Exploring Paradise: A Weekend at the Beach

Two weeks ago, My Man and I headed south to Chumphon to check out a rumored paragliding spot on the central coast of Thailand.  I am normally a manic trip planner, the kind of person who plans out each day with an hour by hour itinerary.  We don't necessarily stick to the plan, but I feel comforted, when heading out to the Unknown, to at least have a plan to fall back on.  Chumphon, however, did not cooperate.  It is a quiet place, a beach destination for Thais but not Westerners (who generally opt to simply jump off from Chumphon to get to Koh Tao or Koh Samui, popular diving destinations).  For maybe the first time in my life, we bought plane tickets and booked a rental car and headed off without a hotel reservation or any idea of what to expect.  It was a true exercise in spontaneity.  It was also a complete disaster.  OK, that is an overstatement.  Whenever you get a weekend away without the kids, it's a great time, and the weekend was full of surprises and wonderful moments, but almost nothing went as planned and it is telling that we ended up coming home a day early.

We flew from Chiang Mai down to Surat Thani, then took the scenic route north along the coast, stopping at a cute little Thai restaurant on the beach (cute if you didn't look at the piles of garbage and unfinished construction around the beach and instead fixed your gaze higher, to the palms, the blue sky with puffy white clouds, the ocean stretching blue green away into the distance.

With a bit of selective vision the whole thing was idyllic really.  The drive was interesting too.  We wound our way on tiny roads through rural Thailand, through plantations of rubber trees and palm groves, soaking in the sights and sounds of this new place.  At one point we almost crashed when we noticed the coconut truck passing us had four large monkeys riding along.

Our attempts at locating the flying hill were unsuccessful (maybe we'd have to hike up to the launch?), but the drive was interesting.  We enjoyed seeing the rural houses and farms, the exotic landscapes and people.

At sunset we finally pulled into the beach area to look for a place to call home for the next four nights.  We chose Nana Beach Hotel, situated across the road from Thung Wua Lean Beach.  It was a nice resort with bungalos (all full) and rooms and a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the ocean.  It was arguably the best place on the whole beach and for less the $45 a night with breakfast, it was perfect.  We walked along the beach after settling in and were amazed by how quiet and empty the place was (actually, I was impressed, while My Man was dismayed).  The sand was coarse but clean and the water was a bit murky (rainy season) but blue.  It was hot, even at nine at night, and humid.  There was absolutely no breeze at all (a definite mood killer for My Man since the whole point of the trip was paragliding).

The next morning, I headed out to try diving while My Man enjoyed a well-deserved morning of complete relaxation in bed (he'd been working extra hard while his boss was gone for more than 3 months and was enjoying the opportunity to decompress).  Koh Tao, just about 40 minutes away by ferry, is famous for its diving.  So famous that it is generally crowded with divers year-round.  I thought it would be nice to try the diving around Chumphon instead since it is supposedly similar but cheaper and much less crowded.  Although it looked like rain, I love diving and decided to go for it, even though the dive center (Chumphon Dive Cabana) warned me that visibility was not ideal.  They were right.  It was some of the worst visibility I have ever seen.  Still, I imagine it would be fantastic diving between November and May, because even though visibility was only 2-5 meters, there was a lot to see.  We dove a fascinating wreck, saw incredible soft and hard corals, lots and lots of fish and nudibranchs and shrimp and anemones.  I loved it.  As far as recommending the dive center?  The equipment was good and our dive master was good.  They didn't speak any English though and never asked to see my Padi certification card (actually they didn't ask anything about my experience at all!).  There was no talk of safety procedures or buddies (a little disconcerting with the lack of visibility).  So, if you are an experienced diver, I would recommend them; if not, however, maybe look for another place with a bit more support.

The wind was still uncooperative, so for dinner My Man and I headed into Chumphon city to try out a restaurant that had been recommended to us (Yimphochana Seafood).  It was absolutely phenomenal, the best Thai food I've ever had in Thailand (and that's saying a lot!) and incredible fresh seafood (I'm not generally a fan of seafood and I ate fish soup and horseshoe crab soup with relish.  It was amazing!).  If you ever find yourself in the area, it's worth checking out, in fact it was so good we went back again for lunch the next day!

