Railay Beach, Krabi
We knew that we were going to hit the end of the rainy season, but hoped that it would phase out early... but it didn't. By the time we got to Phuket, it was on its like 6th consecutive day of straight downpour ALL day long. We flew in Sunday morning and made it in time to attend the small LDS Branch for church. It was very quaint and it was in Thai, but the Spirit was so strong there and you could tell the members (all 5 of them) were so dedicated and faithful. The Branch president called us up first and asked us to bear our testimonies - in our shorts and flip flops haha. Luckily we had a translator who was very sweet, so I was able to apologize for our haphazard and sweaty appearance. Every member then got up and bore their testimony... it was a very memorable Sacrament Meeting.
We thought that the rain would let up the next day, so we figured it would be best to travel during the bad weather, leaving us to enjoy the good weather. We headed out on the 2 hour ferry to Koh Phi Phi right after church. Which maybe wasn't the best decision because, well, it was bad weather. At first I thought the rocking would put me to sleep, but then I ended up intermittently waking up with intense waves of nausea. It was a rough ride. During my brief moments of consciousness all I could see was the raging dark gray of the ocean and hear the white caps crashing onto those tiny circular windows. I just kept on thinking about the brother of Jared and how they crossed the ocean in those tiny barges. We were really at the mercy of the sea. But we made it to solid ground! Apparently tons of people on our boat were throwing up, but we survived.
Of course once we got to Koh Phi Phi, we were caught in another downpour. There are no streets on this island, only cobblestone pathways where you can travel by foot or bicycle. And because of the crazy amount of rain, they were constantly flooded. Hooray for rainy season.
Jonathan trying to push me off the rock...
There was a brief amount of sunlight that next morning where we were able to hike up to the viewpoint. You can see both sides of the island at once. It was gorgeous! Then we hiked down to the other side of the island, about an hour through the jungle, sliding down the rocks and mud (thanks to the 7-day monsoon prior) and finally made it to this beautiful, secluded beach. These were our first sunny moments of our trip. Check out those striking clouds! [They were not photoshopped or touched.]
We got about an hour of good beach time until yes, another storm. We did NOT want to go hiking back through that jungle, so once the rain let up a bit, we caught a ride with a couple of locals who were transporting barrels of oil back to the pier by long-tail boat. Now that was a cool experience. On a little wooden boat crossing through ocean during a rainstorm.
These are what long-tail boats look like.
Funny story: Jonathan and I aren't the drinking and partying type (which is ever so present on Koh Phi Phi) so we instead went to the minimart and splurged on some American candy! [Doesn't that sound so much better? hah] I got a medium-sized bag of peanut M&Ms, so the first night I only ate a few and placed the bag in my purse on the nightstand to save for later. I was so excited the whole next day, thinking of when we were going to come back to our room and I had them waiting for me! (I'm obsessed about food, clearly). That evening, I ate a couple and then found one that had some of the candy coating missing. I showed Jonathan, "Hah! Look at this one... machine malfunction. It looks like something took a bite out of it." About 5 minutes and 4 M&Ms later, I stick my hand in the bag to retrieve yet another one when I suddenly feel something jump out and squirm up my arm. It was a GECKO! I yelped and waved my arm so the gecko flew off, and ran under our bed. Ok, I know geckos aren't scary, but I hate being surprised, especially by animals. I was eating M&Ms out of that bag for like 10 minutes with a little gecko hiding frozen-still in there!!! Ah! I couldn't believe it. Of course I look at the remaining M&Ms and about half of them had parts of the candy-coating licked off. Haha, oh well. At least the little gecko was able to experience a little piece of America.
Oh and here's another story. Jonathan went walking out across the low-tide sands to take some pictures while I stayed behind with all our stuff on the beach. Rain was threatening all day so I was a bit worried that we would get poured on again, but there didn't really seem to be a way to tell when it would happen. I just enjoyed sitting there for a while and then glanced to my left. (Look at picture below). It was like mists of fog were rolling over the mountain and racing towards us on the beach. It was beautiful and kind of mesmerizing until I realized they were thick sheets of rain. In my brief moment of hesitation, a local Thai, who I was talking to earlier, laughed and shouted at me, "What are you waiting for?!" He ran over, we wrapped up my things in our bamboo mat as the rain started to pour, and we found some nearby shelter. That thing only gave us like a 8-10 second warning! It was crazy. That was one of my shining moments, looking like a dumb Farang (foreigner) hah.
Here's the best picture we could get. This was right before it hit us. It looked way more daunting in real life...
Deciding that we had enough time on Koh Phi Phi and yet again wanting to travel during the bad weather, we took another ferry over to Krabi. (We didn't learn from our first lesson apparently). This trip wasn't as bad, but I thought the ferry was going to be ripped apart! The creaking was almost deafening. I could see the wooden slab right next to my seat actually pulling apart from the wall! Just listen to this video I recorded on my phone.
One of the brief moments when it wasn't raining in the mangroves.
The next day we spent in Railay and had the best beach time I've had in my life! Unfortunately, the water wasn't as clear because of the storms churning up the water, but this beach has the best backdrop I've ever seen.
We spent the afternoon on a little snorkel cruise where we got to travel around to different islands, had a sunset dinner on the beach, and short fire show. On the way back, they took us to an alcove where they have glow-in-the-dark plankton. We couldn't get any pictures of it because they only light up for a second, but it was so cool! They are activated by movement, so you hop in, stick your snorkel mask into the water and wave your arms around - they light up like Christmas lights all around you!
Sand bar (during low-tide) between the Tup Islands and Chicken Island
Our last day, we took a bus on our way back to the Phuket airport and stopped in Phang Nga Bay. Because it is low season, Jonathan and I got a whole long-tail boat tour to ourselves around the bay! It was awesome... reminded me of being on the lake back home. :) We saw some ancient cave paintings, walked around a Muslim fishing village built on stilts and of course stopped at the famous James Bond island.
Fishing village in the middle of Phang Nga Bay.
Island that was in the James Bond film - The Man with the Golden Gun
All in all, it was a great trip. First couple of days weren't ideal, but it ended up being beautiful weather later on and it was very memorable. Right now, we are doing some laundry and packing up our bags again to head out to China tonight. We'll be there for 3 weeks, so be expecting a big post about that when we get back. Wish us luck!
