Advertisement
1st things 1st I’m glad that we actually gave Railay a chance… the Similan Islands are a tough act to follow for darn near any beach destination but Railay drew the short straw and initially got a poor reception from us… I would say it initially earned a firm C-… to set the scene: Railay has two separate crescent shaped bays with a sliver of land in between them, one side is the “backpacker” side and the other side is the “Resort” side… class warfare at its finest. We arrived on the “backpacker” side in a longtail boat and found that the backpacker side did not actually have a beach at all… the boat pulled into mangroves and because the bay was shallow, we had to jump out of the boat into the brown water and wade through the mud carrying our luggage about 50 meters to the shore. The mainland itself was nothing to sneeze at but the contrast from the swimming pool like water and white sand beaches of Similan to the mud and mangroves of the “backpacker” side was a bit much and we contemplated catching a longtail back to the mainland shortly after arriving.
After getting
ashore we set about our usual… leave Venny in one spot with the bags while I hunt down a room. During my hunt I ended up on the “Resort” side and could feel the scorn as I, obviously not one of the frock, walked amongst the upper class and inquired about room rates… nothing under $100 a night… ok, back to the ghetto on the other side I guess. On the other side (about a 5 minute walk) rooms started at about $10 a night and I worked my way down to the right of the waterfront’s dirt road until we found a suitable spot in the “I don’t have over a $100 a night for a hotel” section. It was odd, people from the backpacker side would walk over to the resort side for the day and lounge on the beach… and the same items were sold on both sides, but just cost more on the rich side… the same items… brought over on the same boat to Railay… just costing more about 5 minutes away. I wonder if we walked over there for the beach and they walked over to our side for decent priced meals and other
goods… doubt it.
During our time on Railay we really just hung out and relaxed… ate some good food, killed a few mosquitoes, watched some sunsets on the resort side and just chilled out. Railay itself is famous for its dramatic limestone cliffs that rise out of the ocean and frame the coastline on both the backpacker and resort side and many come for the rock climbing… which we didn’t partake in.
In the end… after some deliberation and on the ground experience… Railay gets a firm B, worth a few nights if you’re in the area… but better options are available… just my 2 cents.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.282s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 16; qc: 76; dbt: 0.1292s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb