Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the mrlukeniktravels blog, this week from Ao Nang, Thailand. This week has been a little quieter as I have been suffering from a nasty bug. I can’t be healthy all the time. After plenty of water, rest and headache pills, I was able to get out and about a bit in Krabi and Ao Nang. Arriving from Kuala Lumpur, this is my first taste of Thailand on this trip. Yet another currency to contend with! The weather, considering the time of year, hasn’t been great. That said, I didn’t come to Thailand to lie on a beach to top up my tan… As I write outside it is raining very hard (again) I suppose something has to keep the grass green.
One of the standout features of Ao Nang to me is the number of pharmacies. I have counted 18 on a main street roughly 2km long! That does seem rather excessive for the number of locals and tourists here. Surely there’s a limited demand for plasters, pain-killers and the like to have that many outlets in one town. I have to say I’m dubious of the genuineness of all the products on sale. Being the wet season it is not packed with roughly four people in each bar. By November, when the weather is calmer and drier, there will plenty of people flocking to the beaches of Thailand. Travelling during off-season brings the benefit of calmer destinations and cheaper accommodation which is more readily available. The downside is the weather. Still, my trip is long enough that I can’t always be in every country in the perfect season- it’s a nice problem to have!
One recovered from my slight malaise, I hired a motorbike and headed away from the coast to Wat Tham Suea or Tiger Cave Mountain Temple. Climbing the 1,260 (very steep) steps was definitely worth it to see the sunset from up high. It was hot and sweaty work! The views across the surrounding area were beautiful making up for dodging the omnipresent local monkeys on the ascent and descent. The temple was built in the 1970’s with a stupa and Buddha statue on top of a rock pinnacle. A spring on the summit provided some refreshment when I reached the top at last. I had plenty of time to take photographs before heading back to the town in the dark which was quite an experience. A variety of driving styles and levels of lights were present on the highway. I certainly used plenty of my defensive riding and hazard perception. Not something I would do in a hurry again.
On my final day in Ao Nang I had a great day’s kayaking around the coast and inlets. I was nice to get away from the town and into some more natural surroundings. I don’t have a waterproof camera so there are no pictures from this little expedition. It was, however, really enjoyable. I saw lots of flora and fauna, including a couple of turtles- making up for my snorkelling trip on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. In a sign that I haven’t been doing enough paddle work I got handsomely sore thumb blisters within the first thirty minutes…ouch! We stopped in a couple of places to swim and have a break from paddling. I was glad to spend some more time on- and in- the water. Good for clearing out the remains of my cold too!
That is almost all for this week, I shall be back to full health and service next week. For that, I shall be further north in Khao Sok National Park surrounded by jungle! As always, to keep right up-to-date with my progress, you can follow my twitter feed with the handle @mrlukeniktravel. For pretty and slightly edited pictures, I have an Instagram feed which can be found at @mrlukeniktravels. If you’d like to be notified of every blog post straight away, then you can subscribe by email to this blog using the link below. That is all for this week, other than to say, as always, stay safe and travel on!