Bangkok - Railey - Ton Sai
Arriving in
Bangkok I loved being back in Asia. The smells, the people, the food, the heat,
the differences. I LOVE IT!
But after 2 days in Bangkok I needed to leave this big and busy city. I longed for something smaller and friendlier. So I booked a bus ticket south, to Krabi. A place well mentioned by my friends in my Annies Planet. In the bus I met Mirka, a girl from Quebec. She was going to Railay, a peninsula surrounded by the Andaman Sea, close to Krabi. Talking about it she explained that from Railay you can walk to another beach called Ton Sai but only with low tide. You can get there thru the jungle but that takes much longer. And this was when I realized that this was the place where girl in New Zealand told me to go to do my open water dive course. I hadn’t looked into it because I wasn’t planning on doing my course at the start of my travels in Asia, but this was such a nice coincidence that I decided to go with Mirka.
The center of Railay is not really the nicest place, because of all the resorts, but the dramatic limestone cliffs that surround Railay are incredible!
We found a cheap bungalow with a hammock, so we were happy.
I arranged my dive course and dove for 3 days. 2 days in the islands close to Railay, the 3th day at Ko Phi Phi. I was very curious how I would feel under water, but immediately I noticed that I couldn’t be more comfortable underwater. I definitely have a new addiction! I saw so many beautiful things: bluespotted stingrays, giant pufferfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, porcupinefish (my favorite!), giant morays, yellow boxfish, barracuda’s, nemo’s and so much more! You can leave me underwater for hours, days, weeks. If my air would last.
In Railay you have an east and west beach connected by a 3 walkways that take about 10 minutes. On one of the walkways there are monkeys everywhere, playing, relaxing, looking at the people passing by.
Halfway on this walkway starts a climb to the Lagoon. It’s quit a climb, especially when it’s wet and slippery.
So when you see people walking thru Railay covered in mud you know where they have been. When Mirka and I went we were lucky because it didn’t rain, so it wasn’t too hard. After climbing up for about 20 minutes you can go to a lookout where you see all Railey. WAUW!
After the viewpoint you start climbing down to the Lagoon, that’s a bit harder than climbing up. But it’s worth it! You arrive at a small pool surrounded by forest. If you lie in the middle of the lagoon and look up at the sky you see that the ends of trees and plants form the shape of an eye.
Mirka is a bit afraid of heights so I had to guide her thru it, but she made it. Go Mirka! To reward ourselves we went to a sacred penis cave J
When I finished my dive course we moved to Ton Sai.
Unfortunately the tide was high so we had to walk with our backpacks thru the jungle, climbing rocks. I think we lost at least 3 liters of sweat. But it was worth it! Ton Sai is small bay, also surrounded by lime stone cliffs that are covered by climbers from all over the world. There is a very relaxed vibe. Everybody knows each other. There is one restaurant where everybody goes: Chicken Mama. We had an amazing rock ‘n roll party in the jungle with good music! That’s hard to find in Thailand. We booked a bungalow we didn’t like but we didn’t want to walk anymore. We just wanted beach. And that’s where we met Jose and Guillem. Two guys from villages close to Barcelona. Guillem is traveling for 8 months in Asia, learning English. Jose traveled for 8 months in Africa and has inspired me a lot for my next trip. Now he is finishing his trip in the islands of South East Asia. I didn’t know yet that these two would be my travelbuddies from that day on. The next day we moved to their guesthouse to become their neighbors for a week.
One night we went to a bar close by the guesthouse that was really nicely decorated, with a lot of style and details. Paintings everywhere.
So when Mirka told the owner that she did art school and paints, he asked if she could make a painting for the bar. This was the result.
But after 2 days in Bangkok I needed to leave this big and busy city. I longed for something smaller and friendlier. So I booked a bus ticket south, to Krabi. A place well mentioned by my friends in my Annies Planet. In the bus I met Mirka, a girl from Quebec. She was going to Railay, a peninsula surrounded by the Andaman Sea, close to Krabi. Talking about it she explained that from Railay you can walk to another beach called Ton Sai but only with low tide. You can get there thru the jungle but that takes much longer. And this was when I realized that this was the place where girl in New Zealand told me to go to do my open water dive course. I hadn’t looked into it because I wasn’t planning on doing my course at the start of my travels in Asia, but this was such a nice coincidence that I decided to go with Mirka.
