Next Stop: Unknown

Morning came quickly and we barely had time to back up our stuff and get to the cliff jumping meeting spot.  By 10:30, we were on a long tail boat with a 3rd tourist, François, off to go cliff jumping and snorkeling.  The long tail didn’t take us very far, probably 15 minutes to a jagged set of rocks, right down the beach.  We moored up to a buoy, donned weird sock like gloves and beat up tennis shoes and followed the guide into the water.  He took us to a spot where we had to fight the waves and time it just right so we didn’t impale ourselves on the sea walls, then climb up way up a tiny crevice onto the cliffs above.  The rocks were super sharp, so the gloves and shoes helped tremendously!  Once we got to the top, our first jump was from 8 meters.  It didn’t look very tall from the water, but standing at the top looking down was a totally different story.  The guide, who was also filming us, explained how we should jump… basically, jump off the cliff, stay as straight and vertical as possible, hands at the side, feet down, and plunge into the water.  The Belgian guy went first, it was kinda funny, as he jumped off, his arms went flailing madly, and he barely got them tucked in before he hit the water… but, he came up out of the water ok, and it was my turn to go next.  I tried not to let my nerves build up too much, so I just jumped straight in… it was exhilarating!  No problem, I can jump from higher!  Jenn was next, and I watched her contemplate making the jump for about a minute..but she went in like a champ and came up looking a bit surprised!  She hadn’t gone into the water completely straight, so I think she got a little water up the backside!

We swam back to the climb-up point, did the wave waltz, and made our way to the next jumping point, which was 10 meters.  (33 feet).  Somehow, it looked a lot taller than the 8 meters had.   The Belgium and I both jumped in no problem, but Jenn didn’t really seem too inclined to jump.  When she finally did, she didn’t land very well, and opted not to continue on the the next height.  It kinda spooked me a bit too… and when I stood up at 13 meters for the next one… I decided that was high enough.  The Belgium went on to jump from 20 meters… freaking crazy.  Back when I was little, maybe 12 or 13 years old, we jumped from 60 feet some place in Arkansas, into a river.  The only thing I remember vividly was hitting so hard that my arms went numb when they slapped against the water… So, I really had no desire to repeat that experience!  After the 3rd jump, I opted to join Jenn and do some snorkeling in the cove.  The snorkeling was quite amazing.  Even though we were not really on a huge reef, there were tons of fish.  We could only stay under water for as long as we could hold our breath, but we saw most of the same fish as in Koh Tao, only they seemed more abundant here.  It got me excited for diving in the area! 

Our next stop was Monkey Beach, which is a little strip of beach completely covered with monkeys.  I’m not sure what kind of monkeys they are, but they were absolutely hilarious.  I would guess there were 50 or 60 right on the beach, and they were “tourist fed” monkeys.  Basically, people would bring fruit and such to the beach to feed them, and they would come and take the food right out of your hands.  They are also sly suckers, and will run off with anything you set down.  We fed them some watermelon, and had a couple minutes of just us with the monkeys, then another big tour boat landed and the beach filled with tourists.  One person gave the monkey a bottle of Pepsi, and it sat there on the beach drinking out of it like a rock star.  Following his lead, another guy lit a cigarette and tried handing it to a monkey… thankfully, he wasn’t interested… although it would have made for a great picture.  We got to see baby monkeys playing and swinging, and even some monkey love.  (Turns our our guide/ videographer got it on film, so we get to relive “the moment”). 

We boated back to the pier, grabbed some lunch, and then made our way to the pick up spot for our overnight camping trip to Maya Beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beach was covered in monkeys! Baby monkeys, monkey brothers and sisters, and grandparents – they were all over!

 

 

 

 

 

Smart little buggers!

