Ao Nang... Where do I even begin! This beautiful beach town was probably my favorite place thus far. There were tons of hotels, restaurants, shopping and of course beaches!
We stayed in Ao Nang for only two nights and I really wish we had stayed longer. There was tons to do and see! Our favorite part of Ao Nang was window shopping at night. There were so many shops and tons of tourists out that it was great to people watch!
We even got to see a few lady boys out promoting their show! It was hilarious because they loved Cameron! They kept following him around wherever we went.
There were so many back ally ways filled with bars! It was so hard to choose where we were going to eat, but if you know us, you know that were pretty cheap so we stuck to the street food. The food is so cheap, it cost's us roughly $4 CAD to both enjoy a huge plate of fried rice.
To be honest, we have pretty much been on a 3 week fried rice with chicken and prawn diet!! Its so delicious and cheap, how can you go wrong!
After two days in Ao Nang, we booked a fairy ride from Krabi to Koh Lanta for $10 each that took about 2 hours.
If you are ever in Thailand I would highly recommend Ao Nang, its gorgeous and there is so much to do and see! We are definitely heading back there after our week here in Koh Lanta!
Below are some pictures of our time in Ao Nang! Enjoy!
PINE BUNGALOWS - KRABI, THAILAND
After leaving Bangkok & being on a bus for 12 hours Cameron and I were very happy to arrive in Krabi! Krabi is a province in Thailand that is located on the south end near the islands.
In Krabi we found an amazing place called Pine Bungalows. Pine bungalows is situated on a very quite private beach that was about 15 minutes outside of Ao Nang. We LOVED Pine Bungalows.
We got our own private bungalow for about $15 Canadian.
We stayed a total of 3 nights here and loved every minute. We were roughly 50 steps to the private beach & also had a restaurant on site. The prices were a lot higher then other places we had been to but the food was fantastic and worth the money.
On one of our first nights we took a walk into the small town that was about a 5 minute walk from our small resort. The town had a cute little market where we picked up some fresh fruit and some essentials that we needed. On our walk back to our resort we saw a few signs and people setting up for some big festival, we asked one of the locals what was happening and he told us we were lucky to be in town. There was going to be a huge festival for the next 3 days where there would be a famous Thai band, dancing, food, and tons of shopping. We were so excited!!
After a good nights sleep we woke up and decided to make today a beach day! We had the water to ourselves and got an awesome spot on the beach with 2 hammocks side by side. After relaxing all day we decided to head down to the festival.
The festival was amazing!! So many great street foods and TONS of shopping! Cameron and I both got some new sunglasses at a combined price of $4 CAD.
As the night went on we decided to go watch the live entertainment and watch the bands play. We sat on the beach and got some drinks and enjoyed the music & entertainment for the rest of the night.
On our last day at Pine Bungalows we decided to take it easy and enjoy the scenery. We relaxed all day on the beach and couldn't have asked for more. After a busy few nights in Bangkok it was nice to unwind on the beach and just relax. We knew that after Pine Bungalows we wanted to stay in Krabi province and check out a few more great places, we did a little research that night and decided our next stop would be Ao Nang!
BANGKOK - OUR FIRST DAY!
Bangkok... where to begin! The city was gorgeous and there was SO much to do! BUT it was also very stressful. Since it was our first time in a foreign country Bangkok really took a lot out of us. We had done a lot of research on scams to avoid but still managed to fall into some scam artist and some tricky tuk tuk drivers.
On our first day out exploring we knew we wanted to head straight to Koh San Road, a popular road for backpackers that had tons of great shopping and awesome street food. On our way there we were approached by numerous people asking us where we were going and if we wanted to take a tuk tuk. All of these people kept telling us that for today only there were 3 temples you could visit and it was free because it was some type of holiday. They all mentioned that the tuk tuk could take you for 60 baht & then drop us at Koh San Road. We turned down each person and continued on our way.
All of a sudden we run into this very nice women who saw Cameron's Jay's hat and said hey! your from Canada! My brother is in Montreal. At the time we thought this lady was just being super nice and wanting to talk. She gave us great advice on things to see and places to go. She then also mentioned the same 3 temples to visit & said the same thing about it being a holiday and we MUST see it today, however she told us it should only be 40 baht. She then asked if we wanted her to call a tuk tuk for us and tell him where we wanted to go. We agreed. After getting in the tuk tuk we thought this was a great deal we found! The tuk tuk driver took us to 2 different golden Buddha's & we were having so much fun riding around on the crazy streets of Bangkok. All of a sudden the tuk tuk driver drops us off in front of a tourist shop & tells us he will wait there. We thought that's because we had told the other women we needed to buy bus tickets to get to Krabi that she must have told our tuk tuk driver and that's why we were here. We were wrong! The tourist shop was filled with tourists like us who were about to be scammed into buying expensive trips to Chang Mai or to the islands. We sat down and listened to what the guy had to say and at first we almost bought into it!
We knew we could do the trip for way cheaper than he was offering so declined his offer and left. Once back in the tuk tuk we thought we would be going to our last temple and then off to Koh San road... Nope! We pulled up to another tourist place where the tuk tuk told us we have to go in because he gets free food for dropping us off there. We said No! Take us to Koh San, we are sick of this! He then argued with us & told him we look bad because we keep saying no to all these travel agents. After arguing with our tuk the drops us off down the road and points to koh san which was about 200 meters away, we got out gave our money. Of course didn't receive change back as he jetted off.
We ended up only seeing two Buddhas which we then realized were free everyday and the lady we thought was so nice was actually working with the tuk tuk drivers. Needless to say, that was our last tuk tuk in Bangkok.
We were so tired at this point since we had landed earlier that morning and jet leg was slowing kicking in. We headed to what we knew best which was McDonald's! We knew we wanted to try McDonald's in Thailand since we love it so much at home.
After enjoying our food we took a walk over to Koh San road and walked up and down the street a few times checking out all the neat clothing, bags, etc!
It was about 6pm and we were so tired!! We had been haggled all day and the sun and lack of water had now hit us! We returned to our hotel and decided to hit the sheets since we knew the next day would be full of excitement seeing the Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha and Wat Arun!
Here's a few pictures from our first day in Bangkok
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