Advertisement
Did you know is the year 2554 in Thailand? Fact!
After a motorbike, pickup, ferry, bus, taxi, train, bus, pickup and 28 hours later, we finally arrived in Ao Nang beach resort on the West coast close to Krabi. We wanted to get to Railey Beach for our last week in Thailand, which is only accessable by longtail boat. Unfortunately, unlike other Thai islands, the boatmen insist on having a minimum of 8 people in the boat before they'll set off and because it was low season we had to wait an age before there was enough passengers to complete our journey. Frustrating (especially as the boatmen were very moody) but we got there eventually and decided to make for quieter Tonsai beach (as recommended by friends!) where we found a basic bungalow in a pretty jungle garden to call home. Electricity in the bungalow was only available between 6pm and midnight and it was very hot at night without a fan so we moved house the next day to a bungalow with an all night fan! This is important stuff when it's 38C outside!!
We quickly got into our beach routine of brunch watching the rockclimbers scale the
verticle limestone carsts, walk to beautiful West Railey beach or Phra Nang beach through the jungle spotting monkeys, lizards and birds, spend all afternoon at the beach, swimming in the turquoise water until the black clouds rolled in and walk back to Tonsai via the rocky shore at low tide. The hot rainy season was just starting hence the daily rain shower but it only lasted an hour or so. Dinner at our favourite fish BBQ restaurant where the friendly but crackers owner called everyone 'darling' and we ate yummy shark, barracuda and king fish. Bliss!
The only negatives about Railey were the mosquitos (millions of them and they seem to be immune to DEET bug spray!), the monster jellyfish attracted to the warm sea we had to keep an eye out for and the prices. They were much higher then we have been used to in Koh Chang. An example being that in Koh Chang you could buy 1/2 kg of mangosteens for 20 Baht (approx 8 fruit) but in Railey they were charging 10 Baht for 1 mangosteen. Humph!
Railey is a rock climbers mecca (one of the top 10 climb sites in the world apparently!)
and many bare-chested muscley men and model-figured women can be seen wandering around with ropes and harnesses and climbing the many carsts and cliffs. There are loads of climbing instruction on offer so we thought we'd give it a go. We did a half day beginners course with 2 other girls from the UK and our Thai instructor Max. We went to the Diamond Cave Rock on Railey which is a big straight vertical wall with lots of cracks, crevises and natrural hand holes, so perfect for first timers. We learnt the basics - equipment, safety knots, carabenas, how to climb and how to belay for someone (stand at the bottom and manage rope while someone else climbs!). We did 3 climbs each, Holly managing to climb to a 12m point and Dee to 20m point. We belayed for each other, a great skill to learn but kinda scary, especially when Holly was lowering Dee down she was lifted off the ground and Max had to hold on to her trousers! It was very hard work as neither of us have very good upper body strength and it was a bit terrifying when we looked down but we had a
brilliant day. Definately do it again! A new hobby for back home maybe!
Next day our friends Julie and Dave arrived so we hung out with them on the beach for our last two days. Our last night in Thailand was also Julie's birthday so we celebrated with a bottle of Samsong, dinner at our fave restaurant and a party at the Peace & Love Bar. There was a band playing and lots of people were up dancing so we had such a good time. The band even sung Julie Happy Birthday, bless. Shame a Thai guy had to go and spoil it by trying to start a fight with Dee. We think it was a case of mistaken identity but this bloke was very angry that Dee hadn't bought him a drink after he'd apparently asked him too, but Dee had never seen this guy before so he was mistaken. We decided to make a sharp exit as you can't really reason with a gang of drunk Thai lads so we went to finish our evening on our bungalow porch.
We got a longtail boat back to Ao Nang the next morning (shame that again we had
to wait ages before there was enough people to leave then the boatman was an arse and refused to take the boat close to the beach so we both got absolutely soaked trying to get our bags off) and then a rather damp minivan ride all the way south to Malaysia. Apart from angry bar man and the Railey longtail boat drivers bad moods we had the best month in Thailand, such a great time staying at the Banyan Tree, celebrating Songkran, learning to cook Thai and riding an elephant. We were sad to leave......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.183s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 16; qc: 53; dbt: 0.1139s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Cherise
non-member comment
Thai boys
Omg what a horrible thing to happen dee. Glad you made a cool sharp exit before anything bad happened. X