 

 

 

The trip to Maya Beach was dreadfully choppy! We didn’t realize that monsoon season means more than just rain – it also means huge swells of water coming from the west (the Indian Ocean). These cause raucous waves whenever the ship is exposed to the sea. Neither one of us got sick though! We started our Maya Beach adventure with some snorkeling and kayaking. Like earlier in the day the water was fabulous! We saw our first Lion Fish EVER. Very cool! Lots of puffer fish, sea cucumber, sea urchin, little nemo’s and such. Then we headed over to the scene of “The Beach” where we had a picnic dinner (curry & rice – a new type of practical picnic food!) drank our complimentary bucket of liquor, saw a MASSIVE hermit crab, took in the sunset, and then snuggled up on our reed mats for the night. Yes, we “slept” outside on the beach, uncovered, in full view of the mosquitoes, crabs, mice and other varmints – hence “slept” and not slept…

The naturalistic experience was well worth it though, as we left with fabulous memories and some amazing photos! Check out the sunset below – wowwie.

 

Lucas looking especially tan on the Maya Beach Camping Boat Cruise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the photos we’ve seen on the internet of Maya Bay have these amazingly calm waters… well since we were there during monsoon season taking any similar photographs was absolutely impossible, but the stormy weather does make for some nice clouds and shadows though, don’t you think.

 

 

 

 

Lucas and Jenn, just after sunset.

 

 

 

 

And to reward those of you who read down to the very bottom… two of our most stunning shots of Maya Bay during sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and one more of the hermit crab!

Leaving Railay was a bit sad, as it really is the perfect place.  But, it’s small, and our time is short, so we hopped on a ferry boat to Koh Phi Phi.  This island is where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach” was filmed.  I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, but I remember it being quite a tropical paradise.  When the boat pulled into the bay, the water was right out of a postcard, deep blue and aquamarine near the sandy areas.  No sooner had we stepped off the boat however, and my opinion of the place changed.  It was a total tourist madhouse… there were tons of locals trying to get you to come with them to their “special price” hotels, take taxis, or anything for a chance to make a buck.  It was a bit overwhelming just trying to make it off the dock.  We didn’t have a place to stay yet, so we popped into one of the “tourist offices” who happened to speak decent English, and he showed us a few places on a map, all seemed pretty expensive.  He was trying to sell us on a place for 1800B a night, or 1300B if we booked for 3 days.  This was more than double what we had been paying so we politely declined and went to the internet cafe to check rates.  Sure enough, everything on this island is priced double to what we expected.  We decided we’d just walk through the town and find a place, which happened pretty quickly, a small room with AC above a restaurant for 800B.  It wasn’t anything fancy, but at least it was a place for the night so we could survey the island and find somewhere else for future nights.

Once settled we took off to explore the island.  It was hot, sticky, and rainy all at the same time, and we walked around for a while… Even in the off season, this island was packed with people… turns out they are all here to drink and party.  I guess this just happens to be the party island… all you can drink buckets 300B for ladies, 400B for men, (and 350B for ladyboys!) and the clubs stay open until 4 am or later.  Not my style, but we came for diving anyway.  We talked to a few dive shops, but nothing really excited me, and there was sticker shock as well… 2 dives at 2500B (instead of 1400B on Koh Tao). 

At one point as we were checking out all the hotels, we came to “water hill”.  An overwhelming foul smell sunk into everything… turns out it was a water treatment facility.  It appears all of the ‘grey water’ from what I would guess to be the entire city… came into this area…  They had planted jungle type plants throughout, so it looked really nice, but it smelled terrible.  It wasn’t huge in size, but it provides a monster amount of smell as the wind carried the stink around.  We quickly decided this was not the place for us, and decided we would stay on another part of the island.  Fortunately, as we were walking around, we spotted signs for cliff jumping and an overnight camping trip on Maya Beach, Phi Phi Lay.. the actual beach from the movie.  We booked both for the next day!  We ended up finding a surprisingly good Italian place, and had pasta for a change!  Jenn and I both ordered gnocchi, which was most excellent and filling… then went back to the room and passed out to the sound of bass booming from the bar below us.

 

Taylor this photo is for you! You asked if we’d eaten anything weird… well for Thai people, squid isn’t really ‘weird’, but we thought you might think the tentacles hanging out of Lucas’ mouth would look a bit less than tasty!

