It
felt so strange stepping back onto Thai soil, never mind that
everything just got so much more expensive! (Relatively) We arrived on
Koh Chang, once again at night and had to practically feel our way
along the beach to find accommodations, it was so dark and secluded.
Another tiny beach shack, with no beach and twice the price of anywhere
else we'd stayed like that. Oh, how we missed Cambodia! If border
crossings weren't such a hassle, we would have turned right around and
gone back. Koh Chang ended up being beautiful though. How can you hate
ANOTHER tropical island. We chilled out on the nearby beach during the
day and at night reunited with nearly everyone we had met over the last
three weeks, just by chance in this one particular bar on the beach. It
was great! Three days on Koh Chang and it was time to move on. We
bought our boat/bus ticket and caught a tuk-tuk to the landing.....the
wrong landing. The driver had dropped us off at a landing for a boat
that took us to the same place, but with a different company. With our
200 pound packs, we races up toward a group of drivers standing around
and begged one of them to take us to the other landing. He looked at
his watch, shook his head, then motioned us to jump in. As we sped
along, he got on his phone and urged the boat that was leaving that
very minute, to hold on. The boat was just pulling away when we
arrived, so we ran as fast as we could and at the last second, jumped
on and actually made it! We could not believe it. Once we got to shore,
we sat and watched what was supposed to be our bus, being pushed down
the road by 10 Thai men, the bus being a double decked VIP bus, taking
the phone lines along with it. Why do we ALWAYS get these buses?!....
We
arrived back in Bangkok and oddly enough it was strangely like being
home...a really dirty, smelly home, but familiar none the less. We made
our way back to our old guest house and settled right back in like we
had never left. The next few days were spent corresponding back and
forth with Korean school directors about potential job openings for
English teaching positions. It was overwhelming to say the least, so
Ian and I thought, lets get outta here. We caught the next bus south
and headed straight to Krabi. After a very long bus ride, and yet
another incident involving our bus leaving us stranded outside of the
town, then demanding we pay more to actually take us into town, we made
it to the pier, then jumped into a tiny boat, which putt-putted us all
the way to a little beach called Tonsai, on Railay Island. Railay beach
is actually rated one of the top ten beaches in the world. We were very
happy to be there. This island is a rock climber's mecca and climbers
flock from all over the world just to spend months and months scaling
the huge rock walls around the island. Ian and I threw our stuff into a
crappy little cabin in the forest, the giant hole in the floor free of
charge, of course, then headed down to the beach. We were actually
lucky enough to meet a guy, then another girl separately, both from
Toronto! Mike, Ian, Pam and I, grabbed our gear headed out on a little
hike, then spent the next few hours climbing. Its been ages for me, so
I needed the practice, but as usual, Ian scaled those babies like it
was nothing. He does have the upper hand though, having muscles and
all....hmph! The next four days were spent hiking, climbing, swimming
in the crystal blue water, watching movies on the outdoor screen on the
beach, drinking, making friends, and watching the most interesting Thai
boxing match I have ever seen. Out in the water they set up a log lying
horizontal across two platforms at each end. When night fell, almost
everyone on the entire island congregated onto the beach to watch what
was to unfold. Two of the smallest Thai men I have ever seen, wearing
boxing gloves as big as their heads, mounted the log and sat down with
it between their legs, facing each other. Then they were drenched with
buckets of water and all of a sudden that great big log became a great
big hazard. The men, while still sitting, just started kicking and
punching each other, while trying to stay on the wet log. Before we
knew it, both of them had slid upside down, and still holding on with
their legs, were STILL kicking and punching each other until one or
both fell off into the water. Ian and I were falling off of our chairs
laughing! It was SO funny. It was like watching real live Punch and
Judy dolls just going at it, while soaking wet and upside down. After
that, things got out of hand when random drunken travellers started
getting up and attempting their own boxing matches amongst themselves.
Needless to say, it got messy.
The night got even more
interesting when we arrived back at our room only to find it infested
(and I mean SWARMS), with giant flying ants. What do you expect with a
giant hole in your floor? The receptionist came with his giant spray
gun (this must happen a lot) and started spraying them from the
outside, so of course, they all swarmed INside. I ran out of the cabin
and almost got sideswiped by a passing bat, when out of no where, a
stray cat ran by me and into our room to play with the flying ants.
AhhhhHH! Eventually, they gave us another room....also with a giant
hole in the floor.
Krabi was amazing. Besides being the island
of adventure, it was also stunningly beautiful, and became our favorite
place in Thailand so far. Ian has now become obsessed with climbing and
although he only started in December, he can easily keep up with the
"experienced climbers", without killing himself. I am proud.
Well back up to Bangkok to meet up with Brent, who is flying in from Hong Kong. Yay! Can't wait to have family here!
