The Rolling Coconut: Trapped inside of a Thai postcard.

I did it. I went searching for that perfect Thai beach postcard moment everyone has in their mind's eye when they think of Thailand and I found it.

Anyone who has a problem with beautiful beaches, sunsets and pictures that all look like they are from a postcard or as my fiance said, "Christian inspirational wall art" should stop reading now. For the record none of the pictures I am about to post have been cropped, photoshopped, or altered in any way. Railay is weird. Just hold your camera up, click the shutter and and there's a 99% chance you just took an amazing photograph. Longtail boasts, immaculate white sand, crystal clear water, crazy sunsets, and limestone karsts and cliffs jutting dramatically from turquoise seas, they're just all over the place. It's not a big secret anymore, but postcard Thailand is real, and it's alive and well in Krabi province.

The majority of peninsular Railay as seen looking north. To the right you see East Railay, the other side is West Railay. Way in the distance nestled at the base of the far cliffs is Ton Sai. All pictures on this blog are thumbnails. Click the picture for a larger image. Not pictured is Phra Nang beach. Phra Nang relative to the photo's vantage point, would be to my back. I'm standing atop the large rock formation that divides Phra Nang from the rest of Railay

During my time in Krabi province the fiance and myself based ourselves on Railay. I had always heard marvelous things about Krabi Province and a friend I made in Thailand pointed me towards Railay. (Thanks Fin!) Railay is part of the mainland but feels and functions like a tiny dessert island because it is surrounded by impenetrable cliffs which make longtail boats the only way on or off the island. No cars or motorized transport is allowed on Railay adding to its serenity. Railay itself is quite developed but you don't really notice it when you're there, especially outside of the high season. The hotels, bungalows and villas are all well hidden among the cliffs and palm groves that make up the island. Railay is a 10 minute boat ride away from the its northern beach neighbor Ao Nang but has been spared the over development that comes with easy access. Apart from how nice your room is and what you paid for it, my impression of Railay was the location of your accommodations mattered little as Railay is a tiny place which can be easily traversed on foot.

Railay essentially has three sides to it. East Railay, which is a more of a mangrove swamp/tidal bay than a beach. East Railay has lots of bars, restaurants and some cheaper backpacker style accommodations. On the other side of Railay lies the fabulous white sand beach of West Railay. West Railay is dominated by more upmarket hotels and resorts and offers little else in the way of food or drink outside of what's on offer from the resorts themselves. The southern tip of Railay is home to the spectacular beach of Phra Nang. If there are better beaches on this planet it would be hard for me to imagine them. The only accommodation available on Phra Nang beach is the ultra-exclusive and obscenely expensive Rayvadee Resort, but fortunately for those of us can't afford to spend a few thousand a night to stay at Rayvadee, Phra Nang beach itself is still open to the public.

Between Railay and Ao Nang is the tiny little back-packer/rock climber community of Ton Sai or Hat Ton Sai. Ton Sai is even less developed and more isolated than Railay even though it is still on the mainland and connected by a rudimentary road to Ao Nang. Ton Sai has a terrific kid-free mellow back-packer vibe and the prices here are what you would expect from Thailand. You will eat a better meal in Ton Sai for half the price of what you will find in Railay. At low tide Ton Sai can be reached via a quick 10 minute scramble across the slippery sharp rocks from Railay West. During the day I think you can arrange boat service between the two, but if your accommodations are in Railay and the tide comes in at night while you're visiting Ton Sai you're either spending the night in Ton Sai, or braving a very dark and bushy forty minute trek through the jungle with the wild things to get back to Railay, but that's another story.

My stay in Railay was far too quick. We had good weather and Akila and I made the most of the beaches and fantastic waters surrounding Railay. I finally got to use my mask and snorkel I bought in Koh Chang but was unable to use before due to scrapes and stitches. Our very first night in Railay we ate a late dinner and went for a midnight swim at West Railay. Having heard of the magical photoluminescent waters around Krabi I couldn't wait to give it a try and was not disappointed. If you splash or run your hand through the water you will see a beautiful stream of thousands of little points of light trailing behind your hand. It looks like tiny blue/green-gold fireflys getting rolled about in the water. Absolutely amazing and delightful stuff.

