after a week at dawn of happiness, our next beach stop was tonsai, and it was one of our favorite stops in southern thailand. tonsai is a hidden little cove adjacent to the beaches of railay east & west in the krabi province on the western side of thailand. there are only three ways to get to tonsai beach:
1. by longtail boat
2. a 30-minute jungle hike from railay beach
3. wait until low-tide and do a 25-minute trek thru the rocks and caves
we opted for options #2 and #3 and had a ton of fun doing it (well, maybe not the last jungle hike in the extreme heat with all our gear, but that’s another story).
tonsai is a wildly popular destination for international rock climbers, rasta lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. not quite the full moon party 20-something backpackers, tonsai attracts a slightly older crowd (our age) that wants to get active during the day and feel groovy all night. we ended up doing 4 days and 3 nights in tonsai and loved every second of it. the no-frills beach “town” (it’s hard to even call it that) is so small, but has everything you could want from a beachfront hippie village. there’s a stretch of white sandy beach, some bungalows, monkeys running about, a few street vendors slinging grilled chicken, pad thai & fresh fruit, a handful of wooden beach bars for sunset, chill electro tunes, slack lines and late night fire shows.
the jungle hike into tonsai.
the flower truck.
the setting is unreal beautiful.
pretty much the entire beach of tonsai.
the coolest beach bars ever did i see.
we had a really interesting interaction with a pack of monkeys. as we were walking down the sandy path, we saw a mama monkey clutching her brand new baby. we stopped to watch and then noticed a few bigger monkeys start to walk towards us. pretty soon we were surrounded and they started to slowly walk, creating a barricade around the newborn that simultaneously pushed us along down the path.
the low-tide walk back to railay.
beers with new friends at the sunset bar.
one late afternoon everyone at sunset bar charged onto the beach. “the german guys on acid are base jumping again!” sure enough, we looked up to the top of a cliff and saw a man jump and soar through the air before he pulled his chute with a loud pop! it was such an intense thing to watch!
tye-dye or, thai-dye ;) felt appropriate in tonsai. the menu – pick your mellow-out method of choice.
since everyone else was rock climbing, i had the beach to myself during the day.
while we laid on the beach, we watched hard core climbers cruise up cliffs. no big.
for $31 we opted to stay at the nice & new Green Valley Resort bungalows with a pool & spa.
our cozy bungalow with an outside shower… and a fan.
poolside – there’s a cat in my hat! literally. the thing wanted to use my hat as a scratching pad.
pretty much “the main drag” in tonsai. ain’t much to it, but the food is delicious.
we ate mama’s grilled chicken and rice for lunch and dinner almost every day.
yuuuuummmmm.
nothing to do, but relax…
enjoy the views…
aaaannndddd.. SLACK LINE! it’s a 1.5″ line tied to two posts. you walk across it like a tightrope. apparently it helps all the rock climbers with their balance. people were obsessed — so was ting. he was bound and determined to conquer the slack line. i feel like we’re going to have a phil dumphy (from modern family) moment on our hands when danny installs one in the front yard at home.
one of our favorite stops in southern thailand was tonsai. tonsai is a hidden little cove adjacent to railay east & west. there are only three ways to get to tonsai:
1. by boat
2. a 30-minute jungle hike from railay beach
3. wait until low-tide and trek thru the rocks and caves
we opted for options #2 and #3 and had a ton of fun doing it (well, maybe not the last jungle hike but we’ll get there).
tonsai is a wildly popular destination for rock climbers, rasta lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. not quite the full moon party 20-something backpackers, but a slightly older crowd that wants to get active during the day and feel groovy all night. we ended up doing 4 days and 3 nights in tonsai and loved every second of it. the no-frills beach “town” is so small, but has everything you could want on a made-for-hippies beach. there’s a stretch of white sandy beach, some bungalows, monkeys running about, a few street vendors slinging grilled chicken, rice & pad thai and of course a handful of wooden beach bars for sunset, slack line and late night fire shows.
the jungle hike into tonsai.
the flower truck.
pretty much the entire beach of tonsai.
the coolest beach bars ever did i see.
we had a really interesting interaction with a pack of monkeys. as we were walking down the sandy path, we saw a mama monkey clutching her brand new baby. we stopped to watch and then noticed a few bigger monkeys start to walk towards us. pretty soon we were surrounded and they started to slowly walk, creating a barricade around the newborn that simultaneously pushed us along down the path.
the low-tide walk back to railay.
beers with new friends at the sunset bar.
tye-dye or, thai-dye ;) felt appropriate in tonsai. the menu – pick your mellow-out method of choice.
since everyone else was rock climbing, i had the beach to myself during the day.
we opted to stay at the newer (and nicer) Green Valley Resort with a pool & spa.
our cozy bungalow with an outside shower… and a fan.
poolside – there’s a cat in my hat! literally. the thing wanted to use my hat as a scratching pad.
pretty much “the main drag” in tonsai. ain’t much to it, but the food is delicious.
we ate mama’s grilled chicken and rice for lunch and dinner almost every day.
yuuuuummmmm.
nothing to do, but relax…
enjoy the views…
aaaannndddd.. SLACK LINE! it’s a 1.5″ line tied to two posts. you walk across it like a tightrope. apparently it helps all the rock climbers with their balance. people were obsessed — so was ting. he was bound and determined to conquer the slack line. i feel like we’re going to have a phil dumphy (from modern family) moment on our hands when danny installs one in the front yard at home.
