Farewell to the sea

---

After leaving the Rainbow Gathering, one of the Canadians I went to the Rainbow Gathering with (a vancouver islander at that) and I headed further south to Krabi. There, we stayed on Hat Ton Sai for about a week. This place is the definition of paradise. As we rode into the bay by long tail boat, I exclaimed that this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Surrounded by impressive karst formations, emerald green waters, jungle and mangrove swamps, its definitely on my top 5 list. Hat Ton Sai is only accessible by boat, and you can only get to the other areas of East and West Railey, either by walking directly on the coast, when the tide is out, or through an inconspicuous jungle trail that I found by accident one day when I was exploring. The highlight of my trip here was definitely the day we rented a kayak and paddled out to a less touristy island, enjoyed the beach, and got caught in a monsoon on the way back. It was way too much fun.

From Hat Ton Sai, I headed solo on to Koh Lanta, where I resumed my important job of holding down the beach and making sure it didn't go anywhere. I think I should get a promotion! I stayed on a beautiful beach called Klong Nin at a really fun Bungalow-Guesthouse called Chalee Barleys. There was a very fun group of people staying there, and the owners were awesome. While here, I met up with Art from work at Hayes, who I hired on to help me hold down the beach! When we weren't working hard on our tans, we rented a scooter and explored a cave with a local Thai person as our private Guide. This cave apparently had wild tigers in it, up until about 10 years ago. We also checked out the rest of this island, which is largely small, muslim fishing towns. We also did a day trip where we did some snorkelling, swam through an amazing cave, and worked some more on those tans!

So after almost a complete month of beach-bumming it, I decided it was time to press on, and clean the sand out of unmentionable places! I took a quick day trip to Krabi town, where there wasn't all that much to see and do, then headed by bus again... to Bangkok, again... (third time lucky), but left immediately to check out the Kanchanaburi province. More on this beautiful place later...

---

Photos

The Railey Area of Krabi
The Foreground is East Railey, dominated by mangroves and the background is West Railey and furthest to the back is Hat Ton Sai

One of many beaches I held down...
This was a gorgeous beach, just south of West Railey, and believe it or not, this would be considered not touristy!

A Thai Fisherman, just before sunset
A beautifully common site on Koh Lanta. Fishing by the faint light of the setting sun.

Addicted to Thai Sunsets
Every night, we got to see the most spectacular sunset. This was a time, where everyone would just stop what they were doing, and look in awe as the sun dropped below the Andaman.

Comments

[Missy]

Hot, sunny beaches!
Hi Shauna - It is so nice to read about your adventures - except for the fact that I am insanely jealous. I bet your tan is just about perfect by now. It is cold, raining and dark here so reading about your beautiful hot, sunny beaches brightens my day!

[Suzanne]

Love it!
Hey there! Just got my internet hooked up here in Port Simpson. Now that i am about 10 miles from the Alaskan border, your sunny beach pictures are going to keep me feeling motivated and excited to work hard here so I can travel again afterwards!! talk to you soon, love zan