DAY 475: "This is one case that Let's Go let me down," Noelle said. She had listened to my anti-Lonely Planet rants and brought over the latest Let's Go guidebooks for Southeast Asia and Thailand, and was quite pleased with them -- until she discovered that neither book had maps for Krabi Town or Ao Nang, nor did they really explain how far away they were from each other. Contrary to our thinking, the beach of Ao Nang was miles out from our guesthouse in Krabi Town.

IN DESPERATION FOR CLIENTS, the owners of the Ao Nang Inn, which was above the affiliated Irish Rover pub that we went to the night before, said that they'd give us a daily rate of 500 baht for a room that they usually charged 1500 for during the high season. Seizing the opportunity, Noelle and I packed up our small room in Krabi Town, hopped on a songthaew (shared covered pick-up truck) and rode off to the beachfront town of Ao Nang, a town which completely catered to tourists with its cafes, pizzerias, and souvenir shops -- plus two obligatory 7-11 convenience stores. It was there we made our new home, our base of operations for lunchtime pizzas, Thai food for dinner, and beach time (picture above) in between.

The room in the Ao Nang Inn above The Irish Rover was everything we had been told: a big, clean room with satellite TV, private bathroom, refrigerator, digital safe, and a terrace with a view of the inland greenery -- the only thing missing was a Tivo and a wi-fi connection. Noelle was disappointed was that there was no VH-1 on the TV like they had running on the pub downstairs, but that was just a minor setback to what was otherwise a more than decent place.

Having satellite TV was just one of the niceties reminiscent of the world back at home in America, which, along with the leftover pizza in the fridge, made our new abode very homely. I reverted to my homely electricity-wasting habits, namely having the TV on while working on my computer while listening to music in my headphones. In a way I felt guilty not having an "authentic" Thai experience (otherwise, why go to Thailand?) but on the other hand, it was good to, at least for a while, be "home" with a fellow American with "I'm on vacation" mentality.

As I was working on the Blog on my iBook, one thing did catch my eye on the television as we were flipping around. On the A1 (Adventure One) channel, there was a program that featured daredevils handgliding and paragliding over Machu Picchu in Peru. Immediately I had flashbacks of the time I went there -- not on this trip, but in 2001 with Blogreader oogy -- and I felt like I had been bitten by the travel bug again. "Wow, it kind of makes me feel like I should be traveling," I said, not even joking.

Noelle laughed of course, but I meant what I said; ignoring the TV while working on a laptop and listening to music wasn't exactly "traveling." Not that there's anything wrong with it of course; sometimes you just have to sit back and say, "When in Rome..." -- although I'm sure the Romans didn't waste as much electricity as I did. (At least there was pizza in the fridge.)