Bad Monkey!

We have left the calm and beauty of Malaysia behind, to return to the equally beautiful, if slightly more hectic, land of Thailand.  This time we are exploring the beaches of the Andaman coast and islands of the south.  It is very different here from the north.  Although still a bit of a tourist-trap, it's far less seedy and much more relaxed.  We took a ferry from Langkawi to the border town of Samut, then found our way to an amazing little hide-away called Hat Rai Leh.  It is a hippie climber paradise, with huge swaths of beautiful beach encircled by towering spires of rock.  It is probably the most visual dramatic scenery we have seen, aside from Halong Bay.  Unfortunatelyy the weather, and our health, was not cooperating, but we still managed a bit of exploring.  We took a fun jungle walk from the end of the beach at Rai Leh West, to the nearby beach of Ton Sai.  It was even more laid back.  Imagine a mix of Lord of the Flies, The Beach (the movie) and a dreadlocked Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

There was one other adventure of note....and let it be a warning to all those would-be travelers, and friends of monkeys.  My dear friend Jordy recently warned me to stay away from the monkeys....but sometimes the monkeys come to you.  We were headed to a beautiful part of the beach, reached by a wooden walkway, enclosed by a fence on the right, and a hundred foot cliff on the left.  We stopped at the head of the trail to buy a few bananas....yes, you know where this is going.  I'm certain this little monkey/mugger, was watching our purchase with anticipation, already plotting his attack.  We ate two of the three bananas immediately, on the admonishment of the proprietor, who warned us with a single word: monkeys.  We stashed the remaining tasty treat in our bag and headed off.  We'd walked about ten seconds before the primate in question leaped to the ground from his perch on the fence, and headed straight toward me.  Something flashed in my mind, some wordless simian memory....or maybe t was just the look in his eye.  I barely had time to say "bad monkey," before he had jumped from the ground onto my bag.  No amount of swinging or protesting helped, and I finally let go ( he had big teeth).  Once on the ground he carefully, and very considerately, sorted through our belongings until he found the banana.  Then, with a parting hiss in our direction, departed.  Of course, during the entire episode, Megan hid behind a German couple.  Mugged by a monkey.  Dang.

That's all for now.  We are headed for the island of Ko Phi P:hi in a day or two, which is exciting.  Take care everyone.

Very.  Bad.  Monkeys.

Rai Leh was a bit of a climbing mecca



Portable restaurants





Forest friends

 A note from Megan. John has taken over my blog! That's fine with me, but I do want to share some great signs I have seen in the last few days. The other day on a restaurant board our choices were: Cellophane noodles barked with prawns, pancake ball head, Thai herp chicken soup and fried pink sweet and sour. Mmmn...what to choose? Another great phrase advertising for a bar, "Great for Youngster!" You can't help but wonder what dictionary they are looking in. Youngster? I haven't heard that word since 1950.