Well I thought if oap can do one so should I.

Departed end of Feb 2006 on a 14 night 3 centre trip of Thailand taking in Phuket (5 nights), Krabi (6 nights), Bangkok (3 nights). Flights to Thailand on Etihad from Gatwick, internal flights with Thai AirAsia.

Flights on Etihad were from Gatwick as this gave more time in the Kingdom than the corresponding ones from Heathrow. Its the first time we have gone to Thailand from Gatwick and in all honesty it was a more pleasant experience than using Heathrow. Also we usually fly non-stop, but the Etihad flights meant having a change of plane at Abu Dhabi with a couple of hours connection time each way. For some reason this seemed to alleviate jet lag. Maybe because of the chance to stretch legs and breathe real air in Abu Dhabi.

Flights with Air Asia were fine..including the Kareoke session on the flight to Phuket.

Arrived in Phuket got a taxi for 15 minute journey to Nai Thon beach and the Naithonburi hotel - a new 3star plus property with access to the beach across the quiet beach road. Nai Thon may well be the smallest quietest beach resort in Thailand, with the beach road strip housing a small number of guest houses, restaurants and bars, a Mini-mart and our hotel. It had none of the trappings I usually associate with Phuket (T-shirt shops,girly bars, tailors, photo shops etc).

The beach is backed by Casurina trees which provide good shade during the heat of the day. The beach itself was great...never busy...I've been on a number of beaches in Thailand and it ranked as one of the better ones.

There was a choice of about 20 restaurants. The ones on the beach were nothing more than a set of tables and an open air kitchen but these served great Thai food for lunch. In the evening the restaurants on the beach road were fine for a typical Thai sea food meal. Come 10pm everything seemed to closing. Walking up and down the beach road was fun because by a couple of days all the locals knew your face, waved and smiled.

So a great place to chill, but after a few days we decided on a trip down to Bang Tao to check out the Laguna complex. First time we had been here - it was Ok but not our scene...felt more like Florida than Thailand with the huge Sheraton and little boats ferrying you from one hotel to another....felt a bit like Nusa Dua in Bali as well. Had a look around a few of the hotels...quite liked the Dusit. The beach looked good but as it was late afternoon we did not see it at its best. Rooted around Canal Village which was deserted.

After 5 nights it was hop on a taxi and on towards Krabi. Would I go back to Nai Thon...at the drop of a hat...we'ed actually managed to find a resort in Phuket that was like going back 15 years or more...will it stay that way...I can only hope.

So the drive to Krabi - Khlong Muang Beach - took about two hours...quite interesting because of all the karst hill formations you drive past. Hotel number 2 was the Krabi Sands Resort a small cluster of upscale bungalows set in small gardens backed by mangrove,around a lovely salt water pool - our second visit here. Again a very quiet resort, but good grief an Irish Bar had opened near the hotel since our last visit...place was deserted but its a sign that this area may end up like Ao Nang. A huge Sofitel was under construction just beyond our resort.

Main order of the day here was beaching, we visited Koh Hong by longtail boat...fixed price of 1300 baht for the day. The setting is beautiful with beach and small coral reef backed by the jungle clad island. A nature trail leads from the beach. On this I found a few examples of the effect of the tsunami including simple plaques to those who had perished and quite movingly a number of wrecked longtails and speedboat set back from the beach. We also visited Lao Bileh island and managed to get a beach to ourselves for three hours on another day.

We spent one energetic morning visiting the Tiger Cave Temple near Krabi. A climb of over 1200 steps takes you from the temple complex at the bottom of a hill to the shrine at the top. Its not an easy climb as these are Thai steps, sometimes they seemed to be at a 75% degree angle. Its supposed to take an hour...more like an hour and a half in our case with frequent water stops but hey we made it...greats views across Krabi province and the islands and various Buddha images and nagas to take photos of. Going down takes about 40 minutes of your legs turning to jelly. Tiring but well worth it, and also good training for Bangkok which I can tell you about later.

We managed to hit a delay on our Air Asia flight from Krabi to Bangkok which put an end to having a meal in Bangkok for our first evening, so had to put up with Krabi Airport cafeteria...actually the food was pretty good. They are in the process of finishing a new passenger terminal at Krabi which may well open up the area to more visitors.