Railay Rock Climbing

Railay Beach is world renowned for its amazing rock climbing. We did an afternoon guided session where we climbed several routes on the beginners' 1-2-3 Wall. It was hard work, especially because it was so hot, but the sense of accomplishment (and the view) upon reaching the top each time was worth it. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day...enjoy!

I like the longtail boat in the background of this one.

Zack was a lot faster than me at reaching the top of the routes.

I look flexible in this picture; it's a complete illusion!

Yes, we climbed quite high!

Sweaty, happy Zack.

I really like this shot of Zack belaying me while I climbed.

Pretty Pranang Beach

On Railay Beach in Krabi, Thailand, the most beautiful beach is Phra Nang (or Pranang) Cave Beach. If you stay at the resort right on the beach, you'd pay over $400 a night. But you can spend about $70 a night on Railay East and walk for ten minutes to get to this gorgeous location. The water is warm and perfectly clear, and the sand is nearly white. You can swim to the limestone cliff you see in the picture and swim in the shallow water. Zack made me pose this way for the picture to the left, but I actually ended up liking the shot because I look skinny (hooray for sucking it in!).

At the bottom of one of the limestone cliffs is the Princess Cave, where local fisherman leave offerings such as phallic symbols and garlands in the hopes of potency and prosperity. It's dedicated to an ancient fertility goddess, and it's an interesting, colorful sight.

This place is also beautiful at night. We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset on the perfect beach; Thailand is an amazing country!

Kicking it in Krabi

From Koh Phi Phi, we took another ferry ride to Krabi and then a longtail boat to Railay Beach. This peninsula (only accessible by boat) has no roads or cars. We stayed on the East side of the island, and we often walked to the West side for some food or shopping. Railay Beach has a little bit of everything...

...huge limestone cliffs with lots of longtail boats...

...hundreds of palm trees seen from atop a viewpoint (reached with a strenuous climb!)...

...crazy cave formations...

...naughty monkeys who like to pick through the trash can...

...a tide that comes in and goes out (and leaves some ugly mud behind when it goes out)...

...and beautiful sunsets best enjoyed with a fruity cocktail or Chang beer!

Stay tuned for the real gem of this area...Phra Nang Cave Beach (posting tomorrow).

Life on a Longtail

On one of our days in Koh Phi Phi, we took a full day longtail boat tour. The first stop was Monkey Island, where we got out and fed the monkeys and took pictures of them. Some of the bigger ones were quite aggressive and kind of scary! The one to the left has a baby; see it?

The next stop was for some snorkeling. It was here that our little "waterproof" camera went kaput. Here is one of the final shots I got from it. The snorkeling couldn't compare to the Great Barrier Reef, but it was still pretty awesome. 

We then went to Maya Bay. This is where the movie The Beach (with Leonardo diCaprio) was filmed. Though it was pretty crowded with tourists, including several longtail and regular boats, it was still gorgeous. The whole bay is surrounded with giant green limestone cliffs; you almost can't believe a place like this exists in real life.

The next stop was Bamboo Beach (I think). We may have done some more snorkeling first. Anyway, this beach was the most unbelievably beautiful beach I have ever seen (or probably ever will see) in my life. We shared the white sand and crystal clear warm water with just a few other people for a couple of hours, and it was heaven; I could have stayed there forever!








After some more snorkeling and the viewing of another beach with monkeys, we hung out on the boat and waited for the sun to go down. Another beautiful sunset was the perfect way to end our day on the longtail boat!

Zack is living the life at Maya Bay!

Doctor Fish

One of the stranger things we did in Thailand was get a fish pedicure. I had heard about these places where fish nibbled on your feet, and I always thought it sounded strange, but we figured it'd be fun to try while on our holiday. 

Before putting our feet anywhere near the fish, the employees washed/scrubbed our feet five times. Five times! My feet have never been so clean. They put bandaids over some scrapes on my toes (from some coral), and then we were good to go. I've read that these "doctor fish" spas are illegal in most US states, because the practice is considered unsanitary. But I felt okay about it after I saw how clean my feet were!

That big fish's bites kind of hurt!

