Coconuts, Monkeys and Caves

Today was one of those perfect days. The sky was blue,
the sun was warm, but not too warm. It was a little
humid, but hey, this is Thailand. It's supposed to
be humid. On top of that, it was a great day to see
things that you just don't see everywhere. This morning,
the staff of the hotel was climbing the palm trees
around the bungalows, removing coconuts from the trees.
Picture a small bowling ball falling from a height of
5 stories. That would stand a good chance of ruining
your day! The gentleman shown in this photo took one
of the coconuts, cut a hole in it and inserted two
straws for the children that were watching.


While we were eating lunch, we heard a commotion in the
trees above our table. We thought it was probably the
small squirrels that we've seen scampering on the roofs.
Instead, there were three Gibbon Monkeys were playing in
the trees. Posing seemed to be nothing new to them as
they hammed it up for the camera, less than five feet
from us.


Later in the afternoon, I took a short walk away from
Railay to Pranang Beach. There was a really cool cave
that showed lots of fertility symbols placed there by
fishermen hoping to increase their luck of a good catch.
I'm not sure what fertility has to do with catching fish,
but it was very colorful and fun to look at.


This area also had a great beach with lots of little
islands nearby and huge stalactites overhanging the
water. One of the picture-postcard locations that don't
exist in many places.