The next day we enjoyed beautiful Phra Nang beach and then some dinner and a fabulous sunset at West Railay. Day two, my back was smarting from the sunburn I received the day before and we opted for an evening snorkeling trip around the surrounding islands that was to depart around two in the afternoon. Night snorkeling with the photoluminescence sounded cool and I wasn't up to braving the mid-day sun. The trip was going well and Akila and I were both really enjoying ourselves. The seas had been rough that day but the snorkeling was still very good. I saw more fish than I ever had seen before diving and snorkeling in the Caribbean. We enjoyed a nice dinner and a lovely sunset on Chicken Island and then when we least expected it disaster struck again. My poor little Akila was climbing back into the boat in the total darkness of a moonless night after a swim when she placed her hand down on the side of the boat and felt a sharp, burning, wicked pain shoot up her hand. She thought she had pushed a nail through her hand but she had in fact been stung by a mysterious creature who's identity and origin is still unknown to us even as I write. The pain was excruciating and she became griped with the terrible fear of the unknown as her hand turned an ugly waterlogged blue and she lost the feeling in her fingers and the ability to open or close her hand.

Aside from the terrible and unexplained pain in Akila's hand we had many other problems that night. First the boat crew was terrible. They gave Akila a Tylenol but offered very little else in the way of sympathy or concern. Most troublingly they offered us no explanation of what it was that may have stung her, how serious it was, or what the proper medical course of action should be. The language barrier was a problem here but I thought someone on board could have at least made a bit of an effort. They acted as if it was paper cut. I was smart enough to have brought a little first aid kit with me on the boat trip, which did come in handy for the Benadryl, but I foolishly left my wallet which is of far greater use than gauze pads in a real medical emergency. Lesson learned. Never again. So once we get back to West Railay Akila is sea sick, in excruciating pain, and she's in near hysterics about her hand. She desperately wants a state of the art medical facility with a team of neurosurgeons just to tell her she's going to be fine but instead we find the closest thing to a medical facilty Railay has to offer, the local pharmacy, is closed and we instead get a cup of vinegar from some well intentioned waitresses. We're told the closest "clinic" (Which in Thailand means a basic Pharmacy staffed by a person with some medical training, NOT a nurse, and definitely NOT A DOCTOR.) is in Ao Nang and it closes in thirty minutes. After buying lunch I've only got a couple of hundred bhat left in my pocket. Not even enough to get to Ao Nang, let alone pay for medical care and god forbid its more serious and we need to get to the real hospital in Krabi. Boy this vacation just got really stressful really fast. I'm between a rock and a hard place. Akila was not in any state to patiently wait for me while I ran to the room to retrieve my wallet. It would have taken me twenty five minutes or more to sprint there and back, but then we have this problem of the closing clinic. The long tail boat from the snorkeling trip is the only boat in sight and probably the last boat leaving Railay that night, especially with the high seas. I make a snap judgment and put Akila back on the boat to seek medical attention in Ao Nang. I figure either the sting she got on her hand is not serious and the people at the clinic in Ao nang can fix her up, or if it is serious we'll know by the time we get to the clinic in Ao Nang and at that point we're off the island and that much closer to a real hospital in Krabi town. If push comes to shove I figure someone will take a $1500 camera for a ride to the hospital. The boat captain with the boat full of mysterious stinging creatures wants 1500 bhat just to go one way to Ao Nang. Jackass.

We made it to the clinic in Ao nang which is fortunately just off the beach. I tell the boat driver he's going to have to wait to get his money until we get back but if he does I'll double it to take us back to Railay. Inside the clinic we find a nice young woman who finally tells Akila she's going to live and there's no need to chop off her hand. She kindly and confidently explains that Akila has been stung by something that is like a baby scorpion, but not a baby scorpion. She muttered the word in Thai a few times, rubbed her head and talked it over with her co-worker before deciding she had already given us her best english translation. The girl at the pharmacy explained to us there is really nothing to do for these type of stings and outside of a few people who experience severe allergic reactions to this creature there is nothing to worry about except the agonizing pain, which normally subsides in 24-48 hours. Akila's hand hurt for the next 72 nonstop, but the worst was over after 48.

By the time we reached the pharmacy the color was already returning to Akila's hand and she was regaining some movement, the pain had not spread beyond her hand, and there was no unusual swelling. I felt like we had at least dodged the "allergic reaction" bullet. We unsuccessfully attempted to get a second opinion from a real doctor in Ao Nang, but since we were too broke to pay our way to the hospital in Krabi, Akila made do with some coconut oil and a scrib of Tylenol for some of the worst pain she had ever felt in her life. We returned to Railay. There were a few more bits of drama that night but basically that's it. One day I hope to find out what kind of animal stung Akila that night, so I can spend at least one week of my life hunting them, and smashing their vile cowardly little stinging bodies with a giant hammer.

It was still a nice trip.