It was so ticklish at first! You got used to it after awhile, but sometimes one would nibble on your arch or between your toes and you would squirm. I had a few bigger fish in my tank, and it kind of hurt when they chewed on me. Otherwise, it just kind of felt like something was gently tapping against you.

It tickles!!

The fish especially liked my mite bites or tropical disease marks or whatever the red bumps were/are. I'm not sure if they made things worse or better; the bumps were kind of inflamed when our fifteen minutes were finished.

Zack and I didn't notice any difference in the smoothness or beauty of our feet after the treatment, even though the fish supposedly slough off dead skin. I think it's more of a gimmick. I probably wouldn't do it again, but it was definitely fun to try once!

The fish apparently liked Zack's scaly feet! :)

Day and Night in Koh Phi Phi

From Phuket, we took a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride to the beautiful island of Koh Phi Phi, where we spent two nights. We stayed at Mama Beach Residence, which was up against high rock walls and in a quieter area of the beach. But we could easily walk to the "town," which was a maze of open-air souvenir shops, restaurants, and tour operators.

Whereas Phuket has a lot of stray dogs, Koh Phi Phi has a lot of stray cats. On one afternoon, we hiked to the top of the lookout. The view was amazing (I lost my beautiful wide-angle shots in the memory card debacle). Zack took this picture of one of the cats who sat on the bench with him as the sun went down. Cute, huh? We admired the sunset and then hiked back down for another delicious Thai dinner.

Koh Phi Phi is pretty crazy at night. We had the most fun at the Reggae Bar, which has a boxing ring set up in the center where tourists can put on gloves and fight each other for fun. Zack was almost convinced to "give it a go," but he was only willing to do it if he could fight a girl (and they wouldn't let him!). They also had some "professional" boxers, but the fights seemed staged.

The drink of choice on the island (and many places in Thailand) is a bucket. This is exactly what it sounds like. You get a bucket filled with a mixture of several kinds of alcohol combined with juice, soda, and/or Red Bull. You basically have no idea what's in it, and they shove five or six straws in the bucket, perhaps because you're supposed to share. We didn't! Zack and I each got our own bucket. If that sounds dangerous, it is. There are incredibly impressive fire dancers who perform on the beach at night. In the picture below, you can see Zack (post-bucket) doing his own version of a fire dance. And yes, we are sweaty messes in the picture to the right. That's because it is so hot and humid on Koh Phi Phi, you literally never stop sweating. But I didn't complain, because it was so nice to leave the winter weather of Melbourne behind for awhile! More to come from Koh Phi Phi...

My Poor Pictures

I'm so sad. I took my corrupt memory card to a camera store in the CBD and paid $140 for data recovery. Well, they recovered data alright...over 1300 files...but none of them are from our Thailand trip. :( :( :( There were tons of old pictures, which I had downloaded (but apparently not completely deleted) long ago. But we've officially lost hundreds of photos. All of the ones of the temples and our cooking class in Chiang Mai, along with the amazing sights and temples in Bangkok...GONE. I had SO many amazing shots from the Grand Palace, the giant Reclining Buddha, the markets, etc. I bought a couple of new camera lenses before the trip specifically to take these pictures, especially the wide-angle lens, and I spent hours walking around getting great shots. And now there is no hope of getting them back. The sad part is I know how good they were, because after our waterproof camera broke, I switched the memory card to my big camera and could see them. But when I got home and tried to put the card in my computer to download the files, it didn't work. And now it won't work in any camera. It just won't work at all. I'm devastated. :(

P.S. Is there a SanDisk representative or memory card expert out there reading this who would like to try to get my pictures back for me?

P.P.S. Luckily, I was using two memory cards throughout the trip, and we have some phone shots, so I'll still do blog posts on the rest of our trip. The Chiang Mai and Bangkok ones just won't be accompanied by good photos. So sad.

P.P.P.S. I finally went to the doctor, because my "elephant mite bites" were not going away and were still itchy. It turns out I have some sort of tropical disease (he didn't know which one). So now I'm on antibiotics that I have to take every six hours (which means setting my alarm for the middle of the night), and I have to put a cream on my ankles every day. Fun stuff.