And then there was Thailand... We caught a tourist bus from Penang to Krabi. As it took pretty much all day to get there and we had to stay the night in Krabi. We checked out the night market and chatted to a really fascinating guy who not only knows lots about everything, but also writes rude stories for women in order to fund his travelling (apparently there's quite a lot of money in it).
The next morning we caught a longtail boat to Railay beach, which is a little way along the coast. Sitting in the little wooden boat - with the sea spray drying almost the moment it hit my face - I had my first of many moments to appreciate the breathtaking karst landscape and it's reflection in the turquoise seas. I wish I could do justice to the jutting limestone pinnacles and carpeting jungle, but they really are too pretty for words.
At Railey, we slung our bags over our shoulders and walked on to Tonsai beach, our final destination. Tonsai is the cheaper, less sandy and more climber-focused sister of Railey beach. It's a place where slack-lining and poi are considered to be perfectly productive things to do with your day. If I'd gone there at 18, I don't think I would have ever left.
We managed to hunt down a wooden shack set 20m from the beach for the equivalent of £4 a night at a resort run by really lovely people. For various different reasons we moved shacks a couple of times and so saw three different ones in all. The thing that made these shacks interesting wasn't so much their facilities or location, but their ecosystems...
Shack 1 (1 night): Mosquitos; a dead cockroach under the pillow; termites doggedly following a scent trail to the dead cockroach, even after it was removed.
Shack 2 (4 nights): Mosquitoes; termites (testing our defences, which I'm pleased to say held strong); two big frogs in the bathroom; a cockroach trapped in the bathroom bin; a scorpion-like spider hiding under the toilet seat; and a rat which fell onto the bed (which I was lying on) from the rafters, luckily the mosquito net broke his fall and he quickly made himself scarce.
Shack 3 (1 night): Mosquitos, a chorus of frogs outside on full volume; maybe another rat (it was dark and hard to tell).
But what do you expect for £4? All in all - aside from the dive bombing rat and the termites which spent the first night trying to crawl into Simon's ear - it wasn't too bad!
After the relatively sedentary time we'd had in Malaysia, visiting museums and sitting on buses, we were both looking forward to getting some exercise. Tonsai really is the perfect place for this. We spent three blissfully happy days there climbing the massive cliffs and kayaking around the bays. It was all exciting, hard work and super fun.
The last day we went deep water soloing. This is where you climb up a sea cliff and the either fall in because the climb's too hard or jump in because there's no other way down. One of the pre-requisites - and the clue's in the name here - is that the water is deep enough for all the falling in to be safe. If you fancy trying it, then Krabi province is the place to be, because the climbs are good and water is lovely and warm.
The other members of our little group were really nice, had quite a bit of climbing experience and were game for a challenge. We started off with some traversing (climbing sideways near to the ground - or, in this case, the sea) and then moved on to a vertical climb. I found that one of the many benefits of turning thirty is that I no longer care what people think when I decide that I don't actually want to jump in from any higher than two meters. Si left me playing on the traverse and took on the role of team adventurer; along with the rest of the group he climbed up to around 10m high and then jumped in, more than once. It looked like a lot of fun - if you like that sort of thing of course.
Aside from jumping from various heights of cliff faces, we also did some snorkelling and were entertained by our gregarious captain. It was such a nice day out on the water - the perfect end to our stay in paradise. I think this is probably the first place that we both definitely want to go back to. Though probably with ropes, well-fitting climbing shoes and a bit more money for accommodation.