We woke up early and went out searching for breakfast around 6:30AM. Turns out, most of Ao Nang doesn’t wake up so early. Nearly everything in town was closed except for the convenience stores. Eventually, we found a food stand opening up with fried chicken that was hot and fresh, right out of the oil. We picked out a variety of chicken pieces as well as some rice and noodles. We went back to the hotel and ate on our balcony. It was glorious, perfectly juicy and crispy.
A guy picked us up at 8AM for rock climbing. Janet, Justina and I rode in the back of the truck which was fun. The guy driving was the husband of the woman running the rock climbing. We took a longtail boat over to Railey East to meet the rock climbing company, Krabi Climbing. They suited us up with harnesses, shoes and water and we walked over to Phranang Beach and Cave. On the walk we passed through jungles and saw monkeys.
At the rock wall, we took turns climbing up, with the instructors belaying us. It was exhausting, harder than climbing at indoor gyms. We were all sweating like crazy but enjoying the challenge. Also, natural holds are much more difficult than indoor holds which are color coded and predictable. I did 4 routes total and loved it. The views from the top were fantastic.
For dinner we discovered that the same spot where we had the fried chicken had a much bigger market at night. We bought a bunch of food to share and devoured it. I discovered a new favorite spot to get mango shakes, only 35 baht ($1), and so very full of mango. I’m such a big fan of mango shakes!
We found the motivation to assemble our tandem bike after dinner. It took almost two hours (longer than anticipated), but it was necessary and a fun learning experience. A few things didn’t go as planned, but that’s part of the joy of learning about the bike. After a big day working out and enjoying the beach, we were more than ready to sleep.
Laura Bergman 