The last week has been a lot of beaching, so I don't think I have much of any interest to say.....but I'll give it a go.
DAY 46: our first full day in Lanta. Unlike Phi Phi, there are roads and cars on the island and everything is more spread out, so we rented scooters for two days. They were sooooo cheap ($7 a day?) and were actually decent bikes (125 cc)
It was funny when we rented them; we asked for two and the guy looked at me shocked "you're going to ride one....haha....show me you can ride." Sexist jerk. He ended up making Craig do a little circle in the parking lot too, so that made me a little less angry. We then were told how to use the horn, and that pretty much summed up our thai licensing experience.
The roads in lanta were great for scooting. Other than the main street (which was not that busy) the roads were pretty deserted. The most challenging parts were remembering to stay on the left side of the road and not getting distracted by the beautiful scenery.
Our intention was to ride straight down the west side of the island, but some how we ended up cutting over to the east. It proved to be good as the east was pretty much deserted and we had the roads to ourselves. We rode all the way to the bottom of the island before stopping at a view point restaurant for a snack. On the way back we stopped in old Lanta town which was quite cute and then rode down dirt paths (off road scooting) for 15 minutes towards the national park (we ended up not going into the park).
We spent the rest of the day at the beach by the hotel. The hotel bar "the Indian" is great. Right on the beach with lounge chairs and really yummy drinks. I got a massage for $10 and we just chilled.
We went into the "downtown" area for dinner. There is a small market and a bunch of seafood restaurants on the water.
DAY 47: day 2 with the scoots; we took them around the areas of the island we didn't explore the day before. There is a cave in the middle that we saw lots of signs for, so we made a stop to check it out. It look pretty sketch and unexciting. The fliers kept saying things like "one of thailand's most impression cave" and "come see this impression cave.". I wanted to know what an "impression cave" was.....until I realized they meant "impressive".
On the way back to the hotel in the afternoon we got caught in a torrential downpour. Its funny how quickly it starts raining here. The last 5-10 minutes were pretty fun/sketch in the pouring rain. It was just pelting us. If I didn't have my sunglasses on to protect my eyes, I would not have been able to ride. We got back drenched.
Since it was monsooning out, I went for a 2 hour massage and Craig sat at the Indian and read his book (Craig has not read a book in 10 years, but he cannot put the Stieg Larsson series down. Goes to show how addictive they are once you get into them; I couldn't put them down either)
We had dinner on the beach by our hotel and then drinks at the indian....where we chatted with some interesting south africans turned Aussies.
DAY 48: we wanted to do something different for our last day in Lanta, so we took a Thai cooking class. It was a four hour course and we made 5 dishes. It was just craig and I and a couple from sweden/holland in our class. It was nice that there was just the 4 of us; more time with the instructor and more ability to ask questions.
We got to choose 5 dishes from a list of ten. We made Tom Yum soup, pad thai, chicken cashew, green curry and poached bananas in coconut milk. My favs were the Tom Yum, the chicken cashew and the banana. I'm definatley going to try making them when I get home. They were so easy....especially the banana.....but soooo good.
We did nothing all afternoon. We lay on the beach reading and sipping cocktails. The weather was co-operating so it was nice to lie around. We played frisbee in the waves and had dinner on the beach.
DAY 49: 3.5 days in Lanta was just enough, so we left for Railay this day. When we got on the ferry in Lanta at 1pm it was gorgeous. We were sitting on the outside deck and everyone was coating themselves in sunscreen. When we arrived at 3pm in Railay it was pissing rain. Our bags were undercover, but not enough and they got wet. Luckily for us, ours were under other peoples, so they managed to stay somewhat dry. There were a few that were soaked right through.
There is no pier in Railay, so you have to take a long tail boat from the ferry to land. Not cool in a monsoon. By the time we got to land we were drenched. I have a rain cover for my bag and that's the only thing that kept anything i was carrying dry. I parked Craig at a restaurant with our bags, and I went out in the rain to find somewhere to stay for the night. Unfortunately accommodation in Railay is not great and i gave up quite quickly. We ended up just spending more than we usually would for one night and staying in a place right on the beach (it wasn't even very nice, just a good location). I don't know if I've ever been that wet from rain before (and I've lived my whole live in Vancouver!). 2 days later my clothes were still wet.
