Jan 5, 2011

Boxing, climbing, Yaya bar hippies and tropical storms - Day 92

As you might have noticed from the tone in our recent blog posts, we're not thrilled about being on Railay beach (or island, as we think of it... no roads, no cars, you can only get here by boat = island) because of all the resorts, tourists and the prices...
But when kayaking yesterday we had to admit that the views are stunning and the weather is nice. After finding a cheap restaurant with tofu (cheap and cheap... but everything else here is ridic expensive, so it counts as cheap), and realizing how lucky we are to have all the Yaya bar rasta hippies looking after us (since we think everything is too expensive we don't live anywhere... we shower and change in bathrooms in restaurants like the bums we are, and keep all our bags at the reception/Yaya bar. Use Yaya bars electricity etc. Therefor the guys put up the tent for us, and since the tent is now broken due to weather circumstances, they promised we'd get Santi's room, while they could all sleep in the same room. Aww.) we are a bit more okay with staying here.

And suddenly 'a bit more okay' turned into 'we love this place!' thanks to Muay Thai.
Instead the one hour of 'one on one Muay Thai' that we paid for, the trainer (Yaya, a Muay Thai champion, fighting tonight! And of course part of the Yaya bar crew...) let us practice for almost three hours... and still left us wanting more!

After realizing how long we'd been boxing, Sophia and I ran (a couple meters.. to the other side of the Yaya bar. We feel like we live in Yaya bar. No wait, we do) to the spot where we where supposed to meet our climbing instructors (aka Santi, from Yaya bar) and still soaked with sweat from the boxing, we started conquering the hill....
...but it wasn't easy. The wind was really strong, and I had to concentrate super hard not to blow away. Suddenly screams from below pierce through my concentration: "Tsunami! Tornado! Everybody press yourself to the hill, watch out for falling trees!"
Somebody (Nu, from Yaya bar, of course) got out a megaphone: 'Take care of yourself, check your friend, check your girlfriend, check your bikini! (followed by hysterical laughter.. don't worry, we have his laughter on film) I look down and see Santi waving me to come down, while Sophia is shouting something about 'virvelvind' and to get down fast. Everybody else is already halfway down.

We all gather in Yaya bar, and Nu keeps us entertained by showing tricks. Sophia and I go running around in the rain that is pouring down, and look at the clouds rapidly covering all the hills that surround the beach. The waves are huge. We love this. No tsunami, no tornado, but a huge tropical storm.

....but then the strong wind broke our tent, and we realized we're not gonna be able to leave Rilay beach today (no boats). And it's cold and gray. And now we don't 'love this place' so much anymore. But we might just be hungry, so our tofu restaurant is our next destination. And our Yaya bar hippies promised to throw us a 'great party I make tonight for you' with muay thai fighting and didgeridoos.
Since the most important thing here is, of course, 'Don't worry, be happy!'

(...followed by 'No hurry, no worry!', 'No woman, no cry!' and 'I'm a buffalo soldier!'. And then some hysterical laughter provided by Nu)
//H

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