Died & Gone to (beach) Heaven!

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Sunday 2-6 to Friday 2-11
After the crazy crowds of Phuket, we headed to the quiet, slow-paced beaches of Krabi. Oh my gosh, I’m in love! These are absolutely the most beautiful tropical beaches I have ever seen! (…and I’ve been to the Galapagos!) And Nick fell in love with the laid-back town. Nick got us an adorable boutique hotel in Krabi Town; not on the beach but right along the Krabi River and just outside of the hustle and bustle of town. (And just around the corner from a restaurant that serves THE best Massaman curry I have ever tasted!) Nick’s first order of business, however, was to find a bar that would show the Super Bowl at 6:30am (yup, that’s AM, people). Needless to say, I slept in and just met up with him for the last 2 minutes, which is enough annual football for me. [Nick Note: The restaurant was filled with American expats and tourists, it was a good atmosphere at 6:30 am and good game. The only bad part is that we didn’t get any of the commercials. Luckily there are now sites where you can go to specifically view the Super Bowl commercials, so yes we saw the little kid Darth Vader one.]

After a morning of American culture, we headed to Rai Ley Beach, which seriously has to be THE most scenic beach in the world! Crystal clear blue and green water (unfortunately, not without the now familiar Thai stingers), surrounded by lush tropical trees and towering limestone cliffs. Absolutely postcard picture perfect! And the sand! Oh my goodness, the softest frickin’ sand I’ve ever had the pleasure to bury my feet in. It was so soft I wanted to make a blanket out of it! Ugh, it gorgeous, people! Everyone needs to come to Southern Thailand and spend at least a week taking in the beaches! Frickin’ amazing – I hope that’s coming through loud and clear ;o)

Just to prove how great Rai Ley Beach is, not only did I find Reeses Pieces (woo hoo!), and end up running into a Canadian couple we’d had the pleasure of meeting back in Phuket, but Nick pointed out that our afternoon was full of a the unique juxtaposition of numerous topless European women next to a crowd of Muslim women in burquinis. Aside form a disturbing baby macaque that was missing its scalp, all and all, a very enjoyable day. (Seriously, we could see the monkey’s entire skull above the eyes – how is that possible?! The sight of his wound definitely beats the macaque Raelene and I saw at Angkor Wat that was missing half its nose and had a gaping, bloody concave hole in its face.)

Later in the week, we stepped away from the beach and to see the rest of Krabi’s beautiful landscape. We climbed 1250 ridiculously steep steps (the most exercise I’ve had in months) up to Tiger Cave Temple (sadly no more tigers up there) to get an impressive 360 view of the surrounding cliffs and neighboring farm lands. In the same day, we were treated to a stop at natural hot springs and a beautiful natural swimming hole known as Emerald Pool. Nick also made some new Swedish friends in case we decide to head up there as well ;o)

One of the nicest day trips was kayaking through the mangroves and limestone caves of Bor Thor. The caves were stunning – we got to see ancient cave drawings, BATS, lost of wildlife (Brahming kites, black capped kingfisher, mudskippers, mangrove crabs, water monitors!) and breathtaking little hidden lagoons. We could have spent all day on the water if we had the chance!

Our last trip in Krabi consisted of island hopping and snorkeling around the Gulf of Thailand. FANTASTIC! We visited Ao Nang, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh Islands (which were devastated in the 2004 tsunami), and Monkey Island (which was the BEST snorkeling). [Nick Note: Maya Beach, which you can only access through a small entrance and is enclosed by more limestone cliffs is for me the most beautiful beach we visited. Super-soft and white sand, and the beach just gently slopes into crystal clear water. It is also where the movie “The Beach” was filmed.] Sadly, I suck at taking underwater photos, so we don’t have a lot of pictures of the reef but we saw some amazing animals! Giant pink and yellow fan corals, huge crown of thorns sea stars (I was so excited to see these!!), crazy big urchins and black sea cucumbers, a school of squid, and of course loads of fishes. One of the best parts of our trip was the speed boat driver – he maneuvered the boat like we were in a James Bond-esque boat chase! Super fast speeds and hair pin turns just added to the adventure :o)

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Comments

[danisom]

Much more like it. This looks incredible. But I can't get the disturbing image of the macaque out of my mind, for all of the wonderous, actual photos you provide.