Jungle Party and finding a place to sleep including a funny wake-up

Boatride to Ao Nam Ao pier

We  leave Railay with the cute Longtail Boats and jump on the funky party bus to go to Khao Sok and start the Jungle Party with the other two Free & Easy groups right away. Everyone expects a couple of hours ride and most people fall asleep. 

All of a sudden we are there. And instead of a party crowd jumping out of the bus, it is just some sleepy dudes crawling out of the party-bus with their eyes half closed...

Colorful party-bus

The inside of the hippie bus

Smiley's is the place to stay you wish for. It is a family atmosphere with all those love hearted people and the most comfy surroundings. But watch out for the hammocks ... I – so me that moment – jumped into the seat-hammock just when we arrived and almost hung myself with my "dirty Mexican"-hat by falling through the gap in the middle of that comfy swing chair... I just couldn't stop laughing at myself being so foolish ... so me.

Smiley'sis too packed to make our group fit in too, so we get divided into 14 and 7. The 14 are brought to their one-night-huts and we are going to our place not too far from Smiley's. That place isn't actually open yet, they are just getting the huts ready for us, but as they are not finished preparing all huts yet, we all throw our bags into one hut. 

Back at Smiley's they prepare a great buffet. And the Jungle Party starts ... with us as Dirty Mexicans, one group dressed up Gothic style and the other one all looking like popstars.

Dirty Mexicans

20-days-trip: Gothic Style

Other 40-days-trip: Popstars

Weirdest thing for me was meeting Jemma. A tour guide of the other group. As I have already seen her in a million pictures before, so it felt like I met her before, but basically I don't know her at all. And it is so great, she dressed up as Britney, because Shannon gets so excited when she sees her, being her biggest fan... ;)

Dirty Mexican Shannon with KFED (Mike) and Britney (Jemma)

It is an awesome party night, that ends with the power going off. So no light at all, except for some candles. I decide to sleep in one of the hammocks at the bar at first, but then thinking that I will be full of bug bites the next morning, I jump on the truck that gets me back to our huts... 

Well, Ben doesn't hear me knocking on the door and I am too chicken to sleep in one of the open huts ... afraid of creepy crawlies waiting for me in there. So I go with Sanna and Nadine. While trying to find their hut – not very successful – we suddenly find Shannon at her place. Perfect timing: Corn fell asleep at a hammock at the bar, she doesn't wanna be alone and has a spare bed.

So I end up, sleeping there till I wake up by a knock on the door ... open it and look into Corn's still dirty Mexican and dropping wet face ... I just burst out in laughter...

Corn had woken up at Smiley's at about 10 am, didn't know how to get back to his hut, remembered that the restaurant near his hut was at the river and that there was a swing. So he went down to the river and floated along it until he saw the swing. He got out, met Carla and Nick at the restaurant. They were kind of amazed seeing Corn climbing out of the river still in his party outfit ... but just loved him for it. So Corn came up to his hut, ready for Shannon either not to open at all or to be mad at him because he woke her up earlier than 4 pm. But instead there came another girl opening up and just starting to laugh...

Lagoon Thrill Climb

We go for the view point and the lagoon today. It's a nice little walk and climb at first. And the view is awesome.

View from the viewpoint of Railay

Going down to the lagoon gets pretty scary. I actually think I will not go, but after 3 of us already went down, I dare. This is kind of sick though, as the mud is wet and all over the ropes that are partly the only thing to hold onto. So you have to rely just on the strength of your arms holding onto the slippery rope. I am so glad when I reach the lagoon. And so proud of myself that I did it. :) And it's great.

Getting back up is not that bad. Even though it's kind of sick, as it is like rock climbing without the rope to save you from falling down...

Climbing down to the lagoon

Getting ready to jump into the lagoon

One, two, three, bungeeeeee

On our way to the Krabi Bungee Jump 

We went for Bungee Jumping today near Krabi. I didn't jump though... I'm a chicken... :) And I'm still glad I didn't do it...

