Merry Christmas from Thailand! The beaches of Krabi are merry and bright!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from Thailand!

I always miss my family back home especially over the Christmas holidays.  I think of what people might be doing at home and imagine those cozy Christmas feelings I get each year at this time.  Although I wish I could be home for even just a short time, I realize I can't get the best of both worlds.  And my world right now, I have to admit, is pretty sweet.  Zack and I have seen the sun set over the ocean horizon for the last five days and then each new day we've had the freedom of traveling and exploring more of the country we're living in.  This Christmas I feel so thankful to have Zack in my life and to be experiencing these things together with him.  It's December 23rd, and as I write this I can see palm trees blowing in the breeze.  It's evening time and I am relaxing at our hostel, my feet bare and my hair still drying from our ocean kayaking this afternoon. 

What are we up to these Christmas holidays?  We are exploring the south west coast of Thailand for two weeks and then heading down to Malaysia for one week.  We are now finishing up our first week and although we are still in the same country we're living in, we feel worlds away (and are loving it!).

We left early Saturday morning (Dec 19) from Chiang Mai to arrive in Krabi just a couple hours later.  Unfortunately Zack's bag was mistakingly taken off the bus too early on our way to our accommodations which  then led us to spending the first half day chasing down his lost backpack (we've learned no trip is complete with a mishap like this.  AND to also always keep watch of your bag... you'd think we would have learned this by now).  Luckily though, we were reunited with the bag and all was still in place.  We then spent the first few days of our trip in Aonang, a beach town about 15 minutes from Krabi.  Our days were filled with a lot of walking the beaches, relaxing, reading, and a highlight being the "7 Island Tour".   We stayed at Cliffview Resort, which offered small bungalows (more like huts) within lush greenery.  Though we had a nice view of the cliff, the downside was that there was almost no sunshine throughout the day (making it hard to dry any of our clothes) and there were quite a few bugs (which I expected anyways).  We were also quite a ways away from the beach, though the resort offered a free shuttle which solved that problem.  And besides the roosters that felt the need to crow right outside our door and the fairly hard mattress (though it probably was not hard at all in Thai standards.  Beds here in general are rock solid), we were happy with our stay and excited to start our Christmas holidays in the south!

Oh- and the resort had a pool!

The beach itself was quite touristy, and coming from Northern Thailand where I am conscious of dressing modestly and watching how much sun I get (that's Northern Thai culture for you!) it was like a culture shock!  Bikinis and tons of "farang" (the nick name for us westerners) sun bathing on the beach.  Also, prices seemed inflated compared to our 35 baht rice and curry in Chiang Mai (for reference, 27 baht equals 1 Canadian dollar).  There were lots of fancy restaurants and Thai people selling things on the beach.  We ate mostly street food during our stay there and ate huge breakfasts every morning at our resort.  We did find a less busy beach around the corner from Aonang, where we had the most amazing morning runs while the tide was low.  We ate some pretty amazing Pad Thai one night from a street vendor who loved showing off his cooking skills with fancy ways of frying up noodles and tossing in bean sprouts.  I wish I had taken a video, but that would have only lasted so long as there was a massive power outage and he ended up cooking from a cell phone flashlight from that point onwards.

A very hazy morning.  

The tide was so low, people had to walk a fair distance out in the water to board the long boats.

We spent the day exploring this beach, stopping for lunch along the way.

Probably the most impressive thing about this area, was the cliffs and rock formations.  Just around the corner from us was Railay Beach (which I will be sharing about in a different blog post) where avid rock climbers travel to to scale the cliffs and go on deep water solo trips.  We witnessed some of these climbers during the "7 Island Sunset Tour" that we took part in (definitely a highlight!).  Zack even tested out his climbing skills during a stop we made along some of the cliffs.  The boat left Aonang at 2pm and we sailed around the small islands that lie just off the coast (including Koh Poda, Chicken Island, Koh Tup, and a few others).  We stopped to watch the sunset at Phranang Cave Beach, which was possibly the prettiest sunset, with longboats bobbing back and forth along the shore, and tall cliffs framing the sunset sky.  The boat stopped several times for some snorkelling and we finished the night with a large buffet dinner on the boat.  Amazing!           

We took some under water videos which turned out pretty cool:

We left Aonang Beach a few days later on a wooden long boat heading for Ton Sai beach.  We had enjoyed our first few days but knew there was a lot left to discover!  

(stay tuned for my next update about Ton Sai and Railay Beach)