Phi Phi Island

On our fourth day in Krabi, we visited what is probably one of the world's most picturesque beaches, Maya Beach on Koh Phi Phi Leh. Getting there required a hideous two-hour ferry ride (they made us sit on the ferry for a full hour in the stifling heat before we set off) followed by a short long-tail boat ride. Isabella on the ferryOn the long-tail boatDaveWilliam contemplating the immense beauty of the sceneMaya Beach was the setting for the movie The Beach, filmed in 2000, and it still very much looks like it could be a movie set. It is absolutely amazing. We had to pay 200 baht per person just to be there, and we were only allowed to stay for two hours. It was so surreally beautiful that all of the people there, ourselves included, took...

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Railay Beach

On our third day in Krabi, we decided to visit Railay Beach, a small peninsula between Krabi and Ao Nang. Mainland access to this beach is cut off by huge limestone cliffs, which meant we had to take a long-tail boat to get there. The girls hate long-tail boats and did not enjoy the trip at all.Isabella and DaddyOlivia and Auntie JodyOnce we got there they had fun swimming and trying out the snorkels we bought from a beach vendor.We even took William for a little swim, and then afterwards he chilled out on the beach being admired by all the women selling massages and manicures.After awhile we ventured to a restaurant and had an overpriced and not-very-good meal . The service was terrible, and the whole place was overrun with the sort of tourists...

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First leg of the trip -- Krabi

Our hotel in Ao Nang was great and very well located – 300 metres from the beach. There were tons and tons of little shops on the way to the water, and by the end of the week we had acquired new hats, bathing suits, and beach toys. The beach was quite nice and not too busy.Liv and Bella on the beachWalking to the waterLivThe pool was wonderful and the kids loved it, so we spent a lot of time there. The restaurant made delicious fruit shakes that we enjoyed while lounging poolside. Happy hour was at four o’clock everyday and during that time fruit shakes were two-for-one. One day Jody and I ordered two banana shakes and two lemon shakes, and the waitress misunderstood how many we wanted and brought us eight shakes in total. We managed to drink...

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Sunset at Ao Nang

Dave's sister Jody arrived in Chiang Mai on March 10 and, after giving her a couple of days to get over her jet lag, we set off for Krabi. Having evidently not learned our lesson, we took the night train to Bangkok again. This time it was a bit better. The seats were huge, and we had booked Isabella her own, so we had plenty of room. Things were going pretty well until a boisterously loud gentleman came to sit in the seats next to ours. He spent most of the evening shouting, and then we had a reprieve of about six minutes of silence before he passed out in his bed and starting snoring louder than I would have thought humanly possible.Following a harrowing taxi ride to the Bangkok airport, we caught an hour-long flight to Krabi and took a mini-bus...

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Ladies Who Lunch

The girls getting manicu...

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Bye-bye, Bangkok

After a few days in Hua Hin, we reluctantly headed back to Bangkok to catch the night train home to Chiang Mai. Following a slightly-less-grueling-but-still-fairly-horrible train ride, we arrived at the station in Bangkok and found out that the night trains to Chiang Mai were sold out for the next two days. Oh, but we could take the second-class "special express" (read: it's special how we manage to stop the train every 3.5 minutes) with reclining seats and a travel time of 14 hours. Thanks but NO THANKS.We gratefully accepted the help of an enthusiastic tourism office worker who found us a hotel for the night. He assured us it was a nice hotel, and he didn't look deranged. He clearly was, though. The crap-hole he sent us to was most definitely...

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Posted in: Bangkok

How do you say "never again" in Thai?

After a couple of days in Bangkok, we were ready to escape to the beach. We didn't want to spend too long on the train and we were too cheap to fly, so we decided to head for Hua Hin, a beach resort town about 200 km south of Bangkok. The train was only supposed to take four hours, so we figured it wouldn't be too bad. Well, we arrived at the train station and discovered that second-class air-con was sold out. No problem, we thought, we can do second-class fan. We've been here for six weeks. We're like real Thais now! The heat doesn't bother us the way it bothers these silly tourists in their bucket hats and fanny packs. For good measure we decided not to buy Isabella her own seat since kids under four are free. As soon as we got on the train,...

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Thai Disneyland

Our second day in Bangkok, we went to the Thai version of Disneyland, Dream World. To say the girls were a little bit excited is vastly understating it. First we enjoyed a good fleecing by a cab driver who waaaay overcharged us for the ride, but it was worth it to see the girls' faces when we arrived. It is a very cute place, very Thai. Where else in the world can you ride an elephant and then a few metres further down the path buy some designer clothes at Elle Paris? The park is divided into sections like Fairytale Land and Adventure Land. We visited every "Land" and ended up staying six hours! Here are the girls shortly after we arrived:Liv in Fairytale LandI actually got a picture of the paparazzi! This guy and his wife nearly killed themselves...

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Posted in: Tinglish