The center of Railay is not really the nicest place, because of all the resorts, but the dramatic limestone cliffs that surround Railay are incredible!
We found a cheap bungalow with a hammock, so we were happy.
I arranged my dive course and dove for 3 days. 2 days in the islands close to Railay, the 3th day at Ko Phi Phi. I was very curious how I would feel under water, but immediately I noticed that I couldn’t be more comfortable underwater. I definitely have a new addiction! I saw so many beautiful things: bluespotted stingrays, giant pufferfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, porcupinefish (my favorite!), giant morays, yellow boxfish, barracuda’s, nemo’s and so much more! You can leave me underwater for hours, days, weeks. If my air would last.
In Railay you have an east and west beach connected by a 3 walkways that take about 10 minutes. On one of the walkways there are monkeys everywhere, playing, relaxing, looking at the people passing by.
Halfway on this walkway starts a climb to the Lagoon. It’s quit a climb, especially when it’s wet and slippery.
So when you see people walking thru Railay covered in mud you know where they have been. When Mirka and I went we were lucky because it didn’t rain, so it wasn’t too hard. After climbing up for about 20 minutes you can go to a lookout where you see all Railey. WAUW!
After the viewpoint you start climbing down to the Lagoon, that’s a bit harder than climbing up. But it’s worth it! You arrive at a small pool surrounded by forest. If you lie in the middle of the lagoon and look up at the sky you see that the ends of trees and plants form the shape of an eye.
Mirka is a bit afraid of heights so I had to guide her thru it, but she made it. Go Mirka! To reward ourselves we went to a sacred penis cave J
When I finished my dive course we moved to Ton Sai.
Unfortunately the tide was high so we had to walk with our backpacks thru the jungle, climbing rocks. I think we lost at least 3 liters of sweat. But it was worth it! Ton Sai is small bay, also surrounded by lime stone cliffs that are covered by climbers from all over the world. There is a very relaxed vibe. Everybody knows each other. There is one restaurant where everybody goes: Chicken Mama. We had an amazing rock ‘n roll party in the jungle with good music! That’s hard to find in Thailand. We booked a bungalow we didn’t like but we didn’t want to walk anymore. We just wanted beach. And that’s where we met Jose and Guillem. Two guys from villages close to Barcelona. Guillem is traveling for 8 months in Asia, learning English. Jose traveled for 8 months in Africa and has inspired me a lot for my next trip. Now he is finishing his trip in the islands of South East Asia. I didn’t know yet that these two would be my travelbuddies from that day on. The next day we moved to their guesthouse to become their neighbors for a week.
One night we went to a bar close by the guesthouse that was really nicely decorated, with a lot of style and details. Paintings everywhere.
So when Mirka told the owner that she did art school and paints, he asked if she could make a painting for the bar. This was the result.
I found out that the owner of the bar (the one in the picture knows TCDF, the place in Pak Song in Thailand where I’m going to volunteer. What a coincidence!
And they have a cat called coffee!
The only thing less nice of Ton Sai was that it was raining a lot. Almost every day. Around 12pm the weather changed drastically. Within 5 minutes the sky was totally grey and a really strong wind started blowing.
Employees would only have a few minutes time to bring everything in safety and to close the sides of bars with simply fabricated plastic sails with weights on the end. Climbers could be high on the wall at this time and had to come down very quick. You could see the stress on their faces. Sometimes it would rain like this at night, but that created nice and cozy party’s inside bars. The day before we left Ton Sai we talked to the guy who sold me and Mirka our boat tickets and he told us that the rain season normally isn’t like this. It’s a depression and that happens usually once a year and lasts a week. How fortunate… that we chose exactly this week to be there. But imagine, if I love this place in a week of depression, how it would be when it’s good weather. Magical!
The boat ride from Ton Sai to Ao Nang, from where Mirka would go back to Bangkok to start her journey home and I would continue to Malaysia to get my two months visa for Thailand, was a bit scary. Mainly because a woman in the boat kept on repeating that the day before 3 boats collapsed and sank. She was well prepared with her waterproof box with all her belongings inside. But luckily nothing happened and we arrived safely in Ao Nang, where we had breakfast for the last time and gave each other a big hug! I miss you my sweet pompui...
Time to go to
Malaysia, a new episode!
Lieve Anne, wij houden van jou, Har en Jen
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