On Arriving by boat to Krabi we first stopped at Railey beach to drop some of the passengers. The view of Railay was amazing. Set between huge limestone cliffs and surrounded by thick green jungle was a white sandy beach and aqua marine water. The ferry stopped about a mile away and lots of long tail taxi boats appeared to take people to shore.

We continued a further 15 mins round the bay to Ao Nang where we were staying. Again we started to slow down as we reached the beach but there were no taxi boats in sight. We presumed there must be a pier that we couldn't yet see as the ferry just headed straight for the beach. Thinking the captain must have nodded off or was having a moment we watched as the ferry got nearer to land wondering how we hadn't hit rocks yet? As the beach looped right out into the sea we actually passed a sunbather no more than 20 metres away.

Preparing ourselves for a Jack & Rose Titanic farewell we gripped the edge of the boat and waited for the crunch.. However as we reached the beach we realised there was big gap with an estuary running through the middle which soon led to a port where all the boats docked. We heard the throttle ease and both let out a little sigh of relief that the captain hadn't actually gone insane!

Accommodation at a budget price had been hard to find but we'd managed to book a place called Haven the night before and after a 5 min taxi ride we arrived there to be greeted by Vanilla a beautiful, white spitzer puppy who fitted in with the all white decor and her friendly Thai owners. The hotel was very cool and contemporary but our room was also very 'cosy' as described online and was windowless!

Ao Nang was very different from the chilled out Lanta, as we discovered on the first night. We set of for a casual wander and somehow managed to go in every single shop, stall and walking street for about 2 miles and managed to resist buying lots of clothes, shoes, watches, souvenirs and gadgets and settled for a cold beer when we couldn't walk any longer.

House Hunting
After two nights in our boutique box room with no window we searched for a cheaper abode as we planned to spend a few more days in the area. During our two months we'd often seen travellers arriving by boat trekking up and down the beach in the midday heat all sweaty beneath huge backpacks looking for somewhere to stay and being told everywhere was full. Swearing this would never happen to us we were very careful to always pre-book our rooms online with extensive review reading, map studying and budget checking, but with only one day until we needed to move and nothing online we were getting concerned our pre-booked smugness would be over. After walking the length of the road in the scorching midday heat we ended up next door to where we started at Aus Thai where before Jon could finish his sentence of 'that price is fine we'll take it' I managed to interject with some haggling which despite failing in everyone of the 98 shops actually worked and we got ourself a deal! So we paid a deposit and set of for a day at Railey Beach.