October 27 – Krabi & Railay Beach, Thailand

As I mentioned before, we were really ready to arrive in Thailand. Our first hours upon arrival were punctuated with open jaws, swiveling necks and the occasional gasp. The Bangkok airport was like a space ship (a clean space ship). In our giddy state we began to communicate in martian speak. The logos of various food chains we had not seen since leaving Canada beckoned us as we made our way through and into our taxi. Anna nearly went into a frenzy upon seeing Dairy Queen. The taxi was immaculate (Nepal had shown us a whole new level of beater taxis), the roads smooth, the obvious infrastructure mind boggling and most of all…we didn’t hear a horn honking anywhere. Ahhhh. I can’t say we explored Bangkok because well, we didn’t. Our flight to Krabi was the next day and we decided there wasn’t enough time to do anything but sleep and check out the food court at the airport. And the food court was excellent by the way…offering large varieties of food, obviously cooked in relatively clean environments and ice ice ice! We began our love affair with fruit shakes and banana lassis, made the way they should be.

Our next stop was Krabi Town which is an excellent mainland port and launching pad for the beaches and islands dotting the Adman Coast. We decided to stay for a day in Krabi while we decided exactly where to go. Our hotel, called the A Mansion was quite the find being both reasonable (always a happy day) and new which meant clean and bright. And, there was a fabulous café right next door called 89 hosted by a woman named Sassy who made a killer Americano and provided free wifi. We made great friends with Sassy over two days as we sipped shakes, ate breakfast, drank coffee and used her computers. Oh, and she had a really cute little black dog.

It seemed the weather hadn’t quite changed yet from rainy season to “winter” which is supposed to happen any day at the end of October. We booked a kayaking day regardless just north of Krabi and Au Nang. We managed to salvage the day in the end but mid morning as we bobbed along in our two double kayaks absolutely drenched in a massive rain, we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out. The paddling trip took us through really cool and narrow Mangrove Forest channels, into an old crocodile cave, through a steep walled canyon and through secret little lagoons. I think the scenery would have been brilliant given sunshine, but it was still pretty great even in the clouds. The sun did peak out in the afternoon and hey, at leaste we were saved from the typical “first day at the beach” sunburn. The bonus was an included fabulous Thai lunch and our “guide” was hilarious. His name was Tam and he chatted the whole time giving us bits of information here and there and cracking jokes. Apparently during the Tsunami (this is not one of his jokes), he had been with a group kayaking. They got the heads up via cell phone from Phuket and hid in one of the lagoons we explored until the water receded. This particular area was not hit very hard, but I can’t imagine how the guides and tourists felt waiting for more than 3 hours not knowing exactly what was coming. This was the first of many stories we’d hear and images we would see from the Tsunami.

The other highlight we found in Krabi was the Night Market. Set up every night down by the water in the centre of town, the Night Market consists of a number of stalls selling the most amazing local cuisine. It was packed with locals (always a good sign) and westerners (so you know it is likely safe for you to eat) with sights and smells making our senses dance. Everything’s made right there in front of you so the entertainment factor was almost as high as the satisfaction from eating.

Railay Beach
We were experiencing our most humid weather yet – constantly wiping sweat from our brows and wistfully thinking of our next shower. Our friend Christin recently asked us in an email to make sure we enjoy every sweet, sour and salty part of our travels. This was definitely the salty part. Wanting easy access to the water, we decided to head towards Railay, a destination world famous for climbing on massive limestone cliffs and its beautiful natural setting with 3 incredible beaches; Phanang or “Princess” Beach, Railay West and Ton Sai. On mainland, it is only accessible by boat and has not roads or vehicles. We stayed on Raily East which is the least desirable beach (a mangrove beach more of boat access only) but offers much more reasonable accommodation with a little less isolation than Ton Sai which is where the hard core climbers/backpackers stay. Not sure if we would have fit in amongst the dreads and tattoos of Tons Sai anyway! From Railay East you can walk to the other beaches in 5-10 minutes. Luckily we were still within October, after November 1st room rates double for high season.

Some of our highlights during our Railay stay were; Princess Beach once the crowds left, feeding monkeys corn on the cob, Mama’s Chicken on Tons Sai, Lucky Restaurant’s BBQ’d fish and the crazy hostess waving fish around trying to attract customers, watching climbers who could defy gravity, meeting Noah from Colorado who helped us try tightrope walking, longtail boat rides, swimming in the turquoise water and lemon shakes at the same little restaurant every day. Oh, and the girls are now familiar with the term transsexual and transgender. Seemed to us anyway, in Thailand the lines between genders are a bit more fuzzy than other places we’ve been. Men are often seen sporting hair bands, make-up, manicured finger nails and sometimes full women’s gear. Some seem to be exploring the other side, and some seem to be comfortable being men, but wearing women’s hair styles. Ah yes, another teaching moment.

Ron & Anna took a ½ day rock climbing lesson on Railay East climbing limestone cliffs over the beach. They both did really well and had sore muscles for days after. Later we were lucky to see one of the instructors go through his daily workout at Princess Beach (much more technical) which involved running up a tree, leaping on to the rock face, maneuvering across and down only to repeat again, and again and again. Like I mentioned above, it defied gravity.

We also took a sunset snorkeling trip out to a couple of islands off the west side of Railay. At first we felt rather unlucky as the visibility was very poor, the water rough, rain showers set in and we were running away from a threatening thunder storm. Seems the longtail boat driver and snorkeling guide were not going to cry “uncle” though. We forged ahead and as luck would have it, the sun broke through in time for us to enjoy as we were dropped off on a secluded beach facing west. We ended up with a great mix of people on the boat and the evening finished with a hot Thai curry dinner on the beach lit by torch light. Our boat drive home (I have always been a sucker for driving on water at night) was amazing with the flicker of the storm sheet lightening off in the distance, the glint of fishing boats bobbing around and a quick stop for a swim in the phosphorescence under the cliffs before landing back at Railay West. It was an afternoon and evening I would recommend to anyone. The actual snorkeling was a bit marginal with a lot of dead coral and only medium amounts (yet colourful) of small fish to gaze at, but the whole experience was fabulous.

But it was time to move on. We had decided to head over to Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Lay for our final few days in Southern Thailand. Only a 2 hour fast ferry ride away, Phi Phi was a perfect stepping stone towards another 2 hour fast ferry trip to Phuket where we would catch our flight up north.