The Kingdom of Baikal: Krabi - Railey Beach and Tonsai , and surrounds...Thailand

Hope I haven't overloaded you all with too many pictures, but now you can get a better idea (if you really care) of what we've been up to.Our plan is to stay between Thailand and Malaysia (visa runs back down to Malaysia) until January 2013 then head through Indonesia and then Australia... but who knows plans change all the time, all we know is, we arent ready to go back to work yet. To much fun stuff to do and different places to explore. We are taking the boat out for antifouling at Krabi Boat Lagoon, a new marina thats opened up, offering half price, so maybe we stay out for 2 - 3 months and do some overland adventures. Enjoy...

Kayakong around Railey

Even though Railey and Tonsai are situated on the mainland, they are only accessible by boat because they are land locked by the massive limestone cliffs, this place has alot to offer us, from breathtaking kayaking, caving, rockclimbing to trendy cafes and cool people who actually do something other than lie on the beach all day.

View of Railey Beach from anchorage

Tonsai beah

There are many walks around Railey with spectacular limestone formations..

It is believed among the villagers here that spirit of Princess Goddess presides in this cave.
Fisherman before going out would pledge the Goddess for good luck. When their wishes were fulfilled they would make offerings of flowers and incense sticks, but usually the spirit of the Goddess shall be offered special gifts... the lingams or penises.
This has nothing to do with Thai people's religions, neither Buddhism nor Islam, that belief of the lingam or holy womb shall create fertility and prosperity to the whole earth and human kind

There are many film crews who come to Thailand and make Russian films and Hollywood films, we saw this (below) at Railey beach.

Film set for a hollywood movie in Phang Nga Bay

One steep walk we ventured on was suppose to take us to a lagoon, we ended up in a muddy pool of muddy water with clay figures that people had made ..

Its very slippery through here

The following three pictures were taken from a cave in Railey

Overlooking Railey

awesome big tree we found on the way to the lagoon

The muddy lagoon, watch your step mate!

The lagoon, nice and peaceful

Making us some real coffee

We went to this trendy cafe on Tonsai Beach, they make the coffee in the mortar and pestle you can see above and also make yummy chai tea this way. When I asked for chai tea, he thought I was asking for a joint! 'joint, you want joint? 200baht ' or 6AUD. Since when did a chai sound like a joint!? It was fun to go tight rope walking. With practice I managed to go all the way across, Dudley got half way across, yes it is always a competition with us! We did get some advice, not to lok at your feet, look ahead and splay your feet over the webbing. It helped.

Cafe on left (pic a bit dark)

I just love the background setting

Just look at the concentration on that face!

We made it down to Maya Bay where the filming of the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo Dicaprio took place. This place is overrun by tourists and longtail boats take up the whole length of the beach by day. But by night we have it mostly to ourselves. It is spectacular surrounded by cliffs, but there is no atmosphere. Maybe because our mooring was a long way from the beach.. who knows.

View from anchorage Maya Bay

Longtail boats everywhere by day

The Beach

The whole length of the beach has some good bouldering

Within Maya Bay there are 2 beaches this is the smaller one

Kayaking around

Titanic Dudley on the mooring at Maya Bay

Just about to leave in the morning before the longtails turn up

Kayaking around Phang Nga Bay (near Phuket and Krabi)

Yet another glorious day!

Railey

sunset at Railey beach

SY Vertigo, look at the sailing yacht infront of it!! dwarf!

This 67m alloy yacht anchored next to us in Phang Nga Bay. I googled it and found out its a charter yacht, I think there must of been a russian family staying on board, because the Guy hooned round and around our boat just staring at the russian name. Its a pretty cool yacht wouldnt mind one of those myself! Although it does draw 5m with the keel up and 9.5 m when its down. But thats what the toys are for, just get the crew to put your jetski in the water and away you go!! And theres a swimming pool!