Weekly #3: Beach Hopping and our First Jungle Visit Ever in Thailand
It is our third week in Thailand and we still love being here! Everybody said and wrote it before, but now we also experienced it ourselves: it is so easy to get around in Thailand and the people are so friendly and welcoming. Even if you take a wrong boat (which happened to us this week…), there is an easy way to get back on the right track. This week we traveled to the south of Thailand to visit Koh Yao Yai, Krabi and the Khao Sok National Park.
Exploring Koh Yao Yai by Scooter
Thursday, 16 January 2020
This trip is all about learning new things. Today: riding a scooter for the first time! We are on the island of Koh Yao Yai and this seems to be the perfect place for beginners in scooter riding. The roads are paved, are in good conditions, there are not many intersections (easy navigation!) and there is not much traffic. We rent a scooter for the day for 250 Baht (= € 7,41). However it is a little scary at times, we enjoy the wind our hair and the feeling of freedom very much. We visit a few beaches, ride through small villages, have some fruit smoothies and enjoy a beautiful sunset on the most beautiful beach we found. This is island life at its best!
Island Hopping in the Phang Nga Bay
Friday, 17 January 2020
Koh Yao Yai is located in the Phang Nga Bay, known for its limestone cliffs with caves rising out of the water, collapsed cave systems and hidden beaches. Some of them we could already see from the island yesterday but as we wanted to see them from close by, we decided to book a boat trip. We didn’t expect to be the only ones on the tour, but that made the experience even more special! Our guide stopped along the way because he spotted whale sharks. What an amazing experience to see these huge animals swimming next to our boat! Some other highlights of today were spotting swimming monkeys, climbing to the view point on Koh Nok and swimming in the green waters of the Hong Island lagoon. The day ended with a little accident Kai had with a jellyfish. His feet became painful, red and itchy. Luckily our lovely guest house owners came to the rescue. They drove us to the pharmacy and put some fresh aloe very on the affected spots. Fortunately, all symptoms are gone now and we were once again amazed by the kindness of the Thai people.
With the (wrong…) Long Tail Ferry to Krabi
Saturday, 18 January 2020
It is only 30 minutes by speed boat or 60 minutes by long tail boat to get from Koh Yao Yai to the main land of Krabi. Of course we opt for the long tail boat. We save money, have more time to enjoy the views and have a more local experience. What I didn’t notice though: we booked tickets to the wrong pier in Krabi. Oops… We had to spent the money we saved on a taxi to get to our guest house. Oh well, I guess I need to work on my backpacker skills but it was a beautiful experience nonetheless! We arrived in the very touristy area of Ao Nang beach. The contrast to Koh Yao Yai, that is known as one of the most sleepy islands in Thailand, couldn’t be bigger. Ao Nang is busy, touristy and loud. The lime stone cliffs that we saw from the taxi ride looked promising though so hopefully it will be worth it to spend two nights here!
Railey Beach Day Visit
Sunday, 19 January 2020
Railey Beach is one of the most well known and visited touristic areas in Thailand so once again, we set our alarm clocks early. If you want to enjoy Thailand’s hotspots without thousands of other tourists, you better be an early bird! However Railey Beach is situated on the mainland, it can only be reached by boat and it has more of an island vibe. We hop on one of the first long boats from Ao Nang to Railey West shortly after 8:00 AM, when boat service starts. When we arrive after 10 minutes, my mind is blown. The cliffs rising up from the ocean look so impressive! Also the light is beautiful, the beach still relatively empty and it is not too hot yet to walk around in the sun.
