Rock Climbing Railey

We found out more about Railey where we are staying, it is a small area on the mainland that is only accessible by boat, so it is more like an island. There are no police or hospitals, which seemed a little scary at first. This is the furthest south we have been and the population is more Muslim (still about 60% Buddhist, but we seem to notice more of the 40% of the Muslims, at least the women b/c they wear the head scarves). The religious make-up reflects on the atmosphere. We have seen Thai women swimming in clothes and only about 20% of the places on the west beach serve alcohol.

However, we also did see a 7 year old kid selling beers out of a bucket of ice on the west beach and conversely, the east beach seems to embrace all things Bob Marley. One of the bars on the east beach had a ladies night featuring "free magic juice & nine year old flame thrower." We want to find more about the flame dancing at night, we have seen it at a couple places and it doesn't seem to be rooted as a historical Thai past time, more like a gimmicky transplant from Hawaii or something.

Levi went rock climbing this morning on the giant limestone Karst formation that we can see from our bungalow (it reminds us of the Half Dome in Yosemite, it dominates the skyline). Levi booked a 1/2 day beginner package with King Climbers. Levi was pleasantly surprised to see that the guides were all Thai (our scuba instructors while great, were from Canada & Lebanon). All of the guides also had very unique styles (one had a necklace made out of a King Cobra skeleton, another was wearing Cowabunga pants- Bob Marley style of course). If most of these guys were dropped off any where in the world, they could pick up chicks, their coolness transcended cultures. Levi learned the double eight safety knot & how to belay w/an ACT. At one point Levi was belaying for his guide, Tik, when Tik called for more slack b/c the tension in the rope was hurting his "snake." It seemed funnier when the phrase was delivered from 100 feet up the rock in a Thai accent. The package included 5 climbs, staring with a first climb of about 50 feet and ending with two climbs that were about 180 feet high. All of the grips were real good, so it was a great morning of climbing for a beginner like Levi.

Jen spent most of the morning on the west beach, while Railey doesn't have near as many beach dogs as Koh Tao, it did have more beach cats, including this kitty, that Jen just had to cuddle. All of the cats' tails are crooked or bobbed off. When we asked the locals about it they didn't explain why.

We linked back up in the afternoon and checked out a cave system that was part of Thailand's national park (pictures didn't turn out great b/c they were too dark). On our way back from the cave we saw our first monkeys (3 of them!), this sighting happened exactly at the same time our batteries ran out in our camera.

We watched the sunset again from one of the few bars on the west beach and started a game of rummy with a giant deck of playing cards. We ate dinner at a place called the Rock Restaurant that was high up and had a beautiful view of the beaches & the giant karst. We finished the night at the Stone Bar, which was located right beneath the karst Levi climbed earlier that morning (the bar lit up the karst at night with giant flood lights). The Stone Bar had a very mellow vibe (we thought Rob Hatfield would love this place & never leave), the seating consisted mostly of pillows on decks looking up at the rock & the stars.

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.

It doesn't rain under water!

The weather has been give and take during our stay at Koh Tao. It's rained one full day which happened to be our busiest academic day and then twice more in short spurts each while we were either diving or in the classroom. So it hasn't bothered us much at all. However when it rains it REALLY rains! Today we experienced a quick 1/2 hour (or so we thought) thunder storm, just before our dive the skys parted and was blue and beautiful. On our way out to SW Pinnacle for our 4th & 5th final dives the storm regrouped and raged without a sign that it might dissipate soon. SW Pinnacle is on the other side of the island which already has more rough waters so we were forced to turn back and dive Chumphon Pinnacle again - this was a bit disappointing as we just dove this same location yesterday. Once we were in the water all disappointment disappeared - as we saw many many sharks. Once we dropped down to 28 meters there were sharks everywhere! We were very close to some, our instructor reached out and all but touched one. Don't worry Avery - none of the sharks tried to eat us :) Again during this dive and the next Levi and Jen were without our instructors or classmates. These solo dives have done so much to boost our confidence in the water.




On our next dive to White Rock, the storm hit its peak, hard rain, huge waves, etc. However below the water it was quite calm. From the boat we took a photo of the rain pocked sea, which we thought looked pretty neat. On the way back hordes of flying fish swam next to our boat sailing out of the water, neither of us have ever seen anything like it :)


Afterward we briefed our dives with our instructors and classmates over beers. The lanky bearded (very hairy everywhere actually) Israeli man chatted Levi up most of the evening. Jen thought this was a humorous sight - picture: Levi, Mr. Apple Pie in his t-shirt, swim trunks, & Tiger beer - Youov (Israeli guy) in his snug Coca Cola t-shirt, dressed only in his minimal coverage speedos from the waist down, legs crossed, sipping his coke from a straw :) So far we've met people from several different countries and are quiet enjoying all the diverse people and views.

