Ton Sai Beach

Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Ton Sai Beach
We've been in Krabi for a few days now. We started out in a little hut near the beach that seemed perfectly fine until they started burning garbage down wind from us. Since the bungalow has wicker walls, the smoke came right it. We decided to splurge a bit and got a nicer hut down the beach. I think it was a good decision since the smoke is still billowing at our old place.
Yesterday we went for a hike to a lagoon near by. It's a pretty idyllic spot, warm emerald green water surround on every side by 600ft-tall, limestone cliffs. Getting there was a bit of a chore. First we had to scramble up a steep, rocky hill that was slippery from the morning's rain. That part was actually pretty easy in comparison to the journey down into the lagoon. There was a muddy slope which you had to skillfully slide down using a rope to manage your speed. At the bottom of that one there was a short, but slippery, walk around trees and under craggy stalactites over to the first of three cliffs that we had to scale down. It was tricky. The cliffs were nearly verticle and it took a lot of concentration to make sure that your feet and hands were able keep you from slipping off the wet rocks. Ropes had been placed at each of these sections to aid our descent. The third section was actually cliff you couldn't climb down. A rope latter had been set up to crawl down. The only difficult part was the rope's tendency to twist and twirl once you had entrusted it with all your weight! It was awesome! Finally we made it to the bottom and enjoyed a well-deserved dip in the lagoon.

Today we opted for a day on the water. We rented a kayak and a couple of masks. It was a gorgeous morning, lots of sunshine, a calm turquoise sea and a very light breeze. We lashed down our water and put the camera in a zip-lock and headed out with our aim on a nearby island. We glided along feeling lively and strong and made our way to the first little island quite easily. It was basically a little rock with a few trees growing on top of it. We decided to hop in the water to see what the reef looked like. We put on our masks and jumped over-board. We strained through the murk to see a few little fish that looked like sergeant majors and then there were the millions of little fish that school together here. The visibility was pretty bad so we decided to continue on our way. After much more rowing we reached the island. We pulled up the kayak and headed over to restaurant for some lunch. The weather was still sunny, but we could see a storm out on the horizon so we ate quickly and then made our way back to the kayak. We were making good time with the wind at our backs but could tell that the storm was catching up with us. By the time we reached our bay the waves had piling-up and the wind was really blowing. Luckily the wind was pushing us more-or-less in the right direction and we made it back without too much drama.

We have now had a delicious dinner of rice and veggies (our staple) and we treated ourselves to a banana pancake...since we did row hard. The only thing we're missing is a shower--the water was off when we got home. Such is life on Ton Sai beach. Tomorrow we plan to do a lot of relaxing in the shade. (Oh, I forgot to mention that we both got quite sun burnt...stupid! stupid! stupid!) We'll be smarter in the future.