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The next installment of our trip in Thailand involves a lot of boats and some Nepali type travel chaos. After getting to Krabi we had to get a longtail boat to Railey beach as there is no other way to get there. Fine except timing wise as it was low tide. This meant a bloody long walk out to the long tail humphing our bags and then another bloody long walk when we got there. An hour or two later and it would have been much easier but never mind!
Then the travel from Railey to Ko Lanta was even more entertaining. We at least left at high tide but were expecting a fancy high speed boat and lo and behold it was another long tail from the beach, until we realized that this was taking us out from the beach to the fancy big boat and we were expected to transfer us and our heavy bags in the middle of the sea! This was easier than anticipated as the boat men did the humphing and off we set to Ko Lanta, only to link up with no less than four other boats to get transfers of people from Phukhet, Ko Phi Phi and numerous other islands. It was all very chaotic but it seemed to work and everyone seemed to end up in the right place with their luggage.
And then our final boat journey was from Ko Lanta to Langkawi where we had the additional adventure of a border crossing on the way. We had no idea how this would work but again it was quite Nepali with one chap taking our passports off us just off Ko Lipe, the last island the boat stopped at in Thailand, and dashing to the immigration office on the island to get them stamped outgoing, then we got on a speed boat with another chap who had a bag with our passports and when we arrived in Langkawi we had to wait on the dock while he rushed off on a scooter to get them stamped for entry. All a bit unorthodox but again seemed to work. So that's what we've learned in Asia - just go with the flow and it will sort itself out!
Anyway, back to the places we've visited: Railey - We had our reservations as from the Lonely planet description, I expected it to be full of beautiful fit young things doing rock climbing so wasn't sure it would really be our sort of place, while G had read some reviews of it which said the service was dreadful. In the event we were both wrong. Railey really is over-hyped, over-priced and over-full of too many people. It is a lovely beach but no nicer than many others in Thailand and much more expensive. Though apart from the prices the people were friendly enough. The other thing we didn't particularly like was the feeling of being a bit trapped as there was no way of getting out of town apart from getting on a boat so it was a bit restricting. But that did force us just to chill and enjoy lying on the beach and enjoying the views. And we did have a fun time. There were some nice bars, the swimming was good with lots of fish and we did do a fantastic snorkeling trip to some islands with a nice French guide. There were almost too many fish at the first place and they swam up and looked at you through the face mask - bloody cheek! They also took the occasional nip at you, or maybe it was suck as they didn't leave any marks but it was a bit off putting. But the corals and beautiful coloured fish were fantastic, and we even saw some clown fish playing in the anenomes, perfect! And on Railey we had our most surreal ever Valentine's day ina bar where a Thai boxing lesson was going on in a ring at the front, we were playing pool at the back and somebody else was practising on his didgeridoo - not something you see everyday though there was a poster in Nepali of Om so I guess we should have foreseen the mentalness!
Ko Lanta - More entertaining transport with aTuk tuk motorbike from the harbor to our hotel. Cornering on two wheels and really struggling up the hills - I can see why they don't have these on Ko Pha Ngan! And the lovely Baan Lanta resort. Almost as nice as Zazen, especially our terrace with fantastic view and Wi in the restaurant who really looked after us! We hired a scooter and explored beaches, jungle and the national park. We went on a river walk to a waterfall which was really a river walk as instead of walking beside the river you walked up it; We had an adventure the first day we tried to get to the national park as there were some unsurfaced roads and a vehicle had got stuck and was being extricated by a seemingly rather bad-tempered elephant so we backed out of that one; And we went on a not quite so successful snorkeling trip as I got caught in a current which gave me a bit of a fright so I stayed on the boat after that. But G had a good time swimming through a tunnel to an open topped cave with a little beach inside. And at lunchtime we saw loads of hornbills from the beach we were on which was brilliant. So Ko Lanta was pretty mellow and very nice.
So what's still good about not being in Nepal? No mangy dogs barking all night; Much less expectorations in the morning!The monkeys aren't so bad-tempered - but then I should be sympathetic as I was also pretty bad-tempered in KTM! Fantastic birds - all colours and sizes, apart from hornbills we've seen kingfishers, big purple birds, little yellow, blue and red ones, orange ones with green tails…………..
And what's not so good? Mutant cats with really weird curly or stubby tails which yowl and fight at night, though the kittens are really cute; sun bed rage where we go out all day and come back to no loungers left at the pool as they all have towels left on them by absent people! The butterflies aren't as pretty here!
So that's it for Thailand. I think we'll definitely come back one day as it's such a relaxing and friendly place to come. But now on to a whole new country…………….
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Liz We stayed at Baan Lanta on Koh Lanta last February and really enjoyed it too. I did a scuba diving trip to the nearest island and saw a turtle - from underneath! Did you discover the restaurant at the end of the beach called "Same Same but Different?