Speaking of the next day, it dawned sunny and beautiful and hot and windless.  In other words, miserably terrible paragliding weather.  I headed out for a walk on the beach after breakfast while My Man grieved and consoled himself by watching paragliding videos on YouTube.  About an hour into my walk (which was incredibly beautiful but already uncomfortably hot), I got a call from My Man: "Want to check out Rayong?" "Sure," I replied, happy for a new plan since My Man had been so disappointed by Chumphon.  He packed up while I walked back, picked me up, and we headed back to the airport in Surat Thani to catch a short flight up to Bangkok.  On the drive back, I searched on my phone for rental cars in Bangkok but kept coming up with nothing.  We figured maybe it was because you can't rent online the same day and didn't fret too much.  Turns out, however, there really weren't any cars available once we landed in Bangkok.  So we caught a taxi for the one-hour trip to a hotel in Rayong, negotiated a ridiculously expensive last-minute rental the next morning, and lost no time heading to the first flying site in Rayong, a little hill right on the beach.

Unfortunately, the wind forecasts had been changing ever since we left Chumphon, and by the time we got to the flying site, it was all wrong.  Still, My Man was able to kite for awhile and play with the wing on the hill, and that, it turns out, was enough.  We headed to lunch at a fantastic little cafe (Phala Pier Cafe), where we enjoyed the ocean breeze and beautiful views (not to mention delicious food).

Then we headed out to check out another alleged flying site nearby.  Turns out the wind was not cooperating there either, but the views were wonderful and there were about 500 different kinds of butterflies.

We headed back down to check out the beach (Hat Mae).  It was pretty, with pine trees almost to the water's edge to provide shade and lots of little hotels and bungalos.

The beach itself, however, leaves something to be desired, with lots of trash and garbage along the whole expanse.  We had just found that roundtrip tickets to and from the airport in Rayong from Chiang Mai could be had for less than $50, so we were looking for a good family getaway.  I wasn't entirely convinced, however.

As we had dinner in a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean, though, I stumbled across information about an island just a 40-minute ferry ride away (Koh Samet).  It looked perfect for a family getaway, with beautiful beaches, snorkeling, nice hotels for cheap, and easy to get to.  Since the trip was all about spontaneity, we booked our trip home for early the next morning from this closer airport so we wouldn't have to drive back to Bangkok, then booked tickets and a rental car for the whole family for just two weeks later.  We researched hotels and booked a place right on the beach (Samet Pavilion Resort), which was beautiful and had a nice pool but had rooms for under $40 on agoda.com including breakfast.  And that was the end of our spontaneous getaway weekend.

Looking back on it, it was a strange kind of wonderful trip.  So different from our regular relaxing getaways in Railay, but fun in a quirky sort of way.  We saw new things, had lots of interesting driving, and discovered a new family destination (one that turned out to be one of our favorites).  We made the best out of frustrating circumstances.  We ate new foods, slept in three different hotels, explored lots of beaches and restaurants, and flew from three different airports, all in the space of four days.  And we got home in time to celebrate the 4th of July with friends and family, complete with fireworks and a BBQ.

Just goes to show that you can't always plan ahead for everything.

Beaches in Paradise

As our anniversary approached earlier this year, My Man and I decided to celebrate with a trip to the beach.

Although Thailand is famous for its beaches, Chiang Mai is decidedly not beachy, surrounded by mountains and jungles and cut off from the ocean by Burma on one side and Laos and Vietnam on the other. To get to the beach, you need to go south. To get to the best beaches, you need to hop on a plane down to Phuket or Krabi. We opted for Krabi, a getaway with stunning rocks, good reviews, and excellent low season prices.

My Man waiting for the longtail boat shuttle in Ao Nang

For under a hundred bucks each, roundtrip, we flew down to Krabi airport, where we hopped on a shuttle to Ao Nang beach.

There we caught a trip on a 15-minute longtail boat to our hotel on West Railay, a small but beautiful beach on a peninsula completely isolated from the mainland except by boat, giving the area an island-feel (no cars or vehicles).

 

When we got there, we got off the boat several meters from the beach, into thigh-deep water and waded to shore. It was hot enough that we didn't mind getting wet. I was surprised by how small the beach was, but since we were here during low season (May to October) it was surprisingly relaxed and uncrowded, framed by beautiful rocks and jungle.

As an added bonus, hotel rooms were 50-80% off and we scored a very nice deal on Agoda at the Sand & Sea Resort, right on the beach! We checked into our hotel (very beautiful, large room with beautiful views), left our bags, then headed out to explore.

We rented sea kayaks for a couple hundred baht (about $6) and set off.

