After our last big night in Koh Tao it was time to move on. Ryan, Natalie (who was now being referred to as "Jigger" due to the unfortunate parasite she picked up in her foot in Africa), and I were heading West to the other side of the Thai Peninsula to check out the coast on the Andaman Sea. After getting up and packed at 7am and making it to our pickup spot a little early we sent Ryan across the street to the convenience store (which were overly abundant for such a small island) to put together a "Snack Sack" for the long journey ahead of us. I'm not sure what was left in the store when he came out because he had not one, but two sacks over flowing with: 3 bags of potato chips, 2 bags of nuts, peanut m&ms, candy bars, gum, gatorade, diet coke, and of course a few bottles of water. We were set for the hike that included just a mere 6 modes of transportation to get from Koh Tao, finally arriving on the beach of Ton Sai around 8pm, picking up a quiet, slighly creepy American named Tim along the way. (Who we didn't know would end up tagging along for the next week of the trip!)
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| Natalie and I on the longboat, #6 mode of transportation for the day! |
The beach of Ton Sai is located on the West Coast of the Thai Peninsula, a boat ride away from Ao Nang Beach in the city of Krabi and separated from Railay Bay by a series of limestone rocks. The area is known for its gorgeous limestone formations jutting through the surface of the crystal blue water, viewed at a distance from the pristine white beaches (imagine Halong Bay on crack)! It is also a mecca for anyone remotely interested in rock climbing. Unfortunately, we were not able to take part in this activity due to multiple wounds and infections...more on that later.
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| I'm sure we would have been able to do this too if we weren't hurt! |
We were so dead by the time we finally made it there that we had only three things on our minds: accommodation, food, and sleep! The cheapest accommodation in this area was a group of huts located at the very end of Ton Sai beach. We checked into a hut for four (it was cheaper for everyone for our new addition, Tim, to bunk in with us)
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| Ours was alittle bigger than this one |
scarfed down the usual Chang Beer and Penang curry and crashed out! We were in for a surreal surprise by the view that greeted us the next morning...
Ton Sai is a very remote beach, with only a few places to stay, a convenient store and a few restaurants. We decided to make our way to next door Railay Bay to get some beach time and find a place to watch the Rugby World Cup final match. One can either hire a long boat to take you from one to the other or take advantage of low tide and walk across the limestone and coral. We decided to save a few Baht and walk. What we thought would take 10 or 15mins, ended up taking about 45 with Jigger puncturing her finger on a rock on the way. It was much more difficult than we had anticipated!
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| Ryan and Tim starting the trek |
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| We made it! |
We spent the day laying on the beach. Natalie and I even squeezed in a long walk in hopes to counteract the Changs we knew were in our future. As it got closer to game time we started asking around trying to find a place to watch the match. We ended up at "Last Bar", which irronically seemed to be the "only" bar! Thankfully we got there early and were able to score a good table with a view of the TVs to watch New Zealnd beat France for the world title!
About an hour after the Rugby match was over a big British Soccer or "Futbol" game was coming on that Ryan and the many other Brits in the bar were very excited for. By that time many rounds of large Changs had been bought and I couldn't care less about watching a soccer game! The rest of the day included a combination of all kinds of fun: me popping a blister that had mysteriously appeared on my finger (spider bite?) with a toothpick, some dancing, a failed Skype attempt with Jo back in England (while we left Natalie alone at a table with "Silent Tim" for an hour), Jigger watching a complete stranger get a tattoo, a photo shoot on Ryan's camera of everything around me I could take a picture of, and many belongings being lost!
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| Attempt #1 at popping the blister |
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| Beginning of photo shoot |
Before we knew it, it was 3/4ish am and time to go. Unfortunately for us, it was way past all of the longtail boat drivers' bedtime, and there was not a boat in sight! The tide had come back in, and the path we had used to get over had vanished. After shooting down my idea of just sleeping on the beach until the morning boats arrived, Ryan insisted we should just swim our way around the rocks back to Ton Sai...how hard could it be?? *Remember while reading this: we all lived to tell the story* So he hoisted my bag over his head (he had more valubles that could be ruined than I did), Natalie threw her backback on her hers and off we went. About half way through, we realized this was going to take a lot longer and be much more difficult than genius Ryan had thought...We took a sigh of relief once we had made it around the biggest rock and back into shallow water where we could touch. That didn't last long once we ran into the extremely sharp coral that covers the ocean floor all the way up to shore. I was able to lay on my stomach and slowly pull myseft along with my hands since I didn't have anything to carry. Natalie and Ryan were trying to keep their stuff dry and had to depend on their feet. Both had different strategies: Natalie thought should would be able to avoid some of the coral by taking small, slow steps. Ryan decided to just take his chances and take off running. Judging by the amount of injuries woken up to the next day...Natalie won! We somehow made it back to our hut all in one piece and face planted into bed!
Our state waking up the next morning can only be described as a "hot mess." We had heard from fellow travelers to be careful going into any water in South East Asia with open wounds because they will end up getting infected due to how dirty the water is. Well...they were all right! My scuba fins had rubbed off all of the skin on the back of both of my heels which were now swollen and bright red, and the blister I so genuisly popped had gotten infected. The infection decided to spread into another blister down that finger and pop up in another one on my pinkie. The coral had sliced the bottom of Ryan's feet to shreds and now both of them were infected as well! Natalie came out in surprisingly decent condition with a few cuts and scraps. And then we turned to Tim, who had mysteriously disappeared, said he swam home (we're not buying it), and didn't have a scratch on him! This area was so remote that there were no Pharmacies around and we were in dire need of some healing! So, Ryan forced us to get packed up and out of there, back to Krabi to make our way to the Port, to get on a ferry bound for Phi Phi! Halfway out the door we realized Tim was all packed up and ready to go too...apparently he would be joining us...
You win Railay Bay:
Railay Bay:10 vs Dianna,Ryan,and Jigger:0
