Thailand

My first night in Thailand was spent at a sketchy hostel in Phuket Town, a historic stop on the 16th-century trade routes but today far from the beaches where most travelers spend their time.  I had a wonderful dinner (chicken with cashew nuts!) and enjoyed walking the abandoned streets of Old Town, but did not get any photos of the experience as my camera stopped working after my rainy rainforest adventure that afternoon (see Singapore post).  I caught a boat across the bay to Koh Lanta the next morning, where I loved sitting in the sun (but paid for it the rest of the week with an uneven but totally nasty sunburn) on the long journey.  In Koh Lanta I met up with Masha, an old friend from the Pomona College Women's Blue and White (my acapella singing group), who has been teaching English in Bangkok.  We signed up for a snorkeling trip and began to relax.

Here I am on the beach of Koh Rah, a popular snorkeling destination for tourists at Koh Lanta.  My camera came back to my life, but my sunburn was also emerging.  I spent most of my time in the shade...
...where you might run into giant monitor lizards, like this one.  But mostly they poked around the trash by the smelly toilet facilities, so they didn't bother me lying under a tree on the lovely beach.
Back on Koh Lanta, we stayed at "Relax Bay," an upscale-hippie resort run by a French family.  We did yoga while watching elephants bathe in the sea, then I cooled off with a banana smoothie, followed by sunset-viewing from a hammock.
This place was almost too much.  Totally blissful.  I had two Thai massages here overlooking the sea, totally indulgent treatment in the breeze.  Thai massage is like shiatsu and yoga put together.  Totally genius moves involving pushing and pulling your body in various stretches while kneading your sore muscles with feet and hands.  I totally want to learn how to do it.  (I just said "totally" four times, sorry.)
We left Koh Lanta for popular Railay Beach, a haven for honeymooners, hippies, and climbers.  We stayed on the cheap side, Railey East, where the "beach" is a tidal mangrove swamp.  
Railay East is home to some great climbing routes.  It was awesome!

In Portland I climbed indoors and this was only my second time really climbing outside.  The limestone karst cliffs were perfect!  
The walls got pretty crowded, but somehow nobody got hurt.

The view from the top was amazing!  Here I am back on the ground after some great climbing:
This is where we had the best lunch: pad thai and spicy fish curry!  
There are three awesome beaches on the Railay peninsula.  Here I am at Railay West:
Beyond Railay West is Tonsai beach.  We never went there but I hear it is VERY "laid-back." 

Hat Tham Phra Nang was the loveliest beach, with dripping limestone, a penis shrine, and an island you could walk to!

We had yummy banana roti on the beach and enjoyed our last sunset in Railay, before leaving Krabi province the next morning for Phang Nga Bay.  I had been looking forward to this but was bummed that it was full of totally cheesy touristy tours.  We didn't get to paddle ourselves through the mangroves, but our guide did make us get out of the boat to pose for this photo:
I guess it was beautiful and relaxing, but this was probably the most uncomfortable tourist day I had in Thailand.  The region is totally dependent on tourism and especially after the tsunami, which totally devastated the Andaman coast, they need foreigners to come spend money, which creates jobs.... but still, it felt icky.  


We briefly visited this Muslim "sea-gypsy" village in the bay, where hundreds of other tour groups stopped for lunch and shopping.  I felt bad for the women selling table after table of identical useless junk.  
Southern Thailand has a mix of Muslims, Buddhists, and hedonists tourists.

And monkeys.
My favorite night in Thailand was spent in Phang Nga town, which is not a tourist destination.  We found great food at the local night market and got to glimpse a bit of real life.



Mmmm, pad see ew!
Day 6 was spent in the jungle, trekking on elephants...


And canoes!

In the evening we fed the monkeys.  I felt bad about this but there was a guy selling bananas who depended on dopey tourists like me buying them to feed the monkeys.  So I did.  They were cheeky monkeys, obviously used to this evening ritual.  


This was my room at the Khao Sok River Lodge. Nice digs!
On my last day in Thailand I trekked through Khao Sok National Park, protecting the oldest rainforest in the world, according to the Lonely Planet.  We saw lots of bugs...

And spent our lunch hour straining our necks to watch langurs (small black monkeys) jump from treetop to treetop.

Our wonderful guide, Dit, made coffee mugs and brewed coffee by the river!
Here I sit on a giant banyan tree.  Banyans are parasitic and will slowly kill the host tree.  

Thailand was beautiful, full of gorgeous views, fantastic food, and friendly people.  I think I tried to cram too much into my week, but I did get to see a lot!  I'm never comfortable with the dichotomy between rich tourists and poor locals, and still don't know what is my role in that icky relationship.  But I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to visit a little piece of this interesting country.