Breakfasts in Thailand are similar to lunches and suppers. Whenever we go to a hotel breakfast buffet, it usually includes some North American breakfast foods such as cereal, yogurt, omelettes, pancakes, french toast etc but there are also Thai dishes such as chicken and cashew stir fry, salads, rice and noodle dishes. I am quite enjoying our breakfasts.
There seem to be a lot of stray cats on the islands. They are everywhere along with signs saying “Do Not Feed the Monkey. 500 Baht fine.” I wonder if it’s one specific monkey that they have in mind….that must be one bad monkey.
In the morning after breakfast we walked under overhanging cliffs to the beautiful Phra Nang Beach. Surrounded by dramatic cliffs and edged with large trees that are perfect for keeping the sun off you, it was gorgeous. The warm waters had schools of tiny fish and needle fish. Some long tailed food boats were anchored at the shoreline offering ice cream, smoothies, fries, burgers, pitas and all manner of Thai food. The sand was soft, fine and light tan colored.
At one end of the beach there were two small caves filled with all sizes of penises as offerings for help in getting pregnant and for good luck.
After a number of hours, it clouded over and started to rain, so we went back to our hotel.
When it stopped we walked to the Diamond Cave. It felt like being in a natural cathedral. There were squeaky bats on the ceiling. It was huge and beautiful inside. We explored a bit more around the island and returned to the hotel when it started to rain again. After the showers we went into town for a late night supper.
For the next day we had been advised in advance that the Thailand Power Authority would be doing work in the area from 8am-7pm and there would be no electricity, running water or Internet during that time period.
We made sure to have our breakfast before 8am. While eating we watched the monkeys playing in the trees and on the roof of our hotel….I wondered if any of them were THE Monkey.
It was overcast today. We went to Railay West beach and hung out for the first half of the day. I love how the hundreds of ghost crabs did intricate designs in the sand with the tiny sand balls they bring out from the tunnels they dig.
We had lunch in town before meeting for a tour we booked from 12:30pm to 8pm on a long tailed boat to four local islands including Hong Island. Besides us, there were two sisters from Lebanon, two girls from Brazil and a group from Hong Kong. Because it was overcast, the water was murky so the snorkeling wasn’t great. My highlight was to be the phosphorescent plankton after dark. Unfortunately, the moon wasn’t that bright so the plankton weren’t putting on their usual show.
On the bright side, at least it didn’t rain today.