Bangkok and Railay, Thailand

March 6th,2015
  Last minute emails and urgent deadline rush. Sending out the last email at 3:30pm, my smile instantly switched when I sat in the backseat of the cab to the airport. Vacation time ! In a new country and with a good friend. How often do vacations like these come by?
   At 10:40pm, the airasia flight landed at Don Muang airport in the city of Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok has two airports, Don Muang is the Old International airport. After quick navigation, I reached the Visa On Arrival area, to see a long line there and only one counter open and paraphernalia for the process! The photo's that I carried along with me didn't suffice, but luckily they provide the services to take your photo and pin it to the visa form which you'd later have to fill out. After a good 40 minutes in the line, I finally got my form verified by the officials and validated for Visa On Arrival. The things you'd need to get a VOA :
  (a) One Photograph on a white background.
  (b) Visa form with the valid address of place of stay.
  (c) Valid passport with minimum remaining validity of six months.
  (d) Visa fees of 1,000 baht in Thai currency only.
  (e) Tickets of the return journey from Thailand.
  (f)  Thai/other currency equivalent/credit or debit card to show the equivalent of 10,000 Thai baht per person or 20,000 Thai baht per family.

Exited the airport at midnight in a striking pink cab towards the city centre at Sukumvit Road where I had to meet my friend. It was a quiet journey in the middle of the night. The city seemed to be getting it's beauty sleep to be presentable for me by the morning.

The night wasn't over for me, there was one place I'd heard a lot about: Soi Cowboy.
Soi Cowboy is a little stretch of road with only go-go bars and strip clubs. Mostly frequented by tourists and expats. As you walk by this famous red-light area, be ready to be picked by women and enticed to buy a drink or watch a show.My curiosity was dismissed after the short casual walk and we headed home.


March 7th,2015
  An early breakfast of cornflakes and cold strawberry milk is a kick start to the hot day at Bangkok. We took the BTS Skytrain from Ashok station to Saphan Taksin that leads you to the Chao Phraya River transport.
Commendable infrastructure in Bangkok. 

The Flyover, a metro track in between and the river transport below.

From the Chao Phraya, they have boat service to the temples "Wat Arun", "Wat Pho", Grand palace and a few other places. Chao Phraya , loosely translated to "Chief River" is the main artery for transportation in this city. It was a 20 minute boat ride to "Wat Pho" in the muddy waters.

Wat Pho, more commonly known by the name "Temple of Reclining Buddha" is a huge temple complex with stupas (known as Chedis) and shrines with Buddha statues.  The biggest of these shrines has Lord Buddha in the reclining posture rested on his hand. The soft curls on the head and the wide feet with 108 engravings was visually appealing. Visitors were encouraged to drop coins into the 108 copper bowls around the structure, in the belief of receiving good fortune.

Reclining Buddha

I did read somewhere that this place was originally built as a school of Thai medicine. Probably that's why I noticed some stone structures around the complex in yogic poses.

Yogic Poses.

After taking a self tour of Wat Pho, we took the cross-river boat to Wat Arun. The distinctive phrang (tower) of this temple is noticeable from anywhere. The main phrang at that point was under renovation, so we walked around the surrounding phrangs instead. These phrangs are such unique and vividly created using colorful and exquisite looking porcelain.

Porcelain work.

Wat arun.

We headed over to Siam Paragon  for a quick lunch at their food court. Thai food is interesting, but I hadn't started my culinary journey as we decided on eating some neutral Italian food. Trying to fit in the maximum time for the upcoming shopping at Chatuchak market, we cut short our lunch although the desserts looked delicious.
Chatuchak Market !! Where do I start? For the folks who know me, I dislike or better said, shop very rarely and until absolutely necessary. I went in there unbiased and with no will to shop and only pick up a few interesting souvenirs. As I walked passed the numerous stalls filled with assorted tidbits, my will was slowly crumbling like small temptations as the rocks that fall off from the boulder off determination into the sea of consumerism. It had fascinating and creative stuff to choose from, diverse range from tee shirts, junk jewelery to clocks. The shopping took up a great amount of time, but left one feeling exhausted and good about the time and money spent. It was worth the visit.
The things I liked a lot about Bangkok: Infrastructure with good metros, the river transport, pink buses and colorful cabs, the vibrant nightlife,  the stoicism yet warmth of the locals towards the hive of tourists it receives.