Hanging out at the Bungee Place

I think this is Nathan jumping off the 55 meters...

Kieshas Birthday and the night I lost my camera to

It's Kiiiiieeeshas Birthday today. So we celebrate for a while at the Highland restaurant.

Kiesh with birthday drink and birthday cake (well...panCAKE)

Dinner at Highlands

Later on we go down to the "Skunk Bar", playing pool and dancing a lot.

Ben playing at Skunk Bar

At some point almost everyone is gone so I go to the "Last Bar", where I meet Sanna. So we chill and dance there for a while, meeting new people from a lot different places.

The reeeeally yummy burgers next to Last Bar

I had so much fun this night, but I can't really describe it. It's just this feeling of joy inside of me :) Well, there would be the yummy cheeseburgers, the jumping into some other hotels weird soft floor pool, sitting on the street eating some rice topped with Chang and soya sauce while sunrise and wanting to get into a cave, but then running away pretty fast ...

This was the night that I lost my camera to...

Back to school

The kids welcoming us at their school

We are going to a school today. Everyone brought stuff from back home to give to the kids. When our truck arrives at the school, the kids are running up the gateway with a Canadian flag to welcome us. Yeah... I wondered where the German flag was... ;) 

And then there is this weird moment, where the Thai kids stand on the one side and us standing on the other side, just watching each other, not knowing what to do. Till the teacher comes up and makes us follow her to 3 rows of chairs provided for us.

The kids start singing and performing stuff for us and we are playing games with them. Some of them are totally new for me and some of them are slowly coming back to my mind as we used to play them at school when I was their age too.

The students in their school uniform
sitting perfectly in rows in front of us

Playing games with the kids

Having fun playing kid games again...:)

Later on some of us are throwing American football with them, playing basketball or frisbee and then there is this Canadian hand-clapping-game. It's fun, even though I do not get the sense of the song that goes with it. I wish I'd remember any games like that, to show them...

"stella ella ola clap clap clap singing es 
tigo tigo tigo tigo crack jack...es tigo tigo fa low fa low...
falow falow falow counting 1,2,3,4,5..."

Year Book Pic...well no, but group picture

I wonder if they think, we are some really weird Canadians (yeah, I put myself in there now too.... ) So happy to come and see their school and take pictures with them, even though we don't know them at all... 

# MUSIC Doo doo doo by Job 2 do

Always reminds me of Railay. This song burned itself into our heads and was present during the whole time of this trip. Awesome!

Railay in a nutshell

View from the restaurant of Highlands

# THE PLACE

Highland Bungalows are at the east beach of Railay. Well not at the beach, but a 5 minutes walk up the hill. Lovely bungalows and perfect porch to set up the hammock. A lot of noises outside make me and my roommate cuddle a lot ;) Yeah, I do have a roommate now: Nicole. :) I am so happy, not to have a room to myself anymore :)

My new roomie Nicole :)

The bungalows at Highlands

Hanging out at the porch of the bungalow

Railay itself is kind of a sporty place: Rockclimbing is just awesome here. There are some bars along our side of the island and even a tiny little bit of shopping.

Bars at the east beach

# THE BEACH

The East Beach is not made for swimming. But Pranang Beach is just great. It even has a penis shrine... yeah...that's what I said: PENIS SHRINE!

East beach of Railay

Pranang beach

The penis shrine ...

# THE ANIMALS

There are some cute ones and some gross ones. We even saw a black scorpion one day. Scary.

Cute monkeys on the way to our bungalows

Visitor of our bungalow one day

Spider near the reception

# GETTING A TATOO

My roommate Nicole gets her tattoo done here, as it is said to be the best place to do so. The guy doing it is pretty cool and chilled, so it takes a while till he finally shows up. But his work is just awesome.

Nicole at the tattoo shop

This tattoo took like 3 hours
(+1 hour of just drawing it the day before on her foot)
and costs about 3000 Baht (62 Euro, 94 CAD)