January 20-24, Railay Beach, Krabi

Around 11:00ish a.m. we arrived back in Pak Bara. Before leaving for Ko Tarutao three days earlier, we purchased tickets for the "big bus" to Krabi. We figured that we would be able to take the 12:00 p.m. bus (the woman promised us the buses ran hourly from 10 am until 1 pm) but in reality the noontime "big bus" didn't exist. Instead the travel agency squeezed Lindsay and I into a crowded mini-bus with two Canadians, two Germans, and three Brits for the four hour rideto Krabi. We drove about three-quarters of the way and then began making stops in the town of Trang. Everyone become confused, not really sure who (if anybody) was supposed to be getting out the bus. At the third stop in Trang (arond 3:00 p.m.), the driver told Lindsay and I plus the two Germans and two of the Brits (Gavin and Susie) to board another bus that would take us all the way to Krabi. We were all a little confused, but did as we were told. The bus to Krabi was a pink double decker with gold dangly decorations in the windows and a tv blaring bad Thai pop music. The bus was pretty attrocious...as was the sour looking Thai woman (or lady boy?) who was constantly skulking through the aisles collecting tickets and moving passengers around.

From Trang the ride to Krabi lasted roughly 2 hours. The ride was longer than we expected because the double decker made local stops along the entire journey. Although the bus looked sturdy it felt a little wobbly and with all of the starts/stops (and the bad Thai music videos), I began to feel car sick. And adding to my amusement, when someone started smoking on the bottom floor of the bus, the ashes traveled through the air con up to the top deck and right onto my clean white shirt! Really classy.

We finally arrived in Krabi around 5:00 pm and along with Gavin and Susie hired a driver to take us to the pier, followed by a longtail boat to Railay Beach. Although Railay Beach isn't on an island, you have to access the area by boat because towering limestone cliffs make overland transportation impossible. We arrived in Railay around 6:30 p.m. after 10 hours of traveling! The longtail boat ride was actually very enjoyable, definitely the best so far. We boarded the boat not from a pier but instead walked onto a mangrove tidal flat and climbed into the vessel from there (actually I don't think anyone liked this but me). It was sunset so the sky and ocean looked beautiful; puttering by the dramatic cliffs rising out of the sea really made me excited for our stay.

Lindsay and I settled into a hotel on East Railay Beach called the Viewpoint Hotel and then tiredly went to dinner next door at the Diamond Cave Resort. I ordered a ham and cheese baguette thinking that I would eat some tasty pork on a French-style baguette. Wrong! Apparently H&C baguette means cheeseburger in Thailand. It was pretty funny and I was so hungry that I didn't argue. Gavin and Susie came down to eat with us after a while and we had a nice time chatting with them (they are from the UK but just recently moved to Sydney). G&S were still eating but Lindsay and I were getting tired, so we decided to pay our tab and hit the hay. Lindsay asked one of the many waiters for our bill but when it didn't arrive after 15 minutes we decided to approach the waiters station to pay there. It seems that we invaded their space because the staff looked ruffled and told us to return to our table. After no one brought us our bill after a few more minutes, Lindsay was on her feet chasing after any server she could find. I continued to sit with G&S and we were all amused watching Lindsay run around the restaurant waving her wallet. Finally we put money into the hands of a waiter and went off to bed. And in case you were wondering, that was the worst restaurant service Lindsay has ever experienced...ever.

The next morning we slept in and then went down towards West Railay Beach for breakfast at the Yaya Resort. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, Lindsay and I were aimlessly chatting when THUD!...something hit the table on the spot where my plate would be and then fell into my lap. Dazed, I looked down and on my leg was a green tree snake! I jumped out of my seat and the snake fell to the ground and slithered away. It was so funny, good thing my pancake hadn't arrived yet!

After breakfast Lindsay and I signed up for a four hour afternoon rock climbing session and then for an all day kayaking trip for the following day (Tuesday). At two o'clock we headed over to the rock climbing place and were happy to see that G&S had signed up to climb as well. The four of us grabbed our shoes and harnesses and headed over to some nearby cliffs. I really love rock climbing! My favorite instructor was named Gob: a cute, Thai, hippie climber. He was really happy that I had climbing experience and loved that I live in a snowy region
of the US. He really challenged me with the climbing routes and said that all of the bruises I gained made me a hardcore climber, rock on! Actually my legs got bruised up pretty badly, definitely the ugliest my stems have looked in a while. Gob insisted that the reason that I bruise is because I'm white...don't Thai people get bruises? The mosquitoes drove us from the cliffs around dusk and then Lindsay and I met up with G&S for dinner at The Rock. Lindsay and I shared a tasty (but spicy) chicken satay with rice, and I also nibbled on about a quarter of Susie's vegetable pad thai...

I will admit that during the four days prior to this evening, my bowel movements weren't what I call normal. But beginning at 3:30 a.m. I began having terrible diarrhea every 45 minutes and that seemed really wrong. Lindsay woke up around 6:30 a.m. and her stomach wasn't feeling 100% great but decided to get ready for our kayaking trip with G&S. Somewhere between my 100th and 101st trip to the ivory tower I decided to bypass kayaking: diarrhea plus paddling makes me anxious. It was around 8 a.m. and Lindsay was asking whether I wanted her to stay with me or whether she should go ahead with the boat trip. As she was speaking I shot of bed and ran into the bathroom to vomit. Great. Well that sealed the deal and Lindsay went down to the kayaking place to reschedule our trip. She met Gavin there, who was looking rather peaked, and he told her that Susie was up in their room with diarrhea and vomiting. It turned out that all eight people that were supposed to go kayaking that morning (four other people besides G&S, Lindsay and I) canceled because of illness! Lindsay's "tourists disease", i.e. food poisoning, kicked in that morning as well and we spent the rest of day depressed and feeling nauseus.

We went to bed early and woke up on Wednesday starving but still feeling a bit queezy. Lindsay felt well enough to go kayaking (as did G&S) but I opted to give my body a little more rest and stay behind. After some interneting, I noshed on a banana and Ritz crackers and headed to Pranang Cave and beach--I had a lovely morning lying in the shade watching some scampering monkeys and reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. When the sun began to peak out from behind the cliffs, I moved on to a nice restaurant on West Railay Beach for something benign to nibble. I decided on French onion soup broth, yum yum. I hung out in the restaurant for a while to finish reading my book and then moved poolside to listen to some tunes (up until that point I was still being plagued by the sappy Thai love songs from the double decker bus). On my way back to the hotel to meet Lindsay I chatted with some friendly Thai hippies and then wandered through Diamond Cave.

By the time sunset rolled around I was starving and was pleased that my GI tract had experienced minimal flare ups during the afternoon. While sipping my broth at lunch I noticed some very tasty looking pizzas being delivered to tables around me. Therefore we returned to the Railay Bay Hotel for dinner and I promptly devoured an entire pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, artichokes, mushrooms, onions and garlic = so good). After that Lindsay and I returned to the hotel, prepared our things for the morning departure to Ko Phi Phi and went to bed.

Next stop: Ko Phi Phi.