Silja: Ao Nang (1)

 We arrived here in Thailand five days ago and the impressions have been so numerous that I do not know where to start. This is our first time in Asia (- other than in transit). We were met by a very friendly guy at the airport in Phuket, who drove us to Ao Nang Cliff View Resort. The journey took almost two hours, so we got to see quite a bit of the country already, passing incredible Buddhist temples and mosques, elephants, busy markets, dramatic sandstone cliffs and entire families pluss shoppingbags driving along on one moped.

It was dark when we arrived at the resort, where they led us through jungle-like gardens to our spacious bungalow, that looks traditional and rustic from the outside, but is new and modern inside. The kids loved it at once and they were in heaven when they checked out the pool the next day.  When I refused to give Niklas any floating devices he found out what I already suspected: He can swim! Ever since he has been practicing relentlessly and was racing his big sister at the end of that day. The next day the two of them started diving down to the bottom of the pool until they could bring up objects from the deep end (2m)! On the third day they were doing summersaults and head-first-dives from the sides. Their proud mum is quite impressed by that learning curve. Lisa can even add life saving to her list: Lea was unaware that she was not wearing her floating devices yet and went right into the water, not making any sound, when she gradually went under. It was Lisa who shrieked and held her up until we were there to pull her out of the pool. 

Even though the kids would be contempt at the pool all day every day, we booked a tour on the third day. First we visited Tiger Cave Temple, which is the biggest attraction surrounded by many others: You can climb over 1200 steps to a view point and/or walk a loop trail through the jungle, passing other decorated caves and huge trees. There are decorated statues everywhere and it would have felt like a very sacred place if it had not been for for the many school children running around. For them our kids seemed to be the biggest attraction, since several of them got their phones out to take pictures of us. Later a family asked whether our kids could join their kid for a photo. 

After that we were taken deeper into the jungle to go elephant trekking. The children were all a bit sceptical at first but enjoyed the swaying ride after a while. Niklas was even invited to sit in front with the guide and dared to do it! Towards the end of the jungle trekk they led the elefants into a lake and the one Lisa and I were sitting on was about to take a full bath but could luckily be pursuaded otherwise. We rewarded the elephants with a basket full of bananas which Lisa and Niklas bravely fed to them while Lea started peeling one for herself. When we got back to the bungalow guess where we went!?! Yes, straight to the pool!