Today we drove north along the western coast of Thailand, from Satun to Krabi. The scenery (when we could see it through the rain) was fantastic. This part of Thailand is covered in limestone karst formations. This means big rock cliffs randomly jutting out from the countryside every now and then.
We thought that we would stay at Ao Nang, but when we arrived, the small town was devoted 100% to tourists. We weren't really in the mood for being surrounded by sunburned Europeans and aggressive Thai vendors, so we drove on to the next beach, which is a national park. Using a small paragraph in the Lonely Planet and asking around, we found a great secluded beach bungalow.
The bungalow was so secluded, in fact, we had to take a long-tail boat to get there. When we arrived, we saw that we would have the beach to ourselves with great views of the karst islands. The beach itself was covered in big seashells, sand dollars, and starfish that had washed up the night before, with all sizes of bu talay (sea crabs) running around the sand. And all of this for the amazing price of 250 baht (US$6) a night.
