2025 Thailand – Ao Nang
18th January 2005
We moved to our new hotel in Ao Nang and although it was a come down after the Sofitel, it was still a good hotel with excellent staff although the owner had some strange ideas. It was only a year old and yet it was designed without hot water in the bathroom wash basin .” It was a large room and yet there was not a single cupboard, drawer or even shelf to put clothes on so we had to live out of suitcases all week. They provided bath towels but nowhere to put them. They had a room safe but it was not screwed down so anyone could walk off with it. Of course, these were small things and we enjoyed our week there.
Our first morning at Ao Nang beach was also a bit of a comedown as it was so busy and so many bars were playing loud techno music but at the end of the road was a beach club where they hired sunbeds with trees for shade so once we settled there for the day I felt much happier. There was a lot of noise from the longboats but ironically I was grateful for it because with that and the waves I couldn’t hear the music being played by the person next to us.
They had a restaurant with an enormous menu but the only thing I found any good was the chicken with cashew sauce. One day I asked for fish and chips and when it was served I removed some batter to find the fish all mushy, like you could scrape it out with a knife and spread it on a slice of bread. I had no idea if it was safe to eat but I knew fish shouldn’t have that consistency so I sent it back. I read that it was caused by fish being frozen and thawed too quickly. The manager came over and didn’t look too happy but agreed to change it so I chose spring rolls instead. I didn’t particularly want them but I was under pressure and had to decide quickly. They were terrible and I was going to leave them when I saw Federika had left half of her Thai Green Curry. It was one of my favourite dishes but in Thailand, it was served as a soup which I was not so keen on. I had the idea of pouring some of the curry soup into the spring rolls so they became quite edible. I don’t know if the manager took offence and spiked the spring rolls or if it was not a good combination with the green curry sauce, but that night I had a bad stomach ache.
I enjoyed walking around the lively town and was surprised at how many cannabis shops there were and how the laws regarding its use were so completely ignored. Cannabis was decriminalized in 2022 and anyone over 20 years old could buy it, but shops didn’t ask for an ID. They were only allowed to sell very weak cannabis unless someone had a prescription but strengths 100 times the limit were readily available. It was illegal to smoke it in public but you couldn’t walk ten metres without smelling it, including in bars and restaurants. It was sold in every conceivable form and apart from the usual cookies, you could also buy cocktails, ice cream and there were even “Cannabis Cuisine” restaurants. Every evening our hotel room was filled with the strong smell of cannabis from the balconies below. If laws were being openly flouted I had no doubt that weed wasn’t the only recreational drug that was available in the shops as there were no inspections by authorities.
What made me laugh was that next to, or even inside the weed shops there was nearly always a tattoo shop so there must be some connection between the two. I had never been anywhere with so many heavily tattooed people. Some were covered from head to foot and one woman we thought was wearing black tights turned out to have her legs tattooed solid black. There was a backlash from the Thai people and it was announced in 2024 that it would be banned for recreational use at the end of the year but that was never going to happen with so much money being made from it. 
So according to the Thai authorities, diazepam was a narcotic which had to be strictly controlled and needed permission to bring into the country but once through customs, I was free to blow my brains out with weed every night.
It wasn’t easy finding a really good restaurant but the Reeve Beach Club was highly recommended so we there one night. There was a big queue at the front door which put us off but there were plenty of tables inside so the queue went down quickly. They had an interesting system which I hadn’t seen before. There were four zones of tables, each with a minimum spend, depending on how well-situated the table was. Zone 1 was the cheapest table with a minimum spend of £30. The prices increased until zone 4 with a minimum spend of £90 which was quite a lot by Thai standards even if four people were sharing a table. Only Zone 1 and Zone 4 had tables available so we went for Zone 1 which was upstairs but still a very nice table. I had the seafood risotto which was full of high-quality seafood and large prawns so I was very happy and federika had the Avocado and Crab salad. She loved both ingredients so it sounded like a match made in heaven but it looked more like a starter and the avocado was mashed up, so it was disappointing.
When we were last in Thailand in 2013 there were fire shows everywhere which were quite entertaining but got a bit monotonous after 10 minutes. At 9.30 pm there was a big fanfare and a fire show was announced which was put on by the restaurant. It was held on the beach in front of us so we all rushed to the railings to have a look. It was like nothing I had ever seen before with the fire dancers combining fire with fireworks so at times they looked like human catherine wheels. The skill they showed was amazing and so entertaining. At one point one of the young men came to our level and walked around, sometimes juggling the fire around peoples’ heads. The finale came when they lit a structure on the beach and the word REEVE was lit up with fire. 
