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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Going back to Railay!!!!

We had seen that there was a boat that left Koh Phangang at 7:00am, which would get us an early start on the traveling part of our day, so we left Silver Beach Bungalows at 6:15am, and rode, in the dark, over to the town center, where we had rented the scooter, hoping to drop it off before getting on the boat! 

We should have known that the shop would probably be closed at that time of the day, so to make a long story short; we missed the boat because we couldn't return the scooter! Uuughhh... The next one left at 12:00pm, so we stood in line and booked the tickets...  

What are we gonna do for 5 hours?!!  We had already checked out of the bungalows, the weather wasn't great for swimming, and none of the shops were open to do some shopping in, we were left with one option - find a comfy cafe with wifi to sit and relax for the next 4 hours! So, we rode around the town in search...  and landed here at Nira's Home Bakery!  PERFECT!

 While Nira's had every scruptous pastery you could ever ever ever desire, we both opted for a more healthy breakfast - an egg sandwich and some fruit!  Yummm!


Catching up on some blogging and e-mails! :)

 12:00pm rolled around before we knew it, and we were able to load the Catamaran headed for Donsak pier...

Luckily, we had downloaded some TV episodes while sitting at Nira's, so we watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and American Idol (I love this season) while we soared the seas!  I've never been an advocate of carrying your computer with you while you travel, but since mine is only about 3 lbs, I couldn't resist!  It was the best decision I've made in a long time! :)

 After about 2 1/2 hours on the Catamaran, we landed in Donsak and jumped right onto a big bus that would take us to Krabi town...  We were on the bus for about 2 hours when it came to an abrupt stop, where everyone had to get off and wait for another bus to come!  We weren't told this would happen, but when you're in Asia, you just kinda have to roll with it and hope for the best!  We grabbed some pad thai and drinks at a little restaurant nearby and waited for our next bus!

 We all loaded the government bus, which was really quite comfy actually, and headed for Krabi town.  By this point it was about 3:30pm, and the ticket office had said we would arrive in Krabi at 5:30pm, so we were thrilled that we were almost there!!!


But then, after 2 hours had passed, we overheard the bus driver saying to one of the passengers, "We have 3 more hours until we arrive in Krabi."    WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHAAAATTT???!  He was right.  After hours of playing angry birds with Aaron, on my ipod...

looking out the window and seeing families of 4 smooshed on scooters...

... and watching the lady boy's every move across the isle...

 we FINALLY made it to Krabi town!  It was almost 9:00pm at this point!  NEVER trust the times on the timetable charts!  After exiting the bus, we took this thing for 30 minutes over to Au-nang to catch a long tail boat to Railay (in the dark!) 

 Okay, I may be exagerating a bit with this face, but after traveling 9 hours, we were exhausted, and more than ready to be in Railay, in a bed, sleeping!!

We were dropped off at another ticket office where we were told to wait for 30 more minutes for more people to come, so we could all go on a longtail boat together and cut the cost down to 170 baht (about $5.00)  I was pleasantly surprised to see that our boatmates were girls from California!  What are the chances huh?!  Shiva, Sheila, and Shayda (twins and their younger sister) had traveled with their best friend Kelly, to Thailand and Australia for a couple months and were headed to Railay as well...  We all walked through the low tide waters, muddy, and slippery, for about 500 feet until we reached the boat, waiting for us in the moonlit waters!

 When we arrived in Railay, I was stunned to see that resorts had popped up where it was once beautiful jungle.  My hidden gem had quickly become a hotspot for fancy resorts and retirees.  I'd be lying if I didn't say a bit of me just wanted to cry.   After walking a while, I became even more dismayed... Chok's D bar had been abandoned, the tattoo shack where I had my first tattoo was gone, Skunk Bar's gorgeous tree that hung over the entire patio had been chopped down to a stump, and the Moi Tai boxing bar had been turned into a dress shop.  Uugghhh...  I allowed myself to have a bad attitude for the night... but was determined that I would look on the bright side and enjoy Railay's new facade!   The 6 of us all settled on Ya Ya Resort, where I had stayed last time I was in Railay.  Exhausted from the day's travels, we all dropped our bags and called it a night!  :)