railay: the last sunset

tragedies happen, life goes on. dogs are walked. words are written. photos are edited.

these are the last of my Thailand photos: our last night in Railay. we spent the afternoon drinking at the pool and playing cards, but managed to hit the beach for dinner and sunset. the tide was low and the crowd was out in full force. there were kids playing soccer and some guys doing what must have been a muy thai kickboxing demonstration? it looked like dancing and fighting at the same time. sadly, no pictures of that. but we have sunset and longtail boats aplenty...

to be honest, the sunset was a little lame and my pictures went a little wacky. but we sure had a blast running around the shallows and hopping onto boats.

Railay, you were wonderful. relaxing, tasty, and full of adventure. I can't wait to go back...

railay: monkey business

we spotted our first monkey less than 5 minutes after arriving on Railay Beach. a pack of them ran across the trail we were on, headed to the hotel. another gaggle of tourists was snapping pictures and oohing and ahhing over how cute they were... until one snagged the banana right out of her hand.

I laughed when I saw the sign on our balcony door, thinking it was a funny way to let guests know they had to keep the monkeys out of the room. not thinking the monkeys would actually break into the bar. I was wrong.

we heard the shouts of an angry Thai woman before we spotted this guy scampering along the edge of a wall. seems he had stolen her orange soda before she even had a chance to open it.

one afternoon I came back up to the room to grab some more sunscreen for the pool, and I heard some interesting noises coming from the room next door. I though the French couple next to us was just having a fight, but there weren't any shouts to go along with what sounded like chairs and such being knocked over. I peeked out on the balcony and sure enough, it was a pack of monkeys.

one was sitting on the railing [you can kindof see] chowing down on a bag of nuts, while two more were on the roof ledge wrestling open a can of pringles.

it was one of those moments where you grab your camera and just start shooting, not stopping to think. apparently I had left the settings on manual from the night before [instead of switching back to Av], and the bright sunlight left me with nothing but this. or maybe it was the monkeys?

railay: one night on the west beach

welcome to Railay, a little slice of heaven on the Andaman Sea. this is the west beach: our arrival, and our first night there.

I think it says a lot that to even get to Railay you have to ditch your shoes, hike up your skirts, and put your faith in a guy with an 8-foot-long outboard motor. this is not a fancy place. beautiful, yes, but in a very laid back way. you have to just go with it. you will get wet + sandy on your way to Railay. there's no way around it, literally. even though Railay is a peninsula [not an island] thanks to the surrounding rock cliffs, there are no roads that can reach this beach- only boats.

oh, but it's worth the trouble.

we arrived late on a hazy afternoon, flying from Bangkok to Krabi, grabbing a taxi to Ao Nang, and then of course a longtail boat to Railay beach. by the time we settled in to our hotel and made it back to the west beach for dinner we had missed all but the very end of the sunset. [in fact, we only ever saw one sunset in Railay. but it was a spectacular one.]

spectators hole up at one of the many beachside bars or restaurants and stay through the whole show. others camp out in the sand. or better yet, in front of the bar that sets out mats on the beach to use as tables. [that's where we relocated after dinner.] with warm breezes and cool beverages aplenty, there's not much incentive to go very far.

there's still plenty to see after dark. the moon, big and bright. the stars, clear as ever. couples strolling hand in hand. possibly drunk girls feeding pizza to cats. 

merchants selling paper lanterns wander the beach. and when someone breaks down and buys one, and everyone watches to see how far out over the sea the lantern will fly.

after a few drinks, the west beach quiets down. the sea starts to light up in eerie green as the squid boats arrive for the night. some good conversation, a few rounds of cards, and it's time to head back to the hotel for a midnight swim some beauty sleep.

the cats of Thailand

we encountered a lot of cats in Thailand. a lot. and being a cat person, I of course stopped to go "awww" whenever a furry feline happened to cross my path. and occasionally whipped out my camera. this first one, we encountered one morning while walking through the night market in Bangkok. [morning in a night market = empty] this cat, like many others, hangs out around restaurants and food stalls, eating scraps from the kitchen and friendly travelers.

pizza cat. our first night in Railay, we were eating dinner and having a few beverages beachside. there were a few cats wandering around in the sand, including this one. and then this girl [who I assumed was drunk, sorry if you weren't] walked up to one of them with a slice of pizza. I thought no way was the cat going to be interested... but I was wrong. this cat devoured that pizza. it batted at it a little, but mostly just chomped on the cheese and gnawed on the crust like a sauced-up college student at 3am.

you may also have noticed that pizza cat has a stubby little tail. well. one unfortunate thing we discovered about Thailand, is that some people believe that having a cat's tail is good luck. which means... they chop off the tails of wild cats. it kindof makes me sick to think about, but all the tail-less cats I saw seemed to be adjusting ok. I did see plenty of cats with tails, so hopefully this isn't a common custom.

market cats. this kitten and it's momma live in one of the mini-marts on east Railay. the first time I saw them [I swear, I have kitten radar] they were hanging out under a food stand by the market. I was a little concerned seeing how small the kitten was and thinking it was wild, but was relieved to stumble upon them when I was making a shopping run for some wine + rosemary potato chips. it looks like they live a comfy life in the mini-mart... I spotted some food bowls in the back room.

zebra cat. we spotted this guy our last night in Railay, walking down the path from the east beach to the west. I've never seen a cat with these markings before... maybe some kind of bengal? but he looks more tiger than leopard. he clearly belongs to someone, as he has a collar and some kind of red charm or bell. and he's still got his tail, so bonus points to him.

restaurant cat. ok, so this one is actually from Boracay. but nearly every restaurant we ate in on our trip had a cat or two wandering through the tables as we ate [especially the beachside places]. our hotel in Railay had a cat that I think lived in the open-air lobby... he was there every morning for breakfast and snoozing on the front steps each afternoon.

so, there you have the cats of [mostly] Thailand. I wasn't sure where to start with these vacation posts, and cats just seemed the easiest thing to tackle. sorry if you aren't a cat person. next time I'll give you some pad thai or temples or sunsets, ok? ok.

Thailand by iPhone

bangkok by night //  wat arun // heading to the pool // power lines // lanterns in the market

longtail boats // fresh young coconut // longtail to ao nang // cheers // thieving monkeys

railay from the water // beach kittens // husband // cave exploring // sea kayaking

currently on a 48-hour layover at home in Taiwan. basically, enough time for a load of laundry and a fresh coat of nailpolish before we head off to the Phillipines. there's no way I'll be able to go through and edit all the pictures I took before then, so today you get a smattering of phone photos. enjoy!