I was last here with Ant a few years ago, so decided to come back and see what's changed. Good old Bangkok Airways got me here in another trusty prop plane and I braved the airport shuttle bus (airconditioning equals rusty old fans....) for the 45 minute trip to Ao Nang. My bag, as scuffed and well travelled as it is, still stood out among the piles of other luggage, all of them backpacks and most got off in Krabi town to take boats to the various islands, not by themselves of course, accompanied by their gap year owners!
But battered or not my £3 ride dropped me off at my hotel. I check into my room only to find a group of Ozzies holding a pool party outside. Well, it was rude to ignore their invitation and I spent the afternoon, feet in the cool pool, trying out their rather nice, newly invented cocktail, the Tasmanian Moon. Thai whiskey, lime, ice and ginger ale, surprisingly refreshing. I managed two but they had been at them since ten that morning (I was still at my hotel in Koh Samui at that time...) and I think the by next morning they had rechristened them the Tasmanian Devil! But they were a great bunch of people.
The hotel, the Ao Nang Nagapura is in a newish hotel area between Ao Nang beach where all the "shopping" is and Nopparat Thara, the long, narrow, white sand beach which is for "relaxation". It's just a few minutes walk to either one. I explore Ao Nang first, and remember the spectacular views of the jagged islands in the distance. The beach, whilst very pretty is not a sitting on kind of a beach. It is the place where all the longtail boats go to wherever you want, including the hotel Ant and I stayed in last time which was accessible only by boat. Ao Nang is actually nicer and tidier than I remember and it is more of a family resort, I think the real partying goes on on the islands. It's weird how different areas seem to have different nationalities of tourists, here, no Russian's, mainly Finn's and Australian's with a few Brit's thrown in. The shops which I remember well for fake DVD's are still there, but the fake Croc's that were everywhere then (in fact it was the first time we had really seen them), have been replaced with fake Haviana's! Nopparat Thara is much quieter, apart from at each end where there are more longtail boats for hire, it's just a long stretch of pretty beach and calm water. But Krabi province doesn't allow sunbeds on any beaches so if you want to spend time there you have to camp out on your beach towel! But they also have little sitting areas where I spent a while until I was joined by a large Thai family. Apart from gleaning that they were from Surat Thani (not even sure whether that was the city or the province) and they were all one extended family, neither of us understood anything else. And with the lack of sense of personal space that you often find here, I was soon crowded in as they inspected everything from my ereader to exclaiming over the measle like mozzie bites across my shoulders I had acquired the day before! I was offered beer, and decided to take my leave before the food appeared. Refusing that really may have appeared rude! But a nice interlude.
The hotel has so far, proved good. It had some pretty bad Tripadvisor reviews but when I tried to change it everywhere else was booked, a combination of Easter for Europeans and Songkran for locals, looks like Tripadvisor is powerful. This place is empty, but the rooms are good and huge, the pool area amazing. The hotels around have all been built after this one and are cookie cutter hotels, lots of rooms on a small footprint. But this one does have a feeling of space. And I have treated myself (again, I hear you cry....) to a pool access room, so I can step off my big terrace right into the pool, lovely.
The one really weird thing is the huge grass expanse to one side of the pool which is festooned with a variety of lifesize animals from swans, to dogs to deer. And a few less than lifesize giraffes, bizarre!
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