It was so incredibly beautiful! There are lots of little islands and outcroppings offshore and we kayaked around several. The sun was shining and the water was warm and there was a nice breeze.

At one point we saw the outlines of what looked like three little sharks! But I haven't been able to ID them yet, so maybe that's just wishful thinking, but whatever they were, they were cool. We also fished out a large plastic parking cone and put it in the kayak to take back with us. After paddling around all the little rock islands near Phra Nong, we turned back and headed across the bay toward Tonsai. On the way we stopped on a little secluded beach.

After a bit of swimming and some pictures, we got back in the kayak and headed to Tonsai, a very remote beach that is popular with rock climbers and travelers on a tight budget. We had hoped to grab a smoothie but could only find a sparsely stocked shop where we got some warm bottled water.

There wasn't much there but My Man and I were delighted to find it was the best shell beach we've ever seen. There were thousands of beautiful, unique, perfect shells! We spent several minutes searching, trying to narrow it down to one shell as a souvenir for each kid back home (yes, this was a kid-free trip!!!). By then, the wind was picking up and a storm was on the way so we headed back to our beach.

By the time we got back it was raining, but we didn't mind. The beach cleared out and we had the ocean to ourselves, so we went swimming. It was amazing. The water was so warm and comfortable and the waves were just big enough to be fun. After swimming for awhile (and getting a few jelly fish stings), we moved to our pool, which was almost as nice (and had the added benefit of cooler water and no jelly fish!). When we finally got out to go find some dinner, we both agreed that even if we'd had to head back that night or the next morning, the trip would still have been absolutely worth it. It was a perfect day.



The next day we got up early to go diving with the Railay Dive Center at some local islands. It was great to dive again, but visibility was mediocre and our dive master was a sprint swimmer (not a good combination!). On our first dive, My Man and I got separated and there was a slight moment of panic when I debated chasing after the dive master disappearing in the distance or going back for my buddy, whom I already couldn't see. I opted for the dive master and felt like a traitor, even though it was the right decision. We spent the rest of the dive chasing the dive master looking for My Man, even though he'd followed protocol and waited a few minutes, then surfaced and found the boat. We begged our dive master to slow down for the next dive and he promised to do so (then didn't--we found out later it was his first day, and it showed). The other guy in our group, a diver from Brazil, had his heart set on seeing a sea snake (and was very upset with the quality of the first dive and poor visibility, about which he was very vocal). He said it was the only thing that would salvage the trip for him. The highlight of my trip, then, was when I spotted my first ever sea snake! Our dive master was still on a mission to sprint through the dive, so I had to swim hard to catch up to the Brazilian and get his attention. (His startled look when I tugged hard on his fin to get his attention was absolutely priceless.) Luckily the snake was still there when we got back to it, and we got to watch it for a few minutes. Ironically, his battery had just died, but Mr. Brazil was still very happy and dubbed me the "American snake girl" for the rest of the trip.

(Picture from Tmoj)

I forgot to pack our GoPro dive housing, so we didn't get any dive pictures, but we saw lots and lots of fish, some good coral (not as good as Bali), and some nudibranchs. Overall, we wouldn't recommend the diving, but we enjoyed it. We hadn't been diving since our Bali trip almost 2 years ago and it's always a magical experience for me. Possibly the visibility problems were due to the season (rainy).

That afternoon, we spent a couple hours swimming in the ocean at Phra Nong beach, then headed out for some relaxation on the East side of the peninsula. The West side is picture perfect, with just a few resorts set back from the beach, beautiful sandy beaches, and dramatic cliffs on both sides.

The East side is nice at high tide but low tide exposes stinky mudflats in the mangroves (and also beaches all the longboats). It's also the side with most of the restaurants, shops, bars (which also have smoothies and fruit), and a lot more resorts. The two sides are connected by several paths and are only a 5-10 minute walk apart.

My very favorite place on the East side was the Tay Lew bar. Past the misleadingly named "Last Bar," which most people think really is the last bar on the trail, it is wonderfully quiet and secluded and has a quirky, laid-back style. We were usually the only ones there.

There are several random bamboo pads, one even built out on a tree limb over the water, with soft mats to lie down on and just take in the view, the breeze, the perfection.

