Advertisement
2 June (Tuesday) - My spreadsheet showed a 10:20 AM departure from Bangkok to Krabi, so right after breakfast we took a taxi to the airport. When we approached the ticket counter I was informed that we were too early to check in for the 1:45 PM flight; to which I responded that I was booked on the 10:20 AM flight. Apparently, my original intention was to take the earlier flight, but by the time I finally booked the tickets the earlier flight was now much more expensive, so I booked the later flight without changing my spreadsheet schedule. I quickly reviewed the rest of my schedule against ticket confirmations to make sure I hadn’t made this same mistake elsewhere; which I hadn’t. Consequently, we had a four hour wait until our flight, which Will spent at Starbucks since they had an electrical outlet to plug in his computer, and I spent wandering through their shops and food courts. We had lunch and then boarded the flight to Krabi, which was otherwise uneventful.
In Krabi we picked up our bags and headed to the transportation counters, and quickly decided on the bus that for 150 baht per person would take
us to the long tail boats in Ao Nang. On the ride we talked to Jessica from Toronto who spends six months per year doing commercials, and then six months on the road mostly at Railay Beach where she frequents a rock climbing school. At Ao Nang we paid another 150 baht per person for the long tail boat…there were seven of us who had caught the bus from the flight, so they were willing to depart immediately without the requisite ten people. I took my shoes off as we had to wade through the surf to climb on board the boat. The wind was blowing and the waves were building up, and I was concerned whether they would still make the run. Will and I sat in the front row for the fifteen minute run, which turns out not to be a very bright idea as the bow hit the waves creating a great spray. We were pretty soaked when we got to Railay. We landed at the Railay West beach, and again had to brave the surf and wade ashore, where my wet shorts got wetter. Our resort, the Tropical Sunrise, was on the east beach, so we
walked the short distance across the peninsula to get there.
A brief word about the geography of Railay…it is a peninsula completely isolated from the mainland by high karst cliffs. At the end of the peninsula are two other karst formations which results in three beaches, Railay East, West, and Phranang Beach. A very expensive resort occupies the end composed of the two karst formations and Phranang Beach, which some consider the most beautiful of the beaches. The other resorts span the peninsula from east to west. The east beach is mostly a mangrove mud flat, so everyone swims at the other two beaches. The karst formations provide a beautiful setting for the beaches, and the basis for several rock climbing schools.
Anyway, we checked in and we taken to our Thai style villa, before having Thai food for dinner. After dinner I was pretty pooped, and not having the foresight to bring a good book, or the knowledge of how to turn on the TV, I decided to shower and rest. Will was ready to check out the night life; which as it turens out was not very difficult to find. He fell in with a group
of Aussies. This was their last evening in Railay, so their last chance to party, which it turns out they are pretty good at. I didn’t wit up for Will, which was a good idea since the party didn’t break up until about 2:30 AM.
3 June (Wednesday) - We awoke about 9 AM and decided to check out the free breakfast buffet; which turned out to be decent. I had a cheese omelet, fruit, French toast, ham and sausages, etc. Will had cold cereal despite my urging that lunch was hours away. After breakfast we decided to start with Phranang Beach, a fifteen minute walk to the end of the peninsula along the base of one of the two karst formations. We could feel the wind as we approached, but we braved the elements. It wasn’t ideal for sunbathing so we started to walk the length of the beach. Well, the sand was unstable and I twisted the ankle of my sore foot, which was a very good excuse to have a foot massage from the lady who had been following us just to provide that service. So I agreed to a 45 minute foot massage for 200
baht, while Will continued his walk in disgust. After awhile he returned, and asked for some money to use back at the resort. I had two hundreds for the massage and then only one thousand baht bills, so I gave him one. About 200 meters down the beach the wind blew that bill out of his hand, so soon he was joined by every Thai barker on the beach searching for the bill. He gave up after awhile, and my massage was finished. I imagine the rest of the day, the beach workers continued to look for that bill. I don’t know how he could be so cruel!
