So while the Andaman Sea Thai islands were a bit overrun w tourists, all one needs to do is head a bit south to the Malaysian island of Langkawi. It’s actually 190 different islands but dominated by one main island as most are uninhabited. It’s real lovely & quiet. Datai Bay, on the main island & locale of my hotel, is listed as top 10 beaches in world by National Geographic & it’s the prettiest, widest, longest, nicest one I’ve seen yet. It also seems to have the most wildlife as monkeys are everywhere as are those damn monitor lizards, which I’m getting very accustomed to & don’t even bat an eye when I encounter them now. This rare, nearly endangered, flying monkey species called the colugo come out at night & I’ve been lucky enough to watch them fly from tree to tree over dinner. I spent the week relaxing, kayaking, paddle boarding, reading & treating myself to decent (but still Malaysian) food & a couple spa treatments. Real tough week.
It’s not everyday you have a sign on your patio door warning you to close it due to monkeys. Yes, they’re around.
This warning sign is on the other side of the path circling the pools. You’d think it was a joke but no, one was chillin 5 feet from me in the trees while I was laying in a sun lounger. It’s like they’re NBD anymore. I met guests who ran into 2 large wild boars the other night. After 7pm, brown bats begin dive bombing towards your head “inside” the open-air resort. And this is a 5-star luxury accommodation… or animal kingdom. It’s freaking wild. Literally.
View from my balcony
The beach
Monkey time
My view from the best mani/pedi of my life. Sitting outside in open air w a great breeze, overlooking the Andaman Sea & monkeys w their babies playing in the trees. Pretty fabulous.
The trip to the island of Phi Phi in the Andaman Sea took 3 different boats & only one minor mishap. We took a longboat from Railay to a ferry boat parked just offshore to Phi Phi & because there are no roads on the island of Phi Phi, we hopped aboard another longboat taxi to our hotel. Boarding the initial longboat at Railay required us wading into knee deep water w our backpacks & purses, slinging them over top the wooden boat & leaping up while small waves come crashing in. Amy made it up on first try but then promptly toppled over backwards into the boat. I exclaimed “oh, Amy!” as I thought there was a chance she was going to knock her head but she managed to recover by pulling off a pretty adept barrel roll & successfully sat up w a big grin on her face. We died laughing along w the longboat captain. Only later did the bruise develop. After I hopped up & in along w the next 2 people… the captain finally decided to put out a ladder, after he perhaps got his entertainment for the day.
We were one of many people leaving puritanical Railay for Phi Phi as it is apparently the Mecca of Southern Thailand (beyond Phuket), made famous by a Leo Dicaprio movie, “The Beach”, filmed there some years ago. We weren’t taking a day trip to “The Beach” with everyone else nor did we feel we needed to see the main port town of Tonsai turn into a crazy club town at night, so upon recommendation from other travelers, we opted for the less-populated far NE side of the island. We splurged a bit on the hotel as we were looking for total relaxation after some busy days in Vietnam & the somewhat disappointing Railay. We got exactly what we hoped for, in addition to amazing food & it was lovely.
Up to this point in the trip, we had done a proper job researching each place prior to visiting to try to understand what we were in for. We didn’t really do that for Railay Beach, near Krabi in the Andaman Sea. We just picked a place on the beach & booked a night to check it out before committing to anything else. Two of my best friends, the Veit sisters, have previously been to Railay beach & I talked with them about it not long before my trip. However, only a “you probably don’t need to spend much time there” rang out in my head along with “the beach is gorgeous & this is a must see” so I guess I attributed “not needing much time” to time limitations of their trip… Why not spend more time there if it’s so beautiful?
We flew from Siagon to Krabi & hopped in a taxi to take us to Railay Beach. The taxi dropped us at a pier & told us to book a boat to Railay Beach bc apparently no roads. This is where more research would’ve come in handy. Oh well, everything’s an adventure. It was 3:20 & luckily the next boat was leaving at 3:30. It was a wooden longboat & the ride was 15 mins to Railay. It dropped us at Railay East which doesn’t have good beaches but only a 10 minute walk to Railay West are good beaches & our beachfront hotel. We did a quick change into suits & went out to enjoy the beach at 4pm to check out the area to see if we like it enough to stay additional nights. Within 15 minutes we had decided the afternoon & evening would be plenty of time & we’d look for hotels on Ko Phi Phi for the next few nights. This quick decision was due to the following factors:
– The lovely longboats that make for beautiful photos in the foreground of mountainous scenery were so goddam loud & constantly picking up & dropping day trippers off. Total noise pollution which did not make for a peaceful relaxing atmosphere.
– It’s 98 degrees during day (prob 90 at 4 which was bearable) but no way to cool off as the water, protected by the inlet, was like bath water. It didn’t even make me want to go in after walking in knee deep. I thought it would make me hotter. The opposite of refreshing.
– The beach was swarming with a lot of families & a lot of couples, who we determined were very boring as we weren’t sure what there was to do here given swimming in the ocean & relaxing on the beach were out. I just couldn’t reconcile why couples, looking for a nice quiet romantic spot, would come to a place w such noise pollution all day long. Doesn’t make sense.
– Then we finally realized what there was to do… Serious climbers come there to climb the massive rocks overlooking the water. We saw maybe 20 people w ropes & climbing shoes so we determined the majority of the people were boring couples.
– The topper was when we sat down to split a spicy squid salad at 6:30 & to book our Ko Phi Phi hotel. We were given food menus but no drink menus. We asked the server for one & we deciphered he told us he couldn’t serve us bc he was Muslim but we were welcome to go to the bar, order drinks & bring them back to enjoy w dinner. Umm, what? I traveled all over the Middle East & in Turkey & believe me, we were served a lot of drinks by Muslims without judgement. Why wouldn’t you want to make a buck? So Amy desperately went in search for the bar, which we thought was our hotel’s along the beach. Nope. She tried the next beach hotel and the next. They all directed her to “the bar” which she finally found bc there’s only one on the beach. The only ones to serve beer & booze on the island. WTF? 20 minutes later she returned w 2 mojitos, we ate the salad, booked our Phi Phi hotel, settled our tab & promptly went back to “the bar” for dinner (a delicious red curry w duck & pineapple), beers, cards & some great people watching.
A simply stunning beach bound by these massive awe inspiring mountains but a 2-hr day trip would’ve been sufficient bc it was a weird place overnight and while we made the best of it & had fun, we were thankful we were leaving in the morning.
amusemusings 