March 8th, 2015
  We reached Krabi town around 9am but the bus ride till Ao nammao pier took a very long time after many stops in the town. There are public buses that ply from the airport to the common area in Krabi Town, it's the cheaper option to travel as compared to taking a taxi. From Ao Nammao pier, we took the boat to Railay. The bluish green clear waters and the towering limestone boulders, such a soothing sight. The waters of Thailand , wonderful waters of Thailand.

Closing in on Railay.

Sitting at the head of the motor boat with wind in my hair, bright sunlight on my face and the humming sound of motor, the scene opened up: Railay Beach with white sands and clear emerald waters. We disembarked from the  boat and carried our luggage a small walk away to "Railay Princess Resort ". The accommodation at Railay is on the the higher side, but it is a valid price to pay for privacy. The Railay Princess was fantastic and gets a five star rating from me. We decided to chill out on the gorgeous sands of Railay for the evening. Railay is clearly the best beach I've lounged in. The tide was low and we could walk in a good distance into the sea and the sand was sensuously soft on the feet. Watching the sun get swallowed by the sea and floating in its vast expanse with the mountains towering over us, seemed like nature disapproved yet pampered our existence.

Cooling my heels.

The sun plunged into the sea as we watched the sky emoting different hues. After a good round of Frisbee on the beach, we headed back to feed ourselves a good meal.

Soft sensual sand.

Leaving an imprint on the canvas of earth.

I won't be gone for long.

The "Last bar" was a good find. As the name suggests, being the last bar at the end of the only road in Railay, they had live music. A little after midnight, there was a fire act performance. Very entertaining. Unlike Phi-Phi and Bangkok, railay had a more sober and relaxing vibe about it.

March 9th,2014
The resort had a wide spread of breakfast buffet, enough to stuff us up. We walked towards the view point only to realize it was a steep climb. A climb, with a rope for support. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I reached the view point. The view was phenomenal. Nature is highly under appreciated, the difference of the water on either side of the same bay was remarkable!

Climb to the viewpoint.

The remarkable view from the top.

 Panting my way down from the view point, my mind still remain in disbelief of what I had witnessed. Little did I know that nature has far more to offer here. A little ahead of the way to the viewpoint is the path that leads you to phra nang bay. The path belies the enormous beauty the end of it holds. It was unbelievable.

The path that opens up into the phra nang bay.

phra nang cave and bay

the tempting emerald waters.

As the heat got unbearable, we headed off to some shade and food. Treated myself to Red curry and pad thai which I enjoyed. At 3pm, we had a boat tour of the 7 islands with Sunset and dinner at Poda Island and 2 snorkeling stops and a plankton tour.

Out first destination was Tup island and Si Island. These radiant white sands and shallow waters was heaven to swim in. The highlight of Tup and Si island, is it is connected and only by a strip of white sand. So basically you can walk to Si island from Tup and vice versa in between the vast Andaman ocean. To put you in perspective, we are walking in the middle of the ocean!!
                                    

Taken from a google image search,to give some perspective.

Notice the strip of white sand between the islands.

Notice the darker blue to the left corner of the pic.

Incredible. I continued to shake my head in total disbelief crossing over to Si island. It was overwhelming, the excitement, the beauty, the pristine white sands, the crystal blue waters and the walking on the exact divide where the water to your right is darker blue and getting darker and water on your left is transparent cyan.

