Thanksgiving in southern Thailand

Breakfast view of Railay East

It was a beautiful weekend at Railay Beach, despite some rain- I think when you're at a place like Railay, every weekend is a beautiful weekend.  My pictures really don't capture it. I had planned to take a million pictures and just use the best ones. But then I forgot to charge my camera, so 12 photos in, the battery died.  Arg. But it was a great trip anyway.  

The rock where we climbed

 After getting up well before the butt crack of dawn on Thursday morning to fly to Krabi, we arrived at our hotel at around 10am and took a nice nap, followed by more naps and reading and lounging on the beach for the afternoon.  It was a rough Turkey Day, but someone's gotta do it.

Railay West beach

 Railay Beach is known for it's jutting rocks and a wide range of excellent rock climbing that attracts professional climbers from all over the world. And also people like me.  So after a lazy Friday morning, we spent the afternoon climbing- there are plenty of climbing schools that cater to beginners, though there weren't as many beginner routes. 

Railay West

 Rock climbing turned out to be a very humbling experience for me. Many activities you can complete, even if you're not very good at them (like me and bowling) but with rock climbing, at a certain point, I'm hanging out up there, dripping sweat from every pore, gripping with my toes and holding on for dear life, cursing the rock to which I cling and trying to keep the tears from showing to those down below, and I just have to give up and come down.  To me, it's really not scary. I don't mind the height and I learned quite quickly that when I fall off, I'm not going to fall at all.  But it definitely puts me up against my physical limitations (sorry, but even if I can wedge my toe into that crevice by my hip, I'm not going to be able to stand up on that foot) and my emotional limitations (I don't think many other people were crying on the rock or fighting back tears every time they failed and had to admit defeat).  I hung in there and kept trying as long as my hands were capable to following the signals sent by my brain, and once they quit functioning I just watched while my friend kept climbing.  I have a lot more to process about the whole experience, and I'm sure it will turn into a blog post of its own eventually.

I loved the look of these boats, which we took to and from the peninsula (it's not really land accessible) though getting out onto them is somewhat of an adventure.

 After climbing we had a great dinner and watched a fire show at a bar along the beach.  Lots of beach places in Thailand have fire shows, and this one was by far the worst either of us had ever seen.  It was pretty comical and when they took a short break half way we just had to look at each other and left. 

This beachside bar made me think of Pirates of the Caribbean

 Saturday we were hoping to do a bit of exploring at a cave/beach nearby and then kayak in the afternoon before our evening flight back to Bangkok.  The cave and beach areas were stunning and I only wish my camera had been working. We liked that area so much that we gave up the kayak idea, checked out of the hotel and headed to spend our last afternoon on the beach. 

Beautiful, even in low tide.

 Sadly the rain hit not long after we got there and cut that time short. We got absolutely drenched in the monsoon walking back, which would have been fine except we'd left our bags at reception so we'd taken all our valuables with us- phones, camera, wallets and passports.  Oh well, the passport dried...

Ready to climb!

 I do have to say that though I love exploring all these tropical beaches (and they are fabulous!) I am still a Great Lakes Girl at heart. I still don't like the stickiness of the salt water after a swim or the fear of creatures in the water.  I am always surprised by the sting of the water in any cuts I have or the pricklies you can get from the little ocean mites or whatever those things are.  And I do miss the long stretches of amazing sand along Lake Michigan or the crash of the waves that you don't always get here. 

Very busy with climbers

 Overall it was a fabulous 3 days to completely disconnect from life here and spend time just being.  I managed to read The Help, which I've been wanting to do for years (though I do need a buy a new copy of it, since the copy I had borrowed from someone was in my bag during the drenching) and practice being more confident with my Thai. One of my highlights was definitely chatting with the climbing guides in Thai once I was done and just watching.

Getting ready to go up.

My friend climbing. And then the camera battery died :( So sad.

If I can't spend Thanksgiving at the Ancestral Home, I suppose this is a pretty good substitute :)