RAILAY, stunning beach and rough climbings

We only stay in Railay till 17:00 today so we just walked around the peninsular. First get a longtailticket for 17:00, because most boats stop at 15:30. The bushwalk to the other side of the peninsular (Railay East) takes about 30 minutes, but with your slippers it's not that easy. We skipped the caves and just watched some climbers, we didn't have enough time to to a beginners course. When we reached Railay West, it was just stunning. What a beautiful beach! The place is just perfect. I climbed to the most southern part (well most people climb, but I crawled under some stones to get there sometimes). Bought some realy nice and cold fruitshakes from gthe longtails. Damn, I'm gonna miss this place. When we got back at Ton Sai beach we had loads of Coconut Milkshakes. Maybe too much, because a got a little bit sick afterwards :-)

We had to walk with al our backpacks (25 kg per person) over the rough bushtrack to the East side again. AFter getting attacked by a swarm of mosquitos we finally reached the longtail. In the lontail we met some other people. One of them is Karien, who's joining me on the Full Moon party next week. I got a little bit sicker so I styed at the Green Tea Guesthouse for a little nap and some medicines. In the evening I had the cheapest dinner on the nightmarket. In the evening we went to some bars with the two girls we met. Found some local supermarket with lot's of candy's and had some drinks in the park.

What a wonderfull day around the Andaman coast!

Started the day with a rush. Woke up Stuart because I thought it was already 08:00, time for our pick up...but strangely my mobile had the wrong time. So we could sleep for another 2,5 hour. THe pickup was comfortable, leathers chair in the car etc. The group consisted out of al kinds of people, but I think we were still one of the youngest. You get a sticker on you breast to check what kind of trip you take. We wanted to buy a dry bag for our camera and stuff, but we already got on from the guide. The longtail to the first stop took 1 hour, Daeng Island. Just a small island for some snorkling. After half an hour on the boat again for the next stop; Lading Island for some snorkling and swimming. This one was a little bit boring but you could go very deep when you are diving among the cliffs. The last stop was Hong Island, well this island was soooo good! Better then Phi Phi :-) First of all a magnificent white sanded beach. Big lizards walking around while you try to have lunch. But damn, stupid scared tourists,these animals are just walking around looking for some food, they are not dangerous. Only when yopu scare them they can hit you pretty hard with their long tail. Believe me, we saw it happening with one of the Thai guides of another group! Stupid asshole, punching the lizard with a stick, just asking for trouble.

We started kayaking around Hong Island. After a while we kayaked in a beautifull quiet lagoon. Just perfect! This island is like a little pearl. A speedboat with a lot of Itallian girls found us more interesting than the lagoon and invited us to get on the speedboat with them... After a while we got out of the lagoon and crawled into some caves. Followed bij more nice beaches and caves on the other side of the island. Watched some wildlife and at the end finally the dive into the water at the idealic white beach.

The trip back was on hour of sunbading on the roof of the longtail. Jumped of and got our backpacks and stuff from the office and jumped on the longtail to Railay for just 80 B. Don't expect any help from the people here, only from backpackers.

We arrived at Ton Sai Beach with sunset, damn this is a spectacular place. All the huge cliffs. The atmosphere is so different. I think even more realxed and laidback than Pai. 90% of the people here are climbers. Lots of different bars and reastaurants. Ton Sai Beach is the cheapest part of the peninsular, 200 - 500 Bath for a room. There are resorts in Railay with prices of 50.000 Bath per night!!! And yes, it's not an island, but you can only reach it by longtail beacause of all the high rocks. Searching for a room/bungalow took a little time, most places where full. So we had to climb the hill. But we got some help from a cool Swiss guy.

After our dinner walked along the beach and watched the spectacular views. Sun was already gone but we wanted to climb the rocks to the other beach, Railay Beach. A more crowded and more expensive beach. But the climbing and descending took more time then we expected. ANd with slippers on your feet it's not that easy in the dark. The last part is going down the rock with a rope. When we went back, I had to climb up with the rope...almost reached the normal track and all of a sudden the rope went loose! So I had a free fall for a few meters, ending up with some blood and pain in some bodyparts. But no worries everyone, I can still walk and we finished the track in the dark. With a little help of one small flashlight.

Ended this fantastic day at Small Worlds Bar. Just a nice backpackerbar where everybody is chilling, drinking, playing all kinds of games, balancing on ropes, playing pool and we even saw peoiple playing with clay and making funny figures whahhaa.

Unfortunately just one day and night in Railay. If you're heading for this place, just go for at least 1 week!

