You might not want to read this posting, especially if you overdue for a vacation. After two months of sightseeing at a fast pace, and with the last few weeks getting really hot, we decided we needed a break. So we decided to hit the beach and relax, Thai style!
We spent 10 nights in three different beach locations: Khao Lok, Koh Lanta and Railay Beach. In each place we took it easy: sleeping in as late as we wanted, meditating and then letting each day unfold with what we felt like doing.
We rented a kayak and paddled out through the breakers where we got soaked, it was so much fun! Then we paddled north and around some small islands.
We rented a scooter for a few days and cruised around Koh Lanta island.
All around the island we saw these blooming Golden Shower trees, Cassia Fistula, which is Thailand's national tree.
By scooter was a great way to visit a bunch of beaches here.
As a result, we spent a lot of time swimming! The ocean is incredibly warm, the warmest we have ever felt. We were wondering how long you'd have to stay in the water before you felt cold. Four hours? Maybe six?
Kristina's prescription glasses also went for a swim off the pier one night while we were eating dinner. But, as luck would have it, we were a block away from an optician store and she got a replacement pair in one day. As she models her new glasses she is enjoying a "Thai-pirinha", which is based on the Brazilian drink, the caipirinha, but flavored with lemon grass, basil and chili. She also decided to get a new pair of fabulous, but inexpensive, non-prescription sunglasses, which she's wearing while enjoying a delicious coconut-pineapple smoothie at lunch. If you look closely you can see the beach reflected in here glasses. (FYI, clicking the pics in the email dispatch opens them full size in your browser.)
We saw some beautiful sunsets.
We spent time walking on the beach, looking at the shells and sand crabs, and listening to the sound of the waves.
We read a lot! We had been carrying around a small library, since we had visited several good bookstores in India and Bangkok. Two recommended books: Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger is a scathing story about India's corruption and caste system; and Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh is an outrageous tale about a spice plantation family in Kochi that moves to Bombay - it's one of Rushdie's best and we could not put it down! Now we are reading historical fiction about Burma by Amitav Ghosht whose Glass Palace starts with the British invasion in 1885; It will dovetail into the time period covered in the Aung San Suu Kyi biography by Jesper Bengtsson, which includes her father Aung San's life too, giving us a good overview of Burmese recent history.
Pete took a cooking class and had a great time. Kristina came for dinner, and enjoyed the lemon grass margaritas as well as the food that Pete cooked.
He learned how to make a bunch of Thai dishes, including red curry paste (pictured below with stir fried shrimp, long beans, and chilies) and chicken "laab"; which is seasoned with fish sauce, lime juice, mint, kaffir lime leaves, chilies and lemon grass. (Send an email to yoga@kristinaisberg.com if you want recipes!) Because we learned what ingredients were used in which dishes, it was even more enjoyable to eat our meals. Some of our favorites were penang curry (which is red curry paste plus star anise, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom) with fish, pork fried with kaffir lime leaves, and green curry coconut milk soup - delicious!
Our final beach stop was Railay Beach in Krabi Province, which is an anvil-shaped peninsula that juts into the warm waters of the Andaman Sea. There are no roads where we are staying, so approach is by boat. We took a ferry from Koh Lanta and then transferred to a Thai long-tail boat to reach shore. Or almost shore. We had to get out of the boat with our packs and wade through the water to the beach.
Railay has beautiful, steep limestone cliffs that are popular for rock climbing; we just enjoyed the views without climbing the rocks.
And yes, there is Wifi on the beach!
