More from Krabi...

Oops. A few weeks passed and I still haven't given you more insight into our wonderful long weekend in Krabi... and now, I'm out of time, because we'll soon have blogging to do on our European holiday, our new home and my ballooning belly.  So, I think now, you can only get a few highlights...

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and were so pleased when we arrived at our hotel - the Aonang Orchid Resort.  We are always a little wary of trying a new place and had relied on tripadvisor and agoda for reviews.  Since this was always our pre-holiday holiday, we wanted to keep things on a budget, so we chose a comfortable resort for under SG$100 per night... and THIS is what we got:

The bathroom wasn't the greatest, but the pool was fabulous, breakfast was delicious, the people were fantastic and we slept like logs. What more can you ask for?  Oh, yes, it was only a 3 minute walk to the beach!

We didn't waste anytime and jumped on a longtail boat that afternoon to Railay Beach.  It was so picturesque - blue skies, clear water, amazing limestone formations rising out of the ocean.  The beauty of it was overwhelming.  The next day, we took a Phi Phi Island tour - more gorgeousness.  And we met some really lovely people.  There was only one conclusion - we were in paradise!  We love the water, and snorkelling, and wandering.  It truly was breathtaking and photos do NOT do it justice!

We took a half-day kayaking trip around Ao Thalane, through the mangroves and around the caves and cliffs. The weather wasn't perfect, the water level was low (at one stage my paddle got stuck in the mangroves, I swiftly had to limbo under it as the momentum continued to carry us forward, and I almost took off Lehi's head)... but the highlight of the trip by far was the psycho monkey who chased a poor Japanese couple from one end of the mangroves to the other, threatening to jump on board their kayak as they had a plastic bag that it was convinced had food in it that it wanted. It's hard to describe to fully capture the moment...

When we got back to town, we decided to grab a scooter so we could explore more of the town. 

Colin was our trusty steed for the remainder of our holiday and I am so glad we hired him. At THB150 it was money well spent. We got to drive out to new places, see true Krabi provencial life and feel the wind in our hair. The freedom to travel wherever we liked was brilliant (and Lehi enjoyed it so much he's now getting his motorcycle license...)

Since we'd never been to Thailand before and we weren't sure when we'd get back, we had to get in as many quintessential Thai experiences as possible... so we went to some Muay Thai fights where we saw young boys fight hard... one even getting knocked out...

got cheap massages...

ate delicious street food...

and went elephant trekking. 

Our elephant, Banana Leaf, was such a sweet animal.  Lehi was a little freaked out at first (I think Stampy from the Simpsons has scarred him... MAJUMBAS) and when she started shuddering and making a purring noise we weren't sure if she was about to stampede... but rest assured, she was just communicating with her mahout and we had a pleasant ride. 

We figure on this trip we would've given the "by any means" dudes a run for their money - we tuk tuked, mini-bused, taxied, kayaked, elephanted, long boated, speed boated and scootered.

All in, Aonang is a super relaxed place. Lots of good food. Lots to do.. or nothing if that's what you prefer.  I would highly recommend paying it a visit if you ever get a chance. It was a fabulous holiday, that now has me nervous that our pre-holiday holiday may well end up being our favourite trip of 2010...