THE VIEW POINT AND MONKEY TROUBLE ON THE WAY DOWN
It took about an hour to get to the top where we sat for a while recovering before really taking in the splendor of the surrounding views.After around half an hour taking it all in and paying our respects to the Buddha watching over these beautiful lands we made our way back down.
The downward trip was, in more than one way , a little more precarious than the tiring climb up. Firstly the steps were very steep in places and trickier going down. And then we came upon a very aggressive looking adult male monkey, sitting on the handrail at the side of the steps.
Not carrying anything, I passed him first trying not to show my nervousness. Then I encouraged Boon to do the same. As Boon passed, with a bottle of water in his hand, the monkey made a lunge for the bottle and then went after Boon who dashed down the steps , turning to throw the bottle at the monkey.
Having got what it was after, it stopped chasing and set to work getting at the water.
Full of satisfaction at having made the climb and got back down without being bitten by the monkey we then rode over to Ao Nang Beach for a relaxing afternoon, swimming and sleeping on the sand. This was about 30 minutes ride along good roads and great scenery on the way.
AO NANG BEACH
This is a busy seaside town built along one road that runs along the seafront and is lined with cafes, restaurants, and several boat tour operators.
The beach stretches further than the seafront road and is made up of lush golden sand. The view out to sea is spotted with islands and at the one end of the beach is a mountain rock that looks like a mini-volcano.
If you don’t want want to go on an organised tour but still fancy checking out the many Islands out, there are many long-tail boats that act as taxis to the small islands close by. Be aware that there may be an extra hourly charge for spending time on certain islands.
This is a well developed resort now so expect that to be reflected in the accommodation prices if you want to stay at one of the many hotels or guest houses, that said it will still be cheap compared to home.
DAY 6…KAYAKING AT BOH TOR
It was another early morning call to be up and ready for our transport to Boh Tor, to the west of Krabi, for our days kayaking.
About an hours drive, in a very nice air conditioned minibus, got us to this beautiful inlet.
The waterway wends its way around lush mangrove islands, huge green topped lumps of granite making a great impression on the skyline.
Our tour party was very small, being myself, Boon, and a Londoner with his Thai wife.
Our guide was a Thai guy in his mid twenties who was very friendly and funny and obviously took pride in his job, telling us all about the history of the lake and its islands. To my shame I didn’t actually take alot of it in, but only because I was awestruck at the natural beauty of the place. 
We had two sessions kayaking, about an hour and a half, before taking lunch at the lakeside restaurant,( in the price of the tour) and about the same after.
As a child I often used to imagine paddling about in a kayak, down narrow waterways, and I reveled in a childhood dream come true.
The guide took us into a few interesting places such as a long cave tunnel, and also stopped us and walked us through a set of dry caves where there are ancient cave paintings.
In the afternoon the wind got up quite strong and the currents created in the narrow waterways made it quite hard work returning to base, but I was well up for it so it was ok.
THA POM KHLONG SONG NAM NATURE TRAIL
When the kayaking was over, before heading home , the tour took us to a nearby nature trail which took in a fast running mountain stream, a short ‘safe’ section of which was set aside for swimming.
Testing the waters with my toe I quickly realised that the only way to get in was the sudden plunge. The water was so cold, but wonderfully refreshing.
A raised wooden walkway took us through the marshy mountain forest where there were many different plants, trees and butterflies to be seen.
The tour guide was happy to stay as long as we wanted and we had about an hour there before heading back to the guest house.
We spent our last evening back down at Nopharatara beach , getting food there and watching the sunset before getting an early night ready for our trip home.
DAY 7…GETTING BACK UP NORTH, UNBOOKED, CHRISTMAS WEEK
In the end it was no great problem getting home. Refusing the TATs offers of help to buy premium rate flight or train tickets we winged it by going to the local bus station, where Boon informed me that they are under an obligation to run buses as long as there are people wanting to travel at this time of year because so many Thais travel to their respective family homes for the New Year.
So after the mild panic, we managed to get a ride back to Bangkok in a very packed, but comfortable, air-con coach and after a couple of hours at the terminal in Bangkok, got a similar ride home to Chiang Mai, which actually got us back into Chiang Mai in the afternoon of the next day.
All in all a great holiday.
The road, on the whole, is very good and for the most part was quite empty.
The guest house had a very nice friendly feel to it, had a range of accommodation, from dorm beds to air con rooms. We settled on a double room with fan.
Having breakfast, I was joined by another guest, Martin, a German guy who had been living in America for 6 years. We discovered that we were heading in roughly the same direction and struck up a plan to travel together.Martin was a funny guy, after we convinced him to hire a motorcy, ( having never ridden one before), he then took an awfully long time tying his bags on, being somewhat overcautious. But each to his own:).
When the rain receded we carried on, very carefully, to our destination.
Beautiful , but not so big, after about 40 minutes there we decided to head back down and on to Maesai.
Boon went ahead with Martin to find some help. I carried on down, walking the bike, until they returned just 10 minutes later with a foot pump, borrowed from a repair shop nearby. After putting enough air in so that I could ride it slowly, we took the bike down to the workshop, where a very friendly guy replaced the inner tube in 10 minutes.Whilst waiting, some of the mechanics friends offered us local Thai ‘whiskey’. Not wanting to appear impolite, I accepted a small glass of the clear liquid, that tasted more like schnapps. Just as well that I just had the 1….it was extremely potent.
