Breakfast at the Ban Sainai resort was quite an affair! There was an extensive buffet spread including a salad bar, pastries, juice bar, coffee bar and quite a few traditional Thai breakfast foods like soup, curry, etc. There was also a menu to order from of traditional western and some more eastern offerings.
First I want to comment about the fruit in Asia. When I walked into the restaurant buffet area (the restaurant is also open air), the first thing I smelled was the sweetness of the fruit offering. Fruit tastes like fruit here-- it's quite amazing! Just like when I went to Vietnam 7 years ago, I was really blown away by how incredible the fruit tastes, and it is the same here. I got a coffee, some fruit juice (who ever would expect that I, hater of the nasty carrot, would love carrot juice!?) and a plate of fruit. Yum. Dragonfruit, pineapple, watermelon.
I got an egg roti for breakfast, which is a traditional Thai crepe with egg, and some cinnamon sugar sprinkled on, some more fruit and coffee. The pond view is beautiful and peaceful though sitting on the deck in the cottages is an open affair to the restaurant. Some fish came up for breakfast, and some ducks enjoyed some break a boy threw out to them.
Holy humidity! It was lovely when I first went out-- nice and cool and in the low 70s. It's now 78 and the humidity crept up with the heat!
I wandered the grounds a bit taking in how truly lovely they are. Mountains loom over the resort, which is a maze of plush green. I went to the desk for help to figure out my day. Apparently the town opens at around 10-11, so I'm glad I didn't decide to go into town early. This also helps my planning for tomorrow! I will take the 11:00 shuttle to the beach, and walk along the bit of town there as well. I have a sunset cruise that picks up near there at 1:15. I think I will get another massage tomorrow am before I leave since nothing will yet be open.
I think I forgot to mention the Mosque yesterday. Around dinner time I could hear in the distance the chanting and songs of a mosque. It was quite beautiful, though thanks to Hollywood and their push of terror movies, it gave me some chills. I learned on the cruise in talking with a guide that this area, and particularly Railley Beach, is very Muslim. Thailand overall is very tolerant of religion, all religion. There is a large Muslim population in Ao Nang and Krabi town, and a very large one in Railley Beach area. He mentioned that there is one dog that lives in Railley. No dogs used to as the Muslim people believe they are unclean, but this stray came as a puppy and is allowed by the locals.
I took the shuttle at 11 to go to the beach, and we were dropping right there. It's quite busy here since it's 'high season' and there were people all over. It's a thin strip of beach that seems to go on forever. You can see many of the rock "islands" from the shore, and just like in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, it's really beautiful. I walked down a ways at the suggestion of a couple I met in our tuk tuk ride, and it was much less crowded. I dipped my toes in sand and enjoyed the amazingly warm waves splashing. This truly is paradise!
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| Ever-present tsunami warnings |
There are massage shops all along the beach and women (and some men) trying to get you to buy. They are mostly 300 Thai BHT, around $9 US. I unfortunately didn't have time, but decided to enjoy a quick pedicure while I wanted to meet up with my mini-cruise. It was interesting. She didn't soak my feet beyond a quick dip to remove sand. It was purely removing polish, trimming, etc. and reapplying polish. No scrub, massage, etc. But for $2 USD, it was a steal.
I met a really nice woman from Estonia who spoke very good English. She was light blonde and very fair, like my friends in Sweden.
I grabbed a lunch of pineapple rice with chicken and shrimp. It was really good and served in a pineapple! The chicken was.. interesting. I am struggling with how to describe it, but if you took a fabric, like a cotton ball or something like that, and spread it out over the dish.. it was almost a dry foamy texture and really strange!
I took a walk down the street to get an idea of what the town is like. There are a lot of tourist stores, selling guided tours, tourist 'trap' items, tattoo parlors, juice bars and the like. I'm so very glad I decided to not stay right in town and on the beach but stayed a five minute drive from it. My hotel is such a paradise and so quiet, aside from the lone rooster in the distance. :)
I picked up a post card for my nephews as I send them one from wherever I go, then went to the meeting point. There was a good-sized group of maybe 50 people. I talked for a bit with Carlotta, our guide. She was a small, young girl in her mid-20s. She was from Milan, Italy, then lived in Argentina with family for a couple of years before moving here four years ago. She is fluent in Thai now and said it was difficult to learn. She did mention that it's very 'simple' in that they don't have as many descriptive words as in other languages. An example she gave is the word breakfast. They don't have a word for breakfast, lunch, dinner but say morning meal, evening meal. The very long words on signs that I saw are actually not words but content! They don't use spaces and punctuation and just carry on with their words.