We spent hours crunching juicy, sweet fresh pineapple, sipping smoothies, and relaxing on several different occasions, even sheltering under the cover of one bamboo section that had a roof as we got hit by a fast and furious storm (being in Railay in the rainy season wasn't bad at all--we had rain every day, sometimes a few times, but it was usually an hour or less and had the added bonus of cooling the temperature wonderfully and clearing out all the tourists. We found that we didn't mind swimming in the rain and watching the rain while you eat is delightful! Also, the clouds were fantastic!). 

That first night, though, the sunset was just too good, and I convinced My Man to hurry back to our beach for the last bit of sun. It was worth it.

I took about five million pictures but I'll try to restrain myself and only post a few. I didn't need dessert after this, because it was an evening of pure eye candy.

I had heard that there are bioluminescent plankton here, so that night we went night swimming. It was one of my favorite things, ever. As we swam, it looked like sparks were flying from our fingers and arms. The stars were bright. The water was warm. And we had the beach to ourselves. Heaven. Seriously, this is what I want for my eternal rest. Just send me back to Railay! And then something swam past my legs in the dark, and my imagination burst into scenarios of shark attacks and sea monsters and electric eels, and I gasped and ran as fast as I could back up onto the beach.
 

There is a path that connects East Railay to Phra Nong beach, regularly featured in lists of Asia's top beaches.

The path winds along and under a large cliff and is really beautiful, with a family of monkeys often frequenting it.

There were about 15 of them scampering along the fence, completely ignoring me. They were adorable!  We saw them later on our trip high up on the cliff face.

About halfway down the path there is a sign marking the trail up to the aptly named "Lookout."

It's a good thing there is a sign because otherwise, the trail would be easy to miss, considering it's pretty much straight up and consists of a few strategically placed ropes and a tangle of roots and rocks.

Still, it was surprisingly easy to climb (although I'm glad it didn't rain until I got back down!) and the view was worth the sweat (which was literally pouring off of me by the time I reached the top, making me very happy about the ocean waiting for me back at the bottom!).

One of the nights, we headed back to The Last Bar to watch a Muay Thai boxing match and fire show. There were five or six guys who took turns dancing and juggling the fire sticks, and it was pretty amazing.

(Picture from TripAdviser.com)

Our trip really only had two main negatives. The first was a "snorkeling" trip we signed up for Monday. It turned out to be super crowded on a huge very noisy and exhausty speed boat with only about 45 minutes of mediocre snorkeling out of a 7-hour trip. We saw a few nice beaches and got to spend some time swimming and eating lunch on the Phi Phi Islands. We saw the bay where they filmed "The Beach" and saw where they collect the famous swallows nests to make the delicacy Chinese soup, but it kind of broke my heart that we spent our last full day on that tour when it would have been so much nicer just to rent sea kayaks again and go out on our own. Lesson learned. We signed up for one more tour, a kayaking trip through mangroves in Thalane Bay that would have also doubled as our transfer back to the airport (making it a super great deal), but Monday night My Man got sick, probably from the disappointing lunch buffet on our "snorkeling trip." :-( The poor guy had a rotten end to an otherwise perfect trip (this was the second negative).

I felt a little bad enjoying the wonderful breakfast on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and reading on our balcony soaking up the last bits of wonderful vacation while he was miserable, but he was a good sport, and I gave him a foot rub to help make up for it. :-)

Far too soon, we were on another longtail boat, heading back to the airport.

The only thing that made me happy to leave was the prospect of lots and lots of hugs from our wonderful kids back home. They had stayed with our wonderful Mae Baan (part-time housekeeper/nanny) and according to email updates had a great time and didn't even miss us. But I missed them.

My Man and I played Phase10 on the plane rides and had a few wonderfully close games (I think we each ended up winning a couple). Happy 14th anniversary to us!  This was definitely one to remember!

Scuba Diving in Paradise

Young Man had the incredible opportunity to go on a scout trip to Koh Lok and the Similan Islands where he completed his PADI scuba certification, earned a bunch of merit badges, and had the time of his life.

As we were dropping him off at the airport for his first ever flight without us, I just couldn't help but feel so proud of what a great kid he is. Young Man has a heart of gold and even though we were excited for this opportunity for him, it was still hard to see him go, mostly because I knew we would miss him so much!

