Ton Sai

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The journey to Ton Sai was a little different to the buses we usually had to take. You can only get there by longboat so we had to get a longboat from the beach (with backpack) that stopped about 20 metres away from where it started so that we could climb into another identical longboat... didnt really get what that was about but helen never makes things easy for herself so she ended up at one point stuck straddling 2 longboats and later on found 2 bruises on the tops of her legs from it! Even the driver was laughing at her. So we landed on Ton Sai bay and found out from another traveller that if we wanted the cheap accomodation we had a bit of a hill climb to come. Being cheapskates we didnt stop walking until we got to the top of the 100m high hill which nearly killed us but we got the cheapest accomodation we've had so far at 2 pounds each per night! A really basic bamboo hut with just a bed, mosquito net and a bathroom - for some reason the bathrooms attached to the bamboo huts are always made from concrete but dont really have proper roofs so feels like you're showering outside. his one actually had proper toilet in it though but you still had to flush with a bucket. Ton Sai was lovely and a place we could really chill out. It basically consists of a beach, a couple of beach bars where you can sit and watch the sun set on some thai mats and 2 restaurants just off the beach. When i say restaurants i mean a kitchen with some bamboo tables and seats just plonked outside but it got pretty busy because there's quite a big rock climbing scene around there so it was full of young backpackers.

The day after we got to ton Sai we had to do a little bit of a trek to get to the next village of Railay. The terrain wasnt great and coming back it was getting dark so we had to get a longboat back to ton sai. Railay again had a lot of rock climbers that you could see climbing the cliffs. The frst thing you see coming round into ton sai are the huge cliff faces and people climbing them. We went in a diamond cave that we walked past on the way to the beach which was pretty cool but dark. Their were quite a few monkeys hanging around ton sai and railay, even some on the beach eating out of crisp packets! clare said that she could hear them at night because we were staying in a bit of a jungle and i went up to get something from the room one day and it looked like a scene from a horror film there were that many of them walking around the huts looking for food. scary!

the day after we decided to rent out some kayaks for the day and thought it would be a really good idea to paddle out to an island which the woman in the shop said would take about an hour and a half. 2 hours later we arrived at a really deserted little island with white sands and crystal clear waters, which was reall beautiful. me and art went for a swim and helen and clare caught us up as they had gone to a different bit of the island. we only had about half an hour to chill there because we had to get back to ton sai before the tide went too far out. it was only on the way back that we realised we'd got a bit sunburnt and covered up our legs. the paddle back seemed to take forever, luckily i had art in my kayak so he did most of the paddling but helen and clare seemed to struggle on their way back and for most of it lookedlike they were heading to the wrong beach! after another couple of hard hours paddling we reached the ton sai again and with hindsight thought it would have been so much easier just to row to the next bay rather than across the sea! the front of mine, helens and clares legs were bright pink so we went and showered and tried to cool them down. that night i think clare and helen must have had sunstroke because when we went for some food they both felt really faint and sick and dizzy. poor art was run off his feet getting bananas and water for them but helen ended up having to go back to the room.

the next day we were planning on leaving for koh lanta but when we got up helen had about 4 or 5 huge blisters on her legs and could barely move. even going for breakfast was a struggle for her so i left her and clare resting all day while me art art went to the next village of Ao Nang to see if we could get something for helens legs because ton sai doesnt even have a pharmacy or medical centre in it its that tiny. stepping off the longboat into Ao Nang felt like i'd been desreted on an island for a few months and was just coming back to civilisation. Ao Nang is so busy and full of tourists where ton saiws pretty laid back and undeveloped and quite a young traveller scene. me and art had a bit of a bad experience that put us off as wel where a sho owner got really mad at us because he made me try on a bracelet then when i wouldnt type into his calculator a prce that i would give for it told us to getout of his shop and not to come back! we were so shocked because the people in Thailand are usually so lovely and not aggressive at all. so as soon as we could leave after a bit of shopping, we did and went back to ton sai. we got some food to take out that night because helen could barely walk to the bathroom never mind down the hill, and sat and had a feast in our room.

the next day helns legs still werent any better so clare took her to the medical centre which meant that she had to get to Ao Nang but i'll let clare explain that in her ''Dr Samboon'' entry that she's going to write for us! we could leave the next day so we were a bit behind schedule but it was christmas eve and we wanted to be settled on Koh Lanta for christmas.

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