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Published: February 6th 2017
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Travel information! We've just had 2 blistering days on the beach and no sign of rain. It's been fab but a tad uncomfortable due to absence of sun beds. Or at least ones you can take onto the beach.
Yesterday we went to have breakfast at Sitti Cafe, down the road towards the beach. Set combo for 170b, so quite expensive, very nice though with a choice of eggs, good wifi but no toilet! We walked left along the beach more or less to the end, looking for the sunbeds we'd seen piled up the night before. They were set out under the trees right at the back of the beach. There are a line of 15 huts, all massage places with lots of chairs outside, very organised. Sam remembered the last one from last time. There were plenty of beds, but the lady said we couldn't take them onto the beach. It obviously isn't allowed here. We were offered free bearch mats and a pillow, and also free tea and coffee and free fruit. There had to be a catch! Thought we'd go with the flow and see what the score was. I did actually want a leg and foot massage,
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Great location for breakfast 150b for 30mins, and this was the only catch, i.e. you would be actively encouraged to use their services. So I took one for the team and that was enough that they left us alone all day. The beds are 100b for the day and we're going to have them tomorrow after 2 days of sitting on quite hard sand. Numb bums! The beach was clean enough but the water was a bit silty, so not the emerald green you get in other places. Apparently the lady in charge pays 400,000b a year in rent for the hut. It was doing a roaring trade!
I met 2 guys when I was having my massage and we arranged to meet for drinks and dinner that night. They've been here 4 years in a row and know a lot about where to go etc. There are many retail opportunities on offer as you lie there and Sam also remembered the lunch man, tiny guy, not young, carrying 40kg of barbeque equipment on a pole across his shoulders. Bless! We held our breath when he cranked himself upright. He had a big pot of veggie noodles, chicken, spring rolls, corn. We had
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Free mats...... corn cobs, 100b each. Delicious but coated in dodgy margarine. Drink on the beach on our way home, tried to hagale for the Phi Phi trip and it was a disaster. It just doesn't seem to work here! Maybe the farang tourists don't try hard enough and so the locals are used to getting more or less the price they quote. Walking away doesn't work, they just let you go! So we gave up, will think about it tomorrow.
We got back to find our washing waiting, always a joyous moment to have everything clean again and just one missing pair of knickers. Those knickers have gone, I accept!
In the evening we were meeting the guys at a local food court next to the Holiday Inn, Sam thought she'd got a tuktuk there last time so we followed our noses, left along the beach, the road curved away and then came back and we found it, no probs. It's in the middle of some swanky hotels, so not particularly cheap. We met the guys, had dim sum and drinks, then it started to rain a bit so we ran next door where there was live music and
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Ouchy massage! karaoke. It was really good fun! One older lady from Birmingham was giving it loads on the dance floor, nearly at the end of her holiday and not too happy about the location of her hotel. most of the businesses were Muslim-run, great food but closed v early at night, 9pm. Sam danced with her and a random Scandinavian guy. Great atmosphere, a big Chinese family group, we really had a good time. The beach there completely disappears at high tide. Ours is much better. When the bar closed we got a tuktuk with some other guys who were heading for the reggae bar, further up the road from our hotel, and we went too. It was heaving with very non-reggae music and they got a table for us on the pavement. There was a young English guy totally off his head, on his own, being a nuisance trying to find some mates to join. We saw him buy 2 joints from one of the staff, lit one and put the other behind his ear. And this in a country with the death penalty for drug offences. We couldn't afford to have him anywhere near us, our guys told him
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Really ouchy massage next door!!! to go away. Then he was on the dance floor giving it loads, still with the spliff on show! Idiot, likely to get himself into trouble.
We walked home, 10 minutes. 12.30pm. Great night! Lovely to have mates!
Today we went to Railey Beach. The kiosk for tickets to all the beaches by longtail boat is at the end of the road on the left opposite the beach. On the way, Sam's flip flop died, so she now had lost 50% of the shoes she brought with her. Now down to her poddler sporty sandals and trainers which quite frankly have seen better days! Luckily she would be ok at the beach with no shoes. The return to Railey (10mins) is 200b return, go down to the beach and a guy there takes the tickets and you are allocated to a boat driver. Such impressive scenery, just paradise! When you get to the beach there are zero sun beds, which I found depressing, another day on hard sand. The best place to go is turn left when you get off the boat and go to the far end as there are some big trees with shade all day
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The lunch guy if you sit at the back. I didn't want the sun today so made camp there while Sam lay further down. By the early afternoon it was packed under the trees, wall to wall bodies, all wanting to get out of the heat for a bit. We hadn't taken lunch, surely there would be vendors selling stuff? Oh no, not a can of coke or banana. A couple next to us told us where to go for a takeout kebab, so we walked up the path in the middle of the beach, through the little shops, 2 kebab (but not as we know them!) places, 100b and a mango smoothie from next door for 50b. The kebabs were a disappointment, should have gone to the place with the long queue!
Nothing worth snorkelling for. So we will try haggling again for the Phi Phi trip, really expensive though it seems to us!
Boat back at 4, tried to haggle for a very necessary pair of flipflops, again no luck! Turned ourselves around and out for drinks at 6. Our room was done beautifully, clean towels every day, it's a good place to stay if you don't need a
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50b each for lunch view, quiet at night, 3 mins from the beach. Bargain wine in Tandoori Night's (sic) for an aperitif, so Sam is happy, 90b and the wifi is good, so I am too!
We finally bit the bullet and bought PhiPhi tickets for 1200b, the best we could do, no-one would budge on the price. Also got minibus tickets to go to Khao Lak on Thursday, 350b, takes 3 hours. Found a sort of hostel there but it doesn't have dorms so we hope it's a bit more civilised. 3 nights to see what we want to do next, maybe come back here Or go to Khao Sok National Park and sleep on a floating bungalow!
We ate at a cheapo no frills place up a shonky metal staircase, good food, although my noodles ('trick' noodles, whatever....) were very jellyfish- like. Sam successfully negotiated for new flipflops and we had cheap (and mine was terrible) cocktails on the seafron, up some stairs.
Just going to the local beach tomorrow, easy peasy!
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Val
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Kohl sok
We went off for 2 night trip in floating bungalows last year on 3 week Thai island trip. Brill