Quite Possibly the Perfect Beach
And Other Interesting Interactions
The title may cause you to wonder, “what the heck is John talking about?” Wait until the end of this entry and I will drop a little knowledge on you about Thailand.
Since the last entry, Nadine and I have traveled north from Georgetown, Malaysia to Krabi, Thailand. Our time in Malaysia was great, but after 3 weeks of easy traveling there, we were ready to head to Thailand for a change. We booked a mini-van to carry us to the Malay/Thai border and then on to Krabi. Our van turned out to be a smallish van, thus the name mini-van, but much smaller than those other Mercedes-Benz mini-vans those other people were taking. Arriving into Krabi 10 hours later, my long legs, especially compared to those of Malaysians, were ready for a stretch and freedom.
Munchy’s – Target Audience?
Local Transport from Krabi
Welcome to Thailand!
One thing becomes clear immediately in Thailand, things are cheaper! Food is cheaper. Beer is cheaper. Transport is cheaper. Lodging is really much cheaper. And these are all good things. Our first night, instead of hitting a restaurant, we sauntered over to the night market and the couple of dozen of stalls serving some mildly spicy Thai food. For me, it was I’m sweating my ass off spicy Thai food. We saddled up to the table, ordered some noodles and soup, and enjoyed the cool evening weather seated on red plastic chairs. At the end of the night, our night out set us back a good 160 baat ($4). Needless to say, every night we’ve spent in Krabi has included a nice little dinner at the night market on plastic chairs and a breeze.
Climbing Railey
After visiting the windy Ao Nang beach, we jumped on a longboat destined for Hat Rai Leh (pronounced in a Texas accent, Hat Ray Lay. A longboat is just what it sounds like, a skinny boat that is, well, long, and carries 10 to 12 people somewhat safely, depending on wave activity. You could probably only fit 4 to 5 chubby New Mexicans though. The propeller is located at the very end of a long pole, thus allowing it to motor through shallow waters. We followed our travel rule for Hat Rai Leh, and stayed there 3 days. We stay somewhere 3 days to get a good feel for it unless it stinks. And Hat Rai Leh definitely passed the stink test.
Climbing Railey
Happy Climbers
Rai Leh is renowned as a rock climbing for all skill levels. Nadine, being the excellent climber that she is, looked forward to Rai Leh for a long, long time. She was at her rock climbing Graceland. We found the King still alive, King Climbers that is, and set aside a day with our smiling guide Chau to climb 1-2-3, the three climbing areas located on the east side of Rai Leh Beach. Being a little lax with instructions and all those unnecessary safety rules, Chau was eager to have us climb. We jumped in our harnesses and climbing shoes and started crawling all over the limestone surface in, I believe, area #2. I could be wrong. We finished the morning with four fun climbs each measuring roughly 10 meters (30 feet) in height. After lunch, a quick power nap and a shower, we returned to 1-2-3. It was during the afternoon that we ascended the tallest rock face that either one of us had ever attempted. In the end, we both conquered the 100 foot mammoth climb that included an awesome view of our surroundings to boot. It’s at that point as you take in the beach, jungle, cliff, and sea views from 100 feet that you realize that you are putting a lot of trust in a that thin rope, a small piece of metal, and that small little human down there at the bottom that figured safety precautions were optional. Since you are reading this, relax, we descended safely AND I only wet my pants a bit.
Nadine in Her Space
We did more than rock climb at Rai Leh, we ate oodles of fresh fruit. Pineapple, watermelon, and bananas. We sampled the absolute best fried cashew and chicken noodles ever. So if you find yourself in Hat Rai Leh anytime, go visit The Rock Cafe, you won’t be disappointed with all the tasty dishes. If you are disappointed, pass your plate my way. In addition to overindulging, our busy schedule mandated strolling along the beach. The one personality that I am going to remember about Hat Rai Leh, other than the people and amazing geography is this one wet dog we nicknamed Sardine the Dog. Everytime we went somewhere, morning or evening, we’d look out towards the water and see this blond dog jumping and chasing sardines. We never saw him dry once in three days. At least for his sake, fleas don’t stand a chance with him.
Speaking Thai
In general, when Nadine and I travel, we both respect the local culture by trying to speak a little of the local language. We did a decent job in Malaysia and Singapore and an excellent job in the Cook Islands, New Zealand, and Australia, as our English was right on. Thailand has proved to be a bit more of a challenge. Taking a strategy my good ol’ Dad taught me when I was younger, I associate words with different objects. Teaching French and Spanish, I do a decent job with Latin based languages and you would expect that a little Thai wouldn’t trip me up. But Thai has proven to be biggest challenge. It is a language that has 5 different levels of intonation and messing it up can easily change the meaning of a word. Thus, when I attempt, and this is a reach, to speak Thai, I use word association to help me. In order to simply greet someone and say hi, you say sa-wat-dii khrap. But when you pronounce it somewhat correctly, it sounds like “So what the crap.” Thus the title of our little blog entry. So if someone yells at you “So what the crap.” Don’t be alarmed, they must be trying to speak a little Thai with you, simply smile and respond with “sa-wat-dii khrap.” If they approach angrily, run! They must not understand Thai.
Long Boats Docking at Railay Beach
We are both in good health, Nadine still healing from bed bug bites in Malaysia, but we’ve learned of some bad news while in Kuala Lumpur. Nadine’s grandma, Betty, passed away from cancer. She lived a good life. We knew going into the trip that this was a possibility. We felt it best that Nadine return to the States to be with her family. She is currently in route back to Omaha for a week. My thoughts and prayers are with them all.
While Nadine is back with her family, I am free to run around for a week on my own and explore. I felt it would be appropriate to visit some of Nadine’s extended family over in Indonesia at the Bohorok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. This also gives me a chance to get off of the beaten backpacker path and visit a part of Indonesia not many people visit.
Life is good and full of adventure and grateful to be doing what we are doing. Life is short and precious. Travel makes me realize the importance of friends and family in my life. During this trip, I have remained in better written contact with family and friends. So, feel free to meet up with us in South East Asia. We will attempt to teach you a few Thai expressions.
Question of the week: What is the world’s sixth largest island?
Please read carefully: whoever gets this correct, I will put your first name, given to you by your parents, in the title of the next entry.
Peace
JW
7 comments
LOL at the part where you only wet your pants a bit. Yes, we had a hard time with language in Thailand too!! Over Christmas we went to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.We didn’t have trouble communicating in the first two countries, but had issues in the third! The taxi driver didnt quite understand what we tried to tell him. So i had to use google translate. And sorry about your loss. 🙁
Despite languages challenges in Thailand, I would revisit that beautiful country anytime!
I enjoyed reading your article. I liked your sense of humor and ideas about travelling, adventures and life. Is Madagascar the sixth biggest island? Sorry about your loss.
Madagascar is actually bigger than the sixth largest island, Sumatra. The ever knowing Google lists Madagascar as 4th.
I did not use Google. It’s too easy. : )
That’s true. What would life look like without Google?
[…] Nadine and I intentionally spent two weeks apart to spend time with our respective parents. With my folks, off to San Antonio we went to watch my niece’s cheerleading competition. Entrance to the competition? $15 per person! In my mind, that represented three nights in a Thai hotel. […]