Railay Bay- 7th-10th December

Railay Bay has no roads, and can only be reached by longtail boat. Our final stop in Thailand is here, and we hop on one round to the bay.

We get there, and after getting a little lost, we find our hotel. On the way, however, monkeys are running around the rooftops. This makes the entire trip! As this is our final stop in Asia, we treat ourselves to a really nice hotel, with a rooftop pool overlooking the sea. It is absolutely brilliant for laid back relaxing, and the view is spectacular.

Railay is another tiny space, with one beautiful sandy bay on one side, with a few shops and restaurants up a little track, and on the other side, a stony tidal dock, with trees growing out of the water, and a little warren of grubby bars and cafes blaring out reggae. There are actually three main bays, with one North or South of the central bay, a short journey by kayak either way. You can also kayak out to the rocks out at sea, where travellers stack stacks of stones above the tide line, as a little permanent marker of having been here. We did this- you have no idea of the height of these limestone cliffs until you look up from the foot of one of these monolithic beasts- sadly, water + camera= no photos!

The little restaurants on the front are lovely too, and we ate some of the nicest and largest meals of our time here, and watched people letting paper lanterns up into the sky. As we leave to get the boat and taxi to Krabi airport, it is with a heavy heart- we've seen so much beautiful stuff while here, eaten so well, met lovely people, it was gorgeous (apart from maybe Ayutthaya).

Koh Phayam- 21st to 26th November

So, a short ferry ride from Ranong, there are two little islands. Unlike Ko Phi Phi, Ko Lanta and such, they haven't yet been completely colonised by tourists. They are, to all intents and purposes, what Jenny and I had in our heads for what we wanted to do in Thailand. Ko Chang (West) and Koh Phayam are tiny little islands, with no cars, and miles of unspoilt beach. In short, paradise.

You get across the island on the back of a motorbike, along what is little more than a pathway across the island, which is a little white knuckle when you have a 20kg backpack on, and then have to hike along the beach to the accommodation. We went at full tide, which meant we had to strip to our pants to cross the inlet blocking the beach, which is fun when carrying all your possessions 2 miles up a sandy beach!

The accomodation is in bungalows on the beach, which were charming, with hammocks outside. We spent a lot of time outside, as there is only around 4 hours of electricity a day from generators (and as such no Wi-Fi, which may be one of the reasons there are also less idiots!). We had 3km of beach, shared with maybe 100 other people, and a little cafe on the beach front, with little bars and restaurants either side of us. The cafe was a lifesaver, as you can't boil a kettle for 20 hours of the day!

The island's main trade is in cashew nuts, and you can get enormous bags for a few Baht fresh from the farms. Beyond that, there is little to do, but relax, swim and eat. Which basically sums up why it was so perfect (but bloody difficult to write about afterwards!).

We became one with nature- Geckoes and ants for their dinner were always around, and three times we met a bat in our outside bathroom!

The residents are lovely too. After a day of too much sun, Ben tried (in vain) to find some after-sun to calm the burn. A friendly shopkeeper led us to fresh Aloe Vera cacti, and cut off some tips- the freshest after-sun you can get, and much needed!

All in all, possibly one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen.

Hua Hin, Chumporn and Ranong- 16th to 20th November

So, a night bus to Bangkok brings us back to the bustling city for all of 4 hours, where we decide to quickly move on and start exploring the South. A nice train is quite a relief, and we get some fish curry for lunch, much needed after the little sleep on the night bus.

Hua Hin Station is beautiful, and the town is a regular holiday destination for Kings of Thailand
for 100 years.

The town itself, however, has sadly these days become somewhat of a destination for what the Thai's call farang khee nok, (bird shit tourist) a term for poorly dressed white people with no manners who may or may not be looking for... company. However, if you ignore the disturbingly regular offers of a massage, the little laneways of the town are quite charming, and once we found somewhere that wasn't serving burgers or schnitzel, there are some lovely restaurants. Sun dried beef and freshly caught mackerel hot and sour soup.

Nice restaurant, terrible hair.

We visited the beach, and had our first dip in the Gulf of Thailand, which was warm and lovely. There were horses riding along the beach too, which was a little surreal. And quite a lot of half naked elderly white people.

The next day, we hopped on a train to Chumporn, which was, as ever, delayed, apparently due to the King arriving in town. Ben chanced the smoking area, which was just an open door on the fast moving train, and frankly was so terrifying, you'd need another cigarette to recover! We arrived very late- even the tuktuk drivers were going home, and dinner, by necessity was some crisps and cereal we had left in our bags, as all the food places were closed! It was only ever a little stopover on our way down (apparently the town's best feature is it's boats out to the islands!). But here's a picture of the hotel, and Jenny in a Tuktuk.

We got a bus from here to Ranong, a port town on the opposite coast, and a popular place for Burmese people to try to sneak into the country. We arrived expecting only a stopover in an bland port town, but found ourselves in the mountains at the side of town, with gorgeous views!

 

We were pretty much the only Westerners there (a lovely contrast with Hua Hin- I think we had become racist about ourselves), but lots of Thai tourists come to enjoy the rejuvenating properties of the natural hot springs. Everyone was really helpful and friendly, and we had one of the nicest and unexpected evenings of our trip.

After our nice dip in the red hot water (some brave/stupid people were dunking there whole bodies in!), we proceeded to drink a whole lot of Chang beer and eat 5 spice pork and shumai.

Yes. THAT drunk...