We went for dinner and then to book some trips as Andy only had a few days left with us. We decided on a day of kayaking followed by an elephant trek and a day of snorkelling around Hong Island.
The next morning we awoke early as we were being picked up for our snorkelling trip at 8.15am. We shouldn't have bothered getting up so early though as our pickup didn't arrive until 9.30am! We were taken to a beach nearby and then onto a longboat. We stopped at Red Island first to do some snorkelling. The fish here were amazing, so unfazed by the fact that there were people in the water around them. You could get really close and they wouldn't swim away. Got some really cool photos here of us all surrounded by fish. Then we went to emerald lagoon, this was really beautiful. We weren't allowed to swim here but we stayed for a while so we could get some nice photos. We went to Paradise beach for some lunch. We did a wee bit of snorkelling here too but there wasnt much to see. Finally, it was off to Hong Island which again was just beautiful. I did some sunbathing here while Kay and Andy went for a wee walk around the island. This island had been affected by the tsunami in 2004 and they had just left the washed up boats in the jungle. After we got back to Ao Nang we showered and went for some dinner. I caught up with a few people over FaceTime and then we had a early night in preparation for our trip the next day.
We were picked up the next morning and taken to another part of Krabi to do our half day kayaking. The three of us had to go in one kayak which was a bit rubbish as it meant the person in the middle couldn't do any paddling. Myself and Kay decided we would take turns. This meant having to swap over in the middle of the lake! It must have been quite a sight, me crawling through Kay's legs while we tried to keep the kayak stable. We spent a few hours kayaking around an island, there were points when we needed to lean back to get under the branches of some mangroves. We visited some small caves too and saw some big lizards in the water. The guide kept telling people they were baby crocodiles to try and scare them. The guide was the usual chilled out Thai type, he didn't seem even remotely fazed that we lost half of our group while going around....I hope they're ok!
After our kayaking we were off to do an elephant trek. We got to do an hour long trek which included some splashing around in the river with them. Although we really enjoyed our time with the elephants I wasn't too sure how well they were being looked after. The elephants that we had spent time with in India weren't tied up at all while we were with them and were really good natured things. The ones in Thailand, by comparison, were tied up and put in a barbed wire fence when they weren't being ridden. They also used seats on the backs of the elephants which is supposed to be less comfortable for them whereas the ones in India were ridden bare back. We've been told that there are some great places up in Chaing mai for elephants so we might go again when we are there.
Once back at our accommodation I sat and tried to whittle my belongings down to a manageable amount. Andy had very kindly offered to swap bags with me and take mine home with him. My bag was a 120l monstrosity on wheels. It hadn't coped very well with the terrain in India and by then had a small hole in the bottom as it had stopped wheeling due to the bottom collapsing! My bag weighted about 30kg so I needed to get it down to at least 20kg so that I could carry the stuff on my back. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. There was so much clothes that I brought that I hadn't worn in the almost two months I'd been away, so that all got chucked. I'd also taken quite a few pairs of trousers for India as you really need to cover up there but the countries we are going to from now on aren't so bad. I only really need a couple of pairs for when we are visiting temples. I also ditched about 6 bikinis because who needs 10 bikinis! There were a few other bits and bobs that I managed to get rid of and somehow got my bag down to 17kg (before insulin which is about 4-5kg). We then went for dinner at a wee place across the road which did lovely Thai food and while there we noticed that they did rooms for 500 baht, ours was 1200! We went to have a look at them and they were really nice, more like a wee flat with a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom - they even had a fridge! It's a shame we didn't see this earlier as it would have been ideal for the 3 of us. Myself and Kay booked in for the following night as we were yet to make any plans for onward travel. It was Andy's last night with us in Thailand so I decided to give them some space and stayed in sorting my belongs and ensuring they would all fit into Andy's 70l bag while they went out for a few drinks.
The next morning we checked out of our hut and checked into our wee 'flat' across the road. We went for a walk to find a market that we'd seen on the way to one of our trips but, either it was further away that we thought or we went in the wrong direction. Either way, we didn't manage to find it. We had some nice smoothies on the way back and then walked along the beach for a while. We headed back up to our accommodation as it was getting near the time that Andy would be leaving for the airport. It was sad to see Andy go, it was really nice having him around for a couple of weeks.
After dinner myself and Kay had decided that we would go to Phuket since it was close by and we'd heard a lot about it. We locked our room and the front door of the flat and went off to book a bus. After coming back from booking the bus we couldn't get into our room. Turns out the two keys we had were both for the front door and not one for the bedroom door like we thought. We went to find the lady who ran the place to tell her our problem and she sent her Swiss boyfriend back with us to sort it out. They didn't have a spare key for this lock and so the Swiss guy, who was quite tall I may add, had to get some ladders and break into our room using the wee windows at the top which were thankfully only covered with mosquito nets. Me and Kay were trying so hard not to laugh out loud when he went head first through the hole and crashed down on the other side! Kay ended up having to go outside as she couldn't hold it in any longer! Luckily for us though he did manage to get us back into our room.
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