Kop kun ka

Throughout my experience in Thailand I quickly became familiar with the word Kop kun ka meaning thank you. The graciousness of the people and the wonderful holistic atmosphere of both Bangkok and Railay was very tangible throughout my visit. Railay is a small peninsular town in southern Thailand near Krabi. To get there I met Ryan, a TSS student from San Diego, and took a 12 hour bus over night to Krabi. To my surprise the bus ride, except for the strange game show tv program being played during the first 5 hours, was rather pleasant. We woke up in Krabi around 9 am and began to plan how to get to Railay. Stepping off the bus we realized we were not in a well trekked area. However, a tiny woman approached us about a taxi to a boat. The cheapest way to travel in Thailand is by motorbike taxi. However, she refused to allow us to take such transportation telling me that I was far too beautiful and delicate to climb aboard such a dangerous contraption. Instead she gave us a deal on a taxi. There are no docks, so have walking a hundred yards in the low tide water we climbed into a long tail boat with an open motor that looked of little improvement to a dug-out canoe.

After a 15 minute ride we had arrived to Railay East Beach. Our hotel resembled that of the Swiss Family Robinson tree-house. Simplicity was certainly the name of the game. Only the necessities were present: bed, fan, small table, bathroom. The bathroom consisted of a toilet that did not flush (very few actually flushed), a mirror, a shower head over the toilet (we had to remember to close the toilet when showering or it will fill with water), a small garden hose in the corner and a hole in the corner of the room. Like I said, the basics were present. But in all honesty it was all was needed. Our days were spent dreamily on the beach. However I did learn a very important lesson. Never buy sun screen that is not an American brand. I bought Thai sun screen and used it the first day and I must admit, I was a lobster. In fact it was quite painful for a bit but I have suffered through and my face as now almost stopped pealing. After that first day mistake I promptly bought SPF 45 Hawaiian Tropic lotion and a bottle of Aloe.

Each morning while in Railay we woke and spent the first 10 minutes lathering in sun screen, trust me the sun is quite different here. We then headed to one of the small food vendors just of the beach (pretty much everything there was just off the beach). The man made the most delicious pancake type crepes with my choice of bananas and peanut butter. Delicious! Most of our days were spent hanging out on West Railay Beach or Phannam but seeing that it took less than five minutes to walk to the three beaches we were able to move around quite freely. The second day I stayed out of the sun as much as possible fearing that I would only burn more. Luckily, by the third day I was ready to get out of the shade again and we rented kayaks. Our eyes were a little bigger than our abilities as we set our sights on what looked to be a close island. Yea, it wasn't that close and after paddling for what seemed like forever we settled on one much closer. Each night we would sit on West Beach and watch the sun go down casting glowing shadows on the rock faced peaks surrounding us and watched the locals play soccer during low tide.

Returning to Bangkok was uneventful, accept that our flight was delayed and they threw out my aloe in security! The shuttle took us back to Khao San and we found a cheap but clean hostel for the night. After wandering around the next morning and grabbing our last glorious Thai meal we got on the TSS shuttle bus and drove two hours back to the ship. Returning "home" felt so surreal, like we had been away from each other for weeks. The energy is certainly high and everyone is sad to say goodbye to Thailand. Classes begin again tomorrow, which no one is looking forward to, as do the soccer and basketball leagues I have joined. I'm looking forward to India but I am happy to have a bit of time to rest, I'm exhausted!