Khao Lak & Similan Islands

Back in Thailand we headed up the west coast from Phuket to Khao Lak (about 150km south of the Thai-Myanmar border). We heard Khao Lak is quiet and after the bustling city of Singapore we looked forward to some beach (although, as you can see on the post before, Singapore also offers excellent beaches ;-)

The beach in Khao Lak is REALLY quiet: the coast on the Andaman sea is so long and there are few people around. Many just stay in the resorts and never go out to the coastline. The clientele is also very interesting. Many westerners retirees (especially Germans, Swedish, Austrian and Swiss ones) come to Khao Lak to spend their lives here. Apart from them, mostly families come here to take a vacation from the hectics in everyday live and get lulled into the tropical flavours of Thailand's cuisine and nature.

So we rented once again a motorbike (this time a Honda Click, which we learnt has a very good reputation compared to the Chinese motorbikes which are also widely available) and headed to the beach...



Beach in Khao Lak

Sunset

More 'crowded' beach (the girl in the distance is Evelyne coming back from jogging)

One day the plan was to visit the Similan Islands which lie about 60km off the coast. So first we took a speedboat that took us on a ride out into the ocean. After about an hour we arrived at the Similan Islands which are actually nine small granite islands and are under the protection of the marine park status. This way it is ensured, tourism doesn't take all the beauty away and leaves the islands enough air to breathe.

Speedboat on the way out to the islands

Granite formation make the islands very different from the limestone cliffs found in the Krabi area (we wonder, how rock climbing on granite might be...)

Impressions from the islands

Back in Khao Lak we had a new task: this time we wanted to find a yoga class to practice a bit of a different activity. After hiking and trekking many trails and mountains, surfing deep blue waves, kayaking in the rivers, biking through hills and climbing on cliffs yoga comes handy as something different to try. Ralph has never tried yoga, but was eager to see what it is all about. His main aim was to be able to levitate;-) Actually, he even found a good reason to do yoga: to better his physical flexibility is, the more difficult routes he can climb on the rocks... Well, but first we had to find a place to do yoga.

So we headed out on our motorbike and scanned Khao Lak for a yoga place. And... we found one! Unfortunately, the teacher was on vacation and only returns in late February. Hrmpf. Ok, a small set back, but we did not give up yet. We visited with our motorbike almost each and every resort in Khao Lak and asked around for a place to do yoga, but still no luck. Evening came and we had to give up :-( But the bright side is, we now know all the swimming pools and beach resorts in Khao Lak ;-)

As always in life, at some point it is time to move on, but whereto was the question. Soon we found out about a yoga studio on Phi Phi island and our next destination became clear... We have been to Phi Phi many years ago long before it was hit by the tsunami, so we are looking forward to see how it looks now.

Singapore again! (but this time unplanned ;-)

After discussing with many Thai visa officials it became obvious, we had to leave Thailand again... But step by step. What happened? Since we traveled from Malaysia via ferry to Thailand, we only got 15 days to stay in Thailand. We thought, not a problem and went to the Immigration Office trying to extend our period of stay. Which we learnt we could. Great, we told the immigration guys (which were very friendly) to go on and extend until mid February. Only then they explained us that doesn't work, we can only extend to end of January...

What now was the question and Singapore was the answer. Since Pauline (a friend living in Singapore) had her birthday just around that time and we thought visiting Singapore again could be fun we checked flights from Krabi to Singapore and found a low cost airline bringing us cheaply to Singapore.

Since dear Pauline was so kind to let us crash at her place, we decided to prepare a Swiss Birthday dinner for her (including chocolate cake). Fighting our way through the grocery store, we even found Swiss Roesti from Bischofszell (the Migros company)! So nothing stood in our way to prepare some Aelplermaggarone and Zuerigschnaetzlets for Pauline and her friends.

Swiss Dinner and birthday cake

For Sunday we went for a escape from the city to the beach. Well, although the sand is from Indonesia and all the rest (including the waves ;-) is built by man rather than nature we enjoyed the day at the city beach (which often comes with a view of large oil ships and oil rigs)

Sentosa: Swiss girl on Indonesian sand on Singaporean land / Cargo ships on the horizon

Yes, that's in Singapore as well

The artificial wave (generated by water jets) where people can surf in Singapore although the sea is very calm

Lunch with some of Evelyne's friends

By the way, now we are back in Thailand - Khao Lak more exactly (yes, this is where the Tsunami struck in 2004) - and the plan is to head out to the Similan Islands, a small archipelago 65km off Thailand's west coast. More on that to come.

Thai beach

Rock climbing in Hat Rai Leh - Thailand

Hat Rai Leh (Railay beach) is famous for its limestone cliffs. We spend a week there with the aim to learn the basic rock climbing skills on these cliffs.



For a start, we booked a 3 day rock climbing course and the goal was to learn top rope climbing, lead climbing and abseiling as we were told. It was not so clear to us, what these terms all mean, but what the hack... let's give it a try.

After the first theory lesson on ropes and knots and basic safety in rock climbing, we (apparently) were ready to attack our first cliff. We did not feel very ready, but our guide told us at some point you have to start...

Alright, we started with top rope climbing. Top rope means, someone (i.e. not us) climbs up and puts a rope through the top anchor of the climb. Then he takes the rope down again. Now one person (the belayer) secures the rope and the climber tries to climb up the rock, always secured from the top. In case the climber falls, he falls only a little bit and does not risk to get hurt.

First top rope climbing attempts

The belayer down at the ground controls the life line of the climber.

More top rope climbing

Alright, once our guide found our top rope skills good enough, he decided he has a new challenge for us: lead climbing. Remember the guy, who goes up first to bring the top rope up? This was now our task. But before we started, we had to practice how to use quickdraws (basically two carabiners joined with a band) and how to install the top rope, once we reached the anchor at the top. It took us more time than we thought to learn how to use the quickdraws the right way. They are used to clip in the rope that the climber carries up to constantly secure the climber. However, it is vitally important, that the quickdraw is clipped in the right way into the bolts and the rope is clipped the correct way into the quickdraw. After practicing a lot on the ground, we had to do our first lead climb (with a little shaky knees...).

Lead climbing (notice there is no rope from the top anymore)

Clipping a quickdraw, Looking for a good grip

Almost there, just a little bit to go

Focused at the top anchor of the first lead climb

Down again and happy after the successful lead climb

Apart from rock climbing, Hat Rai Leh has also a beautiful scenery and nice beaches to relax.

View of Hat Rai Leh from the top

Relaxing on the beach after a tough climbing day

Exploring a lagoon in the middle of the rocks