ENG -- Thailand - Krabi - Railay Peninsula

From Ao Nang Beach, where our hotel was, we were able to get quite often to Railay Beach and Phra Nang Beach, where the beaches are more spectacular. There we even saw little fishes swimming in the water. Even though we were in full tourist season, in December, none of the beaches we visited were very crowded.

From Ao Nang you can go by long-tail boat to Tonsai Beach, (West) Railay Beach or Phra Nang (Cave) Beach. To give you an idea, we added below the picture with the prices for the long-tail, but also for other trips that had Ao Nang Beach as a starting point.

The beach on which long-tail boats stop, called Railay Beach, is located in the western part of the Railay Peninsula, and is also known as Railay West. Another area, less touristy but at least as spectacular, is the eastern part (Railay East). The simplest way to get from one side of the peninsula to the other is to follow one of the marked paths, for which there are information panels, such as the one to which we took the picture that we added below.

We were charmed of the scenery and we missed the trail shortly after we started walking on it, but we were not upset because we took a longer walk in which we discovered other wonderful areas of that part of Thailand.

Thus, on our way to Railay East we discovered a cave: Phra Nang Nai Cave - Diamond Cave.

In Railay there is also a view point that promises spectacular views, but which we did not climb. We searched the internet for pictures at home, it seemed difficult to climb, both at home and also on the spot, so we preferred to enjoy what we could see from the ground level.

Below we have posted for you some pictures of the mangroves from Railay East.

We continued our walk exploring the area and we also discovered a bar that offers you the possibility to enjoy your favorite drink not sitting on a chair, but in a tree. What a wonderful view!

At the end of a day of walking and relaxing in Railay East, we followed another path to return to the western part of the peninsula, on another beach, Phra Nang Beach, from where we took the long-tail boat back to Ao Nang Beach. On this beach we returned one of the following days.

Phra Nang Cave or Princess Cave is a cave full of wooden penises of different sizes and colors. One of the local legends says that they are gifts left by local fishermen in order to be safe at sea. Another legend says that the sea brings to the princess from the cave all the wooden penises thrown into the water in that area.

From Phra Nang Beach you can walk to one of the nearby islands, when the sea recedes its waves or you can swim the rest of the time.

Also, from Phra Nang Beach or when you swim you can admire other islands in the area, most of them being formed by rocks rising directly from the water.

While relaxing on one of beaches in Railay, in the shade of a tree, you may be visited by probably the cutest monkeys we've ever seen in Asia.

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You can also read about our first impressions about Thailand, or about Krabi - Ao Nang Beach and soon we will post more articles about our holidays in Thailand. 

ENG -- Thailand - Krabi - Ao Nang Beach

The next stop after Bangkok was Krabi. Given that we wanted to visit an area as representative for Thailand, it wasn't easy at all for us to decide between Krabi and Phuket. We didn't want to get to an area that was too touristy, too hectic; we were looking for quiet, relaxation and those specific landscapes of Thailand that you can find in a simple search on Google. 

Arriving in Krabi, we discovered that the landscapes are much more spectacular than we could capture them in the photos taken with a phone camera or even comparing with those in the images edited by others.

From Bangkok we booked a flight to Krabi. Domestic flights are operated from the small airport in Bangkok - Don Mueang. At that time there were many flights per day, with prices around 30-40 euros / one way. We chose to fly with Air Asia and everything went smoothly. For checked baggages we had to pay a rather small fee, but which included the chosen of the seats, and also the food on the plane.

In Krabi we found beaches with rocks and greenery, with palm trees and other tropical trees in the shade of which you could hide from the hot sun during the day, traditional "long-tail" boats with which you can go to other beaches in the area, tasty and good price food (which we will write about in other articles).
Long-tail, as the name say, are boats that were originally built to be used with oars, but to which engines have been attached to the end of long metal bars / "tails", bars with which the locals are leading the boats.

If you are bored of spending too much time at the beach, you can take a very easy walking - Monkey Trail. Yes, they are monkeys on the route, that's why it's called a monkey trail, but they are not dangerous, they are really cute. However, it is better not to feed them, so as not to become aggressive and not to have the same expectations from future tourists. 

This is how the beach you reach after the route looks like. Before entering the beach, there is a person who asks you to write down your name and signature, we did not understand exactly why, probably because on this beach there is a large resort that occupies almost the entire area. However, the beaches are considered public spaces in Thailand, tourists access being allowed even on the beaches near private resorts.

