A Little (ok maybe a lot) of R&R- Southern Thailand

This post mostly consists of just hanging by the pool or on the beach, eating a lot of good food, and sleeping a bit late.  It was time for a much needed longer term stop (a vacation from traveling per say) and boy did we make the most of it!  The weather was hot, sunny, and perfect to spend most the time in or very near the water.  The pools were warm and the ocean was even warmer, sometimes so warm that it wasn't quite as refreshing as we would have liked, but please don't read that as a complaint.  We hit three different locations in the south of Thailand- Ao Nang beach in Krabi, Koh Phi Phi island, and Karon Beach in Phuket.

Ao Nang Beach and other islands in the background

Always just a quick walk to a great sunset

Krabi

We spent hours trying to chose the right hotel which we usually TRY not to do.  We wanted a hotel in a good location, not too expensive, but very nice and this was not an easy feat.  While we love TripAdvisor for all their reviews and comments sometimes it can be a chore to sift through them all to find the right match for us.  Well, we beyond succeeded in our decision and loved every minute we spent at the Krabi La Playa Resort.  As a bonus we chose to treat ourselves to a free stay! (THANK YOU American Express points!)

Walkway to our room

Pool view from the room

Pool and pool bar at night

We stayed in the beach town of Ao Nang and were close to all we needed.  Food, beach, 7-11, shopping...what more could we ask for?  The pool was huge and luxurious and the beach not even a ten minute walk away.  Food was just across the street from the hotel served from food stalls with noodles, curry, rice, meats on a stick (some a mystery), fresh smoothies, papaya salad, and it was all delicious and CHEAP!  We ate lunch here just about everyday for about $3 each.

Our favorite vendor's well stocked cart

Krabi is very geared toward the tourist crowd and while it was nice to see some Westerners, we didn't really love how most of the restaurants cater to their tastes.  We wanted to eat real Thai food in Thailand and that's exactly what we did.  We found a legit Thai restaurant under a tent back off the main road and ate there 4 nights in a row.  They had the best curry we have ever had...green, red, panang, massaman!  Yum!

One morning we took a longtail ferry boat about 15 minutes and landed on Railay Beach.  It was a stunning beach, had a street with food and shopping, and has some of the best rock climbing near water in the world apparently. (we didn't try...we'll leave that to Kristin and Daniel)  We took about a 20 minute walk to Railay East Beach and found a couple hotels in the most private, secluded area that we thought about staying in a few nights then we decided we didn't want to move around so much.  Railay was a beautiful place to spend the afternoon laying on the beach and staring at the limestone cliffs that surround it.

Longtail boat motor- basically a car engine with a prop strapped onto the back of the boat

Railay West Beach and surrounding cliffs

No cars on this island, just one small pedestrian street market

We booked a longtail boat day tour to Hong Island where we enjoyed snorkeling, relaxing in the water, and the wind in our hair on the ride.  Hong Island was absolutely stunning and the sand was the softest, whitest sand we have ever seen and felt.  We were the last group at the end of the day to leave the beach so we had the island almost to ourselves for a while.  It was really postcard perfection.

Koh Phi Phi

We had heard amazing things about this island and wanted to check it out for ourselves.  Since we had to transit by ferry from Ao Nang in Krabi to Karon Beach in Phuket anyway, we decided to make this a two night stopover on the way.  Many tourists do this as a day tour from another area but we chose to spend two nights there to cut down on our traveling.  This, friends, was a mistake!  Our hotel on the island was not cheap and it was probably the worst we've stayed in on this trip.  We didn't really love the vibe of the island and our tour around the islands was not our favorite.  We know, it's hard to complain when in paradise and we do understand that but this island did not appeal to us much at all.  We did explore the nightlife areas a bit and can certainly see the island's allure if you are a barely twenty one backpacker, like to party, and don't care what your hotel bathroom looks like.  There were two highlights 1) great snorkeling on a small island nearby and 2) we went to Maya Bay, the beach used in the movie The Beach and described in the book of the same name.

We took another two hour ferry to complete our trip to Phuket except this time it felt more like we had boarded a Bearing Sea crab boat from the Deadliest Catch.  Thank goodness for Dramamine.  We both popped a half a pill and it was night night for us for the entire trip.  Many others on the boat did not fare so well...

In order to get to The Beach beach we first has to climb this really safe set of stairs, haha!

The almost surrounded lagoon of Maya Bay

Phuket- Karon Beach

Again, choosing the hotel, not easy.  You can easily be a victim of "creative photography" when looking at these hotels online.  But again, success!  We have never heard of this before but the hotel offered a "run of the house" special and if you were willing to change rooms in the middle of your stay if necessary then you got a REALLY great deal.  We opted for this since it also included breakfast every morning and wifi and it worked out great!  We only had to switch rooms once on the very last night and being that we don't have much with us it was no big deal.  The hotel was on the side of a mountain and the pool was on the roof so we had a stunning view of the beach.

View from the rooftop pool

April is monsoon season in Thailand and though we really lucked out with weather during our stay, it was interesting that with almost the flip of a switch on April 1st, a cloudy haze hangs over everything.  It didn't bother us in the least but the pictures are not as phenomenal because it looks quite cloudy.  We still had plenty of wonderful time in the strong sunshine.


There's really not much to tell about Phuket.  We loved the beach and being able to cheaply rent chairs and umbrellas since the sun is ridiculously strong.  We ate good food but the best was at the hotel which made life very convenient.  We found ourselves really fall into a daily routine in Phuket and found that we do miss that a bit.  We had breakfast, went to the pool/beach, went to the beach/pool, enjoyed the herbal steam sauna (AMAZING!), had dinner, and caught up with family, watched tv, and did some trip research at night.  It was so nice.  We also celebrated Christine's birthday and Wes gave her the perfect gift...a bag of Oreos!

Karon Beach view from our chairs

For about $1.50, locals would hack open cold coconuts and bring them to us

Wes being artsy with a beautiful sunset and dragon statue

We are quite sad to leave Thailand but have had a wonderful time exploring the country and the cuisine.  We have really loved the food and also enjoyed the hospitality of the Thai people and their country's beautiful scenery.  It has been an incredible experience in Southeast Asia and we are so happy to have dedicated time to this part of the world.  That said, we are really excited for India, Turkey, and the rest of what's ahead in the next few weeks!  We are currently in Bangkok waiting for our flight tomorrow morning to New Delhi!

Bye for now!