Beach Day

We grabbed our towels and beach mat and hiked to the waters edge. The sand massaged our bare feet as we walked along the edge of the water and headed over to the boardwalk to get to the beach in front of the Centara Grand Bech Resort. Playing in a stagnant pool of water under the trees were a group of Macaques. They hang around the beach much to the joy of the tourists. There are many signs posted telling the people not to feed the Macaques, of course, there are always some that ignore the warnings and entice the monkeys with food which is sad because they can become quite aggressive in approaching people.
We climbed the rickety simple and steep wooden steps winding up the side of the cliff. Towards the top they levelled off a bit until it was time to descend down the other side. An awesome view unfolded as we descended. At the bottom we were greeted by a quiets stretch of hot sand and crystal clear water. This beach was beautiful! In the back ground jutting out of the sea where enormous limestone cliffs reaching for the sky.
We dropped our mat and towels and headed for the water. Heavenly! After three hours in the sun, the shade, in an out of the water and reading we decided it was getting too hot and we needed to head back for a refreshment. Everything here was exclusively for the Centara guests. The beach was actually controlled by a security kiosk and the bottom of the steps where everyone had to sign in and out. A good feature which probably contributed to the pristine condition of the beach.
Up and over again this time taking a photo of Ao Nang beach as viewed from above. Melting from the climb over we found relief from the heat under the shade of the trees and were right in the middle of plastics tables I the sand, a beach restaurant. The breeze was so soothing we decided to sit and enjoy the surroundings. You never know what can show up in the background of a photo. LOL. Lots of bigger fellows from the east of Europe come to enjoy Ao Nang.
Around 5 PM the street vendor food stands start to set up and prepare for the evening diners. After carefully scrutinizing all the stands on our street we grabbed a table (not many around) and sampled some battered deep fried shrimp, Massaman and chicken with garlic and pepper. Sinfully delicious! A fresh fruit shake for dessert and we were done.