And if you take the walk in the afternoon and stay to see the sunset, as we did, the route is lightened, so you can return without  any problem.

Probably one of the most visited and photographed / filmed tourist attractions in Thailand is Ko Khao Phing Kan (better known as James Bond Island), an island formed by a single rock spectacularly raised directly from the water, which became famous after one of the James Bond's movies was filmed there. The locals found out about the tourists' preferences and they use to organize day trips, both from Krabi and Phuket, at quite high prices, especially for Thailand, where you will spend most of your time in cars, on the road, and not on boat, as we imagined before arriving in Krabi.

Fortunately, this island is not unique, we discovered others at least as spectacular in Krabi, one of them being the one we reached from Ao Nang Beach, crossing the Monkey Trail, but also by kayak or long-tail boat.

If you want a trip on the water, you can rent a stand up paddle or a kayak from the beach. We chose a kayak ride for two, for which we paid 250 baht / hour, about 7 euro / 8 usd (it would have been 200 baht / hour for a single person in a kayak or even cheaper / hour for those who rent it for many hours. For stand up paddle the price was 200 baht / hour.

And because we had a day when the weather was not good for the beach, we took walk on the beach. We were undecided whether to go to Phuket by ferry or  by car, so we thought of taking a walk to Nopparat Thara Pier, the departure point of the boats. Even if there is some distance to travel (approx. 3.5 km), a walk on the beach is always pleasant, especially when on the route you can find from place to place a swing hanging in the tree or a viewpoint from where you can admire the shores of the Andaman Sea.

And at the end of a day or whenever you feel like it, you can relax on one of the swings hanging directly from the trees on the beach.

Thank you for reaching the end of the article. In order to be informed when we publish new articles on this site, but also to see posts that are only on facebook, we invite you to like our facebook page by accessing this link : Doi plimbareti.

You can also read about our first impressions about Thailand, and soon we will post more articles about our holidays in Thailand. 

ENG -- Malta - the island of Gozo

The last place in Malta that we write about on the blog, at least until our next visit, is the island of Gozo. Being an archipelago, the country of Malta is made up of several islands, of which only 3 are inhabited: Malta (with the capital Valletta and the main tourist attractions: Mdina and Rabat, Marsaxlokk, Popeye Village), Comino (often visited for the Blue Lagoon) and Gozo, about which we will detail below.

From Sliema, where we had the accommodation, we took the bus 222 to the last station, Cirkewwa. Being a transit point for both tourists and locals, in Cirkewwa arrive buses from all over the island of Malta, even from the airport. From there we continued our journey to Gozo Island by ferry, crossing Gozo Chanel to Mgarr harbor. The price of a roundtrip ticket is 4.65 euros and is paid on return; for the first part of the boat trip you do not have to pay anything. The program can be found on the official website, and the journey takes about 15-20 minutes. Since we left Sliema and until we took the bus from the starting station in Gozo, we did less than 2 hours, which is why we were able to use on the bus in Gozo the same ticket that we used on bus 222, and that we bought  for 1.50 euros directly from the driver at the starting point in Sliema.

We wanted to spend a relaxing day here, so we decided to visit only the capital of the island, Victoria. The bus station, from Mgarr to Victoria, is easy to find, it is located just after the exit of the ferry's harbor and there are shown the bus schedule and the route of each of them.

When we arrived in Victoria, we decided to start our visit with a city walk before visiting the most important tourist point, Citadella. So we discovered a little park decorated for holidays. Actually it was the Christmas Eve and we were just glad to stay on a bench in the sun. 

The afternoon we spent strolling on the streets of the old Cittadella, a walk that gave us the chance to have a panorama of the island, to admire its houses and hills. 

In any direction you looked, you could see the margins of the island and the Mediterranean Sea that surrounds it, which shows its small size.

As in most places visited in Malta, also in Cittadella in Gozo, you can walk through the narrow streets full of history that can give you the feeling of returning back in time.

The most imposing building is the Gozo Cathedral, although it is not very photogenic because of its protective walls and its shade.

Before going to the ferry to return to Malta, we stopped at the citadel's restaurant to eat. We chose to eat traditional dishes and we were not disappointed with the choice made. We recommend you to try the traditional rabbit steak, but accompanied by the spectacular view of the restaurant within the fortress. We also received fries and salad, and the total price is a good one, around 12-13 euros per person, considering that prices in Valletta were at least 14-15 euros just for the meat.