Our first full day in Railay… and decided rock climbing was definitely in order! The beaches in Railay are AMAZING – I can not stress that enough. But we were in a rock climbing Mecca and so we obviously had no choice but to strap on harnesses and spend our morning clinging to those ultra gorgeous limestone cliffs. Lucas had reservations – I’m not sure entirely why… he’s good at absolutely every new thing he tries and I was sure that rock climbing would be no different. Sure enough, once he figured out how to belay successfully and balance his weight while climbing he was able to scurry up inverse slopes no problem.

Our beginners class had one true beginner who gave up 3/4ths of the way through the day, plus Lucas, myself and Brit who’d climbed a few times before. We started on ‘easy’ climbs – these were still nearly completely vertical and about 60’ high. From there we moved on to slopes of similar height and grade but with more challenging foot and hand holds. We rounded out the course with with tiny holds, inverse grades and soaring limestone cliffs of more than 100’. Lucas thinks it was near 200’. I was totally hooked and wanted to climb each consecutive day. But, we tore our hands up pretty good on the jagged rocks though, so Lucas persuaded me to downgrade our activities to strictly camera, pool and beach related things for our next two days in Railay.

I can’t say that downgrading the energy downgraded the fun though. Railay has several stretches of gorgeous bays, limestone caves, resident monkeys and awesome sunsets which kept our days busy the entire time. If you go to Thailand don’t miss Railay, it’s my favorite spot yet!

We did have one little mishap though, a few hours after I said that we were so lucky to have only dealt with the occasional scrap and bruise for the last three weeks, Lucas went and stumbled into a hornet nest. Yes, that didn’t go over well with the hornets! We had be trying to scramble over particularly rough shoreline towards one of the secluded beach coves. Being a gentleman, Lucas we leading the way and checking it out for me – it was quite rough going. Apparently it was so rough, that the particular route we chose was so infrequently visited that some hornets had the opportunity to build their nest with a lovely view of the bay. Well, Lucas came a knocking on their door and those hornets were not too pleased. I heard a distinct, “Ahhhh!” and then saw Lucas jump from a rock about 10’ tall, down into a very rocky shoreline. He was lucky – the hornets had swarmed around him, but he only got three bites before he made his dramatic exit. Needless to say, I took a different path to that particular beach!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucas and I prepare for the ultimate outdoor climbing experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too shabby for two people new to the game!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The views here were just amazing! Loamy white beaches meet dramatic limestone cliffs and turquoise sky! And did I mention the sunsets, my oh my! And these were with our point-and-shoot cheapie camera!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The company wasn’t bad either! Walking along one of the beach paths we were greeted by an entire clan of monkeys having dinner. They were grabbing coconuts out of the tree and throwing them on the cobblestone pathway so that they would break open. Nature’s ‘fast food’!

After a quick stay in Krabi, we decided to check out a nearby beach recommended by another traveler.  One of the local longtail boat drivers told us it would be 150B to take us there, and he said the last boat left at 5pm.  So, around 4:45 we arrived and found our boat driver, Luk.  Unfortunately, the boat is only 150B if it has 8 or more passengers… he doesn’t make the trip for less than 1200B total… so, we needed 6 more passengers to fill it up.  At 5pm, there were no passengers to be found, so we were kinda screwed.  Luk said he’d take us anyway as a “private boat” for 800B.  No thanks!  I walked up and down the pier looking for someone else going there, and all of the boat drivers quoted ridiculous prices.  Finally I found one who said he would take us for 600B.  OK, so I went to grab Jenn, and tell her we were going, when Luk asked us where we were going and why we weren’t taking his boat.  I lied and told him I found someone to take us for 500B, at which point he threw an angry look down the pier to the other drivers, then agreed to take us for that price.  Negotiation at work in low season!  Kudos!

