Gone Since November: Fun in the sun!!

We would like to start this blog with some big news: our brother and sister-in-law, Neil and Erin, just announced the birth of their first son, Evan Jordan Majoros. Congrats to Neil and Erin and the entire Majoros family--he is such a cutey!!

Our last post was from Phuket Town, where we had been exploring the beaches of the Island of Phuket. Our last day in Phuket took us to a different area of beaches than the day before, an area we particularly enjoyed. We again took the local bus and this time stopped off at a beach town called Karon. Again, long white sandy beach, but this time a bit less commercial influence. The beach was still lined with beach chairs you could rent, but this time didn't have the same motorized water sport presence. It was quite a relaxing beach and a great place to soak up the rays.

At mid afternoon, we packed up from Karon beach and walked about 40 minutes down a nice path to the next bay over, which holds Kata beach. This beach was back to a bit more of the hustle and bustle of selling products on the beach that we'd come to expect from a Thai beach, but still very beautiful and a nice place to spend the rest of the afternoon.

The following day we packed up and headed out of Phuket Town. Our plan is to take the bus and train back up through Thailand, stopping at as many different beach towns that we can fit in. Our first stop was a three hour bus ride from Phuket Town to Krabi, the place we are going to use as our jumping off point for visiting Koh Phi Phi.

The bus ride was very uneventful. It was a little minibus that held about 15 people. Half Thais, half tourists. One interesting thing about Thai buses, is that you can get off wherever you want; just let the driver know, and he'll pull over so you can get out. Also, you can get picked up anywhere; just wave, and they'll let you in. As we are driving down major highways, this becomes quite interesting dropping off and picking up people as we go! We arrived in Krabi a little after noon and needing to catch a second bus (local bus this time) to get transferred into town. This worked out well for us--the local bus we got on first stopped in town, but then continued out to the beach! We decided this was a perfect opportunity to base ourselves at the beach, and travelled to Ao Nang for our few nights in this area.

It is Chinese New Year right now and there are lots of tourists about. Good thing we arrived when we did--we paid over double what we usually have been paying for a room, but at least we got a room. There were backpackers showing up at our hotel all night long looking for rooms, but we got the last one! We are in a very nice spot, right across the road from the beach. We used our location wisely, and parked ourselves on the beach once we got settled into town. This beach is AMAZING!!! Again, long white sand beach, but this time the horizon is dotted with little islands--some have nice looking beaches, others are just cliff faces. This area of Krabi is known for its rock climbing, and we could see why!

Our evening consisted of a sunset walk on the beach, a nice dinner at a traditional Thai restaurant, and then a dip in our pool while listening to the live music at the bar next door. This town has lots of nightlife and the streets were full of tourists shopping and exploring. One neat thing we saw the street vendors selling was Thai lanterns. You take a white paper lantern and decorate it with a wish. Then you light a fire, creating almost a hot air balloon, and send your wish out into the world. We got to watch a number of lanterns set off, which look quite neat in the dark night sky.

Today we are taking a long boat to one of the nearby beaches. Then we've got plans to visit Koh Phi Phi, so stay tuned to hear about the most beautiful beaches in Thailand!!

Photos from Karon and Kata Beach, on the Island of Phuket: