DIA 32 (17-12-2018): KAYAK Y RAILAY ISLAND

Me levanto con el cántico de Kim “Cris…look….it´s raining” y riéndose….es el mismo cántico que he escuchado en los últimos días… mi cara es de circunstancia porque no me gusta la lluvia, y menos cuando tenemos planes….pero el tiempo es el que es y no podemos cambiarlo….solo espero (como dice ella, la siempre optimista Cris) que cambie…

Y parece que mis deseos son escuchados aunque sea parcialmente. 

Cuando vamos a desayunar ya no llueve. En la mesa nos encontramos hoy a una parejita de Utah, Alex y Kara con los que empezamos una agradable conversación. Al poco aparece una familia de Singapoure y parece que los 7 vamos a hacer la excursión en Kayac. 

A la hora acordada 8.30 nos recogen y vamos al lugar desde donde haremos la actividad, sigue sin llover y eso me alegra enormemente. 

Nos dan los chalecos y en seguida vamos al agua. 

Ayer no nos dimos cuenta, al dejar la ropa para que nos la lavaran, de dejarnos un par de pantalones fuera, de modo que yo voy con la camiseta protectora del sol, pero bien cubierta de crema protectora en mis piernas, ya que voy solo con mi bikini y Kim decide ponerse una de las prendas con las que bucea, ya que tienen protección solar también.

Y de esa guisa nos vamos al Kayac, esperamos a que todo el mundo entre al agua y empezamos la jornada. 

Parece que la familia Singapur rema un poco lento, de modo que vamos a tener que esperar por ellos todo el tiempo, esto me da oportunidades de hacer distintas fotos, algunas de ellas fuera de la carcasa que le puse al movil, y menos mal ya que se empañó y las fotos que hice que con ella puesta no sirven para nada.

Paramos para que el guía nos enseñara unos huesos, pero no me quedó claro si eran humanos o no, ya que básicamente no nos acercamos mucho…

Pasamos por la zona de manglares

Vemos un monitor tomando el sol y cuando justo nos acercamos nosotras el pobre se mueve un poco para que no le molestemos mucho.

Más fotos y al acabar un refrigerio de piña y sandía (me encantan estos tentempiés).

Nos recogen y Kim y yo habíamos pensado coger un Long Tail Boat por nuestra cuenta y pasar el resto del día en Railay. Había leído cosas interesantes de esta zona y aunque es muy famosa entre la gente que quiere hacer escalada, nosotras no íbamos a hacerlo…ya bastantes aventuras de alto riesgo corremos.

Le comentamos a Alex y a Kara nuestros planes y deciden apuntarse. Como solo cogimos la excursión del kayac sin comida ni nada (la familia de Singapur parece que eligió la excursión de día completo), la idea era llegar a Railay y comer algo allí.

Así que el transfer en lugar de dejarnos en casa, nos deja en el muelle, compramos nuestros billetes de ida y vuelta y esperamos a que el bote se llene, normalmente hay que esperar a ser 8 personas. 

Y nos ponemos en marcha. Me hubiera gustado hacer fotos de la proa del bote, pero hay 3 rusos sentados allí, así que lo evito. 

En unos 15 minutos llegamos a nuestro destino y sorpresa …sigue sin llover, más aún parece que el sol quiere salir a saludarnos….y mi cara no puede ser de más sorpresa….

La verdad es que al llegar kim me pregunta, Alex y Kara me preguntan,….pero no he leído mucho de esta zona….en otras ocasiones incluso hago fotos de la guía de los sitios que recomiendan visitar o comer, pero es que ésta vez ni lo miré….así que vamos a la aventura total.

Empezamos a caminar y Kim ve un mapa, parece que Raley tiene una zona oeste y una zona este. Llegamos a la zona oeste, en la que mayormente hay resorts, por lo que obviamente decidimos ir a la zona este. 

Vemos un par de chiringuitos, y al final decidimos comer en uno. Pedimos nuestra comidita, y cuando estamos a medias, se acerca una chica que viajaba en el bote con nosotros y nos dice si se puede juntar con nosotros. Le decimos que sí y se sienta….