Railay is a weird place. I was expecting it to be similar to phi phi, but its not at all. Its much more chill. There are bars, but more of a reggae atmosphere and less of a crazy party vibe. The town is divided into 2 areas; the east beach and the west beach. Most of the affordable accommodation and shops and restaurants are on the east beach, but the beach isn't swimmable. The west beach is the pretty beach with more expensive resorts. There are a few massive resorts that stretch the full kilometer between beaches, and therefore, the only way between the two is by a few fenced pathways. So its kinda like 2 separate places. There are also a few really beautiful beaches just a 15 minute walk away. Otherwise the big draw in Railay is the rock climbing. It's amazing (there are hundreds of spectacular climbs to do) and it's so cheap.
Since it was pouring on day 1, we just parked ourselves in a restaurant/bar and did what everyone seems to do when it rains; play cards. We have started a never-ending cribbage game. The scores are nearing 1000 each. Boring night because it was pissing out.
DAY 50: the next morning there was sun!! We moved hotels to somewhere cheaper. It was a 15 minute walk from the beach, but it's much nicer (there was a/c and the hot water actually worked) and it was about 1/4 of the price. Its also close to one of the climbing walls and a few bars, so the location was not bad at all.
Since it was such a nice day we walked to one of the beaches out of town a bit. It was busy, but a very pretty beach. Like Phi Phi the water is very clear and this particular beach was framed by limestone cliffs. We spent the evening at a few different reggae bars.
DAY 51: we had a quiet morning at the beach, but in the afternoon I signed up for a half day climbing class at one of the shops right by our hotel. It was just myself and one other guy in the class. It turned out he was from Guernsey! Born and raised; works as a fireman there. He asked me if I had heard of Guernsey (which, for those who don't know is a tiny island in the English channel between england and France), and because I had read the book "the Guernsey literary and potato peel society" I was able to say that I did know where it was. He said a surprising number of people he has met now know about Guernsey because they have read that book....that prior to a few years ago, no North Americans he met had ever heard of it. Apparently its pretty unexciting there though, so he and his girlfriend are moving to England when they get back.
Anyway, climbing....It was awesome. We did 4 climbs. I made it to the top on all but the 3rd.....that particular climb required a few chin-up like motions to get over an overhang, and after having already done two climbs to wear out the arms (and given that i have very little upper body strength to begin with) I got stuck pretty early. The other ones were good though. I was able to get to the top of the 4th one, despite the fact that fatigue was setting in, because it was more about being nimble and quick movements rather than upper body strength.
Craig didn't climb because he is afraid of heights, so he acted as my personal photographer and got a bunch of pics. I got pretty high up! I tried not to look down at first, but as I got more comfortable with it, the height didn't bother me. I think when I get home I might do some indoor climbing.....I've done it before, but now I'm really motivated to get into it, because it was so cool.
We went to the local reggae bar in the evening and chatted with the bartenders and played random games with them at the bar. I am a connect four master, but jenga is not my game.
DAY 52: this day threw our plans for a loop. Craig was up all night with food poisoning. In the morning he was still violently ill, and ended up unable to leave the room all day. He ventured out once, but had to turn back shortly, and then again with me for dinner, but had to leave as the food smells were making him sick.
We had planned to spend the day doing some kayaking and then leaving Railay the next morning for Ao Nang (for 2 nights before we have a flight to catch) but because Craig was so sick (and still, wasn't 100% the next day) we had to cancel the Ao Nang idea and stay in Railay. I spent the day at the beach and getting massages.
DAY 53: as mentioned, Craig still wasn't 100%, so we had another quiet day mostly at the beach. We rented a kayak in the afternoon and paddled out to a few very small (uninhibited) nearby islands. They had lots of caves and crevices we could paddle into, so it was interesting exploring.
That brings us to tonight. It's a Monday and Craig is still too sick for the bar, so I think we might just rent a movie from iTunes.
Tomorrow we are thinking a day trip to Ao Nang and the the day after we fly up to Chaing Mai. So tomorrow is our last beach day :( but I am super excited to check out Chiang Mai and do some trekking.
