Ko Yao

We did it, we made the big leap yesterday, and said goodbye to Railay Beach, well for 3 days at least! :)

Introducting Ko Yao:

The drive from the port to our bungalows was done on a tuk tuk, basically a truck with a tent over the bed of it with benches on either side... It felt a little like we were on safari, since Thailand is very jungly! (Is that a word?!)

This island is NOT TOURISTY at all, which is awesome! We are really getting a glimpse into the life of the Thai Island dwelers!

Riding around in the tuk tuk, trying to find somewhere to stay.

As it turns out, the homestays were not available, since it's low season, so Kristen and I ended up here! What a cute little bungalow huh?! Ready for the drumroll... it's 250 baht a night, which is the equivalent of about $4.00 for each of us!

The view from our porch... a grassy area with palm trees and then the water! :)

This little cat greeted us at our porch when we arrived... She's very sweet!

Maybe this is why it was only $8.00 a night total! haha... but this is our style! Hut roofs, ghetoo bathrooms, a comfy bed, and front porches that overlook the beach! What more do you need?!

*** The toilet doesn't have a flusher. There is a bowl in the black bucket that you scoop water into and then throw it into the toilet bowl and it flushes! :)

This little girl was sleeping in this hammock in the hut restaurant next to our bungalow. What a life, huh?!

After we got all settled in, we walked down the road and found this AMAZING restaurant! It overlooks the ocean and looks like a giant hut! It's beautifully charming.

Kristen...

Jess was explaining how much she LOVES massages! Heck, when they're only $6.00, who doesn't?!

Kristen and I

Lunch was delicious! We ended up meeting 4 other girls who we've been hanging out with here. We're convinced we may be the only foreigners on the island! We met on the tuk tuk actually. (Jenny and Gail are from Ireland, and Dana and Chloe are from London) They've been a lot of fun to hang with and get to know!

Jess and Carlos are staying in this hut, which is basically at the base of the water! Stunning!

Jess's bungalow. Nice hammock, huh?!

We almost all stayed here, but we had already settled at our other place. It was a 3 room bungalow where the owners used to live. What a life huh?!

It started to get really stormy while we were there, so we all lounged around and watching the lightinging storm over the water...

This was the view of the storm... beautiful, huh?!

During the storm, it got really windy and was pouring rain, so we moved inside for some coffee and hot chocolate with the other girls.

On our walk back to our bungalow, I spotted this buffalo roaming in a palm tree field. As you can see, we are in the middle of nowhere on this island!

Kinda scary if you think about it!

We had dinner here. The restaurant is actually closed during this time of year, but they opened it for the 8 of us! I'm telling you, we are literally the only foreigners here! The guy who owns the restaurant knew we would all come for dinner, so he quickly decorated the place and called his friends to come over and bartend and cook for us! It was amazing!

I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich (Not my typical curry, but I was craving one, and they made it!) Here's the funny part though. I asked them for a grilled cheese sandwich and some fruit. He asked me what kind of fruit and I said, "Ummm, banana and pineapple please." When my sandwich came, the fruit was inside! We all died laughing!

Jess and Carlos!

Kristen and Jenny (from Scottland)


Me and Gail (from Scottland)


Carlos actually found this rock earlier in the day and gave it to Jess! It's a perfect heart!

Today, we're renting a boat and heading over to Ko Hong.

Life on the Edge, LITERALLY!

Today was a day filled with new experiences and times where if fear got in the way, I would have not lived life to the full! I started my day with breakfast alone, since, as always, I'm the first to wake up! I never mind it though, and actually enjoy the alone time! Then, I headed to Pranang Beach, where I was met by all my monkey friends!

This morning, they were more friendly than usual, and this one actually climbed onto my shoulder to hang out. I honestly wonder if they are starting to recognize me... I have been here for a week after all! I quickly handed my camera to a guy standing nearby and asked him to snap a picture for me.

Turns out, his name is Beau and he is from North Carolina but has been teaching in Ulsan (40 minutes north of Pusan) in Korea. He invited me to rock climb up to the local lagoon with some friends from the UK who he had met on the boat coming over to Railay, so I decided to tag along! It's amazing how quickly you can meet cool people when you're traveling!

Here's the beginning of the hike.

This was the viewpoint (along the trail to the lagoon, which we had to climb to the top of the cliffs and back down to get to. (Remember the picture of the cliffs where the monkeys climb, those are the cliffs we had to climb over!) Crazy huh?!

It was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY slippery because of the mud, so it ended up being a 4 hour adrenaline rush for all of us! On, and it's worth mentioning that I was wearing my bathing suit, a sarong, and did it barefoot! I obviously had no idea this hike would be part of my day!

Beau is an avid rock climber, so he was scaling 50 ft cliffs, with no rope! I was literally shaking, so terrified that he was going to fall!

It was such a gorgeous hike/climb! We were basically in the middle of the jungle! And yes, we saw a snake!

Ami and another girl from the UK. (Not sure her name, she was climbing with her boyfriend behind us) See the rope in the background?? We had to scale down the side of a 20 ft cliff, caked with slippery mud. (Mom, close your eyes, and don't read this!!!) It was extremely dangerous, but the guys spotted and talked Ami and I through every step of the entire way! All in all, we had to scale (3) 30ft+ drop off slippery cliffs by either rock climbing, or pulling ourselves up with a muddy rope...

