Krabi is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I constantly was looking around and thinking, how is this real life? How do places like this exist in the world? Yes, I will be posting pictures.
At 3:45AM on Friday, my alarm was ringing indicating it was Krabi time. A group of us all had a flight at 6:45AM to go to Krabi, a town in the southwestern part of Thailand on the Indian Ocean. The flight was quick, easy, and a big luxury compared to all the long bus rides we have been taking everywhere we go. We landed and went to our hostel to find out we couldn't check in until the afternoon. We all quickly changed and went Railay Beach. Railay is a beach close to Krabi that you take a long tail boat to. A long tail boat are those boats that you see in all the Googled photos of Thailand. Railay is a nicer beach then the beach in Krabi, and is also known to have some of the best rock climbing in Thailand. We arrived to Railay, and immediately relaxed on the beach and swam in the clear water. Later on in the day, two girls and I went sea kayaking. It was absolutely beautiful. We were able to kayak into caves and go to sand bars. The water that we kayaked in had the big rocks that are in all of the photos of Thailand beaches. Those photos with the crystal clear water and the rocks floating aren't a lie, it is real, and looks Railay looks just like that.
Later on we went back to our hostel, and checked it. We found out that our hostel was hosting a beer pong tournament that night so all of us went to check it out and have some fun. We all hung out and talked to all the other people staying at the hostel. I was exhausted from traveling and I wanted to get up the next day to do things. I didn't participate in the beer pong tournament (Mom and Dad!), but I did have an awesome drink that the hostel was making. It was called a Mango Chang. Chang (the Thai word for elephant) is one of the most popular beers in Thailand. It is cheap and not that good, but the bartender had a friend who made her a drink that was a Chang with mango juice and lime. It was absolutely delicious and a fun, new way to drink beer. Yes, Thailand is known or beer so I have learned to like it a little more.
The next day we all slept in a little and went to see about finding an island tour for the afternoon. We explored the area and found a 7 island sunset tour. Most of the group did a 4 island tour through our hostel, but a group of us wanted to see bioluminescent plankton that you could only see on the 7 island tour and we were able to haggle the price down so we ended up paying less then the hostel tour! It ended up being an awesome deal.
The group of us, myself, Carissa, Kristy, Maggie, and Gary were picked up and brought to a boat where we were basically the only Americans. Almost everyone was Thai. Our first stop was Railay Beach. We had all gone there, and we never got off the boat, but we were able to get really pretty pictures from the boat. We then went on to Tang Ming Island where we got to snorkel. All I wanted to do in Krabi was snorkel and see fish and coral. It was a ton of fun, and of course all of us jumped off the side of the boat into the water while the other Thai people looked at us like we were crazy.
We then made our way to an area where we got to rock climb and cliff jump. Shortly after we pulled up to the cliff, we all realized that the hostel tour that everyone else did was pulling up also. A lot of the people on our boat didn't want to climb, but the 5 of us did. We were the designated crazy Americans on the boat. We were excited and all about doing everything. There was a couple that sat near us on the boat who we talked a little with who thought we were so funny and wanted to take pictures with us (very typical).
Once we could, we all jumped off the boat and swam to the ladder hanging off the rocks to climb up and jump off. It was amazing and such an adrenaline rush. After some cliff jumping, we then went to Chicken Island. Chicken Island is named after one of the rocks on the island that looks like the head of a chicken. We got off the boat again and got to go snorkeling.
We then headed to Tup Island, an island right near Chicken Island. Tup Island was absolutely beautiful. It was calm and we were able to walk all over the whole island and take pictures. It was dusk at that point so the lighting was stunning. We then headed to Poda Island where we ate dinner and saw a fire show. Dinner was absoltuely delicious, and the fire show was funny because it was our crew from the boat doing the show. Though it was a little amatuer and not very professional, we all had a good time watching and laughing. Also, the crew loved the 5 of us because we were doing everything, and getting into all the adventurous things we were able to do.
At that point, it was dark out and we got back on to go see the bioluminescient plankton. Again, the 5 of us were all about it while lots of the Thai people looked at us like we were crazy. We all dove into the water and put our head down and were bombarded with little sparkles of plankton all around us. They looked like little crystals all around us. It was an awesome experience, and something that added to the whole eventful day. Also, diving into the pitch black water was an experience that I won't forget.
After 7 hours on the boat, we were exhausted and ready to get back. We got back to the hostel to then go to a bar crawl that was organized by the hostel. I started talking to a girl who was in Krabi with her friend and they were from Hong Kong. We told them that we were going to Hong Kong in December and both of them were so nice and told us all about Hong Kong and where to go. Hostels are fun because you get to meet a ton of different people from all over who are also traveling cheap.
The bar crawl started at Slumber Party, we then got in a taxi that took us to a lady boy bar. This lady boy bar was interesting....there wasn't too much dancing, but there were lots of lady boys standing outside and serving us at the bar. Our next stop was a dance club down the street. Eventually I got tired, and I knew I wanted to get up early to go rock climbing in the morning.
The next morning, I was only able to convince Kristy to go with me back to Railay Beach to go rock climb, see a view point, and potentially see the lagoon that some of the other people had gone to and loved, but said physically was really hard to get to. After arriving to Railay we weren't sure where the hike started. After asking lots of different people, we found a sign and a rope. The sign said CAUTION and the rope was to help you free climb up the side of a cliff. The rocks were covered in clay and it was daunting at first, but together we were able to make it to the view point. The view point alone was perfectly amazing. We could see all of Railay Beach. We knew that we wanted to try to get to the lagoon though we knew that it was really hard. We slowly made our way to the lagoon. The clay started to mix with a ton of mud making everything really slippery and we both had on sneakers that weren't creating any grip on the rocks. We made it to the sign that said "10 Meters to the Lagoon", and looked down to see the water of the lagoon. However, in front of us was a 90 degree drop and rocks. Worried about how much time we needed to get down and get back up and seeing how slippery the rocks looked as well as our sneakers, we decided to not go all the way to the lagoon. The two of us free climbed a cliff which was still pretty amazing. By the time we made it back to the road, we were completely covered in mud and clay and knowing we had already checked out of the hostel, we jumped into the ocean to clean off and "take a shower" before boarding our flight back to Bangkok.
The weekend was amazing and we got to do so many fun and cool things. It wasn't a "lay on the beach" and "read a book" vacation, but an explore and see cool things that you can't see everywhere in the world. I got back to Bangkok with a ruined pair of sneaker, lots of dirty wet clothes and towels that I immediately washed, and a sun burnt back and scalp.
Love
xoxo
Kate
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