At 8.15 am the friendly American guy Mike and his Thai friend Yupi picked us up in Ao Nang to head to another pier where a speed boat would take us to Ao Laoliang. We didn’t quite know what to expect but Mike started talking about the resort and it all sounded better and better.
In Krabi the Californian girls Julie and Joanna joined our group and Mike explained to us that four years ago the diving company X-site diving had started this resort on one of the two island which they rented from the bird nest collectors (pretty bad guys apparently when it comes to defend their bird nests). They set up some tents, a restaurant, and some bathrooms and offered all-inclusive holiday trips to Thai people. Some time later they discovered that maybe some western guests would be interested in the snorkeling and diving and on top of that the rocks at the beach that offerd excellent climbing. That was when Mike came into play, set up some routes with friends and brought groups of climbers over from Tonsai. Today it’s still a place Thais come to for their holidays but more and more western tourist hear about it and are interested.
A short rain shower and even a crotchety speedboat engine couldn’t stop us and we were taken to the island which was really beautiful: turquois water, a white beach, friendly staff, and comfortable beds in spacious tents. Lunch was just ready and afterwards the American girls got a short intro to rock climbing while Julie and I started some routes.
As you can imageine the three days passed by way too quickly, our main activities were eating, sun baking, snorkeling, climbing, relaxing, a sunset by kayak, …
We were the only western people on the island and apart from the family running the restaurant there were only two other guys as guests. It really felt like our own little island, our own beach. And the weather was perfect the whole time; while we had sun avery day and at night a starry sky we could watch the thunderstorms going down over the mainland …