Amantra Resort & Spa Krabi

Hello again! Its pouring down with rain and we are on phi phi islands so I have seeked shelter in an internet cafe. The group are again really nice, been lucky twice! Only two males in this one, all the tour groups seem to be girl dominated! Met some people that are going to be in Sydney for new year so we've got quite a collection of ppl now- can't wait! And some good news from Fran (hello!) that she is coming to Oz in July- wooppeeee! We went out the ...

... and in fact Railey beach is a world-renowned climbing destination. Just a few minutes walk from town, we encountered dozens of climbers clustered around a popular crag, climbing, belaying, encouraging, watching, drinking beer. Though McNeill and I were impressed by the location, we were less than impressed by the safety consciousness we observed among the climbers. Lack of attention, sloppy belaying, longer-than-necessary lead falls…and some of this ...

... There are dramatic carstic mountains scattered all over. There were times when I thought I was going to crash the moto because I kept getting distracted by the beautiful views. After a couple hours we finally found the beach we were looking for.

We had hoped to rent a sea kayak for the day but, sadly we had arrived a little too late for that. Instead, I rented a snorkel and mask then walked out into the crashing waves. In the distance you ...

Krabi, 09-02-2009. Small little mozzies look for a safe spot on my sunburned legs to roost, suck away on my sweet blood. They better be carefull though! I got my eyes on them and will most definitely squash them the moment they will settle down on my reddish flesh. I might be an animal lover and female friendly, totally aware that in the mozzy world it are the females that NEED my blood due to their reproductive purposes.... Still if I ...

... more impressive ones. All in all I really enjoyed that day, especially compared with the other tour. On the 21st I flew down to Krabi. I took a bus down to the pier for a boat out to the beaches. The boats only go when full so I had to wait quite a while, but as the weather was quite bad nobody came so there was just me and two guys from Liverpool wanting to go to the one beach so we had to pay to cover the empty spaces. I'm now staying at a beach just off the big Krabi beach ...

... men always act fearless). At night, on my own, I didn't go to bed early. First I tried to meditate and played sodoku to ease the aloneness till 3.30 a.m. And here they come! All the possible ghosts! I got so scared so I called Berlin! In the end, I played sudoku again to regain my meditative mind but still couldn't fight the sleepiness. At 5 I went to sleep and also dreamt about the girl's ghost who tried to seduce me but I did fight her with a .45 gun instead!

Milli says; Krabi!!!!!! We arrived in to Thailand with huge smiles on our faces. It IS The Land of Smiles and by golly we fit in very well!! We were just really happy to be back in Thailand, the weather, the people, the scenery, and more veggie options to eat!!!! We vaguely picked a spot to get out of the cab, much to the consternation of the cabbie who kept asking exactly what the name of the place was that we were going (we didn't have anything booked ...

... e mountians... thus, no access via land.... the main reason, however, that i wanted to go to this area and Railey Beach in particular was that it is the home of world class rock climbing... now, i've only dabbled in indoor rock climbing and that's only like once or twice... but since outdoor rock climbing lessons are offered on Railey, we booked a half day course... let me just express how much in love i am with outdoor rock ...

... The Beach" was filmed., which was gorgeous. Got to go snorkeling and swimming too. The weather changes quite fast... on our way back to Krabi at 4 pm the clouds rolled in, it got dark, and it started pouring ... we were all laughing about it until the boat crew began to pass out life jackets. We all made it back perfectly fine and no worse for the wear.. to say the least we'll be taking it easy today... tomorrow we are off on a 10 hour drive to cross the border into Malaysia.

... thought!

2) New Orleans is Sinking on a Scooter (Ko Lanta)
I had a cool moment. I was going to visit two English friends at another resort(Okay two very attractive English women friends) and I rented a scooter in order to bridge the 30km to get there. As an after thought I grabbed my walkman and favorite tape. It was night, the air was warm, the headlamp of my scooter cast the shadow of the scooter basket eerily onto the road before me. I headed ...