| Life in Paradise (23-08-2003) Well here I am, it's August 23rd (I think) and I sit behind my computer looking outside at the most beautiful scenery known to man. Maybe I exagerate, but it feels true. I'm in Railey Beach right now. It's a peninsula just outside of Krabi town on the west coast of south thailand. I arrived here about a week ago after an OK busride through the night from Bangkok. The only excitement on the bus was the argument between an older German guy and a young Israeli guy. Clearly, the german had already experienced too much of the asian backpackers atmosphere and got angry at anyone who seemed to be representing that. After the busride, there was a bit of confusion about which boat to take, when it was leaving, if it was leaving, how much to pay and from where to take it. But fortunately we found the boat paid the price and were on our way. The ride took about 50 minutes and there were quite a lot of waves. So when we arrived at Railey Beach East, I was completely soaked, and some of my boat mates were a bit green in the face. Not to worry though, cuz it was hot and beautiful here. The scenery is hard to describe. I'll put some pictures on when I get home. Huge cliffs with trees on them surround the stunning beaches. In the ocean you see some small islands and everywhere there's jungle. I'm staying in a place called Viewpoint resort. Nice bungalows between the trees, a pool, a restaurant where they play the newest movies every night and a climbing shop next door. The bungalow is nice but basic and there are some crazy creatures crawling around here. Many gecko's (lizards), ants, spiders (huge!!!!) and I also had the first cockroach in my bathroom (but I skillfully removed it, maybe someday I will become a real hero). There are also lots of cats (big and small) that beg for food, but also keep the place pretty clean. There are three kinds of people here. The backpacker party type, climber type and the stay-forever type. The first usually only stay a few days because there's not too much to party here. The second type stays longer goes out every day to climb the amazing rocks around here and share their experiences with eachother at night. The third kind, well, they're the hippies that came here one day and decided to stay and people like diving instructors who don't have a lot to do in the low season and live here for a while. About the climbing. Everybody who comes here (whichever type you are) will at least climb once. There are many shops where you can get a guide for a day and get some basic instructions. it's funny because in the rest of the world, climbing is something that only a small group of people does. Here it's something everybody does. My first day climbing here was with a thai guide named Pon. All the thai climbers here are like monkeys. They climb up the most difficult climbs sooooooo easily, it's cool to watch. He was really sweet and helped me to get familiar with the rock again and enjoy a good day of climbing. The funny thing is, ever since my first day of climbing here, it hasn't rained during the day. Before, there were a few big showers every day. After the day with Pon, I went climbing with Claudia. She's from germany and climbs quite a bit better than me, which is really cool because then I get to learn more and more. We also spent an afternoon watching the real good climbers at Ton Sai Beach (close by). What they do, well, it's unbelievable that a human body can do that kind of movements. However, since no-one (of the men) is wearing their shirt when they climb, it's not just the moves that are fun to watch. Yesterday we had a bit of a scare when claudia was attacked by a big wasp when she came too close to a nest. He stung here twice in her arm. A bit later, on another climb, I got attacked by three wasps. Luckily they didn't sting me, but I had to dive into thin air to get away from them. The rope was fixed a few meters above me (I was in a cave) so I was held by the rope, but still it was scary. So what's not good about this place. Hard to say. Maybe the fact that you wear three different t-shirts a day and they all get soaked with sweat so you have to do laundry every other day. Or maybe that my feet are pretty damaged from them being wet and then have the sand of the beach rub between my toes and my sandals or flip flops. And maybe that if you want your clothes to dry, they won't because it's too humid. Or maybe that the receptionist already knows me and my roomnumber so I cannot sneak out without paying (but I wasn't going to ;-) ). But really that's all nothing to complain about. I'm gonna stay here for about another week I think and then move over to the east coast to visit the small island of ko tao. But plans can always change and maybe I'll stay longer. I'll be sure to do lots more climbing before I leave though!!!! More tales from Railey beach. (29-08-2003) Today it's August 29th and I'm at the end of my second week in Railey beach. It's been great so far. Did much climbing. Not everyday, but lots of days. Most of my climbing I did with Claudia. A Math and Phys Ed. teacher from Germany (munich). One day we took a longtail boat over to this wall called Eagle World. We were dropped off at this tiny beach and had to take a short trail through the jungle to reach the wall. Because there were no other people around we were a bit scared of waking up all the creatures in the jungle. So we sang some songs and tried to make as much noise as possible so they could run, crawl, slither or fly away before we came. The climbs were great! While Claudia was climbing I got a bit scared because I kept hearing these strange noises behind me in the jungle. Better not to know what was out there............ After lead climbing the most difficult grade I had ever climbed (6a+) we went back to Railey. This time it we could walk back because the tide became really low. However, I did learn that wearing flip flops (slippers) and trying to walk on wet rock is not a very good idea. So after some swearing we did reach the beach. The tide is crazy over here. If it's low tide you can just walk to all the beaches and other places you want to go to. If it's high tide, you cannot even walk to the next set of bungalows without getting your feet wet. It's something to be aware off, because you can easily be stuck somewhere if the tide comes in. We had many conversation about the tides because one day it's high tide in the morning and another day in the afternoon. I haven't found the pattern yet so I can never really tell what the tide is going to be like the next day. One of the ' not climbing days' I went snorkeling with two people from Bahrein: Kelly (originally from Australia) and Redha (her boyfriend). I had never met people from there before, so it was interesting to listen to the strories. Did you know that all the women wear very expensive designer clothes underneath their long black dresses, and the most expensive make up and then cover up their faces. Interesting. We visited two islands and did the snorkeling there. It was really beautiful. The islands looked like bounty islands (if you looked from afar, unfortunately, upclose they were filled with rubbish that was left there by the tourists). The snorkeling was much fun. Luckily I didn't see any big fish. Some people saw baby sharks in the places where we were. I don't think I like big fish. I did like the small ones that came up to your mask, wagged their tails curiously and then swam away! Another day, Claudia needed to go to the tailor in Ao Nang (a larger town) to get a skirt made. We decided to take a kayak there instead of the long tail boat. The water seemed calm enough. The guy at the renting place told us it would take about 3 hours to get there. We did it in 45 minutes!!! It was a bit of an adventure though because the waves were somewhat higher than we had expected. Also, on the way back, the sun was setting and we wanted to get back to railey before it got dark. We easily made it though. No worries. My muscles did ache a lot the next day. The last few days we've been hanging out with some climbers. Manuel from Mexico, Buzz and Susan from New Zealand. Yesterday, they did a very long climb (200 meters??) and I sat on the beach and watched. What a cool sight! I think I would've been too scared to go. So today some more climbing and I just booked my ticket to Ko Pha ngan on the 31st. Maybe I will stay there, Maybe I will go further to Ko Tao (smaller Island). I'll see. The place I'm staying at is still really nice. The girl at the reception desk is trying to teach me thai. It's crazy how much these people work here. For example, the boys in the restaurant start at 7 a.m and work until 10 p.m. 7 days a week!! The food is really nice (no big stomach problems yet). Sometimes a bit difficult to get something vegetarian because they eat lots of fish here. They can really cook well. Even Italian food tastes nice. Only a few more days here and then, off to another place. Many people say that this is the best place they've been at, so I don't expect too much. Hopefully I won't be disappointed. I'm sure it'll be fine. Time to jump in the pool now!!! |
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| The 'main street' of Railey East (more pictures at the end of this page) |
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| One of the rocks we would climb on |
| A difficult step |
| The last Railey Sunset |
| The one picture I had to have: climbing with beach and palmtrees in the background. |