Isaland beaches, caves, jungle tours and Vinnie Jones

So my last blog I was chatting bout the Loy Krathong festival. We met up with a Dutch couple - Loes and Houb, we met from a previous trip, and headed to the lagoon, where the locals had set up an area filled with food stalls and souviniers. There was also a stage with 'Thai' dancing (which looked more like Patpong dancing) and singing.

The Krathongs were beautiful, ours was made out of wild orchids and magnolia, with a candle and some incense placed in the middle. It's tradition to cut off part of your finger nail and a snip of your own hair then place it in the krathong - the idea being that all your bad luck (if you have had any) is drifted out to sea with the krathong. So anyways, we set our krathongs off into the lagoon - mine drifted to the right and Kee's drifted to the left! For the dutch couple - one drowned and her flower was burnt down from the candle, and the other sailed off with after all the incense had burned down....!! And eventually all krathongs ended up at the side of the lagoon, stuck under the bridge...not so romantic after all!!

After some diving in Phuket - Shark Point (where there were no sharks) and King Cruiser (a cargo ship wreck - pretty cool), we headed to Krabi. I'd seen many pictures of Krabi, with its lush water and beaches. But I was pretty damn disappointed when we arrived. We stayed in Ao Nang, where the beach was crammed with long-tail boats - making it impossible to swim. The only way to get to laze on a beach is to catch a long-tail to a nearby island. However, Ao Nang is a pretty buzzing place with lots of young travellers - which I did miss whilst I was in Phuket.

Anyways, the first night we met up with two American friends - Kristie and Darren - we met on the trek in Chiang Mai, and went to an Irish Bar. After a few drinks Kristie got chatting to the table of Swedish girls next to us, and all of a sudden she turned and shouted out "Hey that guy with these swedish girls is from Snatch, names Vinnie?". We looked over and there, sitting right next to us was Vinnie Jones. Ok, not that exciting, but still, he was someone I'd seen on TV and films!! Turned out, this family man, had chatted up these Swedish girls on the beach, and ended up spending the whole day with them.... hmmm... maybe this is something i could sell to The Sun - Vinnie's Swedish Foursome in Paradise... But anyways, being my drunk self, I went up to him introduced my self and got a pic with him, sitting on his lap! The rest of the night was pretty fun, with people dancing on tables and singing Irish songs!

Yesterday, we decided to grab a long-tail and do some island hopping. It was only 800Bt (just over 10 pounds) to charter the boat for the whole day. We visited Phra Nang Cave (Princess cave), where the cave has a shrine to princess Nang, which consists of a mini statue and carvings of dicks...(yeh, wierd) - theres a story behind it - something about her never marrying i think... Anyway, it was a pretty crowded beach (because its the cheapest to get to) so we charged onto Chicken and Tub Island. This was the most bbbbeeeeautiful beach i had ever seen. The Tub Island is joined to Chicken by a long sand bar, and the water is crystal clear. Reason why its called Chicken island is purely cos the rock that juts out from the island looks like a chicken head. We finished off the trip at Poda Island, which again was gorgeous - peaceful and fabulous for swimming.


Ok, so finally I get to today!! This blogging is tired business...

So today, we went on, i think one of best tours in Thailand, for me, so far. We went to visit and natural hot spring waterfall right in the middle of a low-lying rainforest. It was lurrvely! The water was warm and i felt like i could soak in it for hours! Then we headed to another natural pool - the Emerald pool - again, in the middle of another rainforest. This was the most amazing natural site i had ever seen. After trekking deep into the forest for 20 mins, we came to a crystal clear pool that looked literally like a hotel swimming pool. It was fantastic to swim in as the water came from a fresh water stream but was warm....it was heaven....We finished off the tour at Tiger Cave temple, where it was said to be inhabited by a tiger and a famous monk. Set behind the caves was an awesome rainforest filled with giant trees, gibbons, squirrels, monkeys and birds. I think that if anyone comes to this part of Thailand, i would fully recommend this tour!! An absolute must!

So tomorrow, some more diving then off to Koh Lanta..