Day 66, Year 4: What a Difference a Mile Makes
Date: Saturday, December 27, 2008
Weather: Mostly Overcast with Light Rain in Late Afternoon
Latitude: 08 degrees 00.569 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 49.927 minutes E
Location: Railay, Krabi Province, Thailand

Judy’s Log with Comments in Parentheses by Kevin (kjr)

What a difference a mile makes. We motored one mile from our anchorage in Ao Nang and arrived in a Thailand fairy land with limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea and out of the land all around us. (Thank goodness for the short trip. Judy has been driving us pretty hard; this morning we were allowed to sleep in until 8:30 am. *yawn* – kjr) We had to dinghy around to the most beautiful spot, but the anchorage is not shabby. We have two great beaches in sight and we dinghied around the karsts jutting out of the water to the beach at Hat Phra Nang. The bay there is touted as the most beautiful in Thailand and that might be true. But we also love Phi Phi Leh. The beauty here in Thailand is just so spectacular that is hard to say one place is more beautiful than another.

Our first land trip today was to what is called Railay Beach or Hat Rei Lay West. You can only get there by boat, but there is no lack of humans on the beach there. There are sooooo many longtails delivering tourists. Mark and I checked out the resorts there just to see what the accommodations were like while Kevin and Claire combed the seashore for shells. Each of the resorts had restaurants and we had lunch at one of those-yummy Thai food. We then walked to the other side of the peninsula to see Than Phra Nang Nai (Diamond Cave). Each of its caverns is dimly lit so you can see the beauty without having to use flashlights. We walked back to Railay Beach, had Bud’s ice-cream from San Francisco and then went back to Windbird to pick up our snorkeling gear. Our next trek was to the islands off Hat Phra Nang, but we found ourselves in very shallow water snorkeling over sharp rocks much too close for comfort. Kevin saw a big sea snake (easily 6 feet long with the eyes of a killer – no lies – kjr) and then Claire found herself between a rock and hard place with a sea snake looking her in the eye. The bite of these snakes is lethal but their mouth is so small that they can only bite the skin between your fingers. We had warned Kevin and Claire to keep their fingers close together and somehow Claire got herself out of her face-to-face encounter with no problem… she and the snake wriggled past each other between the rocks with mutual horror. We decided to take the dinghy around to the beach to get out of the shallow water and spent the rest of the afternoon shelling, watching monkeys, talking with sailing friends from New Zealand, and just generally enjoying the beauty.

We are now back on Windbird and our Christmas dinner is almost ready. It did take us a couple days to get to Christmas dinner, but it is finally here. (Stuffing! Oops I forgot Dressing! – kjr) Tomorrow we head north into Phrang Nga Bay. There are supposed to be drop-dead beautiful spots, but they will have to be pretty good to beat what we have already seen.

081227 Day 66 Thailand–Railay Bay