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Published: July 29th 2008
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Railay Beach West
Looking out to the North Refreshed after our time in Salad Beach with Kate and Alan, we said our goodbyes and hopped on the Express boat that would take us to Ko Tao. The journey started out nice, but as with all good things it soon came to an abrupt end; the waves ended up battering the ship and the rain was coming down sideways by the time we docked. And trudging from one guest house to the next once we were ashore was a bit of a pain - but worth it in the end as we found an ok room for 400bt a night, the bonus being it had a great sea view.
Ko Tao on the whole was a bit of a disappointment. The whole island is geared toward diving- and as Kelly had already done her course and we weren't interested in any more diving just yet, we felt a little like outsiders. Maybe that's a bit strong- but it certainly wasn't our scene. Plus the weather was generally cloudy and sometimes even drizzly, so we couldn't even lay on the beach (ridiculous eh?!) A couple of nights there just mooching around was more than enough for us before we moved
Railay Beach West
Looking out to the South (and i know what you're thinking- yes it really is as beautiful as it looks) on to the other side of Thailand, aiming for Krabi.
So on day 4 we rocked up at the boat pier and boarded the Express Catamaran that 2 hours later, would drop us at Chumphon. Once we'd arrived sporting our obligatory brightly coloured stickers (the ones that you're always issued with on departure- and somehow act as your ticket from one place to the next), we were herded (just the 2 of us that is) into the back of a minivan and soon on the road to Krabi.
Because you never want to second guess exactly what's around the corner or how your journey's going to pan out (that's one thing we've learnt- only expect the unexpected when travelling in Asia) we refrained from taking up too much space in the van or spreading out too much, just in case we were to change vehicle, take on other passengers or both. But after 60 kms or so, we deduced that this van was for us 2 and us 2 alone. With this in mind, we reclined our seats, cracked open the bag of sour cream and onion crisps and moved to opposite ends of the van to take
Preparation, preparation, preparation
Kelly readies herself to scale the face of 'Mount Railay' advantage of our maximum legroom. Chauffer driven all the way to Krabi- could have (and most definitely has at some point in the past) been worse.
Four hours later we were in Krabi town. A nice enough place, but it was just a stop off before we got the boat to Railay Beach (only accessible by boat) the next day. And once we arrived, it was glorious! The place (albeit a little more developed) was just as we remembered it from our trip there a couple of years ago. West Railay was the better beach by far with amazing limestone karsts and cliffs either side and powder white sand- picture postcard Thai beach! It also has accomodation at the pricier end of the scale so we headed to the adjacent Railay East Beach where we landed an amazing deal on a huge room (around 9 English pounds) in a proper hotel complex with infinity pool and restaurant. And the weather, unlike Ko Tao, was hot, hot, hot! There isn't a hell of a lot to do at Railay other than laze around, eat, drink and get browner. So we took pride in doing just that for the next week
Rocks away!
Up she goes or so (sorry if this is painful to read as you're all probably feeling a bit hard done by with your 'summer', but then you are in jolly, old England, what do you expect?) The only other thing there was to do was rock climb- something that we've wanted to do for ages. So as the weather turned a little on the last but one day (there was mild cloud coverage) we did a half day course with a small climbing school called 'Thai'd Up Climbing'.
The Instructor 'Rit' was a really nice bloke who certainly knew his stuff. He soon had us scaling the face of the limestone cliffs where the 'beginner' routes had been set up. Kelly went first and did very well indeed, and not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I took to climbing like a Viet Cong soldier takes to very tight spaces. I think I'm a bit of a natural and absolutely loved every minute of clinging to the rocks at heights of upto 30 metres - enjoying some of the best climbing in Thailand. We both did really well and completed all four routes (each of them increasing in difficulty
Looking up
Just don't look down and height). I think I've definitely found a new hobby to take up on my return home...
We were sad to leave Krabi as it holds such good memories for us but the nice thing is that i don't think we were dissapointed by it one bit, second time around. Another long and bumpy minivan drive later and we found ourselves in 'Poo-ket'. The place certainly lived up to it's name as the shopping was rubbish, the weather was awful and the entire place is full of fat, old European men with worringly young Thai girls on thier arms (well Karon, where we were staying was certainly really crap and touristy). We kind of expected that anyway- the only real reason we bothered to make the trip was to catch the cheap flight out of Thailand and into Panang, Malaysia. It had started to feel a bit like a home away from home due to all the time that we'd spent there over the last few months; popping in from the surrounding countries, but it was finally time to say 'Goodbye Thailand (and all its lovely beaches, cheap booze, food and people saying "same, same"), and here we come
Hooked on crack
Once i had a go, i couldn't stop climbing! Malaysia...!'
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dennis white
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monkeys
Yous two are eating to many BANANAS !!! All that climbing