We got onto a long boat from the shore, that took us to a larger boat. There were people from all around the world on the boat, and I spoke with two from the US, India, France, Germany, China, and others. Everyone was very friendly. The boat had a second level and people were jumping off onto the water. The crew offered a free drink to anyone who did a backflip and very eagerly chanted 'back flip, back flip' to encourage. Even so, only one tried, an American girl from California.
We stopped in four places to swim. The current was pretty strong at times but it was so beautiful. The water seemed really salty and buoyant, and floating was no problem. It was a little choppy and I got more than one mouthful of the salty brine. So much for not drinking the water! lol. Though I actually was so hot that I got a watermelon 'juice' that ended up with ice in it when in town. I decided to take my chances so fingers crossed!
The boat offered snorkels so of we went to check out the 'island' we were near and the schools of fish that were mostly silver, and black and yellow striped. The second site we stopped at had more of a reef and had more different fish and sea urchins.
The sun started to set at the third site we stopped at. I spoke with another guy on the crew who was from El Salvador. His parents emigrated to Canada in the Calgary area during the civil wars and he was hoping they would love to Thailand for a while. He had been living there for two years and loved it, while Carolotta had been there for 4.
The sun set in some of the most beautiful yellows, oranges and reds. It went surprisingly quickly! Dinner was a yummy affair after with pad thai, masaman curry and another chicken and vegetable dish, with lots of vegetarian dishes as well.
Carlotta told me that someone on the cruise was going to propose from his girlfriend. Unfortunately it wasn't until well after dark but it was very sweet. She got a number of the folks on the cruise to help as he has created many laminated little signs that people ran out with. She of course said yes, and everyone clapped.
I was a bit swum out but then they have a night swim as there is bioluminescence! This kind of plankton glow, and when you wave your arms in the water it was like a night sky of fireflies lighting up the water. It was really amazing to see!
We got back to the shore on the smaller long boats. I was still soaked and my towel got dunked in the water when I got off the boat. I decided to just stay as is and made the walk up to the tuk tuk meeting point for my hotel. It was unfortunately very full, and I felt badly about my sopping towel but, oh well! I made it just in time to go back. It was around 8:30 and I was completely exhausted! I took a long hot shower, which felt SO good after all of the salty water, and headed to bed at 9:30.
I recommend Krabi Sunset Cruises and had an amazing day. I got to see all I wanted to in this area and while I'd love another day to relax, I'm onward.. to my next adventure in a few hours. After breakfast and another wonderful pummeling massage. Ahh... :) (Note, the massage at my hotel is 510 BHT or $16.
Forgot to mention that Carolotta was sharing with me about teaching in Thailand. She said the local school pays between 35,000 and 45,000 BHT a month (around $1200 USD). Teachers work 4 hour days, housing and food is paid for. Expense would be minimal and 40,000 BHT would go a long way towards any of that. Something to ponder for certain!
I had the roti with mataba for breakfast-- a crepe filled with a mixture of banana, egg and milk. Yum. I also tried homemade pea bread-- it's bright blue and tasted like white bread with a slight sweetness to it.
This place is wonderful and I recommend it to anyone- Ban Sainai resort. The grounds are beautiful and lush, with a mountain overlooking and a beautiful little pond stocked with koi. A gorgeous duck dined with me this morning, with such amazing colors! I can't wait to be able to post pictures to this blog so you can see!
Everyone in Thailand is incredibly friendly. The language sounds like a song, and Carlotta told me that inflection can change the meaning of a word. There is one word for dog, horse and-- dang it if I forgot the third. Depending where you put the inflection provides the meaning. This is another reason why she said it's a very simple language. Not simple to learn, but simple itself. She said that once she stopped making it complicated, she learned it.
She also mentioned that living here, things are much cheaper for someone who speaks Thai.. even if you're not a local. I don't remember the details but she said two friends of hers wanted to buy mango and spoke in English. The price and quantity she got speaking in Thai was much lower cost for more mango-- it was something like a 5:1 ratio. It took her a year to learn it but it was worth it. Buying local foods here and items in general are inexpensive by our standards. However, trying to buy imported food-- she said, like oranges or apples, are very expensive and not as good.
Carlotta and the guy I spoke with on the cruise suggested I look at two other areas: Pii, and Khao Sok. The next time I come here (yes, next time) I will try to leave some time open to explore. I packed in this trip so I can't go to other places, but it would be nice to check more out. I will see what I think of the other areas I visit, and I am very excited about my next destination: Chiang Mai.
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