So we have made our way to Ao Nang, which is near the town of Krabi in Thailand.

As with most travel days, getting here was an adventure.  We were picked up at our hotel by what counts as a taxi in Koh Lipe — a motorcycle with a side-car like contraption for us and our bags.  We could have walked, but it was 90+ degrees and the taxi fare was included in our boat fare, so why bother?

In front of a pharmacy in Ao Nang. I guess STD’s are a real problem here…

The taxi took us to the beach where after a few minutes of hanging out in the sand we were told to board a long tail boat.  We didn’t get wet this time, as the boat was next to a floating pier and we were able to jump from the pier to the boat.

The long tail took us out to a big floating barge.  Once again, the long tail was bobbing in the water, the floating barge was bobbing in the water, and I was trying to climb from one to the other.  Grace here nearly fell in, but managed to get on board the floating barge without getting wet.  The locals most certainly laughed at me….

Hanging out in Ao Nang

And then we waited.  In 90+ degree heat.  And waited.  While bobbing up and down on the barge.  For about 30 minutes.  Did I mention the 90+ degree heat??

Finally, just as I was about to start vomiting into the ocean, we boarded a speed boat for the trip over to a town called Pak Bara.  The 90 minute speed boat ride was actually kind of pleasant. The wind kept things cool and we were pretty much always in sight of land.  It was a very nice ride.

And then we arrived in Pak Bara.  Where a tourist agent met us and walked us over to a tourist office.  Where we waited and waited and waited in the 90+ degree heat.  Is anyone seeing a pattern here???

Finally, we piled into a mini van for the 4 hour drive to Ao Nang.  And then took the same sort of taxi to our hotel as we had taken in Koh Lipe.  When we got to our hotel, we pretty much collapsed!

But, the long trip was worth it.  Turns out, Ao Nang is a bit like Key West.  There is a beautiful beach, numerous bars with crazy happy hour specials and bad cover bands (listening to a Japanese band sing with a perfect American accent was fun), restaurants galore, and even transvestites posing for photos.  And, the sunsets are out of this world.

Sunset in Ao Nang

So far, we haven’t done much, other than relax at our hotel pools (we are on our second hotel and moving to a third tomorrow).

Railay Beach

Railay Beach

In fact, the only touristy thing we have done so far is to take a long tail boat over to Railay Beach for a few hours.  It was beautiful!