We decided due to the wind and poor beach conditions, that we would spend the rest of the day at our beautiful pool. We met couples for England, the Netherlands, and Lithuania (who knew that couples still got married in Europe and had honeymoons! We met two German families with teenage kids from Stuttgart, where we used to live from 1980 to 1984. And we enjoyed watching a languor monkey graze in the large mango tree by the pool. It would climb to where the next mango was, break it off,
and proceed to eat. After it had finished the fruit, it would throw it at the German teenage boy down below, who would duck at the last possible instant. And we would all laugh. Then the monkey would rest awhile, before proceeding to the next ripe mango, and the whole process would be repeated. Soon the poolside near the German teenager was covered with mango pits, which the butterflies seemed to relish. The rest of the afternoon proceeded in this manner until the German teenage girl decided to go to the store to buy some Oreos. I asked her if monkeys enjoyed Oreos; but this was not the case. She completed the pack in minutes. Now I gave up Oreos for Lent, and continued depriving myself of this treat for health reasons (to avoid the gout perhaps), but her having Oreos was the straw that broke the camels back. So I took a brief break from swimming and sunning to buy some Oreos, and on the way to the store passed one of those beach shacks that sold Thai banana pancakes, which I had read about on other blogs, so had to have one and a mango frozen drink.
By then it was time to shower and get dressed for supper. We walked the ten minutes across the peninsula to Railay West, and settled into a restaurant seat to enjoy dinner and the sunset. Today was not the day for their typically spectacular sunsets, so after dinner we returned to our room. I insisted that Will download his pictures from the last three days…the reason I haven’t blogged earlier, so that I could get caught up; which he did and then hurried out the door to find the nearest group of Aussies…necessarily a different group this time as the ones from last evening had departed. I told him to return by midnight as we had an early start tomorrow morning to Monkey Island, Phi Phi Island, Maya Bay (where the Beach was filmed) for some snorkeling. He promised….
4 June (Thursday) - I got up in time for breakfast…Will made it just in time for the tour which left our resort at 8:50 AM and met the speed boat at Railay West a bit after 9 AM. We had some strong monsoon rains just before dawn, and by now the weather seemed promising for the day. The winds
were still a bit gusty, so the waves were choppy, but as the morning and day progressed the sea conditions improved substantially. After about 45 minutes we arrived at Bamboo Island for about 40 minutes swim. I’m not sure why they named it Bamboo as there wasn’t one stalk. And I’m not sure why we stopped at that beach, since our very own beaches were just as nice; other than perhaps it was a national park with a 400 baht entrance fee, for which some portion was included in the price of the tour. Our next stop was the Viking Cave, which again had nothing to do with Vikings, but nevertheless was interesting as this is where the birds built their nests which were harvested for bird’s nest soup. None of us had any desire to have birds next soup after that stop. The next stop was Maya Bay, where the movie “The Beach” was filmed…we all filmed the beach, but didn’t offload to swim. Then it was on to Monkey Beach, where we took some more pictures, but didn’t go ashore, because as the guide stated “The monkey bite.” This didn’t stop the families on other boats from going
ashore and their small children feeding the ferocious animals. I suspec the guide was trying to stay on schedule and offloading and on-loading forty people was a time consuming activity. So we got to Phi Phi Don at noon in time for lunch. We had time to wander the new community that had been rebuilt after the original shacks had been swept away by the Christmas 2004 tsunami. Then we were off to snorkel, first at a reef on the east side on Phi Phi Island, and then one in the middle of the sea, where the reef was close to the surface. The most common fish variety was of the Nemo type, but there were many other very colorful fish and coral. Both Will and I somehow managed to cut our feet on a coral, and Will thinks he might have broken his toe…we shall see. Anyway, we returned to Railay Beach about 4 PM, and headed for our resort pool. By 5 PM we were ready for showers and we dressed for dinner. After dinner Will will download the pictures from today, and then I have four blogs to post. Sorry for having taken so long! The blog
for tomorrow will likely have to wait until we get to Saigon on Saturday evening. Until then, we will spend Friday at the Railay beaches, and our resort pool, and Saturday is the long tail boat trip to AoNang and a song taew to the airport for a noon flight to Bangkok and then a 3 PM flight to Saigon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0282s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
CarMike2177
Carly & Mike Sorensen
Greta shot - we were there in Feb and absolutely loved it. Happy Travels :D