Day #128 - Another Day, Another Beach.

Our beach front bungalow gave us the most wonderful morning view. This of course is the main reason for staying in such a property. However, for me, it did come at a cost. The sea is rather noisy and I like silence when I sleep. I was very grateful I packed my earplugs! James had a rough night too with his fever and stomach cramps and so wasn't able to enjoy the breakfast as much as I was.
Nevertheless, we both had enough energy to walk along the beach and blow away the sleepy heads before our driver arrived to continue our journey. James also took a morning dip to help rejuvenate himself which it always seems to.

As beautiful as this beach is and the view spectacular, it is one that has been shockingly spoilt by human activity and acts as a wake up call to anyone still in doubt about the impact of plastic in our oceans.
Maybe it was the heavy rain and winds last night that caused a lot of plastic debris to be washed up on shore, but if it was, it only goes to show how big the problem is. The resort had dispatched someone to pickup as much litter as they could that lay within the sight of guests. When we arrived, he had already filled up about eight black bin bags.

We walked along the beach dismayed at the sight of so much avoidable rubbish but kept our eye out for any shells to add to James' collection. Happily he found two beautiful specimens.

At ten o'clock as scheduled, our driver arrived and we headed off on the four hour drive to Krabi.
As we made our way, we passed through small towns and along wide motorways. The further south we got, the more frequent became the granitoids - the sheer, vertical rock formations that protrude out of the ground like giant teeth.

Like yesterday, we had to make frequent bathroom stops which also gave us an opportunity to pause and get to see true Thailand, while grabbing some drinks at the same time. We were also on the look out for a pharmacy and we thought we had located one along our route that looked promising. However, when Google Maps told us we had arrived at our destination, no pharmacy to be found - the business must have closed. Our resourceful driver however, found an alternative - the local hospital.

Although the toilets proved useful, the sight of lots of people lying on stretchers on the open terraces didn't fill us with much optimism that we would be seen to anytime soon and so we decided to continue on our journey. 

The countryside proved to be much the same as yesterday and James did manage to capture this magnificent buddha as we sped past. 

Eventually we arrived at our new home and once again Thailand proved itself to be home to some stunning hotels.

We have a lovely room that looks over the adult only pool and onwards out to the ocean.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying the hotel, the pool and watching some more True Blood. Dinner funnily enough was a repeat of yesterdays - James ordered a carbonara and I went for chicken, vegetables and mash. While it was a lovely meal, it was odd since James and I were the only people eating in the inside part of the restaurant! There was live music in the outer section, but since we were feeling tired and James rather weak, we opted for the (really) quite area! I joked to James he was being really romantic and had hired out the whole place just for us!