Welcome to the jungle!

30cm centipedes. Langurs chattering in the trees above your hut. Squirrels in every tree. Bugs that sound like a bench saw. Frogs, scorpions and lizards. Jellyfish stings, an ocean as warm as a bathtub and mosquitoes for Africa. And the biggest electrical storm I've ever seen. Welcome to the jungle!



I met a guy called Brian from Canada on Khao San Road in BKK on my first day and after chatting for a while, discovered we were both heading south around the same time. I decided to tag along to a place called Railay (about 20 mins by longtail from Krabi or Ao Nang) which is a hotspot for rock climbing - Brian being a rock climber. I'd never heard of this place before but thought hey, why not??

I ended up spending the last 4 days there, just chilling and watching the rock climbers (I even gave it a go). It's a little peninsula that's only accessible by longtail boat. Internet (in fact, most modern conveniences) are quite limited here; power is available from 6pm to 6am, no air-conditioning, only a fan to keep you cool, but it's all part of the charm. A good 95% of the people here are climbers and the rest tagged along with climbers. Lots of solo travellers in quite a compact area means we made friends quite quickly, and by the end of day 2 had a group of 6 for a climbing trip the next day (6 turned into 8 over the course of the next day). There were 2 Finnish guys with us as well, one of them was actually a climbing instructor. He was happy to spend the afternoon giving us newbies climbing lessons and everyone got to have a climb or two.


Briand & I having mango shakes at the beach front bar

Group photo by the climbing wall


me & Yu (japanese solo traveller #7)

We watched the most amazing electrical storm from the beach on our first night here. the lightning started during dinner, really frequent bright flashes that nobody else seemed to notice and we wondered if they'd put drugs in our curry :P then the storm got closer and we heard thunder, which was son followed by torrential rain. We watched safely from underneath a rock overhang on the beach. Scary but cool.

I could have easily stayed another few days or even a week in Railay but I felt my time slipping away, if I wanted to see the other islands I'd have to get moving. It was sad to leave my new friends behind but I'm glad to have met them and you never know, I might bump into them again someday :)



Oh, a funny observation about Thailand: they'll randomly play the national anthem and everybody stops what they're doing and stands up to respectfully listen. This happened before the puppet show and also at 6pm at the bus station, very weird. I thought everyone was getting up because the bus was leaving!

Am now parked in Ko Lanta at a posh resort for 600B per night (ooh how extravagant) doing some photoshopping and enjoying air con. Next stop Ko Phi Phi!

Here are a few more pics, until next time!


That's me on the wall!!