#gapyah

My body is no longer mine.

I have surrendered my comfort for a sense of adventure and what a waste of a sacrifice that feels like now.

I sit naked under the dim light of the shack, it’s 4am and I have hardly slept.

The insect bites are overwhelming , I am dehydrated despite drink more than the contents of a bath tub and I feel more weary than ever before.

Is this travelling?

Alone, disconnected, lost. 

I don’t really know whether I need to sleep or vomit, all I know is that I can’t sleep. 

The sounds of the insects and birds should be refreshing, but all they do is remind me how far away I am from home. 

I will escape this place early in the morning, maybe if I get to the beach for sunrise I will remember what brought me here. 

On arrival to Railay Beach I was in desperate need for accommodation and with the only available options being beach resorts and hotels far out of my humble backpackers budget, I was getting desperate.

I had heard a few people mention a place called Cabana which was situated on the edge of town, nicely hidden away by the tall trees and towering limestone cliffs. The urgency for me finding a place to stay was closely linked to these cliffs, Krabi is one of the worlds most sought after climbing destinations and I felt I had something to prove.

As I walked down the long dusty road away from the main hotel district I came across a sprawling settlement of stilt houses with a perfectly matching sign that read ‘low budget accommodation’. It was at that point that I knew I was in the right place. 

I had been sat at what appeared to be a reception building for a few minutes when a woman and a small fat boy drove up to me on a scooter asking if I was looking for a room. Desperate to escape the brutal heat on my unadjusted skin, I followed the boy down the path through what in the daylight appeared quite a charming place: roosters clucking away, smiling faces, all is sweet.

After passing numerous poorly constructed wooden shacks we arrived at D7 and the boy showed me inside...

Now I don’t feel as if my description or photos can do this place justice. It was a room that you had to be in to understand the lack of appeal (bearing in mind I was fresh of the plane, not yet a seasoned traveller). Looking down at his happy, chubby face however, and still adopting the ‘backpacker mentality’ I took the keys for the night for the Thai equivalent to around £10 which is actually bloody expensive but apparently this was budget in Railay Beach.

So I am stood on the uneven floorboards of my new abode. A state of the art padlock clung on to a cardboard like door and upon entry the one light flickered on hesitantly. There was a bed, and curtains, and a fan. None of which looked like they could do their jobs successfully. All that was keeping me situated was thinking of what my Dad would say...

“it’s an experience!”

“You’ll have everything you need”

“You’ll learn from this!” 

Or even more inaccurately: “It’s great here!”

But I stayed and endured the bathroom without a toilet flusher or paper for that matter and although I am currently approaching my first nights sleep I don’t doubt that my Dad’s words will appear true in the morning.