Our time in Ton Sai and Railay

We left Ko Phagnan sad to leave, but happy to set out on more adventures. To get to our next destination, Railay beach, we booked a multi-stage journey: taxi, ferry, taxi, mini-bus, taxi. And by "taxi" they mean the crowded back of a pick-up truck in most instances. Luckily, they give everyone a little sticker to put on our shirts which brands us for a particular destination and we are simply herded like branded cattle from place to place. Amazingly the system works. You get off a ferry with 200 people where 6 different buses await you. As the bus drivers see your sticker, they wave you onto the right bus. Don't insult them by asking where your bus is going, it's going to your sticker destination, of course!

We made it without incident to Krabi where we spent the night before setting out for the beaches the next morning. Our careful attempt to find a hotel with satellite TV in order to watch the Superbowl didn't work out as planned. Despite the TV having 6 sports channels, none of them were playing the Superbowl when we woke up at 7am to watch the game. Plenty of soccer, rugby, cricket, etc., but no football as we know it. Luckily there was an Irish pub in town that was carrying the game and also served breakfast. We made it there in time to see the Bears lose. Sigh.

On the good side of things, we met a couple of American guys, one from Chicago, who were also on their way to Railay, so we teamed up with them to catch a taxi to Ao Nang beach, then a long tail boat to Ton Sai, one of the beaches on Railay.

Ton Sai was our home for the next4 nights. It's a gorgeous beach that is a mecca for rock climbers. As you can see here in the photos, there's a good reason for climbers to come here. The limestone cliffs that rise from the sand are simply incredible. The beach has been built up considerably in the past 10 years.

We met a climber sho said that she had been coming to Railay for 10 years and that the first time she was here Ton Sai was nothing but a huge monkey colony, and they were not friendly to human visitors. Indeed, our hotel put up a warning sign "Beware Naughty Monkey!" but unfortunately we didn't spot any of the bad guys.

These days the beach is packed from end to end with open-air restaurants, bars, climbing guide shops, and guesthouses.

After suffering in the heat for a day, using the now common "It's our honeymoon!" excuse, we moved to the only place on the beach with air con and electricity during the day. There were no indoor restaurants, internet cafes, etc., so if you didn't have an air con room there was nowhere to escape the 95+ humid temps.

We were quite content in our little bungalow with the cliffs looming over us, keeping it cool in the shade.

We had come with climbing in mind. Unfortunately, after a day or two of putting it off, we finally agreed that it was just too hot for us to do anything other than watersports. If we were avid climbers to begin with I'm sure we would have made the effort to find some shady walls and a guide to show us the ropes. However the heat had us down and so we decided, after a day of just milling around and checking out the beach, to do an afternoon to sunset snorkel trip.





The snorkel trip turned out to be great. We went out on a big teak boat with about 20 other folks. They took us to 3 different island clusters to snorkel, then we had dinner on a beautiful sand bar as we watched the sunset, then to cap off the evening, we went for a night swim in the dark to marvel at the incredible phospheresence in the water. It was really an amazing afternoon and evening.

Unfortunately, that evening Carrie went down for the third time this trip with a stomach bug. She continued to be sick all through the next day and night, but was finally better again the next morning.

The following day we took a short hike to a nearby beach: Railay West. Railay West was the first beach to be developed on this pennisula and is a lot more developed with large resorts and a much wider beach.

On our way there we stopped in a cave to see an amazing glittery "waterfall" rock formation. It looks like something from Disneyland, but it's real.

Finally, we made arrangements to head our to Phuket the next day. Our time on Ton Sai was great, but we wanted to get in one more snorkel destination before we left. One more great sunset, and we would be on our way.