Railay, Krabi Province

Hello Everyone,

So... Since we last left off, Briana and I spent 4 more nights in Koh Phangan. We really enjoyed the Island, we ended up staying in the norther part of the island that is more low key and not as touristy, However, it was very easy for us to take a taxi in to Haad Rin (which is where the action and night life was happening). So it really gave us the best of both worlds. Unfortunately all the pictures from Koh Phangan and the full moon party are on Briana's camera. At some point I will have to do a post using her pictures. I would love to share with you the pictures from the beach that we stayed on.


After 5 nights in Koh Phangan, the weather started to take a turn for the worst as the much anticipated monsoon season arrived for the Thai east coast. So Briana and I left and made way for the west coast where the weather is hot and sunny. Our journey was long but very manageable. First we took a 3 hour ferry from Koh Phangan to Surat Thani, from there we took a 2 hour bus ride into Krabi Town. When we arrived it was thunderstorming, we have never seen so many or such big rain drops in our lives. The annoying part was that we booked a hotel in Krabi Town ahead of time but when we got dropped off they told us that they were full and could not sleep us! So we ended up wandering around in the pouring rain trying to find somewhere to sleep. Within seconds we were drenched.

We only spent one night in Krabi Town and headed toward a peninsula called Railay, only reachable by boat. It took us 45min on a Thai style long boat to reach the beaches of Railay. Immediately, we were able to tell that we were going to love it here. The landscape was breathing taking, and was mainly composed of dense jungle, massive limestone escarpments and gorgeous beaches.

One of the 3 main beaches in Railay, as you can see its a pretty unique landscape. All very shallow clear blue water.

  Below: Really cool fish we saw swimming over the island that you can see in the picture above.

 The Island has heaps of monkeys. You see them as often as you would see squirrels back home, and they tend to hang out in large social groups. The neat part about Railay is that although we are in close proximity to a bunch of beaches we are actually staying in the jungle. Not one of the many animal sounds coming from the bush are fimiliar in any way. Bri and I were woken up to the sounds of screaming monkeys haha. Not to mention papaya, mango and banana trees are the norm and there are tons of pineapple bushes too. Im pretty sure we have even seen a few grapefruit trees. I suppose all I am trying to say is that we have a been to few places in Thailand so far and this by far the most unique.

A group of monkeys playing cards in the trees

A family of monkeys walking home with us from the beach

We caught this fellow red handed stealing our left over smoothie

The next day Briana and I had booked a day long boat tour in which a sail boat took us to a couple different islands for rock climbing and then we had lunch on a remote beach and from there we went to a pretty neat island for snorkelling. I think we both agree that, that was one of our favourite days yet.

The rock climbing wasn't conventional rock climbing. It is called "Deep Solo". The idea is that you do not use a harness or rope, you free climb and when you get as high as you desire you simply jump off the side of the rock face. In essence its a cliff jumping and rock climbing hybrid.

hanging out on the sail boat

Briana climbing up to over 10metres (click to enlarge)

she looks like a pro

flipping off the rock ledge

The remote beach where we ate our lunch

 

 

 

 

 Below: the photos were taken  from far, but the following pictures are a bunch of sequential photos of myself jumping off a rock face that was over 15 metres high. In order to get that high I had to climb the stalactite that you can see below. ...(you click to enlarge the images)

I am at the top crouching really low getting ready for takeoff

 

 

 splash!

Briana made sure her outfit matched the fish ;)

not sure if you can tell from the photo but the coral is a vibrant green and orange

relaxing day on the sail boat

a random dude feeding the fish out of his mouth

our friend Hermit

beautiful sunset on the boat

 Overall, its been an amazing time in Railay. We still cannot get over what a fun time we had on the sail boat and solo climbing. We are spending one more night here before we head off to the Phi Phi Islands. Some of you may know those islands from the movie set of "The Beach" and one of the old school James Bond flicks.
 Anyways,  I will post again soon! and I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. We have many more and although I posted many pictures it was very hard to choose them from all my other ones.
Take care!

Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phangan

Hello Everybody,
I apologize for the lengthy time lapse since my last post. My excuse is that we have been having way, way to much fun to go out of our way to hang out in an internet cafe. Not that we are having less fun now, but at our current resort they have a computer.

I am not even sure where to begin, so I suppose I will start in a chronological order.

Koh Samui
When we arrived in koh samui, the prior part of our trip consisted of walking around extremely populous and hectic cities. So it was definitely a nice change. The island is very beautiful. However, it is very built up and exploited. Truthfully, exploited is not always a bad thing; there were stores that you could find what ever you were looking for and there were plenty of places to eat. I always believe the more choice the better. Although the beach fronts were gorgeous, the water could have definitely been cleaner. But I don't want you followers to think it was gross, because I thoroughly enjoyed swimming in it.

The two pictures above are my only photos from koh samui. Briana has the lot of them on her camera. We spent two nights and two days in Koh Samui before we jumped on a ferry to Koh Tao.....

Koh Tao

Koh Tao means Turtle Island in Thai (just thought that some of you guys might have enjoyed knowing that lol). So far we have fallen in love with Thailand. From what we were told and observed, it is one of the most undeveloped and least touristy islands in the thai gulf. It was a very small and quiet island. We stayed at a resort called Ban's diving Resort. Which is renown for its diving and snorkeling tours.  The nice part about where we were staying was that it was the most happening place on the island. Briana and I made heaps of friends (picked up that lingo from the aussies haha) and enjoyed the partying but when ever we wanted peace and quiet, there was plenty to be found on this island.
The sea life on this island was out of this world!!!!!!! I have never seen anything like. All sorts of different kinds of fishes, (literally hundreds of different species), turtles, moray eels, sting rays, sea cucumbers, trigger fishies, giant clams and so on. The most impressive part though was the vibrancy of the coral and sea enemies. I have never seen so many different variants and colours. It was very mesmerizing.

 above: what seemed liked Briana's first time snorkeling as she never let me get more then 10 cm apart haha (it was nice to feel loved though ;)  ..)

 above: a panoramic shot of our resort from the top of a hill

 above and below: we went snorkeling right on our hotels shoreline. The fish diversity was incredible but the coral was slightly lacking. this was moments before we saw a fish about 1.5 meters in length and at the point I don't think I have ever seen someone swim so fast to shore as Bri did haha.

 above: giant clam. I went really close to it, so it closed itself. Wish I took a picture when it was still open...it was very neat. It was our first time ever seeing one.

 above: family of squid or calamari depending on how you look it haha. I definitely wish I had a jar of panko flakes and a portable deep fryer close by lol.

 above and below: all aboard the bans tour boat.

 below: me just before front flipping off the top of the boat.

 below: our (scottish) friend andy, just before his back flip off the top of the boat.

 our group of friends

bubye Koh Tao :( ... Truly a very special place. I am sorry folks I do not have any cool pictures of the diverse sea life and it does feel like a shame, but Bri and I have memories that will last forever :)

 so far in Koh Phangan:
we have been in Koh Phangan now for only one night. It is a definitely a unique place. Parts of it are extremely hectic and other parts (such as the area we are staying) make you feel like you are the only ones on the island. Lots of people here and tons of Ex-Pats. Bri and I just ate lunch am amazing Italian restaurant. As good as any italian restaurant I have been before. We are staying in a beautiful bungalow right next to the beach in a quiet resort. I will post more about Koh Phangan when we have had a chance to explore more. The much anticipated Full moon party is tomorrow, so we are gearing up for that!
Below is a picture of our bungalow.


I will post more pictures from this island in a few days! I hope every one is doing well! and I'll be sure to post again sooner then last time
lots of love

ps by clicking on each photo once you can enlarge them.