The boat ride was about 45 minutes, but absolutely beautiful… and when we arrived at Railay (East) Jenn decided it was time to move to Thailand.  I think she said something like: “You can still interview for that Bangkok job, right?”    The beach was fronted by mangrove trees, and surrounded on both sides by tall spires of limestone, coming right down to the edge of the water.  It was multicolored, orange, blue, black, white… words can’t really describe it.  (I’ll try to put a picture below).  We walked down the beach with all our gear to find a hotel, and finally settled for a place called Diamond Cave, who gave us a room with AC for 700B, which was about 300B less than everywhere else.  We unpacked, then went out to explore, and Jenn convinced me to sign up for rock climbing.  I was a little hesitant, but oh well, this province is supposed to be a rock climbing mecca… may as well give it a shot!  We signed up for a 2pm intro class for the next day.

 

 

 

A food vendor near the pier where we took a boat to Railay beach.  Mmmm, whole roasted duck with head still attached.

 

 

 

 

 

The beach at Railay East. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These little tiny crabs (about 2mm) would come out of holes in the beach and ball up sand around their home.  It was quite cool!

A two hour boat ride across the Bay of Thailand, and a five hour car ride across the mainland, and Lucas and I have found ourselves in Thailand’s famed West Coast! First stop – Krabi, a jumping off point for the hundreds of islands dotting the shore here. And ah, it’s was definitely love at first site! Few places I’ve been have had such dramatic landscapes. The environment is purely tropical rainforest, but these huge limestone monoliths rise out of the jungle punctuating the skyline with their grandeur. They are amazing!

We arrived in the evening and choose a place to stay. K Guest House (500B per night, or roughly $14USD), a family run operation with Thai style architecture and hardwood finishing’s. Our place had a balcony – ooh. Then we popped out into the city for a bite to eat at the Night Market. Full on lychee and spicy squid on a stick, we decided to have a caricature by one of the vendors. Well as soon as two Farang sit down for a portrait, don’t you know that 30 to 40 locals stop what they are doing and come to watch the Anglo couple having their cartoon drawn. Oh, the fame!

The next day we rented a scooter and headed 22 km outside the city to one of their National Parks. We didn’t really know what to expect – we’d heard that there were some caves and waterfalls – but no one had prepared us for the awesomeness that we were about to encounter. Well truth be told, the caves were kind of bunk – the big famous one we couldn’t find, but we heard from a couple of travelers, that even if we had found it we couldn’t have explored much of it as we’d left our flashlight back at K Guest House. But the waterfalls, oh my!

Huay Toh is a series of 11 waterfalls cascading through the jungle. There are slippery little paths that you can climb up through them. In some spots the way is rough enough that they’ve kindly bolted in climbing ropes. Insurance liability in this country doesn’t seem to be anything that people take to seriously! We made it up to probably the 7th of such falls before we found the path too treacherous. But this particular waterfall cascaded in to a very deep (7’ – 9’) pool, perfect for swimming. You could clamber right up the side of the waterfall, and jump into the deep pool. The perfect way to refresh ourselves!

Oh, on our way back to the scooter, we saw a snake attempt to eat a frog! The snake had the frog caught by one leg and was swimming through the pool towards the shore line. For once, I spotted wildlife before Lucas – woohoo! He has eagle eyes. Lucas went to investigate, and maybe sneak a photo opportunity. But he accidently helped the frog escape. Survival of the fittest at work!

 

 

Lychee’s for sale at the night market – 1 kilogram for 25B

 

 

 

Our Krabi Souvenir from the Weekend Night Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the jungle near Huay Toh Waterfalls

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swimming in Huay Toh – the current off this waterfall was so strong. It was like being in one of those mini lap pools.

 

 

 

Lucas shot this photo on our way out of the national park. The lizard was sunbathing on the hiking path. Doesn’t he have an almost human express. Love this shot!

 

 

 

One of the lower waterfalls in the series.

 

 

 

The next series of photo are Lucas and I jumping into the waterfall. Exhilarating fun! We saw some locals jumping off the ledge 2xs higher than our perch. Of course, that just made Lucas want to try it too. Crazy boy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Splash!!