Tonsai Continued;
So I’m out at the Sunset Bar listening to Toffee play guitar with some locals and a few ‘in-tune’ tourists. I’m sitting with a guy from Italy and we get to chatting and filling in the general blanks and realize we both have been out finding waves in the Mentawai Islands or fishing. Basically we covered the same grounds but with different agendas. I had just finished reading a book called ‘Hotel K’ about a notorious prison in Bali. I mention the book and he smiled and says he was inside for 6 months. I was taken back and let him tell his story and go through the names I just read about, he met them and verified what the author had explained in detail. I am now curious, but not that curious. His story reminded me of some of the other surfers that get caught up in the drug trafficking scheme and get tripped up.
Life in Tonsai is nothing but relaxing. The sound of Cicadas crests the treetops in waves as the heat grows during the morning hours. A warm breeze pushes on my bamboo thatch door and flutters the curtains out the windows. The power is off during the day between 7 am and 7 pm. A monitor lizard crawls languidly through the dry leaves, a snake drops out of a tree above my tin roof and lands with a bang. The snake slithers to the edge and then falls to the ground immediately moving off through the leaves and underbrush. A coconut falls on another bungalow.
After tea and a mango shake I pack my camera and mask and head over the mountain on a jungle trail that takes about an hour to Railay East. Gibbons call to one another with long shrill hoots and howls of varying pitch from the various fruit trees in the forest. They jump from tree to tree moving with purpose.
Along a resort wall bordering the path to Pranang Beach Long tail Macaques sit on the fence and tourists take pictures of them. The Macaques hang around the garbage bins waiting for something to go in so they can pull it out and take a look. Some of the monkeys have gone stealth and climb into the bars in search of alcohol and more often than not, find it.
Pranang Beach is a deep-water white sand beach where shade is in high demand. Luckily the back of the beach has been cleaned out so there is shade under the Mangroves and other beach trees. Towering limestone outcrops bracket the ends of the beach. A fertility temple has been ‘erected’ over the years for those wanting to get pregnant.
Railay East is not much of a beach, it’s more of a dock destination for boats from Krabi dropping off tourists staying in the area. I only pass by. The hotels and resorts at this end are VERY expensive, $100-300/day and you don’t get much more than I get for paying $10/day. Railay West is a nice long wide beach with again white sand and lots of room and again bracketed by limestone towers. From Railay West you can follow the beach to the north and locate a trail that will take you to Tonsai or wait for low tide and walk around the end of the rock point.
This was my daily walk and swim and I found myself dissolving into the sand, sun, and sea. After a little more than two weeks I have to move on but it was great coming back here and seeing some old friends and making some new ones in the process. None-the-less, Tonsai is a hard place to leave especially after spending months at a time here, two weeks just isn’t enough. But it is time to leave Thailand after four months of beach and jungle and get on with the adventure. Hope to see you there or just watch over my shoulder. J I’m off for Krabi for St. Patrick’s Day and then hopefully hook up with two friends from Bang Bang Bar that seemed eager to have a night out. Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Krabi town!
www.davidcdagley.com
