Go South
In pictures of guesthouses that I’ve seen around, rooms somehow always look larger and cleaner than their partners in reality. Somehow, whenever I arrive at a guesthouse, the ubiquitous flowers in the porcelain vase are always missing from the bedside table and are replaced by ants and broken screen windows. Oops, what can I be thinking? I’m a student travelling on a budget in India and Pakistan and Thailand. Silly girl.
The good news: the beaches in Thailand actually look like their pictures, and like postcards. I’m positive I could sell some pictures I took while in southern Thailand, even as an amateur. Everything is green, turquoise, robin’s egg blue and as vibrant as any Thai silk.
First, a quick in-transit tale: I was heading down to Railey Beach near Krabi and took the government’s VIP 24 seat bus. Anyone who is going, read this. It is amazing. Do not get a bus from Khao San Road, even though they’re cheaper and leave from Khao San. They’re not as nice, longer by several hours, you have to switch buses (hence the extended length), and friends I met had money stolen from their bags. Guidebooks warn but on this subject no one listens. The VIP bus had seats that reclined to about 180 degrees and back massage functions. We were served KFC as a snack. To catch the bus to Krabi, go to the southern bus terminal. From Khao San it should be about 60 Baht by taxi and a half hour ride.
Okay, so after an unbelievably cozy 11 hour ride, save for the Thai music they play to wake you up upon arrival, I got out at Krabi bus station and had a most wonderful experience. “Tourist Information!”, touts were screaming. The people I was with wanted to check it out and, always on the lookout for scams (10 weeks in India and Pakistan – need I say more?!) I was skeptical. this time I was wrong and I worship at the alter of Jacob Valdez.
A sign on the block by Krabi bus station says JACOB VALDEZ (USA) Tourist Information, (075) 632-296. Inside sits Jacob, an American from San Antonio, TX, who came to Thailand eight years ago to rock climb and take pictures. Now married to a Thai woman, converted to Islam and with an adorable daughter, Jacob settled and opened his tourist office in December 2000. Business is slow because he gives out free information that helps tourists to avoid scams, therefore many locals, especially tuk-tuk drivers, don’t like him.
But let me say, this man is fabulous and extremely knowledgeable. He gives accurate prices for songthaew’s, checks out everywhere he talks about and recommends places to go. He’s an agent for several places, but gives out free information unrelated to accommodation or tours if you don’t want it. And of course, if you want, he can tell you good places to stay because he speaks fluent Thai with the staff to ask their opinions. The best thing for me was that he books bus tickets commission-free for travellers. Once he books 15, the tour company gives him one free ticket. For tourists, this saves getting to the bus stand early to buy tickets and equals more beach time. A win-win situation if I’ve ever heard of one.
I’ve headed south twice now and the second time I brought a group. We were welcomed with fresh pineapple as a thank you for repeat business and were bid farewell with a bag of fruit. We did nothing more than book our bus tickets back to Bangkok, commission free, with Jacob. This man has class. So, anyone reading this who is heading south, be on the lookout for Jacob’s office. He’s up at four a.m. when the first buses come in and I can’t recommend this guy enough. A cynic was converted (cue the polyphonic feast of allelujahs).
And so on a songthaew at 6 a.m. we drove into the country through Krabi, Ao Nang, to Ao Nam Mao. I have had many experiences that have been surreal on this trip – witnessing an enormous tree branch crushing stalls of vendors on a main road in India as people scattered like ants, or watching the ceremony of burning bodies as I wrote about earlier. But the landscape in this area of southern Thailand made me feel as though I was in the most delicious dream. Large sheer rocky cliffs covered in luscious foliage, a sky as vast as the green Andaman Sea underneath it – or is it above? Everything felt topsy turvy, heady, intoxicating. The air was pregnant with the possibility of rain, though there were few white clouds in the sky to mirror the sand on the winding coast.
I looked out, felt the wideness of the place tugging, stretching me open.
Once we took the longtail to Railey Beach and settled in, I knew the week I had there would fly. Hugged by cliffs on both sides, the bay at West Railey is shaped like a cove where a giant could curl up cozily to sleep a thousand years. So little me found a spot on the beach and did just that. A lazy sleep in the summer sun.
Daytime at Railey, Tonsai and Phra Nang beaches (all adjacent) is simply stunning as the horizon is defined by smaller green islands of possibility that my lazy gaze could rest on.
And at night, like that first morning, I felt my heart stretch as the stars that are held up by the cliffs and the clouds somehow were holding my dreams as well; of travel, of Thailand, of life itself.
