Asia2004 - Mike's Journal

Mike's Journal

1 Dec, East Railey

Wednesday, December 1 –East Railey Beach

Yesterday, Andrew remarked that he thought that Railey Beach was one of the most beautiful places in the world. I still agree with him as far as RB West is concerned, but if RB West is a beautiful woman, then RB East is her deformed brother who is kept locked in the basement and periodically escapes to injure unsuspecting tourists.

The day started great, with breakfast and an hour-long kayak trip around Cape Phra Nang. Superb, but we didn’t bring a camera. We then moved our stuff from our expensive villa at RBW to modest (and affordable) huts at RBE. Then into Krabi town for the afternoon on a longtail boat. More great scenery on the way, we can see the Karst columns of Phang Nga bay to the north. In Krabi, I had an “English Hangover Breakfast” which was good, and a strawberry lassi, which was great. We found an internet place, did some emailing, bought a few trinkets, and drank some Chang at O’Malley’s Irish Pub. Interesting take on faux-Irish culture, Leprechauns painted on the walls, sitting on mushrooms and playing guitars and cornets. Then another longtail boat ride back to RBE.


The ankle-destroying East Railey, at low tide.

We arrived back at RBE at low tide, so the boat had to “anchor” a few hundred feet offshore. No problem, we were just to jump off and wade in, we’re used to this by now. They had thoughtfully built a concrete causeway thing for arriving people to walk in on. Less thoughtfully, they had not marked it in any way, and the visibility through the murky water being less than 3 inches, I couldn’t see it (I was first one off the boat). Only a few steps from the boat, I fall off the causeway and gash my ankle open on the jagged side of the walkway. I then have to limp into shore on the slimy causeway, blood gushing down my ankle. The injury wasn’t especially bad, except that it happened in filthy brown water that I’m pretty sure has raw sewage running into it (I later said to Andrew that I figure RBW probably pump their human waste to RBE – it would explain a lot!). Once on dry land, there was little I could do except limp all the way back to our hut, through the construction zones and piles of mud and refuse that litter the place. Finally back at the hut, I clean the wound as best I can with alcohol and iodine swabs, smear it with antibacterial cream, and hope for the best.

I can more or less walk, so I head back to RBW for a bit while Andrew goes swimming. After ~30 seconds on the beach the clouds open up and I have to run for the shelter of a beachfront restaurant to wait out the squall. Andrew kept swimming and apparently injured himself on coral. Clearly we have angered some God or other. I eat a rather mediocre dish of chicken soup and coconut milk, and we amble back to the hut.

Our hut is in the Rapalla compound, which is an impenetrable labyrinth of identical wood shacks on wiggly paths, and the only way we can find our hut at # 11 is to split up and wander around. Two scruffy, limping white men, wandering around, peering into huts. This could have been bad.

Having found our hut, to avoid any further disasters, we clean ourselves up and go to bed.

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