Silja: Ao Nang (2)

It has been a while since the last entry and since then we have become more acquainted with both country and lifestyle. When on holiday as a family we like to be self-contained and do usually not choose to stay in hotels, where a room for the 5 of us is often hard to come by. However, we discovered that it is wonderful to just get up in the morning and go to a ready-made breakfast buffet where everyone can choose according to their own liking and have someone else do the cleaning and washing.
(To be quite honest: I am still a bit uncomfortable with the latter.)

By now we have fallen into a completely different pace, taking a trip every other day or so, but spending hours on the terrace or at the pool.

A year ago my friend Simone had moved to Thailand but since she had been moving around quite a bit I was very surprised to find out that she was only a short boat ride away!

Fish fighting over a piece of Lea's banana

Excitedly we all got on a long tail boat at Ao Nang Beach and got off at Railay West - and there she was!!! After the kids had enjoyed the beach for a while and we had done some catching-up, she took us to a view point, for which we climbed up a steep, slightly muddy wall on ropes. With the children we decided against climbing down to the lagoon in such muddy conditions. Instead we went on to the famous Phranang Beach for a swim and lunch off a boat. At one end of the beach we then entered the mangroves and climbed up to Bat Cave. Even though only Simone and Axel had a light, we went deeper and deeper into the pitch-black cave and climbed dodgy bamboo ladders up and through the rock until we could look down through this hole at the other end. What a great adventure! Especially Niklas was very pleased with that day!
Our next adventure was an organized boat trip to several islands with snorkeling as an objective. Even though the corals are quite damaged, the snorkeling was the best I have ever done! Especially at Daeng Island there were sooo many colourful fish that came to check out the boat and us. Lisa was quite freaked out by the fact that some took little bites to taste us, too. Even though they are said to leave your skin smooth by eating old skin cells, she did not appreciate the favour. Lea was not quite comfortable bobbing in the great big ocean either and returned to the boat where an older German couple gave her bananas to feed the fish - so she got to see lots of fish, too!
After a round through Hong's Lagoon, we were served lunch on fantastic Lading Island, before a last round of swimming and snorkeling on Hong beach.
At 4 o'clock we returned to Ao Nang Beach with two sleeping children (Lea and Niklas) and more unforgettable memories.