As soon as we got off the boat in Railay, I saw the signs “Do not feed the Monkey”.
So the next day when I went to breakfast (without my glasses on), I was delighted to see a long monkey like tail coming out of a little shape hanging around on the ground near the breakfast tables. I yelled out “Look, John! It’s the monkey.” Only to realize it was a cat. John named it the “monkey cat” and points it out all the time as my new discovery of a previously unknown species.
The monkey cat is at breakfast every morning. Yesterday it jumped on the lap of a Chinese lady while she was having breakfast. She screeched until someone got the monkey cat off her.
This morning it was my turn. The monkey cat jumped up on the table and tried getting into my breakfast. I briskly brushed it away by the throat and John said that if I’m not careful, I may get jailed for monkey cat abuse. John just showed me a picture he took that looks like I was strangling the monkey cat….I was not strangling the cat (John – yes she was, I’m married to a monkey cat abuser).
On our way to catch a long tailed boat, we passed a number of regular monkeys on the roof of a restaurant. An owner came out to scare them away. One monkey was just on the ground playing with his privates. Really!
Once we got to the beach we bought our tickets, and waited for enough passengers to make a minimum load of six. I gracefully (not) got into the long tailed boat and we went to Ao Nang. Ao Nang is a short boat trip away and is a lovely beach town with lots of nice shops, places to eat, a beautiful beach and lots of spas offering massages. After some power shopping (only half an hour since John loses patience quickly), we walked down the beach boardwalk and I was tantalized by the happy hour 50% off massage and spa deals. So I had a one hour reflexology foot massage (for $8 Canadian) while John had a large Chang beer at a nearby beach side restaurant. After, my feet and legs felt so good I persuaded John to have one while I had a pedicure ($6)….does life get any better?
Afterwards we sat at another beach side restaurant and took in the gorgeous scenery and people watched the afternoon away.
Then the afternoon rains arrived. It is amazing how quickly the rain moves in and sunshine turns to heavy showers. We went to the long tailed boat area to try and get a boat back to Railay. For some reason, it was never our boat until finally it was. It had stopped raining at this point.
After changing clothes at our hotel, it started to pour just as we were heading out to see the sunset. We grabbed our umbrellas and went out for supper instead. On our way to supper, a large monitor lizard ran across our path…very cool.
John had a G&T and I had a Mojito and we split a pizza (you can only eat so much pad Thai). I think they forgot to put the mix into my Mojito.
Tomorrow we will be dragging our luggage across the beach like these tourists because we will be catching a boat and then a plane for our last two nights in Bangkok.