From Railey West we walk to the other beaches of Railey East, Phra Nang and Tonsai. After a round of shooting photos, we lay down on one of the few shady spots on Railey West beach, our favorite beach of them all. Overall we like the vibe here in Railey much better than in Ao Nang beach. In the walking street of Railey, that connects the beaches to each other, there are a few nice looking cafes, reggae bars and places to eat. So if budget isn’t an issue, we’d suggest to stay directly in Railey. After lunch, we saw clouds for the first time during our trip. And we were actually quite happy about it! We have been sweating and applying sun screen like maniacs. After we couldn’t stand the noise of the long tail boats anymore, we took a boat back to Ao Nang. Who would have thought that these boats, that look so idyllic, make so much noise? Better bring your noise cancelling headphones to the beach here! After all I’m very happy that we’ve visited Railey because the nature is absolutely stunning but it isn’t the location where we’d like to stay longer because it is simply too crowded and too noisy. We book bus tickets to Khao Sok for tomorrow.
Travel Day to Khao Sok Village
Monday, 20 January 2020
We will be picked up from our hostel at 9:30 AM so we can take it slow this morning. Time for some coffee before we leave! It hasn’t been any problem to find good coffee in Thailand so far. If we’re not drinking mango smoothies, we enjoy some iced latte. Just don’t forget to order it unsweetened if you prefer the taste of coffee over the taste of sugar. Exactly on time (Thai are like Germans when it comes to punctuality!) we got picked up from our hostel together with an English/Dutch couple. It is always nice to exchange some travel tips with other travelers! We got dropped off the car in Krabi without any information but with a sticker saying ‘Khao Sok Bus’. Apparently, this was the exchange point and everybody had to regroup and change busses. Sometimes it is better to just not question things, be patient and wait until someone says ‘you, come!’. It will all work out fine. We are actually getting quite good at being patient and after an hour we were finally on our way to Khao Sok.
At 2:00 PM we arrive in the small village of Khao Sok and the drive to get there was already stunning. 150 km of lime stone cliffs and jungly landscapes along the way. Best enjoyed while listening to some podcasts (currently listening: Elementarfragen with Janina Findeisen about being kidnapped as a journalist in Syria) and staring out of the window. We are staying in some cozy bamboo huts together with the company of some geckos and we can’t wait to explore the national park in the next days!
Hiking, Swimming and Relaxing in the Jungle of Khao Sok
Tuesday, 21 January 2020
From our bamboo hut we already got familiar with the sounds of the jungle. It was really cool (and to be honest, slightly scary too) to fall asleep with the sound of wild animals outside. The Khao Sok National Park is huge: its area covers 739 km² (including the 165 km² Cheow Lan Lake), is the largest area of virgin forest in southern Thailand and is a remnant of rain forest which they say is older and more diverse than the Amazon rain forest. For us this will be the first time ever to visit a jungle. We are very far from experienced hikers so we decided to join a lake and hiking tour with a guide. We started the tour with a boat trip over the lake for over an hour and could already see some interesting flora and fauna. Highlights of the tour were: staying in bamboo huts, swimming and kayaking in the emerald green lake, seeing swimming monkeys and a beautiful clear sky full of stars.
How we Travel with Less Expectations + in Love with Khao Sok
Wednesday, 22 January 2020
We travel much different now than during other travels that we made in the past. We travel slower, plan not much in advance and (have to) take more time to book travel and accommodations for our next destinations. Also the amount of location research that we do is much less than what we used to do because we rather enjoy the moment than read blogs and guides all the time. The negative side is: sometimes I fear to miss out on some highlights but the good thing is: we travel with less (good or bad) expectations, which increases the surprise effect that I actually really like. In Khao Sok for example, I didn’t really know what to expect (other than the classic tourist guide pictures of the Cheow Lan Lake) and it turned out to be awesome! Today we walk around in the park, soak up the beauty of our surroundings, catch up on some photo editing and booked travel and accommodation for our next stop, which will be Koh Phangan (for this destination I actually did the research to not go during full moon, hehe). We had some goodbye drinks in our favorite bar (Nirvana Bar) and got even used already by the bats flying around under the roof while we we’re sipping cocktails. Yes, we can totally recommend to stop by in Khao Sok when you’re in Thailand!
