June 3 to 6. Journey to the elephants
June 3. Bangkok to Ao Nang
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 Breakfast on the terrace |
On arriving at our room last night, we had discovered that Cory and I were supposed to be sharing a double bed. The porter organised a change of rooms but, in the confusion, we failed to obtain a key. That meant that we had no keys so had to text the girls for assistance. We had both managed a reasonable night’s sleep, about 5 hours in my case, but it was a very late night. The breakfast buffet is on a large, open sided roof area at 5th floor level. The food was reasonable, typical of a western hotel in the orient, a mix of western and oriental dishes. |
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I was dragged out of the hotel and forced into Indra Fashion, the tailor’s shop opposite. Cory was being fitted for a couple of business suits and it was “suggested” that I might benefit from a sports jacket and trousers. The measurements were duly taken (Mr Humphries would have been proud) and I handed over my credit card. Whether or not I will ever see a jacket or the contents of my bank account ever again remains to be seen. |
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The remainder of the morning was spent in the covered market behind the hotel. It contained a huge assortment of glitzy rubbish accompanied by the occasional nice thing. I did buy a shirt and the others bought lots of stuff. The copyright and trademark police would have a field day here!
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My dizzy spells appeared and I managed to find a chemist’s shop just down the street, where I bought some nasal spray. With luck, that will solve the problem. The traffic chaos was fun, as were some of the stalls.
We checked out, our transport arrived early, and we drove through light Sunday afternoon traffic to the old airport, arriving with an hour to spare. We checked in and camped out in the café with water melon smoothies and a beer (for me).
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Take off was slightly late but the plane, an A300, was beautiful. Thai Air certainly understands interior design, both the uniforms and the seats being spectacular. Air New Zealand could learn a lot!
Krabi Airport is new and has some stunning features. Our arrival was slightly chaotic as we were immediately taken out of the baggage area and marched up to the ticketing desk to change our bookings for the return flight – our original one having been cancelled a few days before. We were then able to explain that we already knew so that the whole exercise had been a waste of time. By this time, we were outside the security area and had to talk our way back past the guard to collect our luggage off the carousel. A mini bus collected us and we drove to Ao Nang, a journey of about half an hour.
The hotel is very good, Mediterranean style, with balconies, decks, stone tile floors etc etc. We immediately headed for the pool, splashed around for a bit and emerged as the sun was starting to vanish. We walked the 100 yards to the beach, had a look and returned to the hotel to change for dinner.
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In the evening, we had a very short wander into the village, found a convenient restaurant and had a good dinner. A bat flew through and there were several lizards to provide alternative entertainment. We walked back to the hotel along the beach road, past lots more restaurants and collapsed for a very early night. |