railay

We decided to take the short trip by boat to the beach town of Railay. It is not accessible by road because of the step cliffs that surround it so a boat is the only way to get there. On the boat ride over, Maggie was unfortunate enough to get the seat where all of waves crashed onto the boat - thoroughly soaking her. Luckily for me and our bags, she was a nice wave blocker and we stayed nice and dry.

Even though Maggie fell in love with one of the beaches there, we didn't stay all that long. There was just a vibe to the town that didn't sit well with us. We decided that its inaccessibility lead to stir crazy locals. We had a place with a good view (seems to be an old story now) but it was a tad more rustic than we were feeling up to (and no internet).

What one does when there is no internet

ao nang monkey trail

Apparently we couldn't stay away from the beach for long, because from Krabi, we've moved to a beach town about twenty minutes away called Ao Nang. Besides finally learning what the rainy season in Thailand is like (yesterday we hardly left our hotel room it was pouring so hard and so constantly! Luckily, we have a lot of work to do right now...) we discovered that there's a trail connecting Ao Nang to a resort in Pai Plong Bay that's supposedly full of monkeys (hence the name). 

So in the evening between rain storms, we headed to the far South West corner of Ao Nang beach where the trail started. We walked most of the trail and thought we might not see any monkeys after all. We were wrong. We were just there at the wrong time. The monkeys seem to follow the Thai who work in Pai Plong Bay, who feed them every day as they go and come from work. So as we were seeing our first monkey, the workers were walking back to Ao Nang and along with them came a whole troupe of monkeys. If we had waited at Ao Nang beach until around quitting time (if you to, it was about 5:15pm), we wouldn't have had to walk the trail at all. Around that time all the monkeys were on Ao Nang beach as they followed the workers home, and stayed to ham it up for tourists.

The first monkey we came across happened to be a one eyed monkey

              Left: Two baby monkeys                                                   Right: Salvador Dali monkey, look close at the mustache

The troupe passing us by back towards Ao Nang beach

The monkeys on Ao Nang beach, with a limestone karst in the background

Anderw and a monkey shake hands after coming to an agreement.

They seem to really like coconuts and fight over them continually

Andrew's new monkey friend

krabi town

We left Thong Sala to venture to the other side of Thailand and ended up for a few nights in Krabi. It is the major port city for getting to Koh Phi Phi and a break from our laid back beach towns. It was a nice enough town and off of the major tourist route so we got to see an authentic Thai city. There were a few night markets where we partook in some good Thai food. The area around the town is known for it's limestone karsts (large rocky hills), a few of which we could see from our third story balcony (in the distance, below).

an island of our own

One of the things on the adventure list was to be the only people on an island and at our place in Thong Sala there was a perfect opportunity. Just outside of the bay we were staying in was an small island (visible in one of the pictures about our place in Thong Sala) and all along the beach we could rent kayaks. It ended up only being a fifteen minute paddle out to the island which had a amazing secluded bay on it that was perfect for lounging in (and drinking a beer).  We actually felt a little adventurous doing it because to get to the island we had to cross the channel all the ferries took to get to Koh Phangan. So on the way out we were paddling our little hearts out as a ferry barreled down on us, but luckily we got out of its way before it ran over us.

A view back out our bungalow (blue roof on the far right) from the island

thong sala by scooter

We rented a scooter for a day and drove around Thong Sala, exploring the beach farther north. The roads around Thong Sala aren't very busy so it was a good place to remember how to drive on the left side of the road. Even Maggie drove for a bit.

Happy Hour Thong Sala style.

four year aniversary

It was our 4 year anniversary so we decided to celebrate Thong Sala style. We got a bottle of Thai wine and headed out to the point of the bay to watch the sunset.

After our sunset bottle of wine we went into town and ate at a Mexican restaurant called Ando Loco that was run by a guy from Chicago. It was actually very good and they had a chipotle sauce that was maybe one of the best we had ever had (so good we actually asked them how they made it. Unfortunately, all they could tell us was, chiles, sugar, vinegar, other things!).

paradise in thong sala

We moved a few miles north on Koh Phangan to the big city of Thong Sala. We were looking for a place where they catered to locals as well as tourists (and at least had a market). Luckily enough we found a place one beach north of Thong Sala that had not only a kitchen but also a refrigerator (luxury), called the Best View Guest House.
It's only about a 15min walk into Thong Sala, where there is plenty of street food and markets.

Our place from the beach. It's the one on the far right.

The view from our front porch.

The outside accommodations.

View down the beach from in front of our place.

The islands the lie just outside of our bay. The bay is so shallow you can walk half way there.

A sunset from the beach in front of our place.