It's supposed to rain in Koh Tao for the next 3 days so our departure this evening couldn't be more perfect. We're hoping the rain doesn't follow us to the West coast.

Misc. Stuff

The internet at this moment is fast so here's a few photos, we would've liked to post before but didn't have the time or patience. The first 2 are of Nang Yuan isalnd, we don't think the last photos we posted showed how beautiful it really was. The third one is of Levi snorkeling in Nang Yuan, then there's a gratuitous photo of the Huckin Easy shirt, and Levi with his favorite Mango shake :) Also here's a few misc. notable tidbits:

1) There is one path in Koh Tao that runs parallel to the beach in Koh Tao, its about 5 feet wide and is a throughway for all modes of transportation possible - buzzing scooters manned by inexperienced tourists, trucks, motorcycles attached to wide vendor food carts, bicycles, and people walking. Each time we venture down this path our lives flash before our eyes - it's truly a stressful jaunt.


2) We haven't met anyone else from the U.S. yet.


3) So far we've met fellow travellers from: Lebanon, Israel, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Austria, Japan and Sweden.

4)Although we haven't met anyone else from the US, we've already been questioned about the current elections. We find it fascinating and exciting that the youth from other countries are aware of our current presidential primaries.

5) Surprisingly we have a TV in our $6, cold shower only, no AC, paper thin walled room. The only two English channels are HBO & Cinemax- - however it's the 1980's version of cinemax and HBO, playing all old movies except for the frequent showing of Grid Iron Gang featuring "The Rock".

6) This morning we were served breakfast by a tiny Thai woman with a large parrot on her shoulder.



7) Everything in Koh Tao is inconsistent, for example: The Thai culture is disgusted by feet, they are considered to be the lowliest part of one's body and in the US we hold a similar but less extreme view. However, here you must take off your shoes before entering any establishment: restaurant, grocery store, clothing stores, etc. remember your feet are gross with sand, dirt and everyone wheres flip flops. Yesterday Levi joked: No Shirt + No Shoes = service instead of our opposite, funny.

8) While walking to dinner last night we passed a clothing shop blasting The Cranberries and a Thai man about the age of our fathers was walking about belting out each English word to this once popular US song :)


9) The construction workers here wear flip flops or no shoes at while working!

10)The cost of one hour in an Internet cafe is equivalent to one night accommodation at Bans Dive resort. A tiny bag of pretzels is equivalent to a full dinner at Ban's.

Yesterday we decided to stay in Koh Tao a few days longer to achieve our advanced open water diving certification, this allows us to go 30 meters (100 ft) beneath the sea. Between 18 & 30 meters is where all the "big stuff" lives - sharks, some whales, rays, huge fish, barracuda, etc.

Today we completed 3 of the 5 required dives for the certification. The first was at Chumphon Pinnacle, regarded as one of the best dives around Koh Tao. The visability was the best our instructors have ever seen in the location so they decided our second dive would be there as well. Our instructors said there would be a good chance of seeing sharks during this dive, this was exciting news until we learned it was the highly aggressive bull shark whom inhabited these waters rather than the vegetarian black tip reef sharks (friendly sharks of Thailand) that we assumed we'd run into. After we were fully geared and about to submerge beneath the surf our instructors clarified that sharks are not attracted to human blood (great news since you can often scrape yourself on sharp coral) rather the sharks are attracted to human urine (bad news), so of course immediately Jen had the unshakable urge to pee and to make matters worse her weight belt was firmly resting on her bladder for the full 40 minute dive, and each time she equalized her mask (plugging your nose and blowing out your ears) she hoped like heck a little wouldn't come out and attract a swarm of bull sharks! Eek. At 30 meters the ocean is a different and more active environment! We saw beautiful coral, banner fish and one large and mean looking bull shark just 20 feet away from us. The shark sighting alone made the decision to progress to the advanced diver course worth it :)

Our second dive was almost as exciting as it was our first solo navigation dive. Together Levi and Jen navigated the pinnacle with out instructors or other classmates. We learned quickly communication under water is incredibly difficult - Jen motions slow down & Levi thinks it means lets go deeper, this is something we need to work on.

Our 3rd dive was a night dive at White Rock. Before we entered the water Koh Tao showed us it's first beautiful sunset. We entered the pitch black water with just a flashlight each. The barracudas in the area are so accustomed to the frequent night divers they've incorporated the activity into their feeding schedule. They swim along side of the divers and use their beam from the flashlight to spot and attack their prey (smaller fish). Another interesting tidbit - The parrot fish cough up their stomachs and cocoon themselves inside of it while they sleep at night. The stench from the stomach is so distasteful to their predators so they are able to sleep safely through out the night. On our dive we spotted a beautiful blue spotted ray and a huge hermit crab tucked into a shell the size of a basketball.

