So, first impressions……………….

Decent budget airline flight into Krabi, all good, 1 hr 50 minutes travel time……………………………. followed by 2hrs! yes 2 hours! queuing to get through immigration! CRAZY!

We then get a taxi driver who clearly had no idea where he was taking us. Eventually Colette asked him for his iphone (other smartphones are available, we know that), punched in the name of our hotel and hey presto driver, we know where we’re going. On the plus side, he did all this with a (ever so slightly weird and creepy) smile on his face and safely delivered is here. Boutique Village Hostel. Really has the feel of a small Swiss mountain chalet cabin type thing about it. Pool, lovely room and free transfers down to the beach in the morning. Oh, and 15 cats! Arlo’s in heaven!

We took a longtail boat to Railay Beach the next morning after a hearty breakfast and a lift from our host. It’d been highly recommended by our new Canadian friends, Hussain and his family the night before – Now it’s obviously a lovely bay but we weren’t particularly blown away by it. Longtails are LOUD! With basically a bare car engine surface mounted on the back of the boat with the propeller attached by a long pole (presumably where they get the name longtail from). It was a nice and smooth ride though to a lovely crescent bay. One end of the beach is rock hard whilst the other’s soft sand. We chose wrong initially before realising our mistake and finding the lovely soft side. The water was calm and clear but the noise and the busyness just spoilt it a little. On arriving at Ao Nang we doubted the wisdom of only staying here 3 nights. However, this gives us 6 nights on the island of Ko Lanta and I’m sure the beaches will be as good if not better. 6 days to chill and do very little but catch up with ourselves before Chiang Mai.

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Day 2 at Ao Nang, we opted for a full day tour; ATV course, Hot Springs, Emerald Pools, lunch, then back via the Tiger Cave Temple. Another 1200 odd steps up to a Big Buddah in the sky. We had a fabulous day from start to finish, loving the quad bikes (Henna did all the filming and editing). Both pools were amazing for different reasons; the Hot Springs for their sulphurous waters and mud body scrub and the Emerald pools for colour alone, but mainly for the walk back to the van we had, through the forest as the heavens opened and it battered it down. We returned to find no sign of our driver. Half an hour later, another driver rang him, he’d been taking a nap somewhere, something me and the kids copied on the journey back. We chose to skip the temple hike as it was still chucking it down when we got there and wouldn’t have been advisable for any of us (1200 steep slippery steps – another mishap I cannot afford – that major eyebrow modelling contract is hanging by a thread!) . The kids were happy; getting back at 5 as we did allowed them to make use of the great pool. They’ve been immense yet again, learnt lots, grown in many many ways and are loving each others’ company. Together, they’ve designed their own treehouse complex, Arlo’s moved on in his book reading themes and Henna’s completed a whole series of Lemmony Snickett with the promise of watching the movie of it on the next flight. She’s maxing out the mental maths with currency conversions, flight times/ time zones and you’ve no chance of catching her out on her spelling. Arlo’s been voicing his thoughts on experiences into my phone so come the moments when he’s journaling, it’ll make for easier recall. We’re beginning to bed into this travel malarkey!