Blissful Beach Time

There's something immediately likable about a place you can't get to without a boat. 

As soon as we got off our plane, into a bus, and were dropped off in Ao Nang, Krabi province, we were shuffled onto a longboat, feet in the water and all.  Something about licking saltwater from your lips and feeling the breeze on your face and the gentle waves bobbing just makes me smile... even just thinking back on it now. 

We were headed to Ton Sai beach, a backpacker and rock climber's paradise.  Due to it being the slow season, our bungalow was quite inexpensive (400 baht) but included only a fan (no A/C) and only had power from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.  Plus, the bathroom was rather stinky and monkeys would jump loudly on the tin roofs early in the morning. 

Walkway to our guesthouse

Needless to say, we didn't spend much time in our room during the day.  We didn't need to, however, as our days were filled to the brim with sand and sun. Our first day in Ton Sai consisted of sitting.  Lots and lots of sitting.  Throw in a pinch of reading and a dash of walking in the sand and call it a day.  Easy peasy.  Jon did a half-day climb and was able to complete 4 difficult routes with his climbing guide, Pon. 

Can you see Jon in this picture?

Hangin' with Pon

I was astonished to see him climbing so high and so fearlessly.  It's very different than climbing in the gym for sure. That night, we enjoyed drinks beach-side and watched fire breathers and poi, flaming balls on either end of a rope.

The next day we headed out for our "deep-water soloing" adventure.  This is the new and exciting thing in the world of climbing.  Find some rock over water, climb it, and jump in.  Sounds easy enough, right? That's what I thought, too, until we stopped in very choppy water with lots of large jellyfish and a big rock with a rope hanging from it.  You mean you want me to climb that rope, then climb that rock, then jump into jellyfish-infested water? No, thank you. I'll leave that to the boys and just enjoy the scenery thankyouverymuch. 

It was apparently quite a difficult climb seeing as how only one of the boys could even get onto the rock.  So our guide moved the longboat over to an easier section of rock.  I was even able to get onto this one, although it was quite a pathetic sight.  I was already tired just from making it up the ladder, then I crawled across the rock for maybe 3 feet and that was that.  I then stared down into the water and thought that perhaps I would just climb back down the ladder, since the 5 foot jump looked more like 20 from the top (and there were jellyfish, people... jellyfish!).  Jon was behind me and waited patiently for me to make the plunge (since I was apparently not climbing any futher).  So, after at least 5 minutes I finally worked up the nerve to jump, and then hastily retreated back to the boat, safe and sound.  I came, I saw, I conquered (kind of), I'm done. 

The boys continued to climb for a while and then our guide brought us to a tiny secluded beach for lunch, fried rice with chicken.  I accidentally dumped a load of fish sauce on mine. Yuck. That stuff makes me gag a bit.  We then spent some time swimming and snorkeling in the warm water.

Baby barracuda

It was a great day, and all of us had a bit of sunburn to prove it.  The evening consisted of heading over to Railay West to view the sunset, then to Railay East for dinner and drinks. 

Unfortunatley, the longboats weren't running when we were ready to head back, so we had to take the road connecting Railay East and Ton Sai.  I use the word "road" VERY loosely because it wasn't really a road at all. It was a trail. In the woods. Up and down a mountain. In the middle of the night. In the dark. In Thailand. What the heck was I doing in that situation? All I can say is thank goodness my husband is a planner and packed flashlights.

We didn't slow down at all the next day, and spent a good portion of it kayaking around the nearby islands.

We stopped at the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, with turqouise blue water and clean warm sand. 

Greg and I did a beginner's climb at this beach, which was fun and exhilirating but also quite uncomfortable
because I only had my cotton dress and with the harness it rode up on me like a diaper. Not pretty in the
pictures, either.

But I made it to the top of a real rock.  That means something, doesn't it? We spent some more time at the beach, swimming, climbing, visiting the "Penis Cave," watching monkeys go through the trash.

Princess Cave (AKA Penis Cave)

Cliff jumping near Princess Cave

Just the normal things you'd do on a Thursday afternoon.  In the evening, Jon was invited to play drums with
a local band and ended up playing reggae with them for almost two hours.  He's so different than me; I don't
think I could even get up there if I knew how to play something.

We decided it was time to head out on the following day, and although it was difficult to say goodbye to the sun and sand, it was time to move on to more adventure.

We took a longboat, which brought us right up to the ferry (never done that before) that brought us to Phuket.  We stayed on Kamala beach for the night in a  beautiful room (especially after the last one), grabbed some dinner, and caught up on some Fox News (only sad news, unfortunately).  We had flights booked for the next evening, so we spent the day relaxing at the restaurant next to the hotel, listening to the waves, watching the surfers. We visited the nearby Tsunami Memorial as this was where the 2004 tsunami hit the hardest.

Jon and Greg rented motorbikes for a couple of hours to head to a nearby waterfall (which they never actually made it to).  Then we headed to the airport. Next up, Chiang Mai!