This is the third and final piece in a series of short blogs about Thailand, with a few more stories and anecdotes that I would like to share. So if you are still with me, thank you for your support!

OK to begin with, I forgot to talk about Joy Beach Cafe. The picture above was taken at their main entrance.

Lucy’s very young and hopeful, but disappointed, suitor.

Throw back to July of 2022 when my family came to visit me in Krabi. I rented a five bedroom villa on the south side of Railay Bay at a place called Ao Nam Mao, which isn’t far from Ao Nang. It was situated right on the beach and big enough for all of us with great open spaces. After a brief chat with the rental agent on arrival, we negotiated to bring Lucy! Lucy had a great time and was even approached by a young suitor from the local dog pack. She snuck out to see him one time when someone left the front door open, and they were found together not far away having an intimate get to know each other sniff. Then ‘Angry Nige’ ruined her day, but that’s another story altogether.

A long, fun and super affordable afternoon with family.

Back to the Joy Beach Cafe. One morning early in the holiday we were taking a walk along the beach at low tide and passed by a cafe bar that had a sort of ‘Rasta’, rainbow, back-packer, festival vibe about it, complete with wooden platforms in trees, thatched shacks, bean bags and multi coloured tables and chairs. There was a small and eclectic gift shop as well as a few kayaks, paddle boards and a massage hut. The family decided we should return later and check it out for a late lunch that afternoon.

I won’t go on too much about it except to say the setting was great, music pretty chill and the local food was exceptional; original, authentic and fresh. According to my daughters who, at one time, had worked in some very popular high volume Sydney bars, the cocktails were top notch and the cheap prices bordering on almost unbelievable. We returned to joy beach a couple of times, both were equally good.

Maybe the name ‘Joy Beach Cafe’ should have been a clue, as the funny thing was a lot of the staff were smoking ganja, since it was pretty easy to come by back then, even before it was legal. That lent the service a certain relaxed feel, and I have to admit they did forget our orders every now and then. Later, I wrote a google review (couldn’t find them on Trip Advisor) and added it to the list of highly recommended places that I would tell people to visit if they were from out of town.

Following the inevitable collapse of the ‘big brother’ house which I alluded to in my previous post, I would rendezvous at Joy Beach Cafe with my mate Christophe who had moved out by then and was living near by, and occasionally meet for drinks with other friends as well.

Please do check out Joy Beach Cafe if ever you are in that part of Thailand.

Now, let’s talk about Elephants.

The ‘ladies’ enjoying their freedom at Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary.

There are lots of them in Thailand, roughly 7000+ both wild and domesticated. There are wild elephants in the forests up north and many domesticated animals in logging, construction, tourism and other services. Happily, there are now many decent sanctuaries dotted around the country in which domesticated elephants that are unable to work or ever be released back into the wild, get a second chance at life.

Not far from where I lived there is a small refuge called the Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary. Six female elephants live there ranging in age from 23 to 58, that had been bought or permanently ‘leased’ from their original owners. They are always accompanied by carers or mahouts. The good thing is, they all have microchips, passports, regular health checks and appropriate health papers, since owning elephants is serious stuff in Thailand these days. To be honest, they live a great, almost Spa like life in the sanctuary.

Yet this is not always the case in Thailand as many high volume tourist areas own elephants that are put through an endless cycle of riding and forest ‘trekking’ throughout the day. This practice doesn’t give these great mammals enough time to eat (they consume 250kg of food per day) or drink and rest, so they get tired and stressed. In recent years there has been an anti exploitation backlash against such businesses, but sadly many of them still exist.

Gentle giants…

In the Ao Nang Sanctuary the elephants are walked, fed, receive a mud bath, get scrubbed and then play in the river, every day. At night they have to be contained so they won’t wander off and destroy any local pineapple or sugar cane plantations, which they could easily do. The owner of the sanctuary told me about one such incident before Covid when a mature female wandered off, the result of which was a bill for around US$800, but more importantly a lot of negative local sentiment from the mainly muslim population.

Following my first visit to the sanctuary, which personally I found very moving, I referred a lot of people without giving too much away. For some visitors, especially those from city locations, it really was a memorable life experience.

On a slightly humorous note, one did need to be a little bit careful when driving around the area near the sanctuary in the early morning as you could easily turn a corner, only to suddenly encounter the rear end of an elephantin the middle of the road. Magnificent.

Oscar the tailor

Now for a different topic altogether.

There are many tailors in Ao Nang. I needed one once for some minor alterations and later asked the same tailor to make some linen pants and shirts. The results were really great and in fact I still have everything he made for me.

Initially, I didn’t understand why you would need so many tailors in an area such as Ao Nang, that is until I realised many of them had the same owner. More about that later. I befriended a gentleman at Oscar the Tailor who did some great work for me and I even got him to make a cameo in a music video I made.

On the subject of shops, it is not uncommon for one owner to possess three or more along the same strip, all selling the same thing. This explains why, to the tourist, there often appears to be a great amount of repetition in the content of all the souvenir, gift and clothing shops. The logic seems to be that with more shop fronts, they have a greater chance of someone actually buying something. But the rent..?

There was an exception to this model. John as he was known, owned a 2m wide 10m deep ‘hole in the wall’ store that sold mostly Krabi and Thailand branded souvenir clothing. After he got to know me, the price of things in his shop dropped dramatically. Haggling is still common place so the real price is usually 30% less than the first price they offer. Still, shop owners have to make money, especially after Covid. I would usually ask for the local fixed price, which, when compared to any overseas store price, was usually very cheap anyway. Here’s a visiting tourist tip; don’t over haggle people, they need to pay their bills too!

Such a pleasure having them visit again.

And finally, one last story before I wrap up this blog. While living in China, I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica Yu, her husband Mark and their two daughters Esme and Ava. I looked after them while they were staying in my hotel and introduced them to some amazing sights as well as unforgettable local characters. We had a down to earth, sincere and enjoyable time together in Lijiang and the Tibetan highlands, which I won’t forget easily. Apparently they did too; I received an unexpected email from Jessica saying the family wanted to come to Thailand to visit me.

Panic. China was quite a different experience to what that part of Thailand could offer, and yet I tried to arrange the same kind of experience. Sadly due to work commitments, I wasn’t able to afford them the same amount of my time and attention as before yet we still had fun.

There was, however a silver lining. Esme and Eva are very talented singers. One night they discovered a place in Ao Nang that had a live band with ‘open Mic’, called The Boogie Bar. They would definitely have made quite an impression there. But in humble and understated fashion, they said the band and staff were fun, polite and welcoming.

After they left Krabi, I decided to go and check out ‘Boogie Bar’ for myself, and so began one of the most enjoyable night entertainment chapters of my life, singing along with the resident ‘Blue Steel Band’.

That’s it. Great memories, fun times and I will happily remain a lifetime ambassador for Thailand.