ao nang to chiang mai

we arrived in the busy beachside town of ao nang (still in south west thailand).

relative to thailand ao nang is very expensive and tourist focussed. we wandered around amongst the other tourists until we found a hotel - around 40aud/night. we settled in only to be kicked out the next day; the hotel was fully booked. it took about 5 hotels until we found a vacancy.

no signs of a tourism slow down/ financial tsunami in this place!

ao nang beach offers calm waters suitable for families and older travellers. its not quite as full of young beautiful bods as koh samui!

we did our bit to blend in with the age group

perhaps 'mummy' is taking it a bit too far.

overall it is still a nice beach, with mountains and islands all around

we went out for a scuba dive the following day. our boat was a long tail - an open boat with an open chevy motor driving the extended prop.

(picture from google images)

the 1st dive was quite nice; plenty of fish and coral but no big marine animals, which is either good or bad according to your perspective on life . the dive went completely around a small island.

the 2nd dive started with an underwater tunnel through an island, followed by a series of coral reef tunnels and chasms. its kind of eery to look up and see rock instead of air.

the seas were up on the return journey. lim perched happily on the boat's stern - and somehow stayed dry and happy. meanwhile an irish diver and me spent 45 minutes in spray the consistency of a bucket of water falling on your head. (bucket included).

note to self: long tail boats look quaint but stick to modern speed boats in the future.

finished with the crowds of coastal thailand, we caught a flight to bangkok. here we found a hotel in chinatown. bkk's chinatown is a decent place to stay as it is affordable and you don't get the same "walking atm" treatment as other areas.

needless to stay lim was as happy as a hungry chinese girl in a street full of chinese food vendors.

we also went to bangkok's back packer district khao san. we had no desire to be anywhere touristy - but still felt obliged to see it. the results were predictable.

sharing an alcohic beverage - "just the small bucket please"

and finishing with a kebab

next stop was shopping.

we spent about 30aud on new shoes -and- jeans for lim as we prepared to venture further south from the equator. (the southern hemisphere being in winter for those pollywogs amongst you). we also picked up a new camera.. w00t

now we looked cool in lim's new threads and my new mustache, and had a camera to prove it.

after lim squeezed (maybe slipped is a safer term?) into her new denims, we boarded a train for the 14 hour overnight trip to chiang mai (far northern thailand).

travelling by thai rail is cheap, comfortable, and just generally very civilised. 2nd class seats face each other with an attachable table - perfect for a whiskey and a bit of 'go fish'. after arguing over whether two jokers should count as a set in go fish, we folded the seats into beds*, and slept soundly until we arrived.

• more accurately: we stood and watched whilst the conductor made our beds and fluffed our pillows. australian country rail services should really sit up and take note.

hugh and lim in thai train comfort

on arrival we found ourself a simple but clean room for 10aud a night, and settled in to enjoy chiang mai.