Sunday, 28 October 2012

A busy month of visitors!

FINALLY a family member has come to see us whilst exploring this fine globe, its only been 3 years!! Kelly came to Krabi for a rockclimbing holiday and I'm sure she wasn't dissapointed
Kelly showing me a few tricks
The bay we parked in East Railey, while Kelly was here
Yes, I got a wee bit stuck in this position
We had loads of fun rockclimbing, swimming and kayaking together
Action shot jumping off the bow
Not to mention yoga, and 5oclock shenanigans on the beach
Drinking Kahlua and Coconut juice and Duds eating coconut flesh

Downward dog
Typical squid fishing boat and general pilage the ocean boat
We also managed to get in some deep water soloing, as you can see the ladder on the left is what you climb up to get on the rock, and from there I traversed along and climbed up to a ledge so I could jump into the water. People generally wear their rock climbing shoes and have chalk all over their forearms so they can have grippy hands to stay on the rock. So I found it very slippery and I had to pscyh myself up to jump a mere 3m into the water



Kelly and Dudley were more rambo than I was and in the end put their shoes on so they could grip the rock easier and climb higher... screw that!
Kelly jumping into water
After some deep water soloing we took the dinghy over to another island and watched a storm pass through
Baikal anchored in the storms path
We spotted lots of wild life along our trvels with Kelly
Water buffalo and friend
Green tree snake on our way to Tonsai for a climb
Langur Monkey eating something from the tree- the scabby macaq monkeys steal human food to eat
crazy looking caterpillar
Duds leading a climb for us.
Showing Kelly the view from Thaiwand wall overlooking Tonsai
After hiring a couple of motorbikes to see around Koh Yao Noi, we were allowed to take a plunge into the resorts swimming pool! What bliss after a hot day
A nice wee spot we found kayaking around Koh Hong
Finally, Kelly and I got a thai massage!
Kelly cutting open her first coconut
after saying a sad farewell to Kelly, a couple of days later Vicky and Ross arrived, on a fleeting visit to Railey, they stayed the night on Baikal. We had fun hanging out and climbing with Ross and Miles.
Was great to hang out with these guys !
We are now in Krabi Boat Lagoon, where we plan to leave Baikal for a month, to do some overland adventures...

Thailand beckons..

Ahoy there! Its been a while! We made our way back to Thailand stopping off at some beautiful swimming and snorkelling spots along the way
Koh Lipe

See Baikal anchored on the left?
We kayaked over to a neighbouring island and trekked up a hill to take some nice shots of Koh Lipe, a resort island. This island had many stray dogs on it, there is a program that has been in place since mid 2010 where they tag the dogs who have been sterilised and give them vaccines against rabies. There are many dogs who haven't been tagged. They were all following us around the island and when we kayaked back to the boat one was swimming with us for ages!! They must hate the place so much they want to come and live with us!
Duds surfing on some waves

Throwing the dinghy anchor Baikal in backgound
 After Koh Lipe we found another island in the middle of nowhere
We parked up for the night at the booby shaped island


We were lucky to get this anchorage so calm, the next day a raging storm blew in !
Hin Klang reef had some beautiful clear water but unfortunately not much coral or fish... but it was a great spot to swim anyway
The island in the background is Mosquito Island, we kayaked around this. Tourists have to pay 400baht for going ashore ($16NZD) and get nothing for it, you still have to take your rubbish home with you.
Baikal anchored between Bamboo and Mosquito Island just north of Phi Phi Don
We went for a motorbike ride up the west coast of Phuket, the beaches this time of year still have a bit of swell running in some keen surfers can be seen catching some measley wee waves. Good on them!
From front, Karon, Kata and Kata Noi beach
Ao Chalong is a bay in SE Phuket where yachties park to go and clear into the country.
Overloking Ao Chalong
german style helmet
On our excursion around Phuket we went to see the Big Buddah
It still has bamboo scaffolding around it, there are workers busy (some not so busy) tiling it..