Here's what he said about the trip (pictures are from other scouts and leaders on the trip):
Day 1: My flight to Phuket left at 11:30am so we got up at around 8 and left the house at 9ish to be there by 10. It was a two-hour flight, so I took the opportunity to study my scuba workbook. When I landed, me and the other 3 people I was going with went outside to meet the van driver picking us up. After a quick lunch at a nearby Subway, we commenced the 1 1/2 hour drive to the house we were staying at for 3 days. We beat the people that were driving (they left the day before to start the 17-hour drive) so we decided to check out the beach. It was great. The other group got there as soon as we got back. My favorite thing about the house was that it had a ping-pong table. That was set up almost instantly and was played nonstop until bed time. I didn’t ever get a blanket this night so I was freezing in the cabin I shared with 3 other people (they insisted on aircon).

Day 2: We woke up early, ate, and then started playing table tennis. At 9, we set out to go to the pool where we were doing our training and meeting our dive masters. That lasted until about 2pm.When we got back, we listened to music, ate some more, went to the beach, slept, and played even more table tennis. We had our first oceanography merit badge lecture that evening and went to the beach at night to collect plankton samples. We came back and spent the next hour looking at the hundreds of tiny animals we found in the water (including three jelly fish which we thought were clumps of plankton at first). I forgot to ask for a blanket and the was cold all night again. I was smarter this time though and slept in a hoodie and a towel.

Day 3: Waterfall day! Everyone except for me and a few other people went to a nearby waterfall to hike, climb, and explore. The people who stayed played table tennis all day instead. (-= One of my friends that went to the waterfall climbed up to a restricted area, fell off, and broke his wrist. No scuba diving for him. He had to be flown back to Chiang Mai for medical treatment. We got on the boat at 10.00pm that night and went to bed at 11. This was my last night sleeping inside without a blanket.

Day 4 (Day 1 on the boat): Wake up was at 6am every morning. We went to the main room for the dive briefing and all of the introductions etc. Normally we dove at 6.30 but on the first day, we didn’t get in until 8am. The first dive was good but the second and third ones were the best that day. I saw pistol shrimp, both kinds of mantis shrimp, schools of barracuda, coral everywhere, hundreds of fish etc. In between dives we played chess, slept, and watched movies. I finally decided to sleep on the open aired roof of the boat because it was much warmer outside. This was my first night actually sleeping well.

Daily Dive ScheduleWake up-6am
Dive one-6.30am
Breakfast-7.50am
Dive two-10am
Lunch-11.30am
Dive three-2.00pm
Snack- 3.10pm
Dive 4- 5.00pm
Dinner- 7.00pm

Day 5: The same as day 4. We started a chess tournament. We saw lion fish, scorpion fish, moray eels, shrimp, seahorses, more mantis shrimp, and the first turtle of the trip. I again slept on the roof and it was amazing.

Day 6: Supposedly the best diving in Thailand and I believe it! We ended up spending all four dives here- http://www.richelieu-rock.com/. It was sad because several people were sick that day and decided to sit out on the first dive. I almost stayed but decided to go at the last second. On that very first dive we saw the whale shark. I was glad I went then! We were swimming close to the bottom when our dive instructor told us to look up and there it was! A 5-meter-long whale shark. We swam up to it and had to grab on to the rock wall we were scuba diving below because of the current. The farthest it got from us was about 2 meters away as it was swimming up and down slowly with its mouth wide open. We observed it for the rest of our dive (20 min) The closest it ever got was about an armslength away as we and it were swimming away. We didn’t see it any of the other dives but they were also amazing dives. I fell asleep on the roof of the boat and missed the last dive but it was ok. This night started normally with me sleeping on the roof. It started sprinkling at about 3am though so I moved one level down (a roof but no walls) and fell back asleep. It started really pouring at 4 though so I woke up again no longer safe from the rain. I had to wait until 6 for everyone else to wake up and the day to start.

Day 7: On the last day, we were only doing two dives and the 7 of us that were flying back weren’t allowed to go on either of them for nitrogen reasons. We hung out, slept, played chess, and ate while the others were diving. Two mantas were seen which made jealous. The last dive was also pretty sad to miss. Huge schools of lionfish, barracuda, and several fish. There were also hundreds of scorpion fish throughout the dive site. We got to the dock at around 1.30pm and left for the 1 hour drive to the airport. Our flight left at 8.30pm. Five hours to wait. Ughhhh. We could have been home by 5pm instead of 11pm! With school the next morning! And I had already not slept well the previous night. Ughhhh. Overall it was an amazing experience and I absolutely loved it!

We were so happy to see him (one of the last ones off the plane!) when he finally got home and can't wait to go diving with him soon!