Thailand Adventures, Pt. III

continued from part II…

March 19, Krabi: We landed in Krabi and got in yet

On the way to Railay!

another taxi-van to the shore. See, we were staying on west Railay beach and the only way you can get to it is via boat. Railay isn’t an island, it’s more like a peninsula but I think it takes too long to get to overland or maybe it’s just not navigable. The terrain is rather mountainous, hence the area is popular for the rock climbing offered. So we get on a long boat and enjoy a nice ride over to Railay. It’s worth mentioning that on the whole trip we only met a few Americans other than ourselves and the other folks from school who were traveling Thailand. Most of the non-Thai folks were from Germany, Austrailia, the UK and France. We did meet this one American dude who had quit his job and was backpacking southeast Asia, a popular thing to do I guess. We saw him in Samui and he was headed to Railay for rockclimbing. His name was Matt and he shared a cab and the longboat with us.

Anyway we first got to Railay on the east side which, according to the

Our hotel pool & Railay West beach

guidebooks and our own eyes, isn’t as pretty as the west side. Luckily, you can walk from one to the other with no problem. We arrived on the west side at a really nice resort, Railay Bay. Once again, soon after arriving we headed out to the beach, setting up chairs near the pool facing the horizon. If you ever go to Thailand, make it your business to visit Railay West. From there you have access to Krabi, a nice little beachside town and two cool beaches.

We spent the remainder of our trip pretty much exploring the Krabi-Railay area. Three of us spent a morning at Ya’s Cooking School, where a lovely Thai woman named Ya (duh) taught us how to cook DELISH Thai cuisine. Curries, soups, salads, pad thai, stir fry, yumm!

Thailand Adventures, Pt. II

… continued from Part I 

path to the shore!

So we get settled into our beachfront bungalows on Chaweng Beach in Ko Samui. First order of business, get changed into our swimsuits and head to the beach. So the four of us go out, lay out our towels, set up books, ipods, sunscreen, etc. I hang back to watch the stuff while the girls go out and get some waves. After a little while, I was ready to go in so I head out. Well by the time I get out to where two of my friends are, they’re talking about how strong the tide is. I can feel it too. We also notice how we’ve drifted off down shore away from our beach chairs and decide to swim back in that direction. All was good until I was suddenly pretty far away from them. Next thing I know, I can’t swim. It literally felt like I was trying to kick my legs through molasses. Nothing I was doing was really working. I

random yts and the waters that tried to take my soul!

had taken in some water and it was SUPER salty. So salty that it burned my chest and made it impossible to take any subsequent deep breaths. Ok. So I’m out here in the ocean with no lifeguards, I can’t swim against the tide, I can’t take any significant breath, I even tried to relax and let the waves carry me back to shore but they only crashed over my head causing me to flounder and start over again. Damn. I was DROWNING! At that point, I called out to my girl L like, “you have to come get me!” She kind of paused and looked at me funny so I said it again, “No joke, come get me, I can’t!” Then another wave crashed. She was the closest person to me even though she wasn’t really close at all. Thankfully she was able to swim to me and I relaxed enough to let her drag me close enough to the beach so I could walk back in. I don’t think I can convey how fucking freaky it was to almost drown. FYI, I can swim. You can’t graduate from UNC without being able to pass a swim test so it’s verified. LOL. Those waters were just too much!

Thailand Adventures, pt I

I had a fabulous time in Thailand. They say it’s the ‘Land of Smiles’ and for the most part, I’d say they were right. I smiled a lot while I was there and the local people were always cracking jokes and laughing, albeit at our expense most of the time. It’s taken me quite some time to get around to writing this recap, with my computer troubles and winding down from the vacay and all. Sorry peeps. So, understandably, things fade from memory and all of the witty and great things I planned to write about have kind of disappeared from my mind. Still, it seems like this entry is going to be a two-parter.

March 14th, Depart Tokyo/Arrive in Bangkok: My 3 travel buddies and I met up at Narita Airport in Japan to catch our flight to Bangkok. The flight was long, about 7 hours as I recall, but I had the opportunity to watch some movies I had missed (Secret Life of Bees and Australia). The good thing about international flights is that they give you booze just like they’d give you water, ya know. None of that pay to play bullshit like they have on US domestic flights. So

TKY to BKK

you know being the lush I am, I had to take part. I had about 4 mini bottles of red wine.

Bottle #1

Mini is kind of a misstatement, because you could get a few glasses out of ’em. I think we were approaching our limit though because one of the lovely ANA (All Niipon Airways) flight attendants asked us if we could ‘hold our alcohol’ before bringing us our last bottle. Don’t judge me lady!

Finally, we landed in Bangkok and waited at baggage claim forever. Suvarnabhumi Airport is not very expeditious, FYI. I think it was somewhere around 11pm. Anyway, we head straight to our hotel, the Fraser Suites which we booked at the corporate rate thanks to my boy Matt. Matt has a popular bar in  Bangkok called QBar. Check it out if you get a chance. Also check out the Fraser because it was BEAUTIFUL! We had a connecting suite that we only got to enjoy for one night because of our hectic schedule. While in the city that evening, we stopped by QBar of course for some drinks. Then we met up with a couple of girlfriends from school and headed over to Khao San Road. Um, don’t go to Khoa San Rd. It’s full of dirty backpacker people and if you’re reading this, chances are you’re too bourgie for all of that. Then again, I’m

Could a face like that give you the runs?

kind of glad we went just to say we did. We basically rolled down the street then rolled back up, stopping for some Thai street food. Now, everyone tells you NOT to eat the street food because you could be signing up for some hellish diarrhea or worse, but we were hungry and the lady looked nice! Street pad thai isn’t so bad and no one had the runs! BONUS!

Eventually, we retired back to our sweet room at the Fraser, after trying some crab flavored Lays and guzzling bottled water.

Spring Break!

Hey all,

I’am currently in Thailand for my last spring break in a very long time (I won’t say ever, bc in this economy, I could probably go back to school. ugh). I’m in Bangkok now which is super stinky and mad sketchy but whatev. It has it’s own “character” I guess. Headed to Ko Samui then Ko Phan Gan, Krabi and Railay before stomping over Bangkok again.

Be Jealous!