HDR

My latest HDR effort. Taken in Thailand from the inside of a cave.

We arrived last night in the evening – late enough that it was dark outside and we couldn’t see the actual beach and ocean front. We could only see the lights of all the resorts that lined the beach with their restaurants and lawn chairs all set up on the sand.

The room... nice bedding.. um

You can buy fireworks and set them off in the sand over the water.

A balloon - they light a little fire and let it go. It floats off into space. Cheweng Beach was super annoying because they bother you to buy one every 2 minutes. I was also concerned about where these fireballs were landing and the garbage it leaves in the ocean or around the land. Anything to make a dollar.

Luckily we both woke up around 8am and made our way to the scooter rental place. The idea was to navigate the island ourselves and explore the islands without having to taxi or mini bus it over. The scooter for the day cost only 3 euros !!

The first place we stopped for breakfast was Lamai Beach. My book said that it was the 2^nd most popular beach next to Chaweng (where we are currently staying). It was a hot morning and upon arrival we immediately looked for some shaded area to set up our little area. Not much to be found. The sand was heavy and wet and very grainy. It’s not that I’m spoiled by beaches, I just had the idea of a nicer area since the book and many people talk about Ko Samui well.

Even though Lamai beach was nicer for the fact that there weren’t many people hounding us to buy things, we ate breakfast, took a swim and carried on.

First stop was to see the Grandfather and Grandmother Rock formations that resemble male and female genitalia. eep

There actually isn’t much to do on the island except explore waterfalls and swim on the beaches… which is exactly what we did in the end.

We explored 2 waterfalls that were inland, nothing too spectacular but still a wonderful natural beauty to see. We could hear the monkey show but decided not to attend. We also saw all the elephants that they use to do the elephant trekking. I sure hope they treat those guys well.. nothing close to a natural habitat obviously – I actually feel bad for riding on one but I suppose the experience was interesting. I wanted to see the culture.

Tomorrow we will move on to Ko Phan Gan. Honestly I think the day was wasted here, which is a shame, but better to know.

Now if only we could find a place with free wi fi connection L I’m on holiday but I still like to check in with home as often as possible.

We will try to meet up with Giuliana and Stacey tomorrow since they suggested going to their place called Sunrise Resort on Hat Rin Nok (sunrise beach).

We found the sweetest bungalow on East Railey Beach for 900 baht per night which is the equivalent to about 18 euros a night. It was furnished nicely, warm and inviting. We would have stayed more nights but we were too anxious to move onto Phi Phi.

Our bungalow on Railey East

The night before we booked a day trip island hopping around Krabi that included chicken island, Poda island, Phra Nang beach and a couple of others. We visited 2 snorkel sites and enjoyed the incredibly clear water and all that was below it.

Chilling on the beach




A small crab and his hole

The day was amazing but the best part was where the tour ended – exactly where we planned to walk to that very day - Phra Nang beach, where we found a spectacular cave that we eventually explored when the tide went out around 5pm.
The sand was so fine that it was like walking on silk and the water was so clear that you could see 50 feet ahead of you easily.

Phranang Cave behind me

The weather has been fantastic. We are completely sunburned. Thailand is somewhere, imo, that every person should visit once in their life. I plan and hope that I can make it back here again in my life.

It’s nice to see that everyone around us is in our age group. We have met a ton of people while sitting at outdoor beach bars and overhearing that there are other Canadians around. It’s so easy to to about the trip, where we’ve been and plan to go. The interaction with the people really helps when choosing where to stay and what to do. I hope we’ve been an inspiration to others since we are super active every single day doing different things, booking tours and swimming in caves.

I’d like to know what the rooms are like though, for 300 baht per night (6 euros). I met a few people around who say they pay more that that, ever! I’m wondering, where the heck are you staying and what is the room like? One girl mentioned that they could hear rats running in the ceiling! We’re budget travelers but we’re not backpackers. We’re here for 2 weeks and calling it a holiday, not a lifestyle. Love me or hate me for it, but that’s the way it is.

Tomorrow morning 9am – ferry to Phi Phi Don Island. The main island of 3 ( I think) that is well talked about and listed in my 1000 places to see before you die book. Haha. Yes, I have that, and I’m not embarrassed either. I am curious to know what we will find there for accommodation since it is known to be more expensive even in low season. We planned not plan this trip. A first for me.. and even though it will take more effort to walk around and find a place to stay for the night, at least we know what the room is like before agreeing to the price. So far we’ve had a good experience implementing this concept and a bad one.

Moving on.

xoxo

Elephants in Ao Nang

Wakey wakey

The weather was looking good. We confirmed our elephant trip and invited Stacey and Giuliana who we met on the bus the day before. We rode in one of those pickup trucks with seats in the back box with the wind blowing through our hair. (Highly illegal back home.)

Stacey and I and the elephant.


mmm bananas

The elephants seemed pretty content. They weren’t being treated badly so I didn’t feel so bad riding on the back on one. Interesting ride.. to say the least. Very entertaining. The driver then dropped us off and gave us about 2 hours to hike up the the Huai Waterfall and swim. The water was too murky for me to swim but some of the others did… I really don’t like not being able to see the bottom unless I know it’s just sand.

Beautiful view of the waterfall.

After returning to the hotel we decided to get out of Ao Nang since the weather wasn’t great and the beach was crummy. The sea was too rough to rent canoes so we headed to Railey Beach. The deal is, get a cheap Long Tail boat ticket but you have to wait until there is 8 people to join the ride. We waited about 1.5 hours !!

It was worth it!

Railey Beach is beautiful. The long tail boat anchored because of the tide and we had to carry our luggage about 80 meters in the water over our head!

The last of the people coming up the beach carrying their luggage.

Railey West is the expensive side. We made our way over there for drinks on the beach that evening but stayed on the east side. Railey East in my opinion has far more character. Bars and whatnot all along the water. Even though the beach is nothing to look at and completely unswimmable, the atmosphere was calm and relaxing. With cushions on bamboo bars, just lay around with drinks and watch the sea and long tail boatmen going by and by.

Dancing in the moonlight

Sunday’s idea was to tour the surrounding islands but we hadn’t made any reservation yet. We just thought to hire a long tail boat and go on our own. UNTIL, just before closing time we stumbled across a little travel agency and bought tickets for 8 euros each for a full day tour around 4 islands.

Oh, forgot to mention that we found the cheapest ever backpacker hostel… so cheap that we hated the room. It was dark and creepy and luckily the price was cheap otherwise we would have felt ripped off. I was afraid of spiders crawling down onto my head while I slept… I would have felt safer from the bugs sleeping in a tent! We’re moving tomorrow to a place down the road. $20 for a private bungalow with air conditioning and television. DEAL! We’re budget travelers but not backpackers. We’re on a 2 week holiday, not a 3 month trip so we can spend a wee bit more on a room that is clean and bug free ;)

SO much more going on but impossible to write about it all.