From KOH JUM to KRABI, spending loads of money

Decided that we had to leave the little island of Koh Jum. Miss Penn didn't want to give us our boattickets first. Stuart was so hungry on this island, so we had a huge bill. The ferry to Krabi took 1,5 hours. Arrived at the pier, weather is still okay. There are warnings around the pier not to go with unofficial taxi's and busses. We ended up in a pimped private car for a few Bath... this guy was a little bit strange but okay. So when he saw a police car he told us he knows another way tyo get to the hostel, a shortcut. Well this roads was leading us away from the city and didn't look that okay. We got a strange feeling, ending up in a Thai gettho with his friends, getting a gun on our head and getting robbed... But after a while we really ended by our guesthouse :-) The guy told us Krabi was boring, but he was wrong. Our guesthouse Chan Cha Lay looked very nice. With all kinds of blue colors, just for some Mediterean vibe. The shower was outside. It was a cold shower, but you are standing in the sun so it feels fine. And with some rum and coke it get's even better.

The city is different than all the other Thai cities, very clean, all the food stands look nice and good. Many electronic stores. So we spended loads of money again. But we saved some money on our kayak/snorkling tour for tomorrow :-) I didn't knew that it's possible to get money off the listed prices in the brochures... nice surprise. Full day tour from 1.500 for 1.100 Bath. So tomorrow Hong Island, Daeng Island and Lading Island. On the way back we will stay at Railay.

In the evening we had real Italian food at La Panza. Just walk along the Kong Ka Pier and you will find this place. Real Italian owner, the food was delicious. Italian bread, pizza's hot and fresh from the oven....yummie! Further on the road we watched a strange movie and had some cheap cocktails, 90 Bath for Mai Tai cocktails!

Finally sunshine, stayed at KOH JUM

Wake up with the sunshine, okay, now we will stay for another day. It was easy to cancell the tickets for the ferry to Krabi. Stuart was reading books. I was doing beachjogging for 1,5 hour. After that some snorkling around the island. Just standard coral. Some massages and pool in the evening.

Just a relaxing day.

Offroad motorbiking on bumpy tracks and beaches on KOH JUM

No sunshine again,this is going on for a week now :-( The bycicle was broken so this was no option for today. Just did some beachjogging for an hour. Rented 2 motporbikes for today. Something different this time, because they don't have norm al roads on the island yet. Offroad riding with a motorbike. Riding on the beach with the motorbike is not that easy when the sand is soft. Everywehere they are still building resorts, nothing is finished. I got a new Thai mobile phonenumber now, costs with the Dutch simcard were getting to high. Some people know why ;-)

In the evening we had some beers and buckets with Finish people.

Trip from KOH LANTA to KOH JUM / KOH PU

Wake up, Wake up! Norman is banging on the door...taxi is already waiting. Just a short ferry trip to Ko Jum. Take the ferry tot Krabi for 400 Bath and jump off at one of the longtailboats. There is no pier or other way to get on the island. Again it is raining. The Season Resort that was recommendfed to us by Norman was good. Concrete big bungalows for just 500 Bath! Ko Jum is a realx island, nothing to do. So I was just chilling and during the day I rented a mountainbike to do some offroad cycling. When there is a lw tide you can walk in the sea, almost to some other small islands. The villages are very small. Be aware of the monkeys...

Diving and Thaiboxing in KOH LANTA

Today raining and cloudy, took the speedboat to 2 small Islands close to Koh Lanta; Bida Nok and Bida Nai. My last dive was realy long ago and I never dived deeper then 8-10 meters. So today 18-20 meters. The dives were so cool! Never seen so many fish. There are so many because of al the plancton. 2 dives of 50 minutes. When we left the beach with the speedboat they asked if we needed seasicknesspills, well next time I say yes. I didn't had breakfast and laying there on the waves with the speedbat, trying to have lunch....realy makes you sick. And maybe the big seafoodmeal from yesterday was also no good idea :-) But the scenes underwater were so nice, lot's of murrenes and other cool things as well. At 14:00 I got back, and Koh Lanta had many rainshowers today.

In the evening some tapas and we got some tickets for the Muay Thai kickboxing fight tonight. VIP for 1.000 Bath. Don't expect too much from your seats. 8 fight of 5 rounds. We brought the motor back we borrowed from the resort. Just arranged some boattrip to Koh Jum tomorrow, we are gonna leave Koh Lanta.

Motorbiking and Tigerprawns on Koh Lanta

No big storm last night. The weatherforecast was not good for today, but it became very nice. We rented motorbikes for 150 Bath per 24 hours and dicovered the island. Not that much to see. This time we had manual motorbikes. Using the different gears is very easy and again you don't have to show any proof of a driverslicense.

In the afternoon we talked with some other people of the resort and I decided to do some diving tomorrow. My last dive is 5 years ago. In the evening we got to ... Beach and watched the nice sunset. This was a really long beach so I did some running for 45 minutes. Had a few non-alcoholic cocktailsfor a change :-) Norman, the owner of the resort,made a very luxurous meal for me and some other people that wanted. Fresh big Tiger Prawns. Normally an expensive 5 star dinner. He also made some fried squids with garlic. This is all new food for me. Different taste, but after a while you start to like it. It was just a relaxing night at Adaman Sunflower with really nice people.

Got to bed at 12:00, excited for the big diving day tomorrow.