Last Week in Railay

Monday after breakfast we switched to a less expensive but still quite fancy hotel in Railay on the other side of the peninsula. Shannon got one last swim in our pool at the current hotel and then we checked out and moved in to the new one. I mostly worked that day and Shannon tried the new pool. The new hotel had a small pool on the roof above the dining hall as well as another pool ground level at the back of the hotel.

Tuesday after breakfast we went climbing at the 1, 2, 3 wall. We did a few routes and chatted briefly with a group of climbers from Ireland that set up next to us toward the end of our session. I was hungry from climbing so we had lunch (a meal we usually skipped) at the "Local Thai Restaurant" of pad thai, fried rice with beef, Thai iced tea, coke, and pineapple juice. It was delicious. I tried to work in the afternoon but finally had to admit the Internet here was just too slow and unreliable to accomplish anything without being overwhelmed by Nerd Rage. After watching the sunset together, we got some Thai pancakes for dessert and the chef gave Shannon an impromptu lesson in making them, which involves tossing dough in a manner similar to pizza. I bought a lightweight cotton long sleeve shirt as the one I had brought was pretty destroyed by mud from climbing and hiking. Shannon also got a grilled cheese for some comfort food. It was a very good day.

The next few days were a bit rainy and we both were feeling a bit down/homesick. We explored the restaurant strip on the east beach and had drinks and snacks at an open-air bar with a canvas roof built around a tree furnished with floor mats. It seems quite customary here for climbers to order drinks and nap away the afternoon as we did when it rained toward the end of the week.

We considered heading to Phuket but after struggling to find non-hotel housing and re-evaluating, we concluded we were both pretty sick of hotel rooms and really wanting to get an apartment, so we booked transportation to Chiang Mai for Saturday.

Saturday morning we awoke at 6am and got our bags together. We had to meet our longtail boat driver at 7am. It was raining so we bundled everything up preparing for our wade out to the boat. It was low tide so we carried our bags over a long stretch of dry beach and then waded out into thigh-high water to get to the longtail, toss the bags in, and clamber up the ladder.

This time we went straight from Railay East to Krabi itself then a short taxi ride to the airport in time for our 9:10AM flight to Chiang Mai.