bangkok to railay

before we left bangkok on sunday night, kelly came up from singapore to hang with us in bangkok for the weekend. she got introduced to thai mosquitoes. apparently they spray some sort of insecticide all over singapore to kill the mosquitoes so she had been bite-free for a while, but that might explain her slurred speech and lack of balance. or maybe it was the beers on friday night.

i, for one, had a changover.

saturday we took a city bus to chatuchak market, open only on the weekend, where you can buy quite literally anything. vintage levi's (among a ton of vintage americana merchandise, t-shirts being immensely popular), housewares, foodstuffs, pets, and a trip to the bathroom (costs 2 bhat to use the can).

 costumed bunnies for sale.

also for sale: "cialis"

we set off for chinatown the next day, beating the traffic by taking a commuter boat. there are lots of them that go up and down the river, like a city bus on water, and they pull up to the dock and get people on and off with lightning speed. the whole process takes maybe a minute and a half. an overbearing german tourist tried to steer us in the wrong direction but we held strong to our plan and made it.

 pork buns are delicious the world over.

 those fish are somewhat alive.

 these flower charms are very common. again, i had to stop myself from buying flowers.

 chinatown!

 greenish yellow pomegranates.

 i love these two.

 boat ride so fun.

 and so cheap. 20 bhat!

 i was very taken with the orange and yellow motif.

that evening we set off for railay in the south of thailand. sleeper train! so fun! the food was actually awesome and after dinner this sweet dude comes around to make your bed for you. i slept like a baby.

 a veritable feast.

 the dude in bunk 39 caught my eye.

 good thing i looked so awesome. he bought me coffee in the morning.

after 22 hours of travel via train, bus, pickup truck and boat, we arrived in railay, explored some awesome beaches, met a dude who has a pet sea otter, climbed some rocks and swam to our hearts' content. we're heading out tomorrow for cambodia and i'm sad to say goodbye to this joint.

 the crabs make little sand balls for reasons yet unknown.

 then they organize their sand balls into awesome patterns.

 i think it's some sort of tourist gimmick.

 i set up shop on phra nang beach but no one was buying.

 got a little obsessed with the shells.

josey is an expert climber and very studious to boot.

 

we did some deep water solo climbing, where you just fall in the water if you eff up. our guide luang was one cool, sweet man.he gave me a seashell ring he found on the beach and advised me to take it off while i was climbing lest i break it.

until internet access becomes available again--