Empezamos una conversación amena y el tiempo se nos pasa volando, pero como el último bote de vuelta es a las 6 de la tarde, si queremos hacer algo, será mejor ponernos en marcha.

Alex, comenta que a él le gustaría ir a una cueva. Nos vamos a la Diamond Cave o Tham Pranangnai, pagamos entrada de niño (no me preguntéis porque) y entramos, hacemos las fotitos pertinentes y seguimos el camino. 

Como hay una cueva más….”la cueva de los penes”, no podemos dejar de ir a verla…

Como aún es pronto y el día no hace sino mejorar….nos vamos ahora al agua patos.

Salimos justo a tiempo para volver a la costa oeste a coger el último barco, pero casualidades de la vida, vemos al barquero y le preguntamos si podemos salir desde esta costa y nos dice que si….yupi….caminata que nos ahorramos.

Y ahora si, que sí hago las fotos en la parte delantera.

Al llegar de nuevo a Ao Nang, vemos un sutil atardecer, pero les propongo a las chicas tomarnos un café pero entretenernos un poco más en la puesta de sol. Ellas aceptan. Alex y Kara se van a casa porque les hablamos tan bien de los masajes que reservaron uno para la vuelta. 

El atardecer no hace sino mejorar por momentos. Como no llevé mi cámara, solo tengo fotos con el movil, pero que atardecer madre, las fotos no hacen justicia. 

Cuando terminamos, ahora sí nos vamos a un bar cercano, con visas a la playa, buena música y buen cafe. Nosotras decidimos acompañarlo con un bluberry cheesecake, me da que va a empezar la subida de peso pre-navideña…y pasamos otro rato agradable con Eli, la alemana que se nos unió en Raley. 

Tanto Kim como yo decidimos volver a casa, buscamos un tuk tuk y en un periquete llegamos.

Day 13, 17-12-2018: Kayaking and exploring.

We are up early with the excitement of new exploring! We are to do a half day kayaking in the morning and then we will see from there.

We are being joined today by a couple from Salt Lake City, Utah and a family from Singapore, all other boarders at the house. After a lovely breakfast (once again amazing), the van is promptly there to take us to our morning event. 

Quick ride to Krabi Discovery Tours. We get outfitted with our PFD’s (life jackets) and jump into our kayaks after a very quick instruction lesson.

I may look like a dork in the body suit but it keeps the sun and bugs away so I am all good not being a fashion princess!! 

Our feet on vacation photo (always!). This has become a must have on holiday with Cris.

As we are kayaking and Cris is worried about her camera, it is my day to play paparazzi with the GoPro – yes!!! 

But Cris cannot stand to give up the paparazzi reins for even half a day!! So, she has her phone with her in a protective sleeve ….. which she promptly takes out of the sleeve many times to take photos. There goes me being the paparazzi for the morning . Sad day for me now.

We kayak by some limestone cliffs and through a small opening to another area. The tide is low so the water is low, making kayaking interesting to say the least as we have to have to dodge trees and sandbars. The Singapore family is having issues as they keep getting stuck on the obstacles but never mind as it gives us more of a chance to explore.

All the mangroves are out of the water – thankfully they do not stink!! As we paddle around, we find a monitor lizard chilling by the water (see Cris’s portion for the video). Time to turn around so we do and slowly make our way back out. There are 5 UK people with us who have decided to make this kayaking trip a race so they keep paddling ahead then get upset that everybody else is just taking their time and relaxing on the kayak (the reason for the trip is to see things, not race).

We had an option for the trip to book lunch as well. However, we decided to take a long tail boat to Railey, a local beach area and town, to take a look around and find some local fare. The van first takes us back to our house but Ritar to the rescue!! She redirects the van driver to Ao Nang beach for us – amazing woman.

So, the long tail boats are interesting. You buy your ticket and wait until the boat gets the minimum or you have to buy all the open seats to get to the minimum. No actual departure times. So, we wait just a bit and then our boat is called. The Utah couple joins us on this little trip as well. There are some other people on the boat as well.

