5/14 - From the Andaman Coast
It's 6pm, Saturday the 14th and we're in Ao Nang a "suburb" of Krabi on the Andaman Sea in Southern Thailand. We wrapped up our stay in Bangkok with an hour taxi ride to the airport. Bobby the taxi driver was the most animated conversationalist we've met on the trip - so, we decided to try some of our new found linguistic talent (10 Thai phrases) on our new friend. That's when we found out that our pronunciation for the phrase "excuse me" is actually the slang word for transvestite or hermaphrodite. It was hard to get him to stop laughing at us - and then with us. Undaunted, we continued with the rest of our phrases and Ken actually impressed him with his Thai accent. When we get back, Ken will marvel you with his pronunciation of "I want to go to the bathroom."
The $65 flight to Krabi on Thai Airways was really nice - much nicer than a US domestic flight - with incredible views of Bangkok and the coastline. The Bangkok airport is huge so we were not surprised when we boarded a big plane - a 737 maybe? However, it was only 1/2 full (how do they make money?) and when we arrived in Krabi, we were surprised that it was a 1 runway, 1 baggage claim, 5 taxi airport. It was a welcome site.
The "information booth" at the airport hooked us up with a place to stay in Ao Nang called the PK Mansion. We knew we were likely settling for a high price ($600 Baht - $15 US) but we wanted an easy way out--no thinking or bartering. When we got to Ao Nang, we found that virtually every building here is a hotel/internet cafe/bank/restaurant/gift shop/ and travel agency. The next morning we were ready to find a better deal. Now we are across the street at the "J Mansion" with a nicer room, better view, and more comfortable surroundings, at 2/3rds the price.
The Krabi area is a lush, green, beautiful place with huge limestone monuments that jut up from the landscape - incredible. We thought Bangkok was humid, but this area brings new meaning to fully saturated. In addition to the humidity, the authentic Thai lunch (curry) created a river down Steve's face. Hopefully the picture Ken took captured the moment:
No Spicy Please!
Today is the first day we've unwound and it feels good. We decided to put the brakes on our rush to Phi Phi while on an early morning run. We continue to wake up early and today we went exploring on a run/slog on the beach at sunrise. It was beautiful. We finally feel like the environmental elements that were out of our control (jet-lag, new food, Bangkok pollution) are behind us. We spent the rest of the day sitting, reading, and chatting in our open-air hotel lobby, open-air restaurants, and on the beach. We're getting a chance to reflect a bit on what we've seen. We'll manage to get that into words in future posts...
The $65 flight to Krabi on Thai Airways was really nice - much nicer than a US domestic flight - with incredible views of Bangkok and the coastline. The Bangkok airport is huge so we were not surprised when we boarded a big plane - a 737 maybe? However, it was only 1/2 full (how do they make money?) and when we arrived in Krabi, we were surprised that it was a 1 runway, 1 baggage claim, 5 taxi airport. It was a welcome site.
The "information booth" at the airport hooked us up with a place to stay in Ao Nang called the PK Mansion. We knew we were likely settling for a high price ($600 Baht - $15 US) but we wanted an easy way out--no thinking or bartering. When we got to Ao Nang, we found that virtually every building here is a hotel/internet cafe/bank/restaurant/gift shop/ and travel agency. The next morning we were ready to find a better deal. Now we are across the street at the "J Mansion" with a nicer room, better view, and more comfortable surroundings, at 2/3rds the price.
The Krabi area is a lush, green, beautiful place with huge limestone monuments that jut up from the landscape - incredible. We thought Bangkok was humid, but this area brings new meaning to fully saturated. In addition to the humidity, the authentic Thai lunch (curry) created a river down Steve's face. Hopefully the picture Ken took captured the moment:
No Spicy Please!
Today is the first day we've unwound and it feels good. We decided to put the brakes on our rush to Phi Phi while on an early morning run. We continue to wake up early and today we went exploring on a run/slog on the beach at sunrise. It was beautiful. We finally feel like the environmental elements that were out of our control (jet-lag, new food, Bangkok pollution) are behind us. We spent the rest of the day sitting, reading, and chatting in our open-air hotel lobby, open-air restaurants, and on the beach. We're getting a chance to reflect a bit on what we've seen. We'll manage to get that into words in future posts...
posted by schartwig at 4:25 AM
6 Comments:
For the heat, very very slowly move your head back and forth to create a light breeze across your forehead.
Have a great day!! We are enjoying the descriptions of your adventures.
M & D
I'm enjoying the blogging... keep it up! Can you put pictures on the blog?
Pedro
Great to hear things are going well - sounds like an awesome time.
-Dave
Give my best to Chicken Island! Ao Nang is beautiful. I'd rather be there than at my desk in Chicago, enduring an unseasonably cold day.
Regarding pictures: Steve's camera is a Canon. We haven't figured out how to get the pics off of it without Zoombrowser software. If anyone has bright ideas let us know.
Steve-
Any of the internet cafes will more than likely have card readers. It's about 80B for them to burn a CD for you.
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