Tonsai Beach, Krabi, Thailand
April 24, 2014
From Phi Phi we had a boat sorted to Railay in Krabi. I wasn’t really sure where we were headed to be honest just that I needed to move on from Phi Phi, I didn’t fancy Phuket and the Krabi mainland seemed close enough to get to so that’s where we decided on the previous night. The boat was a fairly late one, not leaving Phi Phi until 3:30pm and about an hour or so later it started to slow up just offshore in front of some very impressive towering limestone cliffs. As per usual the standard taxi boat was already on its way out to us and pulled alongside for a few of us to clamber aboard. We could see two beaches from where we were on the boat and the dude asked where we were wanting to get to so we pointed to the smaller quieter looking beach of the two that looked like it had hardly anyone on. ‘Tonsai Beach’ he asked, ‘Yep, that will do’ and off we motored to pastures new.
As we neared the shore an established theme appeared again as one of the bars had a big Marijuana leaf on the outside and was ablaze with the usual red, gold and green Rasta colours.
Hmm it seems like we hadn’t really moved on from Island life even though we were now on the mainland. Dani parked up in the Rasta bar and I trotted off for half an hour in search of somewhere cheap but decent to stay. It didn’t take long as there are literally only half a dozen places to stay on Tonsai so we settled for one of the cheapest but also the cleanest as it was set back from the beach among the forest and undergrowth. A quick drink at the bar later we dropped the bags off in our room and headed out for a mooch around. It wasn’t long before sunset so we chilled out at a cool little smokers bar just near where we were staying. We grabbed some food and kicked back with some nice chilled music.
Tonsai Beach is quite stunning. It’s cut off from the rest of the mainland by the massive limestone cliffs that surround it. It’s part of a peninsular that consists of 3 beaches separated by cliffs in between them but that you can trek between if you take the small trails that climb high up through the undergrowth between the limestone columns.
This weekend there was an international festival of ‘Rock and Fire’ held on the beaches of Tonsai and Railay which was pretty cool. The Rock and Fire part is climbing and Fire shows. This area is world-renowned for its climbing and it’s easy to see why. It was pretty cool to see people all around clambering up the limestone cliffs. Not something I could do myself but impressive to see when you would wander along and spot some random dude high up on a cliff face hanging out above the forest and the water. We headed over a scrambling route round the small peninsular from Tonsai beach to Railay beach and checked out the fire show competition that was going on there. Batons ablaze the guys doing it were pretty decent and put on a good display as we watched while sat chilled on the beach with a drink. The trip back that night was interesting to say the least as it was pitch black by this point. A taxi boat back round what must be only 200 yards was going to be £6 between us and the guys would not budge on their price so we opted for heading back over the scrambling route in the pitch black with only our flimsy flip flops for grip. We must have looked like Dumb and Dumber off out on a day trip in Thailand, total and utter amateurs.
The next day we took the other route from Tonsai to Railay over the hills through the forest which was quite a trek. Although the two seem really close when you’re at the beaches themselves the route snakes its way very steeply through the gaps in the limestone columns and takes a good hour to do. We arrived as two sweaty English messes on the other side amongst a sea of lean, dry skinned professional looking climbers, a classy entrance from the British contingent for sure. We wandered about for a while and across the narrow strip of mainland to a beach on the opposite of the peninsular facing Krabi. From there we followed signs for a ‘viewpoint’ trek, only to discover that it was a near vertical climb using ropes and we were both sporting the cheapest variety of flip-flops, so we decided against it. Also given the fact the folks on the way back down were saying it was impossible to fully reach the viewpoint given some recent rain and how muddy it was and as these guys were sporting some pretty natty climbing shoes we figured our chances were slim.
So we mooched around a bit more to see what we could find before heading back to Railay beach and then across the beach side clamber through the cliffs and woods and back to Tonsai. As darkness fell the rest of the night was spent chilling at the local smokers bar with some connect four and relaxing tunes following some food……and that food ruined us for days.
We woke up the next day both sick as dogs. I was aching all over the same as I had that time in Langkawi with the fever and Dani was throwing up left right and center. The two of us pretty much slept through the full day as there was no way we could head out anywhere at all. The day was a write off and the following day didn’t start much better either with us both still recovering and feeling out of sorts.
We did manage to pop out for a bit toast and eggs all of 20 yards away but that was about it. We spent the day laying in bed, sweating like we had run a marathon as there is only electricity there on a night so we had no fan to keep us cool. Not the most pleasant of days but hey. We later found out when we had some WiFi that Tonsai is notorious for food poisoning due to its remoteness and lack of turn over in the handful of places you can eat at. Not the first to be ill there and certainly not the last I expect. If you ever go there you have been warned, take plenty of instant noodles!
The next day was much better for us both. We perked up a lot and decided to pack up and ship out. We weren’t really sure where to but we headed down to the beach and spoke with a few people and some taxi boat guys and settled on heading to Krabi town about an hour round the corner by taxi boat. Once we had enough people to fill the boat we motored off.
It now definitely felt like we were leaving sleepy island life behind and as we pulled up at a jetty in Krabi we saw roads and shops and civilization again for the first time in a while. This was it. time to crack on through Thailand. It took us all of 10 minutes to wander about until we found somewhere reasonable to stay with a good clean cheap room and we headed out to settle ourselves back into the reality of the real world. The world of traffic, of wifi everywhere you go, fast food outlets and even a small shopping mall.
I miss the islands. I need to go back at some point.