After a quick 15-minute ride (I am surprised that Cris was able to get some shots off with the camera but she is a professional paparazzi in the making), we are put off at Railey Beach West. A short walk to a map and we decided to investigate the east side of the island. We walk around a bit and find a place with a BBQ out front with some chicken on it. Looks good and smells good so we decided to give it a try. Good local fare once again. As we are waiting on our food, a young lady from the long tail boat pops in and joins us. Her name is Ellie and she if from Germany. She is on a quick holiday trip to have some warmth before she starts a new job. 

After lunch, we decide to explore a bit. We walk to the end of the “sidewalk” – very loose term as it is something to walk on that will keep you out to the water if the tide is in. We see several interesting things like a generator with a light bulb attached to it. We turn around and start our walk back and see some guys carrying an appliance from a long tail boat and other items.

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We also see them moving this fully loaded cart from the long tail boat to a hotel. Looks very arduous to bring items to this location. We follow the signs to the cave, Diamond Cave. Entrance is only 100THB so we pay. I ask about lights and the guy at the entrance says that there are lights inside. We follow the path, up the steps we go, and down a walkway into the cave. The cave is rather short, which is a nice change. It is also very easy to get around as there is an elevated path through out it (looks like there would be water on the bottom during the rainy season) so that is a plus. There are lights through out the cave as well.

I want to count this as another cave that Cris has dragged me to and made me enter but it is tough when it has so many improvements ……. Nah!! It goes on the count! She owes me for this one too.

After our quick tour of the Diamond Cave, we decide to head to the other cave on the island. So we consult a map that we find and start to head down to the south part per the map. We pass some rock climbers and many people.

We come across some interesting art items placed along the trail, like this alligator. We walk for a bit more and the pathway opens up to a beach ….. full of people. Many people wondering around and enjoying the sun and water. Over in the corner, we find our prize: the Phranang Cave or Princess Cave.

Now, the sign says that people place a special gift of lingam, carved from wood, for the holy womb to create fertility and prosperity to the whole earth and mankind.

I do not know about you but this is not what I am thinking of when I see the word “lingam”. Apparently, I need to work on my vocabulary a bit. I actually think that Thailand is just really obsessed with phallic symbols!!

After we are done taking in the penis cave (my new name for it), we walk down the beach. We see some long tail boats along the beach.

We come across some long tail boats that are being used as food vendors along the beach. Now, I currently live in Salem, Oregon and work in Portland, Oregon, home of the food carts (or so they think). Well, I can tell you this: Portland does not have anything on the food vendors in Thailand! Very ingenious to make a food vending place on a long tail boat.

We see the long tail boat captain that brought us to island and ask if we can catch a boat from this beach back to Ao Nang pier – yes we can!! So all in the group decide to take swim except me. I did not want to change into my suit and besides, someone had to watch the gear.

This is the swimming area where they went. It is designated as that so to keep people safe.

I did dip my toes in and the water was wonderful!! Cannot wait to take a big dip when diving soon.

Once everybody was done swimming and it was time to leave, we start to head to our ride.

Now, this is not our boat. But I took a picture of it because apparently someone really likes ice hockey. The number 99 and Gretzky is very well known in America and Canada. He was one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Had to take to the picture because I am very surprised that someone in Thailand actually knows who he is and his retired hockey number.

We get on the boat and away we go back to the starting point of our afternoon. Once back at the beach, Cris and I decide to take a coffee and Ellie joins us. Alex and Kara go back to the house as they have a massage scheduled for 18:00. We make like we are going to leave the beach when we notice that we might actually have a sunset.

The paparazzi gets upset that her real camera is back at the house. She struggles with taking pictures with her iPhone – poor paparazzi!! 

Once the sun sets, we go to a nearby place for a coffee and a sweet. We talk quite a bit with Ellie. She is a very interesting lady. After a while, we decide that we need to head back and have a bit of dinner. Cris flags down a tuk tuk and we are off for a stop at the market for more provisions and then the short walk home.

After a light dinner, we work a bit then go to sleep as tomorrow we have another big day planned.