Railay Beach, Thailand

Another short boat ride would take us to Railay… a beach area of Thailand that has no roads or boat piers, and is accessible only by long boats that pull up on to the sand beaches.  Railay is actually a small, thin peninsula on the Andaman Sea with beaches on the south, east, and west sides of the peninsula.  You can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes.  Some days, we would catch sunrise at Railay East, relax on the southern beaches and then catch sunset at Railay West.

Some local wildlife

 

Long boats lined up along Railay East

 

Our bungalow for our stay in Railay

 

 

Jen gets SCUBA certified

After loving snorkeling so much, Jen wanted to give SCUBA a shot.  Although I was SCUBA certified back in 2004, it had been about 4 years since I last went diving so we signed up for a dive trip together—a “refresher” course for me and a “discovery” dive for Jen. 

Taking a long boat to some local islands

 

 

It was truly sink or swim for Jen… apparently, there would be no classroom or pool learning required before being plunged into the ocean in Thailand.  Her instructor gave her a brief intro of her equipment and then over the back of the boat she went!!

 

 

 

 

She ended up really loving it and decided to continue on with a course to become PADI open water certified.

Jen and her SCUBA instructor, Tek

 

She did it! After 3 long days of classroom and ocean instruction, Jen received her PADI open water diving certification.

 

Rock Climbing

The steep limestone cliffs on Railay are popular for rock climbers… both amateur and professional.  While Jen was working on her SCUBA cert, I took half a day and tried some climbing.

Our climbing instructor teaching how to properly gear up for a climb

 

 

 

After a few hours of climbing, my arms and fingers were exhausted!  Time to go back to the beach and relax!

 

Phranang Beach

Beautiful Phranang Beach is on the south side of the peninsula, book-ended between limestone cliffs and therefore completely secluded from any shops, restaurants, etc.

 

 

 

 

Monkeys having lunch

 

Dozens of tiny crabs scuttling along the beach

 

Possibly the most serene, gorgeous beach we have ever seen!

 

 

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We ran into Nick and Kristin, our friends from LA that we had met in Ko Phi Phi.  It was their last night in Railay so we headed out for another evening of island bar hopping.

More fire dancing…

 

 

 

 

Railay West Beach

Jen did much of her SCUBA training off of Railay West (the dive shop was two minutes away) and we spent virtually every evening here to catch the sunset.  An array of sunsets below…

 

 

 

Locals playing soccer on the beach

 

 

 

 

Long boats on Railay west

 

Phuket and Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

Because of the travel advisory for Bangkok, we wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible so we took a short flight to Phuket, Thailand’s biggest and most visited island.  We only stayed in Phuket a couple nights as we were anxious to spend more time in some of the less developed, less touristy beaches in Thailand. 

Phuket

 

 

Ko Phi Phi

To get to the island of Ko Phi Phi, it was an easy 2 hour ferry boat ride from Phuket.

As there are no roads/cars on this island, if you don’t stay in the main part of the city, the easiest way to some of the outlying resorts is by long tail boat.  We decided on staying in a cheap resort about 20 minutes (walk) from town. 

Pulling up to our bungalow village by long boat.  We decided on giving a “fan” room a try, rather than springing for an air conditioned room (lodging on this island was much more expensive than we were used to paying).  Along with a fan, the room was equipped with a mosquito net, as it was in true fashion of a bungalow (there were no sealed walls, so many bugs/lizards easily found there way into our room).

We did have a nice balcony with a hammock, where another orange kitten would visit with us daily.  We would keep our “sausage” from breakfast (which was actually just a hot dog) and feed it to the kitten when we got back from breakfast.  He also liked oreos…..

 

 

The lodging also had it’s own private beach, we would often find we were the only ones on the beach.  You could walk out about 100 feet into the clear blue water, and it would still only be up to your knees.

 

 

 

We think this kitten had Vietnamese roots…

 

Beachfront restaurant

On the ferry from Phuket to Phi Phi, we met a couple on their honeymoon, Nick and Kristen. With them being from LA, it was comforting to speak with people that completely understand everything you say!  We had such a great time with them, and would end up hanging out in the next town together as well (to be mentioned in the Krabi post)

 

 

Fire show on the beach (just one of the many fire shows in the south of Thailand)

Our last night out in Ko Phi Phi with Nick and Kristin

Bangkok, Thailand

We first arrived in Bangkok back in early April after leaving Nepal. Upon arriving, we learned of the growing unrest among the Thai people and the resulting protests by ‘The Red Shirts’. The protests were taking place in and around the popular Khao San Road district (as we would find out personally), so we focused our sight-seeing on other areas and figured we would see more when we came back to Bangkok after going to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

However, when it came time for us to return to Bangkok (a few weeks ago), the city was still in turmoil (US embassy closed and travel advisory in effect, mandatory city-wide curfew, etc.) so we ended up scooting right through the city once again and heading to less turbulent areas in the southern part of Thailand.

All the pictures and stories we have are from our first, brief visit back in early April…

Royal Grand Palace

The side walls of one of the Wats is painted with depictions of battles and other notable periods of Thai history…

Gold leaf inlay on some of the paintings…

Wat Arun

A 46 meter long, 15 meter high reclining Buddha

The feet of the Buddha inlayed with mother of pearl

Another one of the many Buddhas we would see in Thailand

Red Shirt Rally

After going to the Grand Palace and a couple Wats, we began walking towards Kho San Road and found ourselves close to one of the Red Shirt protests that would plague the city for weeks to come. As the protests were non-violent at this point, we felt safe observing from a distance. However, after about 20 minutes, everyone in the crowd near us started running away from the main square… and we followed! Watching the news later that night, we learned that several Red Shirts and Thai military were injured when things turned violent.

Lumphini Park

On recommendation from one of our friends, we spent a morning at Lumphini Park… the main city park in Bangkok. It was beautiful, relaxing and a bit off of the main tourist track.

Morning Thai Chi

Bangkok skyline in the distance

Huge monitor lizards crawling out of the canals winding through the park

Our first attempt at eating “street food”… pad thai made fresh to order on a road-side stand.

Statue of The King