Tonsai and the Andaman coast

We left our island paradise of ko pha gnan for ton sai on the west coast of Thailand. Even though they are not far apart, the monsoon hits at completely different times and the west coast was forecasted to be very rainy. We decided to risk it since we'd heard great things about the limestone climbing and were planning on meeting up with our friends Christian and Julie there.

Krabi weekend market

Octopus on a stick -- we ate the squid on a stick, not the octopus

On our way to Tonsai, we stayed 1 night in Krabi, where we explored the night market. Krabi's night market was really interesting to us since the southern areas of Thailand are more Muslim than the rest and the resulting food is different from what you can get in other areas. We ate a terrific (though almost nuclearly hot) dinner at a muslim food stand in the market. We enjoyed wandering around and buying cheap (25-50 cent) desserts or, or at least, what we thought were desserts. They were mostly excellent.

Cassie on the beach

Christian, Julie, and Cassie

Although it's part of the mainland, Tonsai is only accessible by boat because of dense jungle and mountainous terrain. We left Ao Nang on a longtail boat: which is basically a 15 foot long boat with a car engine strapped on back running a long drive shaft at the end of which is a propeller. it's a very cheap boat and excels in shallow water as the engine is mounted on a swivel which allows the operator to easily adjust the depth of the propeller. you might expect that a car motor running a few feet away from your head without a muffler to be loud. it is. As the monsoon approaches the seas tend to get quite rough and the waves were quite large as we left the port. we were drenched within minutes and one of the other passengers decided to put on a life vest. we were both a little nervous. We found a place to stay and spent the first couple days doing short explorations in between drenching rainstorms. Luckily the weather outlook improved when Christian and Julie arrived. We went deep water soloing which is where you go out on a boat, swim to a cliff, climb up a ladder to the rock, then climb as high as you want before jumping or falling into the water. The height is up to you. I was good jumping from a couple meters, while others were much braver, jumping from 10 to 15 meters (about 30-45 feet). Jumping into the ocean was made even more exciting by the large jellyfish which drifted by. The next day we kayaked around the peninsula checking out some of the rock formations off the coast. As we'd been exploring tonsai and railay beaches, we had seen a sign for a viewpoint and lagoon that we saw everyone coming down from covered in mud, so we decided to check that out the following day. It was amazing! The hike was very steep and muddy with dirty ropes to get down short cliffs, but was worth it when we arrived at the beautiful lagoon surrounded by cliffs and the biggest palm leaves we've ever seen. The lagoon had a connection to the ocean, but it wasn't visible. It was quite a beautiful place to swim and explore for the day.

Matt dws

The next day we wanted to climb and were quite disappointed when it started out raining. We decided to give it a try and hoped we could find some places that stayed dry enough. It ended up being a great day. Very fun climbing! Steep limestone with big holds and fun features.

Our time on tonsai was great. A small laid back place, good cheap food (mama's chicken was where everyone ate every night. You can't beat bbq chicken, fresh fruit shakes, good curries, and friendly people. We don't know how any other restaraunts stayed in business.) It was also great for us to meet up with friends.

Christian swimming in the lagoon

a huge centipede

What happens when you get to the top? You jump, or if you're a snowboard aerialist then you do a backflip from about 40 feet up. Not us, we jumped from much lower as we are chicken.

We left Tonsai for Krabi the day after Christian and Julie did. We waited out a few more rainstorms and power outtages and did the night weekend market which was Amazing! Then we made our way back to Bangkok on another sleeper train (which was 3 hours late so instead of leaving at 11:30pm we left at 2:00am). while waiting for the train we got to watch rats running around on the other train platform. very exciting.