Self indulgent Asian travels post #3 (the final chapter)

This was my final groupmail (I promise) - enjoy!

Dear all

I hope this mail fids you well.

Marni and I are in West Railay in the Krabi area of Thailand and are having a great time... the beach is perfect and we are very relaxed. The last couple of days we've done morning yoga classes (which makes me realise how much I've been missing yoga) and otherwise have walked a lot, swum, eaten, drunk, repeatedly commented on how beautiful it is, had random conversations with random Europeans and North Americans, tried to work out whether the rude fellow-travellers are French or Israeli (Marni always thinks they're Israeli, I lean towards French)......

Prior to our Railay sojourn we spent a couple of terror-filled (for me) days in the Khao Sok National Park - it is a primary (ie untouched) jungle. We stayed in a very cute treehouse which we shared with an assortment of creatures of the night (and day). When not being menaced by mangy dogs in the little township, we went for a 15km trek by ourselves in the National Park. It is fair to say that I am not a hardened bushman. Especially when the bush consists of a tropical rainforest with an uncategorisable assortment of wildlife of every description. Luckily I didn't read until after our return from our trek that the animals found in the jungle include tigers, elephants, rhinoceri (sp?), vipers, pythons, cobras, asiatic black bears, sunbears (similar to the fabled Australian drop-bears), leopards and many many creatures i've never heard of. Back at our guesthouse I was just slightly less terrified, as the wildlife was just marginally at bay.

The drive to Khao Sok from Phuket by public bus was memorable. The busride itself was fine, but we drove through much of the worst of the Tsunami devastation (along the West coast above Phuket). Just horrible to see the massive extent of the damage and how little has been done to clean it up. There is damage also on Railay where we are now, but more has been done to repair the damage (although a lot more is still to be done!).

I think I have now got the hang of the traveller thing - I am dressing worse than ever before and feeling not a bit embarrassed, I can look at a fellow traveller and instantly assess their nationality with confidence (and I'm only wrong 50%-75% of the time!) and I watch with disdain when an American orders a hamburger or macaroni whilst I push my noodles around the plate.

We now have a couple more nights in the Krabi area then will be home mid-next-week.

Has been a great holiday, looking forward to seeing you all on our return.

Best regards

Tyson