Railay

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Got boat over to Railay beach. turned out to be completely breathtaking! amazing beach & wonderful limestone all around, literally took my breath away everytime i looked around me & not too toruisty at all, actually very chilled out & just wonderful. decided to stay over at the cheapest part of railay on Ao Ton Sai, which is cut of from the rest of railay, so requires much hiking over rocks to get to & from anywhere else...in high tide we even need to climb up & over a pretty steep mountainous/forest area...even longer & more fun. really quite loved it tho, but with the big back-pack was less enjoyable! meant that each day began with a challeng to get to the other side, then again to return home before the sunset. loved it!

anyway, fell in love with the place so stayed a good few days here just exploring the stunning area, rocks, caves, trekking up steep paths & rocks again over to a lagoon & viewpoint, & enjoying the beach. met some great people to hang around with for a few days.

decided to begin a new hooby - rock climbing! had to be done as this is THE rockclimbing pradise in the world apparently, & you know me, i want to try everything! was better at it than i thought & really enjoyed it! did a few climbs the first day, left aching so took a break but went back for more ounishment after a days rest! really great fun. got as far as a 5,8 american level? 6a/b chinese level? up as far as 25m. pretty good for a novice apparently. the best thing is that i made ALL the climbs & never gave up (although very tempting at times) & i only fell twice on one particvular climb..none on the rest. definitely will try this again sometime! so nice to get in with teh rock-climbing gang & learn a new obsessive culture (away from the salsa addiction im so familiar with!). They are all comploete nutters tho...some of those climbs were really ridiculous...not sure i would ever attempt them...just a little taster is enough for me!!!
sadly, i managed to drop my camera somehow & damaged it (actually, quite amazingly it still works, but the LCD is broken so i cant actually see what photos i have taken..may need to buy a new one if i cant get it fixd in bangkok...what a shame...early christmas present from someone perhaps????

anyway, so railay is definitely my favourite place so far. a complete paradise...would recommend to anyone. full moon was amazing here
i will certainly return for a good break at some time. look at my photos on snapfish to see what i mean!!

headded to the east & north next...

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