Believe it or not, I have no pictures of the lagoon! I'm sorry!!! Everyone else took pictures, and will be putting them on Facebook, so you can see them soon!

Introducing our new friend Beau:

After we finished climbing, we headed back to Pranang for some swimming and massages! I had a $6.00 Thai oil back and neck massage on the beach by my favorite lady boy (who, turns out, isn't a lady boy at all! Oops!) Her name is Pan.

Sunset at Pranang (Kristen, Me, and Jess)

After the sunset, we headed over to Mom's kitchen for dinner... but I stopped off to see Nat (another Thai Rasta guy), who is the DJ at Bamboo bar, and also one of San (Bob Marley's) good friends who printed a picture of San and I to give to him before I left. He thought San would love the gesture. He even grabbed some ribbon and tied it for me! Adorable, huh?!

We had dinner at Mom's kitchen tonight. D-licious as usual!

These are 2 of Beau's friends who climbed to the lagoon with us. He is from the UK and she is from Ireland! Awesome, awesome, awesome couple! They sat with us at dinner. All together, we had people from: Cali (Me), Chicago (Jess), Kristen (Miami) Carlos (Columbia), Ben (UK), Ami (Ireland), Alon (Israel), and a guy from London. When do you ever get to have dinner with people from all over the world?!

Hanging out on the deck of Joy Bar tonight!

Crystal and I opted for some good ole diet coke tonight. Cheers! :)

Tomorrow, Carlos, Jess, Me, Kristen, and Beau are heading over to Ko Yao and Ko Hong for a couple day trip. Should be beautiful! I'm not sure if I'll have internet, so you may have to wait a couple days to hear from me! Meanhamnida (sorry)!

We just can't leave!

Yep, we're still in Railay! This is SERIOUSLY paradise... not a lot of toursist, and everyone knows each other! Just this morning, as I was walking over to the internet cafe, I stopped to talk to 6 different groups of people who I've met just in the week I've been here. I love this small town feel!

Okay, so here's the rundown of yesterday... :)

I'm always the first one to wake up from the group, so I usually go down to Mom's kitchen and have breakfast alone, with someone there that I meet, or sometimes with San (B0b Marley). It's been one of my favorite daily traditions!

After breakfast, I walked over to the beach and ended up meeting Crystal and Helen (long time family friends who are traveling from Seattle).

About 2 hours after I got there, Jess and Carlos showed up! (We eat corn like it's going out of style! It's delicious here!)

This is where we lay out everyday! (from left to right: Crystal (seattle), Helen (seattle), Jess, Carlos, Claudio (Chile), and Sylvia (Argentina)).

Carlos, Claudio and I all swam out to the island you can see in the distance of the picture above and climbed about half way up on the rocks, with no shoes! It was quite the adventure!

The monkeys come to the beach 2 times a day (always at the same time) for food! They will literally come right up to you if you have something for them to eat! This one was eating corn kernels from my hand!

...

Amazing, huh?!

If you double click on this picture, you will be able to see a guy trying to attempt a back flip in the background! This guy comes out to the same place on the beach, every night, to practice his martial arts, and he is horrendous! It's a great show!

Buying corn from Am, one of my favorite locals! (sorry it's so dark)

At the same time, everynight, the monkeys climb to the top of these cliffs. There are literally hunreds of them... It's incredible!

At night, we all like to lay out until the sun goes down. Carlos and I were laying, looking at the cliffs, watching the monkeys climb to the top, and Jess was watching the sun setting!

After the sun went down we walked over to Mom's kitchen for dinner, and then headed over to the Open Mic night at the restaurant nextdoor. Helen is a singer, so she jumped on the mic at Open Mic night. She was sooo good and sang all original songs that she wrote!

It was actually pitch black when I took this picture... not sure why it looks like daytime, but I love it! This is the side of Railay where we hang out at night. (The lights, straight ahead, is the beginning of the main strip)

After the show, Crystal and I went to get ice cream and were laughing so hard at the size of the spoons!

A couple minutes later, I saw San on his way to watch a Thai boxing match, so we all tagged along. Check out this guys manager! haha You can see how relaxed this place is... he's basically wearing pajama pants!

While we were sitting, watching the boxing, San pointed to a jewelry stand and said, "Choose one!" So nice huh?!

Boxing...

Before the fight, San took this picture for me... This guy ended up getting knocked out at the end. They literally box until someone gets knocked out.

Jess, Kristen and I...

We are all IN LOVE WITH RAILAY! We talked about leaving today to go somewhere else, but couldn't do it! It's so hard to say goodbye to all the locals we've met... So, we're staying ANOTHER DAY! haha. Tomorrow we are going to head over to Ko Hong and Ko Yoa (I think that's what it's called) for a couple days. We are going to be doing a homestay there with a family, which should be really amazing. It's also suppossed to be a beautiful place for snorkeling! I'm crossing my fingers for no bites! :) As much as I love writing my blog and updating all of you, I'm outa here! Time for breakfast with the gang!