Travelling in Thailand can be pretty daunting: it’s a very big country and there are cool places everywhere.. But how to get there?? You can take buses and trains of course, but fortunately, Thailand also has a fair few airports with national flights: it’s pretty cheap and it will get you across country is just a fraction of the time it would take on any other form of transport..
That was my reason for going to Krabi: I could get a flight from Krabi (South-Thailand) to Chiang Mai (North-Thailand) for about € 43,- including my luggage, and it would only take me 2 hours to get there..
But while you’re travelling, you might as well explore the area, right? So I took the bus from Khao Lak to Krabi (3 hours on a bus for €6,-, I’ve seen worse prices here!) and the bus driver offered to take me directly to my hostel for another €0.75… hmmm, sounds like a plan!
The first thing on my agenda was going to Railay, which is very close to Krabi.. It’s not really an island, but there are no roads to go there: you can only go by boat.. so you might as well just call it an island anyway.. There is a regular connection by longtail boat.. Which is pretty cool: it’s just a small wooden boat which holds about 10 people.. there is usually a car-engine of some sort mounted in the back, which is connected to a long pole with a small propeller to drive the boat and to steer it.. I know it sounds basic and well, “Asian” but it’s not as crappy as you might think.. Depending on your expectations of course!
There was a German woman on my longtail boat, who was clearly upset: the boat was full, but not yet departing because they didn’t have gasoline.. we had to wait for someone to bring some gasoline.. But the German woman was outraged: how can they take our money for the fare, dump everyone in the boat and then just make us wait??? They should have filled up the engine before they let us on!!! Well honey, that’s Thailand for you.. Just relax, sit back and wait for things to happen..
It only took about 20 minutes before the gasoline arrived, and another 30 minutes to sail to Railay. I arrived at the Eastern beach, which is honestly pretty crappy: lots of concrete and dirt.. I wasn’t impressed.. So I hurried along to the West beach, which is supposed to be better.. Well, just look for yourself:
Not too shabby, right??
It’s filled with expensive resorts, so everything there is also expensive: you’ll pretty much pay twice the price of anything on the mainland. That’s why I only took a day-trip here: staying overnight would just cost too much!
Now I’m really terrible when it comes to beach-life: I literally can not lay still for hours while soaking up the sun (or shadow) I need to have something to do! So after about 45 minutes of reading, sitting, stretching, laying back down, I needed something more.. There are a few maps of the island available, which show a viewpoint over the bay.. I went looking for it. I didn’t actually find it, but I did find a small path across the rocks to another bay with another beach. That kept me busy for a few more hours, so in the end it was a cool thing to do!
Grabbed myself another mango-smoothie and a cheeseburger and time to head back to Eastside for the boat back to Krabi.. The last boat off the island leaves at 5 p.m. and if you miss it.. well… that’s just your problem, isn’t is? So don’t miss it 🙂
Luckily, this time there was no annoying German woman making a scene, but just relaxed people enjoying their day.. we had a relaxing trip back, saw an eagle flying around hunting for fish and simply had a good time. Who could ask for more?
