Finally some peace: sun, sea, ... and the rest. The resort in Kata Beach on the Pucket Peninsula was absolutely perfect to kickoff the more quiet part of the Thailand trip; the son certainly did welcome this part as well. Basically there is nothing to see at Pukhet apart of the beaches and the night life, so you do not feel obliged to leave pool/beach/bar for some cultural excursion. Shopping diehards would like it here as well, but shopping is something I absolutely dislike (unless shopping for food on a little market). So the only shopping we did was to look for an appropriate restaurant, which we did after a while at Richie's place, who turned out to be a crazy Swiss which was homebound (or commercial) enough to organize weekly Cheese fondues. Anyhow, we tried to convince him a couple of times that his London watch was not indicating the right time, with no result. Switzerland after all is not Europe; Anyhow, the restaurant offered a salad buffet, which we welcomed after 10 days of fried rice or noodles, curries and soups. We could stuff August finally with vegetables after a diet of noodles and rice (and sometimes banana's)

On day 11 we exchanged Kata beach for Railay Beach, an area south of Krabi that you can only reach by boat. The area is recognized for its beautiful beaches surrounded by rock formations very popular for professional climbing. Luckily for us we were located at West Railay, which kept up to the promises; but if you had the bad luck to end up in Each Railay, where the beach was a muddy mangrove field, and where the electricity generator for the whole island was located, you were screwed. At this side of the island though the cheapest restaurants, bars and shops were located, which is no surprise. And after all, after sunset you do not see the mud anymore and Bob Marley pushes the generator noise to the background. In general it was not that easy to get alcohol - quite some places are owned by Moslims (whereas the North and the Centre of Thailand are dominated by Buddhists)

Our lodge was centrally located, so we could easily access several beaches. In the morning of the day after arrival we discovered the amazing Phra Nang Beach (the pictures speak for itselves), where we spent the rest of the day and the next day. We gave ourselves a treat with a foot scrub and massage (the latter only for me, Steven is to 'kietelig' at his feet).

However, the Bangkok airport blockade threw a little shadow over these days. Finally we decided not to await the outcome of the situation in Bangkok - even if the blockage was eliminated, it would take more than a couple of days to organize the exodus of over 100.000 frustrated waiting passengers. Not surprisingly all reasonable priced flights from the regional Thai airports were fully booked for the next week. The Thai travel agency was not very helpful either so what was left was a long trip over land by bus from Krabi to Singapore (1300 km), to catch the flight to Hanoi on Friday Dec 5^th. We could of course wait and see what would happen in Bangkok, which would almost certainly jeopardize the start of the Vietnam journey (which we are determined not to miss, Hanoi is said one of the most authentic cities in Asia, and Halong bay is a must do. So we went for the bus trip and shortened our stay in Railay Beach with one day in order not to sacrifice Hanoi.