Acumulative 43 hours of travel!

Last night we caught our "taxi" (the bed of a truck with precarious benches) to the night boat. It dumped rain on us the entire time but it did little in the way of dampening our spirits. We just earned our Adv. open water diving certification, we just wrapped up a week on beautiful Koh Tao, and we even swam with sharks! This was one of those - holy %&*$@ we're in Thailand - moments. We checked in with the night boat and received our bed assignments, went upstairs to drop our bags on our beds and found two buckets on them catching the leaking rain from the ceiling :( We were trying our best not to the let the rain ruin our moods but it was beginning to get to us, we had some time for dinner before the boat left, decided on a pub nearby, sat down with 40 minutes until boat departure to learn they're kitchen was closed :( ugh... While we were stewing over the recent turn of luck we were invited to join their FREE buffet of delicious Thai food and stick around for a live band that was arriving soon, better yet the rain stopped while we were eating dinner which allowed us a dry and fitful sleep on the boat. To the left here is a photo of the Thailand country side, very green & beautiful.

Our morning began early at 5:30am when our boat docked at Surat Thani. We purchased a joint night boat + bus ticket (to Krabi) thinking we'd get off the boat, hop on our bus directly to Krabi - wrong. We encountered the SAME scam at the same shop that we experienced on the way to Koh Tao. Once off the boat about 8 of us were crammed into a truck that was supposed to take us to the bus station, instead we were dropped off at the same skeezy shop/restaurant/travel agency. At this time the owner pressured each of us to purchase his marked up boat tickets to Railey, when we refused he stomped around the shop like an angry child. We were stuck there for an hour before the owner realized we weren't going to budge, then he decided to drive us to the bus. When you buy your ticket in advance you're at the mercy of the system which is very frustrating. Our lonely planet book doesn't warn us of this, nor is it listed under the scam section of the book so we think this might just be the way things work here in Thailand :(



our 2 hour bus ride turned into a 6 hour bus ride! We're not quite sure why? However about two thirds the way into the trip we were all instructed to unload our cozy a/c bus and board the open air truck bed for the remainder of the trip, this is not what we paid for but what can you do? The remainder of the trip was actually quite nice, we felt like we saw REAL Thailand, we saw their farms, homes, etc. We were dropped off at the bus station where we needed to secure transport to the boat to Railey and then also book our boat trip - here we had to eat our words a little because the taxi to the boat port alone was far more expensive than the joint ticket the owner at the skeezy shop was trying to sell us - and since those people were being transported via minivan I bet they actually arrived in the quoted 2 hour time. Live & learn I suppose.
Our boat ride over to Railey was a bit scary, we were all drenched by waves spilling over the side within the matter of minutes. A small Thai man sat between Levi and Jen on the boat with a life jacket over his head squealing at every severe jolt of the boat. It was hard for me not to laugh, we were within a swimmable distance from the coast at all times :)


We have mixed feelings on Railey. It is beautiful for sure, and very different from Koh Tao. The sea is an emerald green with huge karsts juxtaposing out of the sea, and our Lonely Planet book hails this beach as the most beautiful beach in Thailand. There are two beaches - Railey West, which is where the incredible sunsets show off, it's a little cleaner and has a lot higher end accommodation. We decided this was too expensive for us so we're staying on Railey East - just a 5 minute walk away from West but a whole different world. This is where all the rock climbing is and it has a very rasta feel. You can pay for them to make dreads for you (don't get this??), there's a Bob Marley photo in nearly every establishment and fun music is playing everywhere you turn. We're saying up on the hill at the Rapala Bungalows - this feels a little more authentic than Ban's Dive Resort. Our bungalow has a private bathroom which we paid extra for and a mattress on the ground with a mosquito net - that's it :) Everything here is at least twice as expensive as koh Tao, our room was only $18 but it was difficult to shell that out after spending just $6. Below is a photo of our cute bungalow and our gorgeous view.





We were both exhausted so we spent the afternoon vegging on the beach. There are these small crabs about the size of my fingernail ALL OVER the beach. They pop out of their holes and roll sand into balls all day, this is fascinating to Levi and I! They set their sand balls into little perfect formations, we're dying to know why they do this all day. Anyone want to look up Railey Beach crabs and see what it's all about? Internet time is too precious here. The photo below shows the sand color crab to the left of the hole, he's rolling a ball, and around him is his formations. Once the formations are bigger you can see the intentional pattern they make - wild.

We stayed on Railey West to watch the sunset go down - it was unbelievable! The sun was a huge fiery red ball that fell quickly behind the island in the distance. Some storm clouds rolled in just before the sunset which blocked the view a bit, we have a feeling this sunset that knocked our socks off is mediocre on the scale of beautiful sunsets here in Railey.





Tomorrow morning Levi is going to take a 1/2 day of rock climbing - he'll be climbing these limestone karsts that you see here in the photos. Jen decided not to do this as it is a little expensive. We're staying on Railey for just one more night then heading for koh Phi Phi. Jen is hoping to see monkeys! We might not post for a while because we're contemplating a couple overnight camping trips on the deserted small islands. Hope all is well at home - Carmen I'm hoping that Lucy isn't giving you too much trouble, thank you Dave for helping :) Mom & Dad are you checking the blog? Haven't heard from you yet :) Love & miss you all.