The other highlight of our trip to AoNang was a spot of island hopping. As it rained the day before, we were a bit dubious about booking the trip in advance, so we just showed up at 8am at the travel office. We headed off on the back of a truck to the long-tailed boat, each stop we accumulated more people and each stop Aaron and I looked at each other and wondered just how many more would fit. In the end, there were about 15-20 people on the tour, mostly Thai's.

Climbing into the long-tailed boat, we looked for our 'supplied life-jackets' but could only see 2, and they were both tied to the side of the boat (maybe to keep it afloat). The first leg of the trip was to visit Railay Beach and some caves. The caves were really just overhangs, but the beach was very pretty. Railay beach is one of the flashest ones down there, and is only accessible by boat. It is also home to a resort where guests pay 190,000B a night ($6,000NZ) and get 2 maids and their own personal barman.

Next it was off to another nice sandy island for lunch of chicken and rice. Then we went for a swim and endeavored to find some fishy's. The fishes at this island were far and few between and we thought we'd been had, but it was all resurrected later in the day.

After lunch we headed past Chicken Island (the only island I can remember the name of, you can see why in the pic) onto the snorkelling. The snorkelling was pretty good, we were in the water for about 45mins and saw all sorts of tropical fish and coral. Some of the coral was dead (probably from the boats, which is sad), but there was quite a bit of life down there including some anenomes which were home to Nemo fish.

On the way home, we went to 3 islands quite close together that you could walk between when the tide was low. By then we were starting to feel the sunburn on our backs and the backs of our legs from the snorkelling and were pretty ready to head home.

All and all, and awesome (and exhausting) day. Can't beat the value we got for 300B ($12) each - the boat trip, snorkelling gear, water, lunch, and fruit. We were out from 9am - 5pm.

Up early in the morning, we headed north to Ban Bor Thor (about an hour drive). Jumped in a double canoe, there was one other couple and our guide. We causually drifted around the maze of mangrove forests. They seemed never ending, and we never actually did find the end.

As the always, it was hot and the sun was beaming. So avoiding sunburn with great skill, we got to enjoy some fantastic views. We plotted out some caves before lunch, they were almost pitch black except for the constant flashing of our cameras.

The whole day cost $NZ40 each, which included transport, the guide, the canoes, water/fizz and food. The food was amazing, the four of us sat down for lunch and a good 8 plates of different dishes was presented.

After lunch, we hit the mangroves again and saw some native cave paintings which they claimed were a couple thousand years old. We might believe them, maybe not. On the way back, we stopped at some fresh water springs for a swim. By this time we were so exhausted from the days kayaking that we just used it as a tourist stop and watched a swarm (it was Sunday) of natives go for a swim. At the spring, one of guide treated us to some local foods, a sticky sweet coconut paste and some friend banana slices. It was pretty good, but you wouldn't want to live off it.

Well, it seems that we managed to stay in about the nicest hotel in AoNang. As off-season started on the 1st of May, we paid about 1/3 of the normal rates, and only had to walk through the hotel to get to the beach and had the choice of 2 swimming pools.

AoNang beach is about 1/2 hr away from Krabi, and is far, far nicer. It is pretty small, and the main street is only about 1km long, but it is a perfect location to base yourself if you want to go island-hopping.

We were pretty lucky with the weather considering it is the start of rainy season. Of our 5 days down there, it only rained twice on the same day (for about an hour each time). The first time was early in the morning and the second time was after lunch, so we ducked in for a quick Thai massage. The massage lasted 1hr and cost 200B each ($8NZ). It was pretty good, but also pretty weird. Thai massage involves a combination of normal massage and also some weird stretching - I wish I had photos!

Big hello to Jason and Yoila, a couple of Canadians over here in Thailand for a few months of hard-core kick-boxing training. We managed to bump into them quite a few times and went out to play pool one night. These guys are machines, they go for 10km runs each morning (in the Thailand heat!!!) and when they go to Chang Mai to train their day consists of a 6am start, a 10km run, 3-4 hours morning training, 1hr of skipping with a lead-weighted rope, then a couple more hours of training. Hope to catch you guys again some day, send those photos through and we'll put them on the sight.