Cheers
Siobhan
DAY 46: our first full day in Lanta. Unlike Phi Phi, there are roads and cars on the island and everything is more spread out, so we rented scooters for two days. They were sooooo cheap ($7 a day?) and were actually decent bikes (125 cc)
It was funny when we rented them; we asked for two and the guy looked at me shocked "you're going to ride one....haha....show me you can ride." Sexist jerk. He ended up making Craig do a little circle in the parking lot too, so that made me a little less angry. We then were told how to use the horn, and that pretty much summed up our thai licensing experience.
The roads in lanta were great for scooting. Other than the main street (which was not that busy) the roads were pretty deserted. The most challenging parts were remembering to stay on the left side of the road and not getting distracted by the beautiful scenery.
Our intention was to ride straight down the west side of the island, but some how we ended up cutting over to the east. It proved to be good as the east was pretty much deserted and we had the roads to ourselves. We rode all the way to the bottom of the island before stopping at a view point restaurant for a snack. On the way back we stopped in old Lanta town which was quite cute and then rode down dirt paths (off road scooting) for 15 minutes towards the national park (we ended up not going into the park).
We spent the rest of the day at the beach by the hotel. The hotel bar "the Indian" is great. Right on the beach with lounge chairs and really yummy drinks. I got a massage for $10 and we just chilled.
We went into the "downtown" area for dinner. There is a small market and a bunch of seafood restaurants on the water.
DAY 47: day 2 with the scoots; we took them around the areas of the island we didn't explore the day before. There is a cave in the middle that we saw lots of signs for, so we made a stop to check it out. It look pretty sketch and unexciting. The fliers kept saying things like "one of thailand's most impression cave" and "come see this impression cave.". I wanted to know what an "impression cave" was.....until I realized they meant "impressive".
On the way back to the hotel in the afternoon we got caught in a torrential downpour. Its funny how quickly it starts raining here. The last 5-10 minutes were pretty fun/sketch in the pouring rain. It was just pelting us. If I didn't have my sunglasses on to protect my eyes, I would not have been able to ride. We got back drenched.
Since it was monsooning out, I went for a 2 hour massage and Craig sat at the Indian and read his book (Craig has not read a book in 10 years, but he cannot put the Stieg Larsson series down. Goes to show how addictive they are once you get into them; I couldn't put them down either)
We had dinner on the beach by our hotel and then drinks at the indian....where we chatted with some interesting south africans turned Aussies.
DAY 48: we wanted to do something different for our last day in Lanta, so we took a Thai cooking class. It was a four hour course and we made 5 dishes. It was just craig and I and a couple from sweden/holland in our class. It was nice that there was just the 4 of us; more time with the instructor and more ability to ask questions.
We got to choose 5 dishes from a list of ten. We made Tom Yum soup, pad thai, chicken cashew, green curry and poached bananas in coconut milk. My favs were the Tom Yum, the chicken cashew and the banana. I'm definatley going to try making them when I get home. They were so easy....especially the banana.....but soooo good.
We did nothing all afternoon. We lay on the beach reading and sipping cocktails. The weather was co-operating so it was nice to lie around. We played frisbee in the waves and had dinner on the beach.
DAY 49: 3.5 days in Lanta was just enough, so we left for Railay this day. When we got on the ferry in Lanta at 1pm it was gorgeous. We were sitting on the outside deck and everyone was coating themselves in sunscreen. When we arrived at 3pm in Railay it was pissing rain. Our bags were undercover, but not enough and they got wet. Luckily for us, ours were under other peoples, so they managed to stay somewhat dry. There were a few that were soaked right through.
There is no pier in Railay, so you have to take a long tail boat from the ferry to land. Not cool in a monsoon. By the time we got to land we were drenched. I have a rain cover for my bag and that's the only thing that kept anything i was carrying dry. I parked Craig at a restaurant with our bags, and I went out in the rain to find somewhere to stay for the night. Unfortunately accommodation in Railay is not great and i gave up quite quickly. We ended up just spending more than we usually would for one night and staying in a place right on the beach (it wasn't even very nice, just a good location). I don't know if I've ever been that wet from rain before (and I've lived my whole live in Vancouver!). 2 days later my clothes were still wet.
