Flew out of Suvarnbhumi in Bangkok on Sun 19th headed for Krabi. Air Asia didn't disappoint, cheap and cheerful and very speedy, only took about 50 mins. Highlight was Starbucks at the airport :o) So cultural....

On arrival at Krabi airport we decided to take the budget option (for once) and got the shuttle bus to Ao Nang, the beach resort about 45 mins out of Krabi where we had booked a couple of nights at the Ao Nang Grand Inn. For a grand total of 6 quid for both of us we arrived directly outside our hotel with beautiful views of Mc Donalds, 7/11, Starbucks and The Pizza Company! Our hotel was a shout though, only paid 600 baht a night (12 quid) for a massive room, ensuite bathroom, cable TV and air con. Spent the evening checking out the beach, exploring the sea front etc and had a decent meal.

The next few days in Ao Nang proved to be fairly uneventful as after a day on the beach sunbathing (between noon and 3, foolish) I was completely toasted and unable to walk thanks to ridiculous burns up the backs of my legs. This was after I had already trodden on a sea urchin which left its bloody needle in my foot and resulted in a pissed off Dan traipsing back to the hotel for his Swiss Army knife to perform minor surgery. Grand plans of day trips to other beaches fell through over the next few days and we just spent our time eating.... had a lovely dinner on the sea front and dessert at the Haagen Dazs cafe!

Moved onto Phi Phi on Wed (22nd) morning by ferry. Nice and choppy and sick inducing but thankfully only took about an hour and a half. The pier at Phi Phi was an amazing first impression - all open plan and great views (a renovation courtesy of the tsunami?) before we got bombarded by hundreds of people wanting to sell us accommodation/tuk tuks/inflatables. To our surprise a little Thai man jumped out with a board saying Ingphu Viewpoint, the name of the place we had booked for a few nights and promptly took my rucksack, nice one! Waited for a few other people headed in the same direction before they bundled all our luggage into a trolley and trundled off. THANK GOD as it became apparent our accommodation was half way up a mountain.... no exaggeration. Even from reception to our "bungalow" was 130 steps and no, not nice little stairs but uneven giant stone steps which nearly killed me on the first ascent and didn't get much easier as time went on! Met another couple staying there and spent the afternoon chatting with them by the pool before heading out in the evening for an explore of the northern side of the island and the beach closest to us, Loh Dalum Bay. Had a few happy hour drinks at the Sunset bar before the heavens opened and flooded our seating area, so dammit we were marooned there drinking more cheap Chang ;o) Eventually left for the main bar and restaurant area in the middle of the island and via another bar made it for dinner on the seafront, this time on Ton Sai Bay the southern part of the island (as you can tell, Phi Phi is hardly big and walking around it is fairly speedy). Had a fun evening, ate more pad thai and then resumed the mission back to Ingphu Viewpoint!

Thursday (23rd) we had booked a half day snorkelling and long boat trip out to Phi Phi Ley, the smaller of the two islands and where the famous beach is. Got equipped up with snorkels and flippers and then set off towards the island which is uninhabited and all National Park land. The journey out was a bit mental, the sea was seriously choppy and long boats aren't made for stability hence lots of spray and sea water everywhere! Stopped at various places around the island for snorkelling in the clearest blue sea and swimming in the coves. The coral and fish were beautiful despite my insistence on drowning - just about got the hang of not talking and breathing through my mouth not my nose when we moved on! Went round to another cove where the long tail boat anchored and we had to swim to a cliff face, climb over a rickety ladder and down the other side to get to Maya Bay ("The Beach" beach!) It sounds much simpler than it was....the current was taking us into the cliff face and the waves were crashing people into the ladder/each other - a poor little Thai man about half the size of me let alone Dan managed to grab both of us and swing us back round to grab onto the wooden ladder! Made it up and back down despite Dan managing to gauge a lump out of his toe and traversed the sharp rock pool the other side before a short traipse through lots of greenery to reach the beach! It was well worth it, absolutely beautiful scenery and the softest white sand and clear blue sea. More crowded than I perhaps naively thought but we took lots of pics and splashed about for a while before heading back for round 2 of being pummelled by rocks! Much harder on the way back too as we were swimming against the waves and current. Had some pineapple and rice on the boat before going to our final stop, Monkey Beach. Unsurprisingly there were lots of monkeys. Lots of tourists feeding the monkeys water (sure they could do it themselves given the superior IQ of the monkeys vs the chav tourists but hey) so we just explored a bit and saw some slightly less harassed monkeys. Arrived back on Phi Phi Don about half 1 so headed back to the hotel (I use the word hotel loosely considering it was actually a wooden shack with no AC) and washed/chatted/found a recent copy of Grazia! Ate at a restaurant called Cosmic, delicious Italian food and Dan finally got the pizza he had been craving for 3 days, we were going to head out to a fire show but ended up crashing out as Dan wasn't feeling 100%.

Left Phi Phi the following day, Friday 24th for Phuket. Phi Phi was beautiful and well worth the visit but not quite how I had pictured it. The snorkelling trip was amazing but otherwise the main island is just really touristy and party orientated - Thaibiza if you will! Not that thats a bad thing, was just expecting peace, quiet, relaxation etc. Would also have been interesting to see what it was like before the tsunami as lots of places are still just rubble and empty shop fronts.

Now in Phuket until Thursday 30th. Will update the blog in a bit as haven't done much of interest so far, just chilling on more beaches and eating more yummy food! What a tough life....;o) xxx