Breakfasts at my “resort” (rustic is being generous, but there was a pool) were a tropical fruit buffet—pineapple, watermelon, papaya, maybe cantaloupe. I skipped the bread, pastries, fried potatoes, breakfast meats that probably aren’t all meat, and soy-soaked noodle stir-fries and occasionally went with a sunset orange-yolked egg (once over lightly, since the locals seem to like them dangerously runny). They did pancakes and omelettes, too, but those are too scary for dairy. Good luck asking if the omelet batter has milk, butter, cream, or flour in Thai. Makes for a very long morning).
The rest of the food made in restaurants in Ton Sai are traditional Thai. (And it’s only restaurants. There are no accommodations with kitchens or fridges—which is fine because all the resorts turn their power off for at least a couple hours per day, and some for more than 12. Good luck keeping the shrimp in the restaurant fridge cold with that schedule…). You have your choice of green curry, panaeng curry (red curry with peanuts), seafood omelettes, papaya salad (I don’t eat it because the tomatoes and unpeeled veggies aren’t washed in clean water), and savoury pancakes with egg or sweet ones with nutella. You could also get pizza and pasta at a place by the beach, but there’s half a menu of Thai dishes to go with it.
Everything is set up for tourists, but I discovered a few specialties including a rice soup with vegetables that I could find at Boatman Restaurant and Mama’s Chicken. Both said there was no soy sauce, wheat, or gluten in it. Just rice, salt, water, and vegetables. Salt may have meant MSG, though, as my heart started beating a mil a minute after lunch. Thais eat rice soup for breakfast, and this is the only thing to eat after being stomach sick, because curry is great going down, but awful coming up, and everyone gets sick in Ton Sai. I think it’s in the air. Immediately after I was sick, all I could eat was rice cakes from Japan Airlines, Lara Bars, VEGA smoothies with clean water, and during my long, dehydrated day, I chewed the juice from purified honey tangerines with water and a little salt. And I drank Thai Sprite. It seemed sweeter than Canadian, but it went down, which was the important part. Beware day 3 in Ton Sai…it will be a long one.
Once fully recovered (and hopefully now vaccinated to Ton Sai), I discovered that Thais also stir-fry rice in bottled curry paste—traditionally fresh paste, but I don’t think anywhere makes its own in Ton Sai. All the food is shipped in from Aonang, and most of that comes from all over Krabi Province. Ton Sai used to be orchards, and one of the resorts in Railay Beach next door supposedly has fruit trees behind it, but there’s no concept of eating really local. Unless you count the fact that everything anyone in Thailand eats comes from Thailand instead of being imported, since that would be too expensive. For example, it’s all Jasmine rice, not Basmati, and no one drinks wine except affluent tourists. There’s cheap local beer and rum that they like to call whisky.
Most of the restaurants don’t have fridges, so unless the fish is on ice and you’re sure it’s been that way the whole ride from wherever it came from, I’d say stick to the canned tuna in oil from Pyramid Cafe. Pick up a used book from the library at the back while you’re at it (trade in a current one for half off. Ask the owner (ironically named Chai) for the best coffee in the bay.
And go next door to The Roof for free wifi with your young Thai coconut. They hack open the top of the green and white head-sized fruit and you suck out a couple cups of sweet, nourishing, invigorating coconut water. Not coconut milk. That takes a lot more work. The coconuts are young and filled with liquid you can also scrape the soft jelly-like flesh from inside. Most people throw it out, which is a shame. It’s good protein. And when there are no fridges, that’s important. And when you’re recovering from a day of stomach sickness, you need all the easy-to-digest hydration and nutrients you can get. Sit on the roof of The Roof on cushions and sip away. You know you’re in a climber’s spot when a tiny Thai bay that imports its food by boat serves fruit, granola and yogurt bowls with things like goji berries and whey protein.
I just saw a gecko in my hostel in Aonang (I left Ton Sai yesterday). I’m naming him Lump the 2nd. Though my current hostel is complete $7 a night luxury with free wifi, kitchenette, air conditioning and a zen-like courtyard complete with swimming pool, I miss Ton Sai. I miss the endless 7a’s to work on right on the beach. The 6 climbing areas within a 15 minute walk of my “resort.” The day trip to climbing caves with Normand and Ginette. The 28 metre face climb that goes from bouldery to slabby to reachy to delicate, all without being run-out. I don’t miss having my back attacked by mean Thai massage fingers, leaving me unable to bend for a day. And I don’t miss the cockroaches in the bathroom or the getting sick.
But the climbing…I want to climb tomorrow. Instead I’ll be at a market in Krabi. I never thought I’d be sad about a market. And I can’t believe I’m complaining at all. Ton Sai…it has a strange appeal, luring you in, knocking you down, setting you back up and making you love it. More on that to come.
Leave a Reply