it was just like a bath, warm and calm. total bliss.
i bought some goggles with me, and swam towards the rocks where i could see schools of tropical fish of all colors and sizes swimming around me. i love the feeling you get swimming with fish, that feeling you have entered another world so distant from our land-breathing one.
all in all it was so relaxing here at this resort.
i did nothing but swim, swim, eat, drink, read, sleep, and swim.
if only life could be a bit more like this....
Ao Prao Resort - อ่าวพร้าวรีสอร์ท
Ao Prao Resort - อ่าวพร้าวรีสอร์ท
for one of the days we hired a scooter (automatic = 400 bhat) to zoom around the island and check out some other beaches.
to hire the scooter we didn't need a drivers licence or anything. they didn't even ask us for our passports!
so off we went (no helmets of course) on those pot-holed tracks. i'm amazed we didn't skid on the gravel during this adventure because some of the tracks were pretty steep and not made for scooters!
and after a few drinks on the beach at night it was probably not the safest methods to get back to the resort, what with no street lights and wild dogs sleeping where ever they please!
after going back to the pier where we arrived to stock-up on snacks from 7-11, we headed down to the most "commercial" beach; Hat Sai Kaew or also known as "diamond beach" as the sand here is so white and soft!
but although the sand is amazing, it's not my kind of beach. OK, sure when i was "younger" it would have been cool, but it's pretty crowded, both day and night, lots of jet-skis and boats in the water, and way too "touristy" for my liking.
we scooted our way right down to the southern tip of the island (well, as far as the road could take us) to where the Paradee Resort & Spa is; looks like a beautiful resort and no doubt very expensive.
a few of the other beached dotted around the island were pretty nice but i have to say that i think we made the best choice in choosing Ao Prao; it was by far the best in my books.
other snaps of the island
top left: vendor at Hat Sai Kaew beach
top right: Hat Sai Kaew beach
bottom left: a beach...forgot the name
bottom right: away from the beaches you can see local life on the island
vendor & one of the many dogs on the island
on the final day, i so didn't want to leave...., i had another swim in that beautiful ocean before this time taking the free speed boat from the island back to the mainland.
wow, what a difference!
i got to sit on a real seat, and rather than the 30-40 minute ride on the ferry, we were back on the mainland in around 10 minutes.
i later found out that there was all along a speed boat service from Ban Phe, but departed from a different pier about 200 meters away.
oh well, i'm glad i got to experience both worlds.
From Ban Phe we caught the hourly bus that goes back to Bangkok's Ekamai bus terminal (around 3.5 hours). No stop on the way, but there was a very small toilet on the bus. i forgot the price of the ticket but it was a bit more expensive than the bus we took from the airport (i think around 150 baht); but much more comfortable with a cooler air conditioner and a complementary bottle of water for all.
2 comments:
wow- how many nights is this?
Even one must be heavenly at a place like this.
By the way, I thought the airport looked very futuristic- ver very nice indeed!
*pascale
just a few nights here. i soooo could have stayed longer! some people get bored doing nothing, but i could have done a week!!
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