Krabirthday

My birthday was last Sunday, so I took my personal day on Monday and Ray and I flew out to Krabi. I'd never been and had heard that it is possibly the most beautiful place in Thailand...
The first night we arrived around 8:30 and headed from the airport to Ao Nang, the beach where you can catch longtail boats to Railay beach and other places. Ao Nang is quite touristy but was fairly nice- we found a great hotel called "Ao Nang Palace Hotel" for only 800 baht a night. We were skeptical about the ocean view when we first arrived, but were pleasantly surprised in the morning:



The next morning we took a longtail boat to West Railay beach. We had been told that the less expensive accommodation is found on the East side, so we walked across to the other "beach". I put that in quotations because the East side is mudflats and construction and not much else. It was awful. After some consideration and a bit of rain, we took another boat to Ton Sai beach.







Ton Sai is very beautiful and is the hub for rockclimbing. We stayed at Mambo guesthouse in a sketchy little hut with no sink and a mosquito net. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was not somewhere that I was willing to spend my birthday at, so the next morning we found a much nicer place to stay.
Sunday was spent mostly eating; it rained quite a bit. We managed to see another brilliant sunset and played some pool.







We vowed to get up early on Monday and explore more of Krabi. We took a boat from Ton Sai back to West Railay and walked towards an alleged viewpoint, which we never did find. We did find the pathway that connects East Railay to Phra Nang beach, which is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The walk itself was absolutely stunning too...


The pathway is alongside caverns and cliffside formations that are amazing.






Some of the rocks were breathtaking...it was spectacular. I thought it was really neat to see the places where water and minerals are dripping and forming new stalactites...or stalagmites...or whatever.



Phra Nang was fairly empty when we got there; there is only one resort on Phra Nang, a ridiculously expensive and heavily guarded place where very rich, very blonde European people lounge around in the pool instead of on the dirty old beach. Lucky for us!







It was a great weekend. My birthday was more low-key than usual; it was really nice and quiet and relaxing and just sort of came and went. Krabi is wonderful- I will definitely visit again.



Until next time,
Heather