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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“really strange to see 7 year old kids kicking each other with such venum” |
Booked a 10,20am flight from Bangkok to Krabi with Air Asia as neither of us could face the 16 hour bus journey. Was worth every penny of the 25 pound each air fare. When we arrived at Bangkok airport to checkin we had some time before the desk opened so had a word with the tourist desk there about some accomodation in Krabi. We somehow got the speel for a very very nice hotel on Ao Nang beach which is around 30 min taxi ride from Krabi airport. The hotel would cost us 1,900 baht for the room which is around 28 pounds - how much! Bearing in mind our other hotels have on average cost us under a tenner this was a positive spurge. However, we had roughed it for a little while and thought we could justify a nice couple of days.
After a rather non eventful flight and no excess baggage charges this time! We arrived in a rather cloudy Krabi. We left the airport arrivals hall and found a driver holding up our name on his little plastic board - what luxury, we were already impressed! We had a whole minibus to ourselves - more luxury, and arrived in Ao Nang in a very happy mood.
Our hotel Aonang Buri Resort was lovely and completely deserted, it felt like we were the only ones there. We checked into our lovely aircon room - see photo and went for a look around. Aonang is a really lovely relaxing, chilled out place and was so good to be able to leave our valuables at the hotel (we even had safe box in the room) and not have to wear our money belts all the time.
Had an afternoon in the pool - again we were the only ones here. It felt like our own private villa.
The thing we noticed about this time of year in Krabi is that it rained around lunch time every day. Not just your average run of the mill rain, but monsoon mad rain that soaks you through in minutes and gives no obvious warning beforehand. We soon worked out that you have to watch the local traders. They have a sixth sense for these things and you can see then starting to put the plastic waterproof over their goods around 5 mins before the rains come.
We found the most lovely friendly bar tender in Aonang. He had a small 'barrow' selling beers etc on the side of the road, and his patrons just sat on plastic chairs which lined either side of the pavement - very us. He had only one rule in his establishment. Whoever was last to arrive had to recruit the next person - complete role reversal. We only sat there because two Brits kept asking us to join them for a drink - cheapest prices in Krabi etc. It certainly worked as when we arrived there was only 4 of us and one hour later there was 22!
We saw our first Thai boxing match at Krabi Stadium. There were 8 matches of 5 rounds each (each round lasts for 3 mins with a 2 min interval). The first couple of matches were between children - really strange to see 7 year old kids kicking each other with such venum and being cheered on by their Dad's and half the village. As the evening progressed the boxers got older and older. The most interesting thing for me was the rituals they have before each game. The boxers come into the ring and bow to each other, then they walk anti-clockwise around the ring and bow in each corner and to each referee. They then take off their head dress and it is placed over the pole in their corner. The match then begins and basically nothing is barred. They can kick and punch with their legs, arms - anything apart from their head. In each interval ice is rubbed into the boxers legs before the match starts again. Really enjoyable. The tickets cost 600 baht each for normal or 1,000 baht each for ring side 'sofa' tickets. That would have been too close for us so we opted for the normal tickets which was a good choice.
We also found an Irish Bar on the main street called 'O'Malleys' - My Mam's maiden name - well if you skip the O, so had to have my photo taken!
previous travel blog entry
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