20th January 2025
At last we got around to going on a boat tour. It was a four-island private tour on a longboat. We were picked up at our hotel and driven ten kilometres to our boat and driver. I knew the motor would be very noisy so I had brought some earplugs with me so it didn’t bother me. Our first stop was Poda Island. We pulled up alongside dozens of other longboats and followed the line of people walking across to the other side of the island where the beach was much quieter than I expected. It was a beautiful setting and I was surprised how much cleaner the water was than on the mainland. 
I lay on the sand while Federika went off for a swim but returned much sooner than she usually did. She had swam quite a long way out when she felt something bite her leg so she had never swam so fast to get back to shore. It wasn’t a bad bite, just unexpected and of course you never know if it is going to be followed up by a full mouthful. We had a good laugh and then both went into the sea together. We were treading water when I felt a nip on my leg. It was only a tiny nip but still a bit of a shock and with the water being so clear I could see the fish were small and couldn’t do any damage. A minute later I got another bite followed up by a much bigger bite. It was still nothing serious and didn’t draw blood but that was enough for me.
The next stop was Tup Island which was smaller and very busy so I struggled to find a place in the shade as we were only there half an hour so I didn’t bother to swim. 
I enjoyed swimming but nothing like Federika who was never so happy as when she was gliding through the water like a mermaid. Next stop was supposed to be Chicken Island, so called because, with a stretch of the imagination and a few puffs of weed, it looked a bit like a chicken. We must have been 100 metres from the island when our driver asked if we wanted to swim to shore but even if we had wanted to, there wouldn’t have been enough time to stay there. 
So we went on to Railey Island which was our last stop. We followed a path to the other side of the island and came across an area which was full of very impressive stalactites. I had seen them many times before but they were always in a cave and usually with water still running down them. This was out in the open and looked like they had remained dormant for centuries.
The small beach was packed with people but we managed to find a little spot with shade and for once I was first in the sea. I was drying off when I saw a man sitting not far from us take out a sandwich. In the time it took to unwrap it, a monkey had come down from a nearby tree and snatched the sandwich from his hand as he was taking his first bite. It gave him quite a shock and of course, everyone thought it was hysterical. The monkey went back up the tree and a minute later it came down to take a bite out of a banana that a woman was putting in her mouth. The monkey was preparing to jump again so the woman wisely through the banana on the floor for the monkey to devour. It knew there was more food around so it waited there patiently. While it was waiting, a young woman stupidly attempted to stroke it but fortunately for her, the monkey was content with making a very nasty hissing sound to warn her off. It then made another attempt at jumping up at the first woman who was chewing on something but it must have seen it wasn’t very interesting so it went back up the tree.
We returned to the boat and by the time we got back to the hotel to chill out for the rest of the day.
Next day we went back to our beach club and as always, Federika was the first in for a swim. She wasn’t there long as she said the sea smelt bad and was filthy. I did a quick Google search and saw that the area had a problem with raw sewage that was connected to the wastewater system and flowed directly into the sea. I never do much swimming on holiday and enjoy just sitting on a sunbed reading for most of the day but it put Federika off although she still had the occasional dip. I was constantly irritated by people using mobile speakerphones to talk or play videos so I started carrying headphones around with me and by playing background music it dulled the sound of speakerphones. Halfway through the afternoon a Russian woman sat on the sunbed next to us and gave her young child some kind of plastic toy that played nursery rhymes loudly and she was too engrossed in her mobile phone to seem to notice. I went for a longer swim than usual to get away from it and when I returned I was surprised to find that even Federika was also annoyed by it and she was much more tolerant than me. As it was getting late, we decided to leave early.
A couple of times we went to the night market which was good fun. There was a large square in the middle that was full of tables that served drinks and the idea was to go to the food market where dozens of stalls were selling street food. The first time we went we bought our food but couldn’t find anywhere to sit even though there must have been 100 tables. We found one eventually but on future visits, one of us went to get the food while the other went to get a table. The food was pretty bad but it was fun and there was a large stage with live music every night.
We found another good restaurant not far from our restaurant called Ali Baba which served mainly Indian food. Right next to it was a tailor which was great because Federika was keen to get a jacket made so after eating I stayed in the restaurant enjoying another beer while Federika went next door to get measured up.
At breakfast in our hotel the next morning we were chatting to a member of staff about the food poisoning Federika had in Bali which she thought was pretty bad until the girl told us they had a couple on honeymoon who were staying with them. They both got food poisoning on their first night and had to stay in bed for four days. The husband was so bad that he had to be put on a drip.
2025 Singapore
