Islands

Sawasdee! (Hello) Im writing to you from the shore of Railay beach just 30 minutes outside Krabi, Thailand. To get here you must hire a longtail boat for 3 usd because there are no roads to get here. I have not checked in with you guys for 5 days now so i will fill you in with what we've done. On friday night we took the overnight train down to Surat Thani and we did so after attempting to take a taxi to the train station. We wanted to be safe and get there early so we left 2 hours before the train departed and we almost missed it. It started raining and the traFFIc got shut down with no movement what so ever. After waiting at the light for over 20 minutes we decide to pay the cab and just walk it out. We end up getting to the train station minutes before and everything seemed to work out. Once i layed down for bed i suddenly became stricken with this extreme pain in my stomach, to be specific my upper stomach area. This pain i have never felt before and got me very nervous thinking i got food poisining or some other 3rd world sickness. That night was a bad night with no sleep and suprisingly no diahrea and no vomitting. Sorry to fill you in on this not so appetizing reading material but this is how things go when traveling. There are ups and and there are downs. We arrive at Surat Thani at 7;30am saturday morning and get right onto a bus heading for the port to catch our ferry for Koh Samui. We get to Nathon Town, Koh Samui mid morning and take a tuk-tuk kinda transportation ( a truck with bench seats in the back with a little gazebo type a thingy covering you) to Chaweng Beach on the opposite side of the island. These drivers are out of control flying down these pot hole filled streets while people of all ages zip by you on mo-peds. Its incredible mothers are holding their new born babys on their lap while also driving a mo-ped in a place where 6 people die a month. And thats 6 people just on that one little island. All the guide books and blogs say to not drive them on this island due to the dengers of breaking an ankle or even death. While holding on for life we meet two fellow travelers who have been on the road for years working and playing. They have an online business, sounds like a dream. We check into our hotel, the loft, and i am feeling sick still so i lay down for a bit before we walk the streets to take a little swim at the beesh. The beeesh is so beautiful and the water is even nicer temperature. The weather has been overcast since the morning and really gloomy like. My mom would absolutely love it, no sun and great temps. Btw hi mom hope all is well. That night turned out to be an early one and fell asleep by 5pm. We are still not used to the time and getting sleepy very early in the day. We woke early saturday morning with the plan to rent the oh so dangerous MO_PED. Almost every corner has a moped rental shop ranging from hotels, resorts, travel agencys, and just random homes. Ours was rented thru a travel agency and the price was 6.50 usd. Thats for a whole day too. So amanda, the scooter, and i take journey on the pot hole filled roads in search of waterfalls, beaches, and whatever else we can find. But right as we start riding it starts raining on us, and than it gets worse. We stop to take cover at the first bar/restaurant and it so happened to be right on a beautiful beach. It was a very small beach with on each side massive boulders. After a beer and many minutes later the rain lets up a little and we head for the streets in search of the 80M waterfall. The waterfall had an elephant riding safari ajoined to it and as we drove up elephants were everywhere with people on their backs. This may sound cool to all you westerners but it aint and thats that. White people feel the need to come to thailand and ride an elephant. They want to ride elephants because they love them and want to be close to them. Yeah you get to do that here but all your doing in the long run is supporting this abusive industry. They treat their elephants like shit, pardon the language. And to top it off they have chains strapped to their ankles while you ride them, so when your so called "trekking" all you here is the chains. Sorry to rant on like that but it really made me upset to see it in person. Now back to the waterfall, it was beautiful. We hiked up above the falls thru a thick forest to get great views of the beaches below. The trekking was so vigorous that we decide to head back to the beach we were once at to get massages on the beach. While coming down the mountain i feel that the scooter is riding a little different and ask amanda to see if the back tire is alright. The tire was dead flat and we were in no sign of a mechanic let alone gas station. The people here are so nice that someone on a scooter flying by slows down to point where i should go. LOVE the THAI. It ended up being a 30 walk down the street to moped mechanic. The inner tube was flat due to a nail puncture so i got him to replace it. 15 minutes later my mood went from being down to up up up high. We then went to a few beaches and on back to chaweng beach to book a tour for Ang Thong National Marine Park. After situating our tour we went in search of a massage on the beach. The sun was going down and the temperatures were getting nice. We paid 6usd for a full hour full body massage and let me tell you, this was amazing like really amazing. This lady will contort you in all sorts of ways and you leave feeling the most relaxed you have ever felt. Wow that was amazing and i look forward to the next. The next day we take our boat tour to the marine park and do hiking, kayaking, snorkaling, and boat jumping. The snorkaling at the first place was real murky so we decide to walk the beach thru the monsterous rocks. Within minutes of walking i look up on the boulder and there is this little face looking straight at me. Its eyes with white circles around them. It was a Masked Monkey! Super stoked on seeing a monkey i shout to amanda to come see. There ended up being a whole clan of them including babys. It was suck a cool expereince and i took plenty and plenty of photos. The day was long and everntful and what better way to end it than having a seafood feast. We had our eyes on this one place that was having a seafood bbq but it turned out to be crap. We walked the streets for a little before finding the right restaurant with the right food. We had a whole grilled snapper, 4 massive prawns ( not shrimps), 2 crabs, 2 calamari, mussels, and sides. Super super good food. It was my first time having prawns and amazing they were, sorta like a mini lobster. The next morning we had plans for a trip to krabi which is on the other side of thailand but i when i woke i thru up. It sounds bad but i thru up due to taking 2 pills at once on an empty stomach. We didnt know that at first and postponed our trip for the next morning. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. That day we went to Lemai and got a really nice place to stay and layed on the beach. We also went to this sweet reggae bar on the water that had treehouse sitting ares with great BLT's, those blt's hit the spot while laying out listening to damian. The next day we woke early to catch out bus for krabi and from krabi take a longtail boat to railay beach which i am right now. We are gonna go to a reggae bar now and than off to a Muay Tai fight. I cut the last bit short due to not more time on interent. I look forward to next time. Till then.