The boat took us to Chicken island, the rock juts out looks like a chicken head and visibly does. Our first snorkeling stop, we jumped into the water and snorkeled around for about 20 minutes. Stunning fishes and corals.

Corals.

We headed over to one of the deep water solo diving spots,climbing up a limestone cliff of a head-spinning heights and letting go to jump into waters of depth 80 feet or more. CRAZY for the guys who did do it. I was a silent spectator at the courage of the brave ones, for I didn't possess a fraction of that courage after looking at the cliff and gauging the waters. The adventurous ones swam from their boats towards the limestone cliff face, use a ladder (pre-laid many years before, I suppose), use that to climb up and get a hold to start climbing. Then comes the scary part of climbing free hand, no harness, no shoes, no anything ! Probably the most animal-like natural and shit scary way of climbing there is! One of the Thai locals climbed a dizzy height and plunged into the deep uninviting waters, I caught my breath because this was the first I was seeing someone do such an act. Terrifying for me to watch and exciting nonetheless, but he seemed to have done it far many times before to have even an ounce of fear to do it. 

The dizzy heights.

Ready to jump?

We had another snorkeling spot to cover, we quickly took to the water, I was quietly waddling around with my snorkel masks amazed at the pretty fishes enticing me. The sea beds and rocks had many black sea urchins, a noticed a puffer fish ! two of which I hadn't before. The puffer was small, maybe a young one but an adorable ball of spicules!

Sea urchins.

The sky was orange and the mood was contemplative. It's been one of the best days I've had so far. Our boat halted at Poda Island which opened the view to a magnificent sunset. The gorgeous orange ball sunk into the ocean and we watched remarking at its beauty. The true giver of life, the reason for our existence. I felt overpowered by nature, by her beauty, feeling small and wonder-eyed watching the sun submerge.

Plankton viewing, the next stop. I was quizzical about this one, not even having heard of viewing plankton and wondering however that was possible. Aren't they too minuscule to be seen? And we have to spot them glowing? Are these tour operators robbing us blind? We were all instructed to get down into the dark waters with our snorkel masks. Our instructor asked to create movement inside of the water and keenly notice the glowing dots of plankton around the area of the movement. Wow! it was glowing. Microscopic glowing dots. I was utterly fascinated that I came up to exclaim my child-like joy of seeing something that was not comprehend able.Amazed.
 The boat journey back was silently contemplative, running over my emotions for the beauty I was privileged to see today.

March 10,2015
 To take advantage of the remaining hours in Krabi before we headed back to the airport and our respective countries, we had an early start.
Walking down to Phra nang cave and bay, the beach was isolated, the scene permanently etched in my brain. Sublime.
Since the tide was low, we could walk,swim a good distance into the waters. A small cove was accessible. Private and magical. Finding that was equivalent to discovering new lands, I wonder what the great explorers truly felt like when they did discover our existing countries.  

Morning walk by Phra nang bay.

When we saw the first set of Kayak bring rented out, we rented out ours and start rowing. I hadn't done sea kayaking before and was excited yet anxious to balance the kayak right. With a lot of help from my friend and fellow rower (if I may term it that), we set a pace and headed for the waters around a limestone cave. We reached it and wandered lost along its borders. The sunlight glistened on the clear waters, the depth of which was gorgeously visible. The white sand sea bed, the green glowing fluid above and the pale brown uneven,rugged structures guarding it. It occured to me, this is the best view I've had in my entire life. It was peacefully sublime and overwhelming. Tears of joy rolled down my face. I felt privileged to have witnessed what I did sitting on that kayak  far from the shore in the ocean.
Stunning.

Although this picture might not justify my write up about this place.

I left Krabi knowing that someday I will return to experience everything and more again. I am bewitched by her beauty.
My heart was immensely sad to leave such a lovely place but ironically very happy to have been there. Thank you Krabi, thank you Thailand. It was one of the best vacations I've had.