I am laying under a cliff against a smelly triangle pillow, on the deck of a bar, observing the interesting dynamics flowing between the climbers above me, the large family of monkeys surrounding the climbers, and the dog beneath the cliff warning the monkeys to stay away from the humans’ food! Could I imagine a place I would rather be???? The answer is no!!!!
It was time to move on from Ao Nang, and although this move was a short one, it was like another world away. We hopped a small, long-tail wooden boat to Tonsai Beach, a boat is the only way to access this tiny hidden bay. There are no cars here on Tonsai, there is one dirt path leading up into the mountain with neighborhoods of native bungalows, substantially more monkeys than humans, the whole place is run by generators that are turned on during select hours of the night, and the people are all laid back rock climber types. PER-FECTION. The beach has about 4 restaurants/bars and there is a dirt path with street stalls for the budget travelers… aka… ME! We came here for rock climbing, which happens to be some of the most unique in the world, with the clear waters and huge limestone cliffs to scale. The weather is not that great the first 2 days, so we ease ourselves into the environment by chillin out and watching the expert climbers tackle cliffs that look impossible to me.
We hang out for a bit and then head over to Railay beach while the tide was out, climbing along the wet rocks that are at the side of the cliff that separates the 2 beaches. The sun set on us as we were finishing the trek over, and we arrived on Railay beach!
We treat ourselves to some pizza, smoke some mint flavored shisha, and watch, literally, the best fire show on earth. I’m talking about 9 chizzled, shirtless, sweaty guys twirling fire and dancing to slow music, bumpin with the hip hop music, and going freaking crazy to rock music; one on top of the other ones shoulders, and then another one puts the ends of the fire lines in his mouth and head bangs, then they go across the seated crowd and throw the fire over the audience and catch it on the other side! Madness…
Time to leave, and we see the tide is in. We trek to the other side of the island and it is dead. No boats, the rocks that we climbed are now covered with water, and it is a little too far to swim in the dark. There is some mysterious path that you can take through the jungle, but we were not up for figuring that one out at 2 am by ourselves. So, we have a seat on some chairs to ponder whether or not to try and party til morning when we can get a boat, get a room on this side for the night, or sleep out on the beach, when I hear the sound of an engine from far away. I grab Leah’s light, and run to the beach, flashing it over and over again. A beat up little wooden boat pulls up and agrees to take us where we need to go for 3 bucks each. They have a deal, and we are dropped back to our secluded bay! How lucky are we!?!?
The next day we grab some kayaks and head out to sea, kayaking through little caves and in between huge limestone rocks in the clear waters. We take a dip as we please, swim around out in the middle of the Andaman Sea, and marvel at the scenery. Alicia, Leah, and I celebrate our last night together, which leads to a MAJOR chill out rainy day the next day, as Alicia takes off for her homeland. Tonsai may be about the chilliest pace ever, but Leah and I are ready for 24hour a day electricity and a more lively night crowd, so we jump the boat to Rai-lay, meet some friends, and schedule our rock climbing for the next day!!!!
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