Ao Nang, 7th day. 31st January 2023

It's getting around to the time I should be looking back at this trip and offering some observations, reflections and so on. I'll begin here with a few words about Thailand where I am at the present, and try in subsequent posts to work backwards and remember places and incidents in other countries earlier on in the trip.
Ao Nang, where I've spent the last week, is an odd place. It's a good base from which to do the (much vaunted) island-hopping tours. It's well placed on the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand, so that the stunning rock formations, gorgeous beaches and idyllic islands are nearby or within a boat ride away in Prang Nga Bay.
Maybe I've been here just a tad too long. It's getting increasingly easy to see a spectacular view, another lovely beach, and almost ignore it as 'just more of the same'. It's not paradise of course, but it's pretty okay thanks.
In quite a few places in Thailand, some things have disappointed, and frankly annoyed the hell out of me. The concept of customer service seems to be foreign to far too many Thais working in areas like Ao Nang, Krabi, Chumphon, Bangkok. Often I've sensed that I should feel grateful that I'm allowed to be 'sold to' and hand over hard-earned money for whatever service or Chinese made trinket was on offer. But a 'please', 'thank you', or a kind word would have been welcome more than occasionally. There's obvious a cultural mis-match between my expectations and the day to day reality here. Perhaps, as often it is in American exchanges, politeness is 'inferred' rather than overtly stated, but Thais can still come across as rude and unhelpful sometimes.
However, however...
Some isolated events can re-kindle my enthusiasm for Thailand and South East Asia generally. Just yesterday I nearly lost the small digital camera I'm using on this trip. I left it in a cafe and had to retrace my steps to find it. It had been noticed and was held safely by the very nice staff in Cafe Amazon (reference to the river and Brazilian coffee rather than parcel delivery I think).
Y'see. Their lovely people at heart.
Which I hope today's section of shots illustrates.
I spent most of the morning sunbathing-swimming-sunbathing, and the afternoon walking down to the posh end of Ao Nang, past the Monkey Trail, up and over the walkway that led to the very nice 'private/public' beach for Centara Grand Beach Resort and Villas. Very nice indeed.
More positives/negatives and reflections tomorrow.Read more