks (with all our stuff now) to the waiting place. It is however much nicer than the one we had to wait in before–so we are still “OK”. We wait around a while and when we do not order food, a tuk tuk driver comes and gets us and says, “oh you have not ordered anything, I will take you now then” So we get in the back of his songtaw (pick up truck) with all our stuff and we are not sure if this is how we will be riding for the 3 hour trip to Krabi?? Rachael is hopeful–none of the rest of us are…

Nope—he drives us to where our bus is waiting–it was about 5 or so minutes away. I will just NEVER understand this Thai system of transportation. So we are told to get on another bus–it is very nice and new–we are all pleased with this. When it left 70 minutes (no that is NOT a typo!) later—we were still trying to stay optimistic…it was not that far into the trip when we realized we were on a public bus and it was going to stop at least 100 times on this trip to let people on and off…most of the trip had a fully packed bus with an aisle full of people leaning into our laps and staring at us (especially when we got out our Ritz crackers). So we got to Krabi town at 6:30pm. All that being said, I was glad we were not in that Songtaw (sorry Rachael) because it rained most of the way.

When we got to Krabi town bus depot…this was clearly the last bus of the day and we have one choice to get to Aonang…another songtaw at 80 baht each…and the skies are black and gloomy. This particular Songtaw has no rolled down plastic sides–so if the skies open up, we will be out there and LOVIN’ IT. I am told it is a 30 minute ride to our hotel–so we are working against the clock. So after the dude stops and puts 100 baht of gas in his truck (that would be 4 litres/1 gallon). (He must have a very small tank–Haha!), we carry on–and then the rain starts. So there we were–full on monsoon…but all part of the fun right?? At least this truck had a tin roof…the last time Troy was here–he rode to his hotle in an open pick up with no roof.

Not too happy with the hotel (Beach Terrace Resort)—It is OK–but a little dated and musty smeling in our room even though the kids rooms are OK. Maybe we have just been spoiled the last two places. I only booked three nights–so we will be moving on the 14th. I am scoping that out–stay posted.

Russ, Rachael, Jackie and I ventured out earlier today in the rain to get the lay of the land. I can tell I like it here—the location is great, lots of shops and restaurants close at hand and we are right on the beach–so if the wather would improve, then we got it made.  We managed to find a few places to spend our money–I did some stellar haggling on a shirt for me…Rachael picked up a few things (as always).

Our new pal James here at the Nova Samui (he is from the Philippines and his English is very good) gave us a tip yesterday…Go down to the Big C and the internet s free, it is air conditioned and there is free coffee. The free internet at the Big C WAS very nice as I spent just over 2 hours getting some stuff done on the computer…Troy was able to get some work done and the kids got to hang out in a small mall like place for a bit. Rachael found some stuff to buy–as she does everywhere…As I have discovered, the air conditioning is a mixed blessing! Of course, it is very nice when you are in it–but you always HAVE to come out at some point and then it is a major shock to the system! Yesterday was particularly hot here–or so it seemed. It rained in the middle of the night last night, so cooled things down a bit for the morning–but i already feel it creeping up into the high 80s again and it is only 8:47am.

Tomorrow, Saturday (I think), we are moving to a place called the Beach Terrace Resort for our first three days in Krabi. It will be a similar travel as getting here to Ko Samui, but hopefully not nearly as painful. James has connected us with a (hopefully) better mode of transport off the island…but we will see! We have a private car that will take us the whole way to Krabi–hotel to hotel and even take us on the ferry–so no side trips, no walking with all our bags down the streets, no changing vehicles, and best of all no sharing our sweaty air. NOW this all being said—I will believe it when I see it–stay posted for the reality check…we will have complimentary internet again for the time we are there…so will be back in touch more often…WAHOO! On the 14th Russill and I will fly to Bangkok as he flies home to Calgary on July 15th 8am. I will then hop on a plane back to Krabi. We are flying AirAsia. The flights are about $26 each way and yes you have to pay to check a bag, but is costs the shicking sum of 50 baht ($1.50 USD). Not sure how they manage this, but they are sure busy and the service is very good. A far cry from the $25 USD it costs to check a bag on Unites Airlines now eh?? It is a 80 minute flight, so similar to flying between Calgary and Vancouver.

We took the hotel shuttle to main beach area yesterday night for ice cream (Swensons)–so that was nice–you sure do have to eat fast as IT melts even faster…did some wandering around. The touts are not nearly as aggressive here as they were in Phuket (Patong in particular). But I also notice the prices are not as low. But they are still low by our American standards. The stall owners must not be as desperate to sell things as they do not lower their prices like we saw in Phuket…Maybe tourism is hanging on a bit better here…not sure…Will be intersted to see what happens in Krabi with the prices. I bet they are closer to Karon prices. When I say not as good, I mean a T-shirt costs 150 baht instead of 125 (so this is about a 75 cent difference)–so not even really noticeable…

No real plans for today yet–debating an island tour–but may just veg out by the pool before our journey tomorrow!