Entries about 7 island tour

I find myself travelling throughout Southeast Asia again, only this time I’m doing it with my fiancé.

This is both a blessing and a (teeny, tiny!) curse.
It is a blessing that I get to see his reaction to places I’ve already been to and experienced, even down to his first time taking a flight!
It is a teeny, tiny curse because I have already seen these places and experienced these things before so the ‘wow’ factor is somewhat reduced.
My fiancé is also addicted to selfies, which when combined with my slightly faster “been there, done that” pace often leaves him alone in a foreign place.

I’m trying to be more empathetic to his situation.
He is me 5 years ago, minus the first time taking a flight thing…
As his eyes were falling on the insanity that is Bangkok or the hot mess of traffic in Ho Chi Minh City, I was pleasantly reminded of my own reaction to the first time in those very same places and I felt a radiating warmth throughout my body that I get to not only witness him seeing these places
and experiences these things for the first time, but I also get to share in it all with him.

It is oddly rewarding.

Now in a somewhat selfish manner, when we started our travelling journey together, we flew from Mandalay to Bangkok and got a bus straight to Krabi as that was an area of Thailand I’d not visited previously.
Even so, we got to see new places together and he got to see Thailand for the first time ever so win-win.

Whilst he is busy taking pictures of, well everything (including himself, a lot!) I’m occupied watching him.
It’s like watching a child discover what we take to be perfectly normal things, like rain, for the first time.
He is truly beautiful to behold in new surroundings (and anywhere else really!)
Unfortunately for all of my infatuated gazing, I didn’t actually take so many photographs of my own, so I will share some of his (non-selfie) photos of our time in Krabi!

We took the night bus from the South Bus Terminal (Sai Tai Mai) which is essentially a giant bus terminal servicing the south of Thailand (as opposed to Chiang Mai etc in the North) and a mall with various tat and some foods places.
We looked for a reputable bus service (Nakhon Chai Air, The Transport Company and Green Bus, among others) and got some food.
There is a decent looking night market by the bus station/shopping centre also if you’re bus doesn’t leave until late.

We boarded the bus around 6:30/7pm and arrived at around 7am at Krabi bus terminal (miniscule in comparison to Bangkok).
I’d already read about how to get to our accommodation in the cheapest way possible, and obstinately avoided the touts screaming at us to pay their hideous fares (1,000 Baht - $30/£23) for shared minibuses.
We hopped on the white songthaew (essentially a pick-up with a roof and 2 benches in the back) for 150 Baht ($4.50/£3.40) who for an extra 50 Baht took us directly to our accommodation instead of just dropping us off at the usual stop in Ao Nang Town.

We stayed at the Bamboo Resort in Ao Nang, Krabi and despite having ‘Ao Nang Beach’ in the address, it was in fact NOT near the beach and in no way was it a resort. I was actually incredibly disappointed, of course the fiancé didn’t know any better but when I book a Bamboo Resort on a beach I expect exactly that…

What we got were little bamboo houses (nature got in EVERYWHERE) barely big enough in which to swing a cat and the joy of every morning and evening listening to men (and sometimes women) beating all mother of hell out of each other in the Muay Thai Boxing ring on site.
We were essentially booked to stay at a training camp, even though neither of us do Muay Thai or anything of the sort.
The only plus was that the adjoining restaurant had an Italian chef so the food was amazing (but overpriced!)

All of this would have been manageable if the property was near, umm…anything, which it really wasn’t, aside from a tiny Muslim restaurant (very good and decent prices! Yay!) and a Family Mart (convenience store) about 5 km away, so we had to rent a motorcycle nearly every day (150 Baht/day).

We did the usual boat trips, rides into the mountains, experienced the standard tourist problems – our motorcycle tyre blew in the middle of nowhere/jungle but luckily for us a local Muslim guy on his motorbike told us to wait, popped back to his house just up the road from where we were stranded, came back in his pick-up truck, helped my fiancé load the bike in the back and then took us to an open garage. He even chatted with the guy to get us a good deal and we ended up paying about 150 Baht for a new tyre.
Such kindness you often see in Asia, with the occasional nasty little bastards who pinch your stuff but that’s to be expected I guess.

Thailand is more expensive than I remember and after 2 weeks and £1000 for the two of us I was glad to be moving on!