Railay is a weird place. I was expecting it to be similar to phi phi, but its not at all. Its much more chill. There are bars, but more of a reggae atmosphere and less of a crazy party vibe. The town is divided into 2 areas; the east beach and the west beach. Most of the affordable accommodation and shops and restaurants are on the east beach, but the beach isn't swimmable. The west beach is the pretty beach with more expensive resorts. There are a few massive resorts that stretch the full kilometer between beaches, and therefore, the only way between the two is by a few fenced pathways. So its kinda like 2 separate places. There are also a few really beautiful beaches just a 15 minute walk away. Otherwise the big draw in Railay is the rock climbing. It's amazing (there are hundreds of spectacular climbs to do) and it's so cheap.
Since it was pouring on day 1, we just parked ourselves in a restaurant/bar and did what everyone seems to do when it rains; play cards. We have started a never-ending cribbage game. The scores are nearing 1000 each. Boring night because it was pissing out.
DAY 50: the next morning there was sun!! We moved hotels to somewhere cheaper. It was a 15 minute walk from the beach, but it's much nicer (there was a/c and the hot water actually worked) and it was about 1/4 of the price. Its also close to one of the climbing walls and a few bars, so the location was not bad at all.
Since it was such a nice day we walked to one of the beaches out of town a bit. It was busy, but a very pretty beach. Like Phi Phi the water is very clear and this particular beach was framed by limestone cliffs. We spent the evening at a few different reggae bars.
DAY 51: we had a quiet morning at the beach, but in the afternoon I signed up for a half day climbing class at one of the shops right by our hotel. It was just myself and one other guy in the class. It turned out he was from Guernsey! Born and raised; works as a fireman there. He asked me if I had heard of Guernsey (which, for those who don't know is a tiny island in the English channel between england and France), and because I had read the book "the Guernsey literary and potato peel society" I was able to say that I did know where it was. He said a surprising number of people he has met now know about Guernsey because they have read that book....that prior to a few years ago, no North Americans he met had ever heard of it. Apparently its pretty unexciting there though, so he and his girlfriend are moving to England when they get back.
Anyway, climbing....It was awesome. We did 4 climbs. I made it to the top on all but the 3rd.....that particular climb required a few chin-up like motions to get over an overhang, and after having already done two climbs to wear out the arms (and given that i have very little upper body strength to begin with) I got stuck pretty early. The other ones were good though. I was able to get to the top of the 4th one, despite the fact that fatigue was setting in, because it was more about being nimble and quick movements rather than upper body strength.
Craig didn't climb because he is afraid of heights, so he acted as my personal photographer and got a bunch of pics. I got pretty high up! I tried not to look down at first, but as I got more comfortable with it, the height didn't bother me. I think when I get home I might do some indoor climbing.....I've done it before, but now I'm really motivated to get into it, because it was so cool.
We went to the local reggae bar in the evening and chatted with the bartenders and played random games with them at the bar. I am a connect four master, but jenga is not my game.
DAY 52: this day threw our plans for a loop. Craig was up all night with food poisoning. In the morning he was still violently ill, and ended up unable to leave the room all day. He ventured out once, but had to turn back shortly, and then again with me for dinner, but had to leave as the food smells were making him sick.
We had planned to spend the day doing some kayaking and then leaving Railay the next morning for Ao Nang (for 2 nights before we have a flight to catch) but because Craig was so sick (and still, wasn't 100% the next day) we had to cancel the Ao Nang idea and stay in Railay. I spent the day at the beach and getting massages.
DAY 53: as mentioned, Craig still wasn't 100%, so we had another quiet day mostly at the beach. We rented a kayak in the afternoon and paddled out to a few very small (uninhibited) nearby islands. They had lots of caves and crevices we could paddle into, so it was interesting exploring.
That brings us to tonight. It's a Monday and Craig is still too sick for the bar, so I think we might just rent a movie from iTunes.
Tomorrow we are thinking a day trip to Ao Nang and the the day after we fly up to Chaing Mai. So tomorrow is our last beach day :( but I am super excited to check out Chiang Mai and do some trekking.
Cheers
Siobhan
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