Good morning Railay

We woke up to a lovely morning with blue skies (and some clouds) in Railay Beach and both switched rooms to something 1/2 the price with way more character!

Aaron's room was on the 3rd floor of the "tree house!"

My room was nice and comfy...

with a gorgeous view of the palm trees and cliffs that Railay is so famous for!

Ya Ya Resort is right on the water in Railay East (this is not a swimming beach)  There were lots of boats this morning waiting to take people over to Krabi or wherever else they desired!

We both jumped up, got ready, and headed into town for some breakfast at Mom's Kitchen, a staple for me when I was in Railay last time!

After breakfast, we made the LONG trek over to beautiful Pranang beach, where I was blinded by the gazillion of tourists laying out on MY BEACH!   Last time I was here, at this time in the morning, there was no one else except the ladies selling grilled corns on the sand nearby!  This morning though, you could barely put your towel down without beig on top of the stranger next to you!!

See what I mean?!  For any of you who have visited Railay, you know how devastating this scene is!   But, instead of pondering on the sadness of my hidden gem being discovered, I decided to make the best of it, and ignore the masses...

... and let's be honest - Once I had this ear of grilled corn in my hand, all was well with the world as far as I was concerned, and I was a happy girl!

We walked down to the north end of Pranang beach, where there were less people (because it's a trek to get there), and did some swimming, snorkeling, and cave exploring!  By this time, we were huuuungry, so we headed back to Eat Railay for some lunch!

After lunch, it was back over to Pranang Beach, and boy was I happy to see my monkeys were still around!  They moved locations, but just like clockwork - 9:00am, 12:00pm, and 5:00pm, they come down the mountain and hang with the tourist, hoping one of the brave ones will hand them something to eat!

Today I was the brave tourist!  I bit into my corn, spit it back into my hands and would feed the monkeys out of my hands!!  Once they figured out that I had an entire ear of corn (which Aaron was holding) one ran at him to snatch it away!  Long story short, I lost my corn to a monkey!  ggrrr..

... but really?!  How can you be made at a face like this?!

I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!  I actually caught 2 monkey's making a baby!  It was quick...

... but judging by the looks on his face, I'm guessing the boy monkey thuroughly enjoyed himself!  Aaron and I were dying laughing and I think the people around us were jealous they didn't snap a picture fast enough!

We made it back to the beach around 2:00pm, and thankfully most of the crowds had gone in for a nap, some food, a shower, who knows??  But, the good news for us was that it felt much more secluded!

We hung here for most of the afternoon, enjoying the water, white powdery sand, and the gorgeous Railay cliffs!

YES, the water is actually this color green here!  Something about the electrolites (sp?)  Ever seen the movie the beach where the water sparkles??  Well, Railay does the same thing at night! :)

Look what a little post editing can do?!  Pretty gorgeous huh?!  I actually swam out to that island tonight while Aaron was taking pics of the sunset on the shore!

When I got back from my island swim, I climbed the nearby cliffs and spotted these REAL rock climbers scaling the walls!

If I remember correctly, I have a picture just like this from last time I was here!

We took full advantage of Aaron's new fish eye, and remote timer and had a fun little photo shoot on the beach!

.... fun AND romantic!

Who doesn't love a jumping picture, right?!

.... and this one is for Aaron's friend Sam McElwin! The 2 of them traveled Cambodia and Vietnam together, 6 months ago, and took jumping high five pictures at every famous place they stopped along the way!

After the sun went down, we walked back over to East Railay, took showers, put on our normal clothes and headed for dinner and drinks at one of my favorite little joints: Joy Bar on the water.

.... where they now serve oven cooked pizzas!  Yum! 

We lounged on some comfy Thai floor pillows (which we are both determined to find in Au-nong, on our last day, to bring back to Korea with us)...

And while I slowly ate my fresh pinapple stick, Aaron devoured NOT 1, but 2 entire pizzas!!  (Granted, I ate 2 pieces, but STILL)!  The boy can eat!

And as you can see... he was happy and full!

Tomorrow we're planning to do the exact same thing as today!  haha!  With only 3 days left, we're going to make sure to get some good relaxation time in!  Lord knows we're going to need it before we go back to teaching the rugrats (cute rugrats) at our schools in Korea next week!! :)

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!  :)

Waterfalls, massages, and fire shows!

Yesterday, on our scooter ride, we saw this sign for a waterfall, so this morning, we had some breakfast and headed to the falls!

Unfortunately, we couldn't ride our scooter down the path... So, we left it here, and began the hike!

Aaron's vision isn't great, but the guy can spot crazy looking bugs like his life depended on it!!  Sometimes, this knack for noticing tiny creatures pays off - like when he spotted a gigantic flying cockroach the other day!  Uugghhh... Today, though, he spotted this little guy hanging on to the leaf!

We were totally taken off guard when we came upon this rasta bar in the middle of nowhere, along the path!!  There was no one working there... but it was cool, none the less!  We stopped here for a little while and played on the swings! 

This swing looked as if you could swing into the sky on it... but there was actually a rock right in front of me that brought any dreams of flying high to a skreeching hault!  Sad...

Anyone need to use the restroom?!

There were millions of red ants scattered along the trail... which made it a difficult when we were hiking straight down, with no rails on the dirt path!   There were only tree trunks to keep us from falling!  Some of those tree trunks looked like this!  eeehhhh!

The views were lush, green, and spectacular along the hike...  I

 After hiking for a while, we finally made it to the falls!!!  

Hiking back up the trail... This part of the path had a handy dandy (and rickety) rail for us! :)

 We made it back to the scooter, sweaty, exhausted, and ready to feel the wind in our faces!

By this point, it was time for some lunch... so we walked down the beach in search of something to fill our tummies!  We landed here, at Haad Yao Resort's on-site restaurant, where I ordered a peanut butter and banana sandwich, thinking that was fairly healthy, considering my other menu options!  Boy was I wrong, the thing was practially soaked in butter!  I'm not gonna lie though, it was one of the greatest sandwiches I've ever tasted!  So good in fact that Aaron ordered another one for himself!!  haha

Lunchtime shot...

I've been meaning to get a massage since the day I stepped foot in Thailand, so today was the day!   I found this place, right on the sand, and had one of the greatest massages to date (that's me under the red sarong)... It was so good in fact, that after my hour long - full body oil massage...

I asked for another one!  This time, I got a foot and back massage!  Total price for 2 hours of the most splendid pampering a girl could ever ask for...  $18.00!  Oh my... how I love this country!

While I was getting my massage(s), Aaron was playing with this little guy nearby!  He was actually the son of one of the masseuses, and the women in the shop were practically swooning over Aaron while they watched him play with this kiddo! 

Before long, it was dinner time, and we were dead set on heading back to the place we went the night before!  Can you blame us?  Fresh fish, grilled to perfection?  To be honest though, I actually just ordered a plate of fruit and grilled corn, but I did have a couple bites of Aaron's red snapper!  Who doesn't love a little fire show during dinner?  This girl does!

While we've enjoyed our time in Koh Phangang, we've decided to head to Railay tomorrow!!  (For those of you who have been following my blog for a long time, you probably remember Railay from when I went a year and a half ago and completely fell in love with the place!)  This time I'm bringing Aaron, so it's sure to be a great time! :)  It's gonna be a long day of traveling again, but when Railay is the final destination, who can complain?!