Covering Some Distance

 Nov 23, 2022 - Wednesday

We woke up early, got packed and set off for Krabi. Our route today is about 170km and we are hoping to be well on our way before the forecasted rain hits by 2pm. We travelled north off Phuket Island, across Sarasin Bridge and onto the main land. The crowds immediately thinned as soon as we were off the island and we could tell not many tourists head this way. We stopped briefly for a cool drink at a road side grocery and stretched the legs, we were about 40 km into our journey and up until now its been non stop traffic and people. It's still not bad at all to scooter around, there's so many all around you just copy what the locals do, make sure to only make obvious movements and keep moving with the flow of traffic. Its nice to be able to skip all the traffic and move up to the front of the heat at every stop light. 

After crossing the Sarasin Bridge the road was an open highway, mostly with a large designated scooter lane that even two scooters can ride side by side to pass. It was much faster at this point and we started covering much more ground. Soon we saw our first limestone rock formations, they stick straight up from the landscape around, soaring towers with caves, stalagmites and jungles perched up top. Soon it became a common sight, little towns hidden in the shadows with the road winding its way between them. We stopped at Somdet Phra Srinagardindra on a whim. We were just driving past and the entrance way was through one of the rock formations, how could we resist. The park road wound its way through caves and ponds, at one point we stopped to go check out the cave. We had barely stopped when we realized how many monkeys were right there checking us out. Must have been a family of over 50 monkeys hanging out in the cliffs and on the grass along the road. A park ranger pulled up and gave them bananas, they all came out running and fighting over the prizes. The ranger told us not to leave our possessions alone and sure enough there was already a big monkey on the bike. Graham headed off into a cave while I stayed back and watch the bikes. Good thing too, as soon as they could, the courageous ones were back on the bike and trying to steal things off them. They weren't scared of my objections in the slightest, the main big male just showed me his fangs before seeing if Grahams bag was tasty or if he could steal away the rain jacket. 

We kept driving from here, only stopping to be sure we hadn't missed our turn off. The road signs were obvious and we made it the Ao Nang with no issues. We had to wait a bit before check in so of course we settled yet again into a big Thai lunch. The curries are my favourite, so much flavour in every bite. We had  Thai Milk Tea with lunch which turned out to be a tasty, slightly sweet tea. Similar to a chai tea. 

We checked in and dropped straight into the pool. Another private pool, this time overlooking the Ao Nang Beach. The Andakiri Pool Villa are cute suites tucked into the mountain side. The pools are slightly less private (could use higher privacy walls) but the view is amazing. We are up on a little hill, over top of a palm tree farm and looking down on the town. We get a whole view of the beach and all the islands in the distance. We went to a local store and filled up our tiny fridge with Chang beers, soda water and a bottle of wine. Turns out you're not allowed to by alcohol of any kind between 2-5pm at stores, but they bent the rules a little bit for us. Back into the pool for a happy hour swim, beer and Thai party mix snack. We enjoyed the sunset through the clouds, we go a peek-a-boo view of the sun here and there but mostly the clouds were rolling in thick. 

Finally the forecasted rain starts. It's not too bad it you time it well between the intense waves and we make a plan for dinner. Finally we both agree maybe something other than Thai food for dinner tonight. We settle on pizza sounding good and found a really tasty looking Italian restaurant down on the waters edge. We weren't disappointed, bruschetta for an appetizer with margaritas (Graham) and wine (me), followed with a fungi risotto, boar bolognese and a simple stone cooked basil, garlic and tomato pizza. It was all happily devoured accompanied by lively Italian music. The rainstorms were thankfully still light and we didn't get too soaked heading back to the Villas.