Thailand Beaches

After Cambodia, it was back to Thailand, this time to do some travelling on our own. First stop... southern Thailand and some chill-out time on the beach.

The first place we went to was Railay, near Krabi. It has gained quite a reputation for being the prettiest beach in Thailand. That's hard to dispute, but since the secret is out, there were also lots of people!! and the requisite long-tail boats to get you there. (on the "mainland", but only accessible by water)

So, Railay was certainly nice enough, but nothing special. As well, every night there was a thunderstorm, which made it feel like rainy season, even though it is supposed to be the dry season.

So, we went on to Phi Phi Island, which was pretty badly hit by the tsunami. It has even more of a reputation for having too many people, so I wasn't expecting much, especially when trying to run the gauntlet of touts trying to sell tours, accomodation, etc. at the ferry pier.

Luckily we had pre-booked somewhere, which turned out to be incredible. A quiet stretch of beach, with about 15-20 bungalows. One bar and one restaurant attached to the "hotel". And that's it!!! Almost no noise... just the sound of waves hitting the beach. (rather nice in the morning from the beach front bungalow) And a nice view at night on the thunderstorms hitting Krabi/Railay...

(our bungalow)

I wasn't in a real hurry to leave, but we decided to head to Karon beach near Phuket. Instead of an Asian paradise, it feels like any beach in Spain, with people speaking various languages and lots of people selling things along the beach.

Not bad, but after being so nicely hidden away from the rest of the world, it's a bit of a shock to get back to a place with cars and people, etc.

So, another couple of days here to really top up the tan, and it's off to Northern Thailand for the last week in Thailand...