Ton Sai & Railay Bay

This is Railay Bay East.  We were actually staying in Ton Sai which is only accessible by water.  To get here we had to coasteneer round a 100 feet of rock and sea

This is a pathway that leads from Railay East to Railay West though rocks and caves

Was quite stunning

This is Pra Neng which is round another pathway from Railay West.  Is very pretty though too busy to enjoy it

Paul went rockclimbing for another view

Which was worth it

And found more caves

In which you found allsorts of strange creatures

Apparently an Indian Princess died whilst being transported here in a storm.  There is a shrine in one of the caves to her which the Hindu and Muslim Thais alike pay their respects to, in order to have good luck fishing

Too busy for our liking so we went back

We met a German here, Kai, who was very nice, though forced us to have a few drinks with him (kicking and screaming).  It was the beginning of the end of that day

Ton Sai beach, which had a few hundred metre rock cliffs round 3 sides and the beach on the other.  Climbers paradise and one of the most chilled out places I've ever been.  Electricity only once night comes - unless they are doing something else and forget

These were found in the caves and surrounding trees

Paul and Kai

Krabi 2nd time

We came to Krabi for a second time as wanted to visited Railay Bay and it's where you get the boat from

We liked Krabi and stayed in the area, Ao Nang

These photos were taken after a walk along the beach when sunset was just about to take place

Koh Tao

Got to Koh Tao and found a bar on the beach where we had a beer and enjoyed the sunset

Our accomodation was less than 30 seconds away from the pier

Koh Tao is famous for it's diving and snorkling and there are many turtles and reefs

In fact, you find all sorts in the sea there!

We kayaked to a little island not too far from Sairee Bay (lively bit) and hired some goggles to look at the sealife.  There were multicoloured fish, blue ones, stripy ones, spotted ones, all within a few metres of the shoreline - amazing.  Paul really liked the gear and wore it most of the kayak back to Koh Tao

We trekked to one of the peaks and it looked down on where we stayed, the far bay with the pier on it

I had to stand periously close to the edge for this shot and was kacking it

Koh Samui

We arrived in Koh Samui and there were 2 lizards up to no good in the bathroom

Whilst the inner island is very busy most of the way round the ring road, there are lots of beaches, so scenes like this are not uncommon

Was a bit too busy for our liking.  We went out to Chaweng of an evening which is the livliest place on the island and it was ok.  The people we all met were nice though.  

Koh Phangnan

One of the reasons for the poor standard of driving in Thailand...

Leaving port near Surat Thani to go to Phangnan

Sometimes you do feel there is someone watching over all of us

Stopped for a brew whilst exploring the island - have had worse views :-)

We trekked to see a waterfall and were.....a bit underwhelmed....

The locals seemed to like it though, not a bad way to cool off.

A good reason not to go too fast and try to see all the signs - this is just over the crest of a hill

Better view on the other side though...

Coconut Bay - Here's one of the nuts...

It was quite away from most of the hustle and bustle

One of the biggests nuts we've seen

It's not a bodily function - it's just so bright.

Another waterfall - we gave up after this one.

Very remote part of island where the insects were relentless, despite copious lashings of insect repellent

Phuket - Liora in her speedboat

Liora, practising for the big event

Koh Phi Phi

The prettiest place we've seen so far

We hired a kayak and went to some beaches that are only really accessible by water.

They weren't as busy either

The sand here was very fine and white.  It got everywhere!

Loads of people were doing scuba diving, they said it was amazing, lots of turtles and reefs and such

We took a walk up to a viewpoint and got lost, coming to a village where this cute one was resident

In spite of getting lost, we caught the odd good view

Not what we came to see.  A huge manmade, soon to be, reservoir.  There was a building that was next to it where the bottled water and ice seemed to come from.  Aptly named 'Water Hill'

When we did find the viewpoint, it was spectacular

The low strip with the sea either side.  Most of the shops, market, bars and some accomodation are on this low area.  They wouldn't have stood a chance when the tsunami came and is no wonder that the island's infrastructure went completely.  Thankfully it's mainly back.

This was on Monkey Beach, but this was the only monkey I saw

Wow!

Lois, this one's for you.  I'm not sure you'd get far in Thailand without cooing over some waife and stray.  We were having something to eat on the beach and look who turned up to have a nosy, purring it's little head off!

This was actually on Koh Lanta, which we went to after Koh Phi Phi but there wasn't an awful lot there.  A long road going down the West side with beaches and resorts were much more spread out which meant everywhere wasn't jammed with people, which was very chilled.  Seemed to be a lot more Muslim Thai people, rather than Buddist which we'd seen elsewhere.  Again they were very friendly and chilled out and made you feel very welcome. At the night you could walk down the beach where a lot of bars were all lit up, with fire dancing and other entertainment on

On the boat going from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi

Just before we boarded

Amazing scenery wherever you looked. 

This was the estuary that led out of the port and into the Andaman Sea.  It was low tide and quite shallow.  The boat got beached just to the left of the limestone rock you can see here.  We were stuck for about 30 mins going backward and forward and sideways 5 feet, trying to free it while the crew were running up and down.  Could think of worse places to be stuck :-)

Our view whilst beached

Stuck!

Pretty

Massive cliffs everywhere

Going as quick as a speedboat