When we arrived there were many people there sitting outside the house, under a rough lean-to, drinking Thai whiskey. It was an interesting night, we received a warm welcome and the various people did their best to chat with us through Somboon.The striplight we were sitting under attracted hundreds of winged insects.
Waking early with a headache I joined boons aunt and younger brother as the boy prepared for school.
Sure enough the insects from the night before had been de-winged and fried up.
After breakfast we called in at the next ‘uncle’ who lived in one of the traditional wooden stilted houses, where another uncle was busy woodworking. This family was obviously better off and we were even able to get a heated shower and a more substantial breakfast. We stayed for nearly an hour, during which time I was offered a similar house down the lane.
Off for our next tour destination, 
These giant Buddhas are quite awe inspiring, especially in settings such as this.
After a fuel stop at Chiang Saen, there was another mountain range to cross and we took the opportunity to take another detour, to a waterfall tucked away in the forests, next to yet another Temple.
It wasn’t so big but was beautiful and the Temple next door had some very old stonework, including stone monkeys climbing up the walls.
A little further on , up in the mountains we stopped to take a look at a couple of the mountain villages.
Saw some amazing views, houses,people and became centre of attention for many school kids on their way home. The kids loved posing for photos and gave some great examples of the famous Thai smiles. 
As for Boon and I, it was off to visit the famous 
Still in no rush to get home we then went 40 km east off the route home to find another ‘Uncle’,another quiet rural setting and a fantastic Thai house where we were greeted,fed and boarded for the night. 
We took a steady ride back,taking the loop from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, through 
Another of the delights of living here, for me, is the huge variety of butterfly’s and i am doing my best to gather a collection, by photo only, no way I would kill these beauties.
Up at 7am, I made sure the shopping list got done as soon as the waiter arrived, so that I could get the market run done early. Having sorted the cafe shopping by 10am, I then had to go and rent a motorcy for the day. My JRD Chopper is in the workshop at the moment waiting for repairs to the exhaust.
Incredibly I got everything done in time to leave here at 10.30 and found Ally waiting for me at the alloted meeting point;with her very impressive, and very noisy ride, a 
But the reason Ally had taken me this way was to see the long row of Quarry’s where, over recent years, whole ‘mountains have been excavated for aggregate for the local building industry. These Quarry’s, some clearly extremely deep, are now filled with water and landscaping work is now on progress at a few of them, with the likely impression of future resorts appearing in this beautiful valley area.
Are you an ornithologist? Take a ride into this valley and you will see a wide variety of very interesting bird life; 
The quarries done, we wended our way through the village roads , finding our way back to the Canal road, stopping at a quaint little Temple, Wat Nam Phrae, on our way. there will be a much fuller report on this Temple appearing in the Temple list soon.
More birds, more beauty, there seems no end to the sublime nature of Thailand. Whilst stopping to watch a couple of Drongos, we spotted the group of four standing Buddhas that marked the location of the Forest Temple we were heading for, off in the distance.
About half way along the route we stopped briefly at yet another gem of a Temple, Wat Hoi Thong. This small beauty is perched on a hill with some lovely views of the forested hills around it.
Time was moving on and so did we, taking a relaxed ride onwards through some lovely little villages, past a pretty flower nusery, onion fields, rice fields, wooded roads, just my sort of day out.
Here you see country life going on as it has done for many decades, with old ladies carrying foodstuff or other wares in large baskets on wooden yolks over their shoulders;
The Temple grounds are extensive and in the process of much development at this time.
The inner walls are completely covered with various scenes from 
Behind the several large Buddhas to the rear is a stunning wall of stained glass ‘stars’.
Look back out of the doors of this Temple and witness the perfect symmetry of the Chedi with the new Temple behind.
We also had the delight of witnessing a huge bee colony at work at the top of a huge alcove, in between the new Temple and the Chedi, that houses another giant standing Buddha.
Around 500 yards from the inner temple compound, still within the outer walls, you will find the 4 standing Buddhas. The way through the trees is clearly marked. As you take this route you will see some lovely concrete and plaster plaques, with yet more Siddartha scenes. These are also part of the ongoing development and still a work in progress.
At the site of the 4 standing Buddhas; facing North, West, South, and East; there is yet more , very extensive construction under way of , as yet indeterminable nature.
After a delicious lunch, from a small stall near the market and a coffee at a Thai cafe nearby, we headed down the 1013 to join the 108 south of San Pa Tong.
After a short distance on the left there are unmissable giant Elephants , that are actually small air conditioned houses!
Entrance is free, and the compact site contains some very well kept gardens and several small buildings, including to elongated ‘museum’ buildings, housing an extensive collection of Ganesh statues, wood carvings and various other images. The building on the right does have some information plaques in both Thai and English language. No photos are allowed inside the museum buildings.
This Temple turned out to be just 5 minutes or so ride down the road and a wonderful place to visit.
Indeed it seems to have been developed into a ‘teaching’ Temple.
Other notable features are the gigantic Golden reclining Buddha; a group of quaint concrete Animal statues, including dinosaurs, and a curious dome shape Vihara.
It became quite impossible to take photographs of the concrete animals without several children rushing into the shot and posing. Many of them seemed keen to practice their English and there was a prolonged period of answering the same questions, ‘what is your name?’, ‘where do you come from?’. The lovely part of that was the genuine looks of delight when they got an answer, seemingly surprised that I’d actually understood them.
One confident young lad, Boom, became my guide for a short time, keen to point all the many different things worth photographing.
It was he who took me around to the dome shape Vihara, quite different in design to anything I’ve seen at Thai Temples before, it had more of a Dutch feel about it to me.