During our dive we kneeled on the sandy bottom in a circle and turned off our flash lights, after a minute our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we then flailed our arms about activating the phos florescence (spelling? no time for spell check). We had glowing bits of green plankton illuminated all around us, it was a very surreal experience.

Tomorrow is our last two dives of our adv. course, afterward we're catching the night boat to the Surat Thani and then a bus to Krabi with a final destination of Railey Beach. We're hoping to do a little cave kayaking, more snorkeling, visiting wats (temples), hiking in the national park, and perhaps tackle a beginner rock climbing route or two. We LOVE Koh Tao but after a week here with our bearable restrooms, western food on the menu, TV in our room, English speaking locals, and minimal attempted scams we realized we are experiencing the JV of Thailand. We're anxious to travel the less beaten path and experience the nitty gritty of this country.
Hope all is well at home :)

Nang Yuan Island

Today we took a 10 minute water taxi over to Nang Yuan Island. It is really three small islands joined together by white sandbars. It cost about $3 to enter the island, but was well worth the price. We had heard great things about the snorkeling off this island so before we left we rented some fins (we already had our own masks & snorkels- thanks Pete). We also heard the prices were steeper on the island so we bought a large water to bring with us. What we didn't hear was that Nang Yuan Island doesn't allow fins (to protect the coral) or plastic water bottles (to stop people from littering). We had to leave our fins & big water at the entry point, but again it was worth it.
A rickety wooden stilted bridge trail type thing goes around most of the island. It also has a few paths jutting up through the jungle type vegetation to some breath taking views from a higher elevation. We did about a twenty minute walk on this trail, which we found had some dangerous looking red ants & quite a few missing planks.

When we came back down to the water, we passed a mom with a couple boys about 7 & 9. One of the boys asked Levi in an accent, "Hey mister, is that a snake over there." Sure enough there was a long green slithering thing along the hand rail of the bridge, Levi was pretty sure it was a snake so he confirmed, "Yes that's a snake," while getting close enough with the camera to take a picture. The little boy said, "Aren't you afraid of snakes?" Jen told him that snakes won't bother you if you don't bother them, so it was probably safe to take a picture, but not poke at it. Levi asked the boy if he had snakes where he was from and the boy said that no, they didn't really have snakes in Norway. It was a neat exchange.

We spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling, reading & napping on the beach. We ate lunch at the resort, which Jen really enjoyed because of the resident cat. We have seen tons of dogs, but only a few cats so far. Bans, the resort where we are staying at, also has a resident cat, which Jen has got to cuddle a few times. It of course reminds us of our cats, thanks again Mom for taking care of Cloudy & especially Lucy (our diabetic cat that needs two daily insulin shots).


We decided to stay on Koh Tao for a couple more nights to take advantage of the cheap diving. We are signed up for 5 more dives over the next 2 days as part of an advanced divers course that will allow us to dive down to 40 meters. We have been told that is where the big stuff lives & we really want to see the elusive Whale Shark.

Open-water certified

We finished our last 2 dives and are now officially open-water certified, which means we can dive on our own (which we probably won't do for a while) down to 18 meters. It was frustrating at first to think about everything using the metric system, but we are catching on.



Our first dive of the day was at Twin Peaks. We went underwater with our instructor, Belinda, and 4 other student divers. There were also two other assistant instructors, so the ratio under water is about 1 instructor for 2 divers, which is nice. On this dive we practiced a few more of the skills we have been mastering (flooding our masks under water & then clearing them, buoyancy control so we don't sink to the bottom). We then did the "fun dive" part & swam around coral reefs, seeing a nice variety of fish, including a clown fish, just like Nemo. We are going to get a fish chart so we can do a better job identifying what we are seeing down there.



The second dive of the day was at White Rock. The first westerner diver in this area was Italian and named three of the dives, White Rock, Green Rock & Red Rock, all after the colors on the Italian Flag. On this dive we practiced entering the water using a technique called the "drunk Mexican," by essentially just falling backwards into the water. We also practiced a controlled emergency ascent where we took out our air supply. We then went back down for about 35 minutes, the highlight of this dive was swimming through a natural arch in the reef.



We got back to our resort about 1:00PM, then ate lunch and relaxed on the beach with some books and thought about the details for the next leg of our trip. We met the rest of our class that night for dinner to celebrate finishing the open-water course. Our class had 2 girls from Ireland, 2 guys from New Zealand, a couple from Holland, a guy from Israel & a guy from London. We had some really interesting conversations, the girls from Ireland were on a year-long trip around the world, the guy from Holland restores classic cars for a living & the guy from London is heading to Florida to end a 6 month trip. It was our first night we actually drank alcohol and stayed out past 9:30PM. We found out that the beach really livens up after 10:00PM with the islanders swinging flaming things around.