deeper the quicksand

I didn't sleep much on the bus ride to Krabi, which ended before the sun came up anyway. I had free soft cake roll for breakfast and a donut for dinner the night before and was therefore tired and malnourished when I arrived in/on/at Railay.

Railay is a peninsula, isolated from the mainland by limestone cliffs. My lodgings were on the east side, which is a mangrove forest. I checked in, wrote in my diary,

"East Railay is a mangrove swamp full of mud and mosquitoes and my shower is cold and nobody loves me."

Then I took a nice long nap. When I awoke, I was in a better mood. Mangrove forests are cool!



They have orange-scented mosquito repellant here! I was looking at a whole new ocean! The Indian Ocean! And I remembered that karst topography is like my favorite topography of all the topographies!

The south end of Railay is home to Pranang Cave, which is all that remains of a beautiful princess after a quarrel and some turning-people-into-islands-and-caves business. You know. And I like that in the States, if I point out a stalagmite as looking very phallic, I'd get a "grow up, Emily." But here they tie pretty fabric around the dangling and jutting phalluses, so there. (I didn't take a picture of this.)



I spent my first day on this beach. There are karst islands and stuff too.



And right after I took this picture, a little yellow butterfly flitted out over the ocean, dancing a little too close to the waves for my comfort. Whenever it was hidden behind a swell, I held my breath until I saw it again. This is my life.