We got back to Thailand a few weeks ago and haven't done much of anything with our time. We stayed in Hat Yai for a few days then continued up North to Krabi. We first tried beaching at Ao Nang but it had a distinctly "5 star family resort" feeling about it. And while that's not a bad thing, it isn't really what we had in mind.
As luck would have it, two friends of mine from Canada happened to be on Ko Lanta, an island a few hours away from Ao Nang. We boogied over there and had a fabulous four days, possibly longer, with them before their visa ran out and they had to head over to Malaysia*. We ended up staying on Ko Lanta for 10 days and enjoying each one, though neither of us have any idea where the time went. Our usual day consisted only of a 1.5 hr walk in the morning, breakfast, 2 h on the internet, lunch, some tv/reading, dinner, movie on tv, and bedtime. That isn't much to accomplish in a day, but it was a nice chance to chill out.
We eventually decided we needed a change of pace or risk permanent settlement in our lovely Ko Lanta cabin. We moved over to Ko Phi Phi and were suddenly in the thick of backpacker-land. This isn't to say it's bad, but it's one of those beach towns that doesn't pay much attention to the beach. Instead, the "town" is made up of snaking alleys of pubs, t-shirt shops and booze stalls. Some people's heaven, I know, but after a few days of grumpy service and drunk 20-somethings, we'd had enough and decided to dash back to the mainland for a few days in Phuket Town, where we are now.
The only other thing to mention was the terrifying ferry crossing to Phuket. I would never claim to be the best in boats, but we were both somewhere between green with seasickness and white with fear by the end of the trip. The boat kept luching and rolling side-to-side while huge waves smashed into the boat head-on. If this wasn't bad enough, the unatural creaking of the ferry, screams of locals and retching of tourists was enough to make fear creep into the boldest heart and bile rise in the most resolute throat. We were both very happy to hit the mainland, ship intact.
Tomorrow we head to Hong Kong and the real countdown to home is on - only about two weeks as of now. We'll be in Hong Kong for about nine days, then back in Thailand for another five. We head back to Australia on the 27th (and Broome on the 2nd), so to the people there, we'll see you soon!
Sorry about the lack of photos. I'll try to post some soon.
* We have come down with a serious case of "island time" and can't distinguish one day from another, so exact day counts can be tricky.
