September 6 (Thursday)
Travel Day Part I (Phuket → Koh Phi Phi)
On Thursday we were traveling to Railay by way of Koh Phi Phi, Krabi, and Ao Nang, so we woke up early, gathered up all our stuff, and took a van to the ferry. The flooding on Wednesday must have really done a number on the roads, because the traffic was an absolute nightmare. Our driver tried to take several detours to bypass the the worst of it, but everyone else had the same idea, so I don't think it saved us any time. Mercifully, the the traffic screwed up everyone's schedule. We were 15 minutes late, but the ferry was running 30 minutes behind, so it worked out. The ferry itself was really nice, but it was wasted on us because we spent most of the time on the lowest deck dozing and occasionally catching bits of Kung Fu Panda with bad English subtitles.
"You ever see The Perfect Storm?"
One of the things we wanted to do on Koh Phi Phi was catch a ride out to Koh Phi Phi Ley, the smaller of Koh Phi Phi's two islands, to see Maya Bay, which is where they filmed The Beach. Unsurprisingly, this is a popular activity, so as soon as we got off the pier we were surrounded by guys offering take people out. The first guy to approach us offered what seemed liked a decent price for a 3 hour tour, so we hopped in his longtail boat and headed out. Between the two islands is a pretty good stretch of open water and it got dicey enough for "you ever see The Perfect Storm?" to elicit some nervous laughter.
We rolled up to an area full of other longtail boats at which point our driver informed us that we'd need to swim over to a wooden staircase built on the rocks. It's a short swim, but once you got close you had to be careful not to get cut up as the waves tried to drag you over rocks in the shallow water. A length of rope extended from the staircase to help guide people in, but even with the extra help it was definitely a more active start to the tour than I was expecting. I shouldn't complain too much though, because we later found out that the stairs were a new addition. Originally you had to swim through a small opening in the rocks to reach the island.
From the stairs its a short walk through a lightly forested area to Maya Bay. I can see why they'd want to film a movie here, because it's very picturesque. The water's warm and, because it's a bay, the waves are relatively gentle. We spent a while exploring the beach and playing in the water before making our way to the stairs and swimming back to our boat. By this time we were so used to getting into random vehicles that I don't think we even made the perfunctory half-joke, "I sure hope he didn't steal all our stuff and strand us."
We headed up the coast a ways until we reached another spot full of boats at which point our guide dropped anchor and produced a pair of snorkels from a compartment in the bottom of the boat. I have a general rule against putting things found in the bottom of boats into my mouth, but this seemed like the sort of situation where you make an exception, so we snorkeled up and hopped in. Our guy, along with every other guide out there, was tossing out bread to attract the fish. As a result you basically found yourself surrounded by one school after another. Eventually our guide called us back over and we made our way back for the main island, Koh Phi Phi Don.
Trekking
We still had a lot of time to kill before our ferry to Krabi, so we started exploring the island's interior. It's a pretty touristy location, filled with lots of souvenir stores, dive shops, and tiny rooms for rent. In our wanderings we found signs pointing to a lookout, so we started making our way there.
The good news is that the lookout was totally legit, the bad news is that we had to climb a ton of stairs while carrying our full packs. I think there was an option to check them at the pier, but it was a little late for that now. Still, the view when we got up there was amazing. Even the dude trying way too hard to impress a pair of French girls by talking about his time in Somalia couldn't spoil it.
Travel Day Part II (Koh Phi Phi → Krabi)
We made our way back down to the pier, bought some ice cream (basically our first meal of the day), and waited for the ferry. Eventually they started letting people on, so we followed the crowd and had a seat just before it started to rain. Yesterday's downpour had broken our streak of unintentionally avoiding getting rained out, but it seemed like it might be starting up again. We eventually learned that they were only putting people on this ferry because the real one hadn't show up yet, so we transferred over to that one and settled in for the ride. Sadly, whereas our morning ferry was plush, this one was downright shabby. Still, it got us where we were going.
Travel Day Part III (Krabi → Ao Nang)
When we booked our ferry tickets we also made arrangements to get from Krabi to Ao Nang, so once we hit the parking lot we spotted a guy holding a sign that very nearly said my name. The driver collected a few more people and then set out. Most people were asking to be dropped off at a particular hotel, but we just told him we were trying to get to Railay, so he dropped us along with a French couple at the pier. Although Railay is a peninsula, it's only accessible by boat, so we made arrangements to split a longtail boat with six other people.
Travel Day Part IV (Ao Nang → Railay)
We had to wait until all 8 passengers had arrived, but once that happened we piled into a songthaew which took us out to a small cove full of boats. It was near low tide, so getting aboard without getting wet took a little doing, but soon enough we were all in and on our way. The sun had set, so there wasn't much in the way of a view, but the weather was just about perfect. I'm not sure if the tide had gone out even further or if the shoals around Railay just stretch a long ways, but we ended up having to disembark into knee-deep water. We managed to get ashore without soaking ourselves or our belongings, so now we had to try to find a hotel.
Late-Night Exploration
We'd been dropped off in West Railay, which is the prettier--and therefore more expensive--part of the peninsula. The first hotel we came upon was offering rooms for 3600 baht (~$120), which, while eminently reasonable for a beach-front resort in the States, is akin to highway robbery in Thailand. We, along with the rest of the people on our boat, opted to hoof it over to East Railay. Halfway there we hit a snag in the form of a big ol' construction site. Traipsing across a construction site in the dark while wearing sandals sounded like a good way to get tetanus, so we tried to find another way around. After probably 15 minutes of fruitless searching we went back to the first hotel to find out what the deal was.
It turned out that walking through the construction site really was the only way across by foot, but we also learned that one couples with us had a reservation on the east side and that their hotel was supposed to send a boat. The more we overheard the more it sounded like that wasn't happening, so Charlie went to check out the construction site while I stayed to monitor the boat situation, just in case.
We found out that, because of low tide, they wouldn't be sending a boat any time soon. Around the same time that we got that information Charlie called to let me know that crossing the construction site wasn't a big deal, so I bid the couple farewell and met Charlie in East Railay.
We headed north along the shore and began asking each hotel about rates. The first one we found wasn't much better than West Railay, but on the second or third try we found one that had rooms for 900 baht (~$30). It was still going to be our most expensive night, but we probably wouldn't do much better and it had been a long day, so we took it. Charlie went to find some dinner, but I opted for a hot shower and bed.