Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2009
En route to Railay
Rahim carrying his bags to our longtail boatDay 24
We left Bangkok this morning and jumped on a plane headed south to Krabi. We went with a rough idea of where we might end up (either Ao Nang, Krabi Town, or Railay) and thus no accommodations booked but everything we had read assured us that although things are busy as it's high season it's not peak season so we should be able to find something. Our original plan was 2 nights wherever we ended up, then head out to Phi Phi islands for 2 days before finally going to Phuket.
Once at Krabi airport, we debated between being centrally located in Krabi Town to make an easy getaway to Phi Phi but the beautiful Railay was calling our names so that's where we headed. It was a short bus ride to Ao Nang and we then got on a longtail boat to access Railay. As we rode along in the boat and admired the giant limestone cliffs rising from the ocean we thought we had found paradise. Once we arrived in Railay we quickly decided to just stay here for 4 nights and enjoy the surroundings rather than rush to Phi Phi. So this meant cutting Phi
En route on longtail boat
Some of the beauty we witnessed from our boat Phi out of our trip but we heard you can do day trips from Railay so we'll still make a point of seeing it.
Although we probably only walked for about 15 minutes to find suitable accommodations (A/C, hot shower and private bath for 1000 baht) it seemed we had walked for ages and were covered in sweat. We opted to stay on the much cheaper Railway East beach rather than the west side. The west was mainly resorts.
For dinner, we got pulled in (very easily) by a restaurant that had kebobs. You select the kebab you want and they grill it up for you while you munch on items from the salad bar. We ordered a shark kebab and a barracuda kebab. We both originally thought the barracuda was best at first bite but by the end of the meal, the shark was clearly superb.
Day 25
We started the morning off by doing a hike to a viewpoint over the Railay beaches. Rahim was super pumped for this but I was quite nervous as the cliffs are high and look pretty steep so I couldn't quite imagine climbing to the top of one. I was
Thailand in the sand
In case you forgot where I was relived though when we got to the entrance of the trail and it said the viewpoint was only 200m away. Phew, we didn't have to climb to the top - but we still started with a really vertical assent. The mud was red and I got dirty and sweaty quickly. It was worth it though to see Railay from above. We also attempted to head to a freshwater lagoon within the limestone formation but there were three straight drops we'd have to go down and then come back up again. I wasn't confident in my climbing abilities and Rahim wasn't confident with his choice of footwear. So we chatted with some older ladies from Australia who were awaiting the return of their children from below. We would run into these women several times while in Railay yet.
Rahim got his way in the morning so I got my way in the afternoon with some straight-up beach time. It was hot roasting in the sun, so much in fact that I was so wet from sweat you might've thought I had just gone swimming. For lunch, we ate directly from a longtail boat on the beach that was serving up fruit
shakes and noddle dishes. I had the best tasting (and cheapest) pad thai yet! There's just something about eating pad thai that was made on a boat while sunning yourself on the beach surrounding by breathtaking scenery.
It looked like storm was rolling in by late afternoon so we packed it in and headed back to our room. We had good timing though as soon as got in, the rain started and didn't stop for 3 hours. We just stayed locked in our room and napped. It was a tiring day.
Since dinner was so good last night, we went back to the same place but stayed away from the kebabs for somewhat of a change. We cruised around some of the bars on east beach but not much was really going on.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.114s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0411s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
