Pussy cat takes off

Sawadee-ka! On Thursday, F and I found ourselves on the 7.45am Tiger Air flight from le Budget Terminal and 90mins later, siamo arrivati al paradiso di Krabi in Thailand! The weather held up despite it being the hottest and wettest monsoon season now. Ahh, I was glad to be back again and couldn't wait for 4 glorious days of suntanning, Singha beer, smoking and slacking... haha.

Nee, our friendly Thai lady cab driver, drove us swiftly to our boutique hotel The Cliff and promised to pick us up on Sunday at a discounted price of 500baht. The property was as I imagined - cosy, chic and exquisite against the majestic backdrop of the jagged limestone cliffs. Everyone was all smiles from the customer relations fellow to the cherubic receptionist K who promptly suggested clean beach towels and mat for our Railay island hopover.

We gleefully trotted down under the blazing sun to Aonang beach 10mins walk away and the town was still sleepy at 10am. Aonang was as I remembered it 3 years ago albeit more developed now blemished by a perpetually empty MacD. I didn't get it - who the hell wants to freakin' eat fast food in this gastro heaven? Who?? Who?? Pui.

After our early lunch of 'aroy' (delicious) fried seafood vermicelli, pad thai and iced tea, the local boatmen ushered us onto their precariously shallow longtail boat (60baht - oneway) along with 6 other tourists for a 15-min wet and wild ride (forget Disneyland - this is more fun!) to Railay, probably the most developed and popular beach than the nearby Ton Sai and Phra Nang beaches.

These days, the shoreline was lined with more low-rise cafes and tourist-class hotels - which was a shame becos' I preferred the old rustic charm where the monkey community thrived freely and came out to investigate me trekking in their forest.

Nonetheless, it was still a pretty cool strip of sandy beach on Railay west with the limestone hills outlined against the azzure skies and the waves gently lapping in the foreground (see foto). In comparison, Railay east was less developed with a laidback kampong village vibe and fringed with mangrove trees (we could imagine Burn and his bro G fittin' in perfectly with the raegge boys here).

While F bargained with the masseuse auntie for her 300baht body massage, I flagged down the hawker with his baskets of fascinating 'kao lam' - local sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and broad red beans in a long bamboo. He offered me a choice of 'black or white rice' - greedy me wanted both but finally picked out the latter marked 25baht. It was darn ingenious - the bamboo served as a cooking tool, locking in all the flavours and there was no need for utensils (hence no wastage!).

I laughed and shrugged my shoulders at him - indicating wah lao, how to eat this thing? He smiled and began to strip it like you'd eat a banana. Blimey! It was molto interessante ma delizioso - sticky, salty and sweet (no funny ideas there now)! I wondered how does the black rice look and taste like? Drats, should have bought it too!

Thirsty, I flagged down another hawker for a cold Singha beer (60baht) and smiled no to another umpteeth person selling trinkets and the poor kids lugging their straw mats and fresh pineapple. It was a tad depressing seeing them peddling the wares and carrying stuff for tourists at such a tender age but I guessed they're making a decent living in their own way.

Around 5pm, we headed back to Aonang and joined the curious hordes of locals diligently digging the receded shore for local clams 'hoi wan' at low tide. It looked easy but proved difficile! The trick was to recognise the bubbles escaping thro' the mud and use a long object to dig it up in one clean sweep like how the aunties did it with their parangs.

We poked in the mud with a broken stick but no shit came up *sulk* we want our hoi! A dip in the pool and shower in our cosy open backyard toilet later, we pestered K for a dinner recommendation where we could sample these clams. She scribbled 'Wang Sai Seafood Restaurant' (10mins away by tuk-tuk - 20 baht each) followed by a list of local specialities in Thai... clams with lemongrass soup, local vegetable with crispy shrimps, tom yum kung and fried fish with mango salad! Damn, you go girl!

Alas, when we reached Wang Sai, the waiter told us they'd ran out of hoi so we pumped for the perfectly grilled BBQ squid served with the piquant nam prik sauce and mussels with garlic and butter instead (650baht for 4 dishes in total). Near exploding point, we hopped onto the small tuk-tuk again and got off at Aonang beachfront to soak up the evening bustle along the esplanade and fought off the chatty Indian tailors.

Here, you don't get hassled so much like you would in Bali or Phuket and the locals would leave you alone after the first try. Plus I was sure to say Sawadee-ka (hi) and kor-poon-ka (thanks) to everyone so it's all good! To cap the night, we walked into the sixth 'tour agency' and booked the cheapest 1,000baht (S$40) 9am-to-4pm excursion to the infamous Phi Phi island tomorrow (where we could pretend to frolick with Leonardo on The Beach). My head was still swaying from the boatrides... and all I could dream of was Railay... ah.