If you have not taken notice lately as you are visiting your local Thai restaurant, be sure to make a special effort to have a look at Thai characters and writing. It’s beautiful. One of the things that struck us upon arrival to Thailand was the similarity of the sounds of Thai to Vietnamese. Both languages have multiple tones. In Thai there are 5 tones: low, level or mid tone, falling tone, high tone and rising tone. Well, that’s the start of the difficulties. It’s a very complicated language and we’re just lucky that the Thai people are ultra friendly and most of them know at least a little English.
After arriving in Phuket we hopped a taxi to Nai Han on the southern tip of the peninsula. We spent 2 nights in this semi sleepy beach town that had been taken out by the Tsunami back in 2004. We were given a recommendation by some folks we hiked with in Jordan, but apparently we mixed up Nai Han and Nai Yang. Oh well, there was a beautiful, if unsafe to swim in due to riptides, beach. We stayed in a simple bungalow and dove instead into the Thai massage culture. We started off our visit with pedicures and Thai massages for two for a grand total of 800 Thai Baht. At the current exchange rate of 34 that’s just under $24. We might be able to fit in quite a few massages at these prices. Oh, and to top off the experience for another 100 baht, as promised, Charlie got a new doo… that’s hair doo, or hair don’t as Rawson calls it. It don’t need washin’ and it don’t need stylin’. All it doo is look like a Thai monk. That’s right folks, all off. But honestly it looks quite good and was absolutely necessary in this heat and humidity. How about we take a vote… Should Rawson go Sinead O’Connor style too?
Ok, enough of that. We had a nice 2 days in Nai Han and our first taste of authentic Thai food was great. We decided to head to Ko Phi Phi. One Tut-tut (a taxi of sort, but more like a collectivo for those of you who have traveled in central America- in other words a truck into which passengers jump in the hopefully-covered back) and a ferry boat later we arrived at the Ko Phi Phi pier. Ko Phi Phi is most noted for 2 things being the site of the beginning of the movie “The Beach” and getting almost completely wiped out by the Tsunami in 2004 (one of the Thai princes died here during that tragedy). We found a decent place to stay and headed out exploring the island. After chilling on the beach with a fruity cocktail we watched the sun begin to set over the lagoon and come to recognize that we are one night before the full moon. In just about any beach town in the world that caters to backpackers, a full moon is cause célèbre – that’s right a Full Moon Party. Usually begins as the moon rises and goes until... This one was filled with locals doing anything you can think of with fire, and lots of booze (yes there are lots of accidents, bad combo). There is fire twirling, fire jump roping, fire limbo, fire walking etc etc. We found a bungalow on the beach where the best fire dancers would be performing the next night. We took in another day of Phi Phi and enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of southern Thailand. We had an afternoon Piña Colada at Carlito’s Bar on the beach (had to for Charlie’s namesake), then moved to the new bungalow and rested up for the night ahead. Being the oldest people at this full moon party we had to fit the stereotype and be the first to arrive. We don’t mind the stereotyping and it gave us a great chance to meet and get acquainted with the performers. Johnny was the “funny guy” who seemed to be leading the show a bit. Funny he is and quite talented as well. These young guys really put on a show for us and let us take as many pictures as we wanted, all before anyone else showed up.
Out comes the moon, out come the people and on comes the music and fire. What a spectacular show. After the main event was over they had games that the on lookers could participate in, fire games. If you jump the fire rope you get a shot of whiskey. The limbo winner got a bottle of Vodka. We met a Danish guy who burned his feet badly walking on the fire. You get the point. Charlie avoided the “peer” pressure in style (easy when your peers are 10-20 years younger) and we had a blast watching and making new friends. Check out some of the great photos. We finally turned in about 2AM but the thump-thump-thump of the Full Moon Party didn’t end…ever; didn’t sleep too well, but oh well.
The following day we took a ferry to Krabi town, a tut-tut to Au Nang and then a long tail boat to get to Railay Beach, our next destination. We’d heard from friends that this was a magical spot, and it did not disappoint. Railay is one of the premier rock climbing spots in the world. Its beaches are lined with towering cliffs and the green sea is sprinkled with massive out croppings of limestone rocks. This place is part of the mainland, but there are no roads there. It’s only accessible via long tail boat. We arrived on Railay West and asked every resort about their rates, but they did not fit into our Asia budget. So we took the advice of two guys from the UK we met on the way over and hiked over to Railay East. Where Railay West is beach front resorts and stunning sunsets, Railay East is back packers haven. This is a completely chilled out spot on the mangrove side of the island. By the time we arrived Rawson was at the end of her rope with her back pack. Broken, uncomfortable, lopsided etc. she felt she couldn’t go another step when a fellow asked if we wanted to see a 400 Baht/night room in the View Point Resort. Sure! For 400 Baht you can get a private bungalow with private bath and a fan that is quite nice. The view is of the bay and sunrise. But for 800 Baht you can get the same room but with Air Conditioning! Charlie talked them down to 700, of course, and we agreed to stay 2 nights there. We decided later in the week after having seen a couple of other places that 700/night (21USD) was just fine with us and negotiated an even lower rate for another 3 nights to total 5 on Railay. We met some truly amazing folks on the 2nd day just as we found the best beach ever in Hat Pra Nang. This incredible spot is replete with staggering rock formations, powder white beaches and macaque monkeys at the end of each day (the monkeys took a shine to Rawson!). We ended up spending most of our time with our new friends and on this spectacular beach. First we met James. We’d seen James while we were on the beach sun bathing and having foot massages. He was sitting having lunch with a Thai woman and they looked like they could be good friends. Before we packed up to head in for a shower we asked James if he’d take a photo of us and chatted for a few minutes with him. Next morning we ran into him for coffee at Joy Bar and he invited us to join him on the beach for lunch with Sanah, the Thai woman we saw him with. This was the start of a grand experience not to mention a few new friendships. We met up with James, Sanah and Vanessa around 2:00 for lunch. Sanah and her husband Tik are from Au Nang and boat over every day giving massages on the beach. Before the Tsunami Tik (then aged 57) had a long tail boat and that was their livelihood (ferry goods and people). But it was smashed by the tsunami, as were those of so many people. Instead of looking for handouts, these amazing people instead took on the additional responsibility of adopting an orphan (a 5 year of boy who lost his parents in the tsunami)! Keep in mind this is middle aged couple already have 3 grown children of their own. Sanah and Tik are so truly kind, warm and prefect representation of the nature of the Thai people. When James met them a few weeks ago they invited him to join for lunch they had brought with them. After a few days of that James began inviting others to join and donate a nominal fee and now Sanah and Tik prepare lunch for about 4-6 others every afternoon. We joined them for 3 days. This was some of the best food we have had so far in Thailand, and many things you can’t get in restaurants. The experience was unforgettable and touched our hearts. Top all that with enjoying this experience sitting on one of the most spectacular beaches in the world (said to be loveliest in Thailand), there you go!
In the evenings we would meet up with our new mates and enjoy the vibe at Railay East. We loved this little slice of paradise and were sad to leave. We know that we’ll be back one day.
One long tail boat, one tut-tut, one overnight bus and one taxi to Kay’s condo in Bangkok. The next 10 days we’ll explore Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chang Rai and who knows what else, all with Nancy, Charlie’s mom, who we are off to fetch from the airport now!
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