Railay

Hey peeps!
So today I am going to tell you about our trip to Railay Beach. It's actually a peninsula jutting out from the mainland but there are no roads to it so everyone arrives by boat and it's a carless island. We took a longtail boat from Krabi town, it was about 45 minutes. Got some great pics as we came into Railay East. The east beach is not as picturesque as the west, but you still see the dramatic karst cliffs looming over you as you come in. These are a sheer cliff face, much higher/larger than anything we had seen before.

We walked up East Railay, turned into the peninsula and ended up near the Phangnagiri Cave. We saw some monkeys, just climbing all over the power lines like crazy. The cave was just so-so, especially compared to our Khao Sok adventure.

We walked to West Railay and were totally blown away by how beautiful it is. There is a long sweeping beach and it is bookended on both ends by huge karst cliffs that the rock climbers really go crazy for.

We ended up back on East Railay for lunch (it's like a 5 minute walk) and then laid on Railay West for a few hours. Went for a swim in the ocean. I pestered Jared until he gave in and we went searching for the viewpoint at the south end of Railay West. We got to the end of the swanky hotels and then there was a little path feeding into the jungle. Sketchy? Maybe. We walked along this for about 20 minutes. We passed some climbers on the way and they didn't seem to know anything about a viewpoint. Naturally we just kept going. We came around a corner and there was a ladder lashed to the side of a cliff going straight up, about 10 rungs. I just didn't look down while climbing it. Then you had to hang onto a rope as you came around a ledge. Once that was accomplished we were rewarded with a rather remarkable view of Railay West, East, and Ton Sai beach.

We spent lots of time up here, soaking in the view, fiddling with the selfie stick, watching the climbers. Jared even admitted the hike/climb was worth the view! And I was glad because I got a little climbing adventure in.....for free! We climbed down (kind of scary) and headed back for a beer on Railay West. I swam in the resort's pool- pretty sure it's for guests only but just act like you own the place and you'll be sweet. We decided to chance it and take the boat back from Phang Na Cave at 6(ish) instead of the main Railay East pier at 5. Our hostel owner had told us her brother would drive us back for 100 baht (instead of 150) and we'd get get extra time on the island. Only issue is every conversation with Thais is fraught with miscommunications as the language barrier is alive and well. So I think that's what she said? So we decided to go for it and if we got stuck on Railay for a night so be it. We headed for Phang Na and found another viewpoint to hike up to along the way. We had just enough time to do it so we climbed like crazy people. The viewpoint here was more over Railay East than West, but still beautiful.The other fork in the climb was down to a lagoon. The climbing was quite a challenge- three tiers where you had to climb down a rope- and back up again :( we didn't do the last tier because we really didn't have time but we could see the lagoon from where we were. It was a really cool jungle adventure. Scrambling over craggy rocks, hanging over tree roots, getting covered in red dirt. So much for Jared's clean white shirt.

We made it back down the cliff mountain trail and made our way to Phang Na Cave. The walkway there was really cool with the overhanging stalagtites as you walk under the cliff edge. When it opens up to Phang Na beach it's just awesome. The cliff face to your left, a sheltered beach, and an island out in the bay shooting straight out.

The cliff contains Phang Na cave, and at the entrance to the cave is a shrine. I suppose it's a type of fertility shrine because there were hundreds of carved wooden penises. They were all different colours, sometimes the head was different from the shaft!! There was a small diameter but very tall island off shore and people were swimming out to it to climb in the caves at the shore line. We found the boat- didn't know it was a food boat (a cousin of the North American food truck) but I recognized the name on the side. Pfewf! We hung out and watched the sunset, snapped pics and enjoyed life.

After sunset we boarded the food boat (so random) and headed back to Krabi town. We went to the night market with some friends we made on Railay and had some yummy food- some of the best Massaman Curry yet. It was a good adventure.

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