Bangkok-Krabi-Railay

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Our last night in bangkok consisted of a bit too much drinking with the yanks, irish and southampton guys before a much needed lie in! we arranged a bus to ayuthya but due to flooding changed to head south towards krabi.

Bangkok was sleazy and full of scams but if you keep your wits about you and barter a good deal, its a lot of fun and a real experience. id recommend two days maximum! next stop for us was a 12 hour bus journey to krabi (we were told). in reality after 7 hours on a lovely air con bus we stoppped and got put onto another bus (less comfy) for 7 hours. then we were taken off again and had to wait an hour for a mimi-bus (not comfy at all) for two hours before arriving in krabi. we decided after about 2 mins of arriving that we wanted to move on so proceeded to barter for ANOTHER mini bus-boat combo to take us to railay bay. around 18 hours in total, trust me, travelling invloves a lot of travelling!

hopping on a long boat for the first time is like a scene from a james bond movie, and our first sights of railay and the limestone cliffs emerging from the water took all of our breaths away. paradise. after arriving mike and luke sorted our first real bargain, a 5 star resort for just over 200bht each a night. the perks of being in a group of 6 for a few days!

our first day in railay we checked out the two main beaches and then went in search of a lagoon and and viewpoint we heard about. finding the sign was easy, the only trouble was it pointed straight at a cliff, and took us a while to realise we had to climb. vertigo does not describe how high and steep it was, but the viewpoint gave us all a sight we will struggle to match again not only on this trip, but in our lives. it really was that good. a danish guy showed us the way to the laggon, but about half way down ( and our flip flops long gone) we gave up, it was a death trap. although every person coming up said it was heaven and paradise down there, and worth the risk!

that night most of the guys were still feeling the journey so hit the bed pretty early so myself and luke went for a few drinks.... we met a couple girls from the boat over, emily from america and nicola from trinidad and went to a pituresque bar overlooking the sea for a whiskey bucket! after this the four of us headed into the jungle to find a rasta bar we had heard about and it was amazing! the four of us and the rasta owner sat around a bonfire all night listening to bob marley and chilling whilst gazing at the stars (and a passed out swede!)

todays agenda was elephant rides, and although it was slightly disturbing to see them in captivity and with chains around, the experience of riding an elephant is one that will never leave any of us, definitely a highlight of the trip! i will post photos soon!

we head to ko lanto tommorow for a few days, soo i will post again soon!


scotty

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