Our Retreat from Railay

Where do I start - a lot has happened in the last 12 hours. We are currently in an area of Bankgok, three days sooner than we had planned on returning to the capital. So what happened?

Last night before going to bed, I started thinking about dangue fever, something that hadn't crossed my mind since we got here. Before turning out the lights I did some reading and learned that there have been some health advisories for Railay Beach and other areas of Krabi province due to increasing cases of dangue fever. The infected mosquito is the smaller, white and black striped variety, precisely what had been stinging us. I was especially concerned about what would happen if one of us developed symptoms in the evening after the long tailed boats returned to the mainland. In that case it would be very difficult to get to a hospital within the 12 hour window necessary for a positive prognosis.

When we got up this morning, Heather and I discussed it and decided that we would try to leave Railay today and either travel to Krabi town where we would be closer to a hospital, or if possible, travel all the way to Bangkok and out of the high risk area. We woke the kids and told them we were leaving right away (they were bleary eyed and wondering why we were going, so I initially told them it was because "I just killed someone by accident and we need to get out of here". They didnt think it was that funny). Heather and the kids packed while I went to the office and explained our situation. The staff at the Railay Beach Club were amazing and let us check out without having to pay for the next three days, whew.

We carried our backpacks to the restaurant to say goodbye to the friends we have made. It was difficult to leave sooner than expected but they understood our concern. They shared that they had a healthy 12 year old nephew who had passed away suddenly from dangue when it had caused internal bleeding. We are going to miss these people and their relatives at the restaurant. They were so kind and generous to our family. We exchanged information to stay in touch via facebook and left our Dutch Blitz with Baang so he can keep playing. I really hope we will be able to see them again.

As it was our last opportunity, we also ordered two things that Deacon has been requesting, a carrot smoothie and a fresh coconut. To no one's surprise but his own, he did not care for either item.

We had really gone rogue now. We decided to go to Ao Na Mao and found a long tail boat to take us there. Next, we got a minibus taxi to take us to the airport, even though I didn't know yet if the airline would let us fly out today.

It turns out that all we needed was more money. We had to pay a penalty for changing our tickets, and the difference in cost between today's more expensive flight and the "promotional price" of our tickets for the 31st. It felt like I was handing over a lot of money, but it really only came to an extra $230 and three hours of waiting, and we were flying to Bangkok and our final hurdle, ie not having any arrangements for Bangkok.

Thanks to a couple minutes of free wifi for Internet searches, and an understanding taxi driver, we were (amazingly) able to find an affordable hotel, that had room for us, that met my requirements for location. Our hotel, "Lovely House", is a converted home with six rooms and a shared bathroom that appears to be run by a girl named Noon and her older sister. Despite our after-dark, near-emergency booking, we were given their regular rate which is much less than the surrounding hotels. When we insisted that we stay together, they let all six of us stay in one room and gave us the mattress from a neighboring room for only $8 more a night, even though doing so would make the other room unrentable. After dropping our things off, we went out and had an awesome meal at a restaurant Noon recommended after furnishing us with umbrellas for the light rain.

Heather and I felt a strong impression that we should leave Railay today. I don't know if that means that someone may have been infected if we had stayed, or that someone is already infected and needed to be closer to a hospital, or for some other reason altogether. We will miss Railay, it really was a paradise. But if our journey today, which turned out so well despite deviating so far from the playbook, is any indication... we made the right choice.

- C