Eleanor's Travel Adventures: Railay Beach

So Wanaka was beautiful and relaxing, just what we needed after the Stray tour. It has a beautiful lake and a backdrop of mountains, as you can see...

While we were there we met these nerds, my absolute fave of whom was Eileen (far left). She is originally from New York but has been living in Chile for the last 6 years. She's hilarious and down to earth and instantly likable. She was biking all over the South Island when we met her. When we left Wanaka headed for Queenstown we passed her on the way and yelled obsenities at her (actually that's a lie. I yelled "Hey sexy lady") and she arrived in Queenstown about 3 hours after us. On average she was biking about 100kms/day. She made me feel very lazy.

We spent a few days hanging out and partying with them...

as you can see. Then Amelia ended up in the hospital with a concussion and some bruises. But I'll let her tell that story...

So! Much has happened since I last blogged. Apparently not in Christchurch though which is where I was headed next since I only took about 5 pictures while I was there. A few of which were of Tania (Nathan's Sister) and her beautiful daughter Julia, who just recently turned 18 and was therefore able to join us for a drink at a bar called The Bicycle Thief.

Amelia and I stayed at the same hostel that I stayed at the first time I was in Christchurch and it was still one of the best hostels, if not the best, that I've stayed at on my travels. It's called Around the World Backpackers. It's cheap, has free Internet, has 4 bed dorms, is run by the most lovely and friendly couple and has a free BBQ for everyone on Weds nights!

After leaving Christchurch we flew to Auckland where I spent 2 days with Nathan and the family that he currently lives with. Here's Wade and their adorable Son.

To the left of Wade is Nicole (Nickers) who is a very old mate of Nathans.

The first day we just chilled out, watched movies and played cards. The next day we went to a free outdoor music festival. As usual Nathan managed to not let me take one decent pic of him so you'll have to settle for this one of Nathan making us the most awesome dinner which he whipped up in half and hour.

Yum! It's all about the presentation! If anyone wants to check out more of Nathan's artwork, you can do so here. One day I'll be rich enough to buy some and have it shipped to Canada. Or better yet, maybe if I'm lucky one day Nathan will move to Toronto and I won't have to (a girl can wish.)

Early on the morning of Feb. 28th, Amelia and I took a 10 hour flight to Phuket with a stopover in Brisbane, Australia (memories!). Unfortunately the entertainment system was on the fritz so we weren't able to watch any movies. Luckily at least the games worked so we became addicted to Bejeweled 2 and Pacman. We were quite tired and jet lagged when we got to Phuket so we just asked the taxi driver to take us to Phuket Backpackers, which we had read about in the Lonely Planet and pretty much ate and went to bed at 8pm. It was so hot in Thailand (about 40 degrees) and very humid. Quite a change from New Zealand. Our room was about as big as a closet and couldn't even really fit our luggage...or our beds for that matter...

A lot of places in Thailand are like this with makeshift walls and beds thrown behind various barriers. Since the wall didn't reach the ceiling I could look out into the hallway when I was on the top bunk. It didn't matter though. We payed 350 Baht each (which is about $11 Canadian dollars) and I was so tired that I just put in my earplugs and didn't stir until 6am the next day.

We were picked up at 7:30am and driven to the port where the boats leave to various islands around Krabi. We had to transfer from the ferry to a long tail boat since there is no pier on Railay Beach which can be a little difficult with luggage but we managed. My advice to anyone travelling to S/E Asia would be to pack as little as possible. I have an excuse since I've been away for almost a year and I half and have needed various clothes depending on the weather but all those other people with suitcases the size of themselves...my goodness! We met one guy (who you will see a pic of later in this post) who has a bag only as big as my day pack. Makes life in Thailand much easier since you often have to search for a place when you get where you're going and may have to walk for a while.

We did just that when we got to Railay and after feeling discouraged with a few resorts that quoted between 2500 and 1200 Baht, found a place on Railay East called The Diamond Cave Resort for 600Baht (about $9 each) per night. Here's a not very good pic of the room...

There are tons of Monkeys on Railay who get int everything if you're not careful including your rubbish...

Or the water from the vase where you are keeping some nice flowers you picked...

The baby ones are of course particularly cute...

Whatcha thinkin' about?

A few nights into our stay we met some very friendly Americans who had all been teaching English in Korea and a French dude. From left to right is me, Amelia (duh!), Nicole, Stephanie, her boyfriend John and Thomas (France, he's the one with the small backpack). We ended up hanging out with them a lot and as you'll see later, Nicole and Thomas were on Koh Phi Phi with us as well.

A popular drink in Thailand when you go to the bar is some sort of alcohol mixed with coke or whatever and served in a bucket. Good bang for your buck but there's no way of telling how much alcohol actually goes into it since they basically free pour so you must exercise caution!

One of the most popular activities to do on Railay is rock climb and even though I didn't have enough money or interest to do it properly, on one of the last days Nicole and I decided to climb up (and then down) some very steep rocks in order to get to a look-out over the island. We were also supposed to see a lagoon but the climb was just too steep and scary for us (even though we were greeted by a 50year old women who had never done anything of the sort before on our way down).

Either way, it was a beautiful view and I was pleased with what we did accomplish. My legs were sore for a few days after.

and I still haven't gotten the stains out of my clothes from the red dirt on the rocks.

The same day we went into a cave near where we were staying. It was called the Diamond Cave because it has this rock wall that shimmered.

It's really quite hard to see the sparkles on the rocks or the vastness of the cave through the lens of a camera.

Railay beach is stunning. It is surrounded on all sides by Limestone rocks jetting out of the water.

and the water is very clear and blue.

Amelia and I preferred Phranang beach instead of the main West Beach. Although it did have jellyfish which although were not of the stinging variety, still felt really gross when they touched you. Here is Amelia ordering our lunch from a long boat.

Fire twirling is very popular in Thailand, well, on the beaches surrounding Krabi anyway. You see at at pretty much every bar you go to and they are SO good. More on that in the next post...

I would have to say that I think my most favourite thing about Thailand is the food. It is so delicious. North American food is painfully bland in comparison. I will be using a lot more chilies and spices when I cook at home from now on. This whole fish, which was bbq'd for us, was about $7 Canadian dollars and we shared it.

I rarely even eat "breakfast" food anymore. It's just so boring compared to Thai food so noodles it is!

This was the bar that we frequented the most on Railay. The last one on Railey East aptly named "The Last Bar" There was a huge deck you could sit on with pillows overlooking the ocean.