That inscription was the tattoo on the back of our spiritual guide to Krabi, an as-yet-unnamed man from Gibraltar who straddled the front of our Thai longboat like Neptune commanding the sea with his trident. He punched his fists in the air with each pounding wave, chanting "Raylay Beach" like a mantra. Today I finally sat on a peaceful, mostly deserted beach watching a sunset over one of the most beautiful bays I've ever seen, with cliffs hundreds of feet tall surrounding me on all sides. But it's been a long time getting here.
I'm not a fan of sleeping in airports, because as a rule, I don't. However, this time it was convenient to leave for Phuket at the same time as picking up Ryan, our fifth hardy traveler after Mr. Alberto Lugo's sad and tragic departure. Once we got to Phuket, our experience was filled with sleeplessness, overly aggressive taxi drivers who are used to nonbargaining Eurotrash, and some surprisingly good Chinese food. As soon as we rolled, scuffled, and hauled ass off the ferry at Ko Phi Phi, the group consensus seemed to be that we would never leave. Much to my dismay, even considering it is the low season, we didn't. At least not soon enough.
It's not so bad. Really. Ever seen the excuse for a movie called "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio during his floppy haired days? This is where it was filmed. Only in real life, it's overrun with Swedes who give you an insecurity complex with all the tanning in bikinis they do all day. It's a rough life traveling on the kroner.
As for us mere mortals, we sat at the Sunset Bar and read and swam during the day and drank there at night, watching the fireshow put on for benefit of hippie tourists. To add insult to injury, we paid three times as much as we would in Bangkok for the much beloved banana pancake (beloved by farangs anyway). One night I was awakened at 3am by Canadians in the hallway of our guesthouse who were arguing about American politics.
OK, sarcasm aside, we did do a day trip to little Phi Phi that was amazing. It wasn't even as crowded as I expected it would be. We jumped off rope swings into the ocean as our friendly longboat man tooled us around the island, finding inlets that were beautiful if not deserted. We also met gap year Brits who we hung out with for most of our time there.
I may have become a beach snob, but I personally thanked God for having created Krabi when I first saw it. Finally. I am in my happy place.
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