Railey

The original plan was to just pop over to Railey for the day from Ao Nang, upon arrival though we all agreed this was a place we should spend some more time and ended up spending a total of 2 nights there.

I really liked Railey it was a beautiful area surrounded by huge limestone cliffs which not only looked amazing but also provided a great barrier from the rest of the mainland making it feel like you were on an island. The fact there are no roads in or around Railey added to this and really made you forget you were still in mainland Thailand.

As we arrived we were greeted by a load of monkeys swinging from trees and eating whatever they could get out of the bins and things lying around. I am never really sure to be scared of monkeys or not as they start slowly coming towards you. I normally get quite concerned as I think there bites guarantee rabies so I normally stay at a safe distance but they really are the most fascinating things to watch.

The accommodation here was awesome, I am not sure much Tom and Chris liked it, but I thought it was ace. We stayed at "The Railey Cabana" which was a group of 40 or so wooden huts surrounded by huge limestone cliffs, it was beautiful. The huts were real basic, no hot water, no air-con just a bed and mosquito net. I just enjoyed it as however hard I've tried this was the first time I got round to staying in a simple little hut like this. The door didn't shut properly which was a problem but part from that it was awesome and for the first time in ages I felt like I was traveling again. We were also sharing the hut with quite a large amount of cocroashes and ants which wasn't really that great.

Our first day in Railey was spent entirely on the beach. It was stunning. Although I am still yet to work out exactly what it is but whenever I went in the water I kept getting these little nips and stings from something in the water. At first I thought it was little fish but I vaguely remember it possibly being little bits of Jelly fish that have broken off?!? hmmm not sure what it was but it did spoil my time bobbing up and down in the water as every 2 minutes I was given a little shock.

God knows why I didn't take a photo of this but on the beach there was a shrine to some princess of the sea. I can't remember what it was exactly but a princess (legend has it) got washed into this cave, stranded in there and then eventually died. Now she is some sort of princess of the sea. So every year the fisherman of Railey/Krabi bring offerings to the cave of carved wooden phalluses. It was bizarre there was just this little tiny cave full up with hundreds of wooden cocks. It was one of those things you don't really see to often but for someone reason I never managed to get a photo of it. Maybe it was the thought of taking pictures of hundreds of wooden penises carved by ageing fisherman that put my off. However I nicked another photos of the Internet just so you can what I am going on about.

As usual I have lost track about what I have told you on here however I was still on my antibiotics course while I was here. So I was taking it very easily and voiding alcohol. However it's not really hard to take it easy on a place like Railey so I wasn't really to fussed. However on my last day on the drugs a stupid waiter threw them away without my seeing meaning I missed the last day of the course and my throat infection came straight back a few days later. Cheers Manuel

The next couple of days was spent ordering Pepsi from the various bars or fruit shakes. Sitting on the beach, paddling in the water and rubbing sand of either myself or my iPod. It was great but by the end of the second day we all felt we should probably do something a little more productive with our time on the island.

So the next day went signed ourselves up for a 7 island snorkeling tour around Railey and the Krabi Provence. The trip didn't start off to well. We set off without any snorkels thanks to the 2 girls who were doing the tour for the first time and so forgot to put the snorkels on the boat. So after a 20 minutes trek out to sea we turned around to do another 20 minute trek back to shore to then do another 20 minute journey back out to where we were and before our eyes our 7 island tour quickly became a 6 island tour as it was going to be dark by 7 and it was now 3pm.

The next total fuck up was when the girls made us get out of the boat and walk over about 30 meters of jagged rocks you couldn't see through the murky water. So once we had all made it to shore everyone, including myself, was bleeding from somewhere due to falling over or stepping on a 'orrible rock. Was not happy. However after those first few hiccups the tour finally started running smoothly and we started swimming amongst the fishes and the coral exploring the waters. The highlight of which for me was the feeding of bananas to hundreds of tiny fish. I an now sure how someone worked out that these fish liked bananas but they definitely did. I would hold a bananas out and just get swamped by them and the bananas would be gone in less than a minute.

After the the banana feeding frenzy we headed off to a few more snorkeling spots, went to chicken island as it looks like a chicken and then landed on some random island to enjoy some beers as we sat and watched the sunset. However still being on antibiotics I could only just enjoy the sunset without a beer. After the sun has set and everyone had got all their prospective facebook profile picture taking sessions out of the way we jumped back on the boat to head to another island where we would be treated to a nice 3 course meal consisting of soups, Thai Curry's and some weird sweet and sour things, while dining under the stars by candlelight.

On the way home we mae a quick stop off in the middle of the sea to jump out and enjoy a short night swim, a bit dangerous if you ask me. However the point of it was to give us a chance to see what happens when you splash around in the water and night. It has something to do with the phosphorous in the water or the algae but when you splash around in the water you create this little spec of flashing light. During the day obviously you can't see it but in the pitch black it very apparent. Que amusing Hadouken movements in the water pretending we have some sort of super power.

One we had returned to land that pretty much concluded our Railey adventure. We stopped off for a quick drink and Internet session then retired to our wooden cabin so that we could be up early the next day to get our boat to Phi Phi island and to commence 3 very hectic days of alcohol fueled parting on an island that would seem a million miles from the peaceful surrounding of Railey. Railey shot straight to the top of my favourite beaches and Thailand and would say do not visit Thailand without coming to Railey, sack off the dog shit Patong and crappy Ao Nang and come straight here for beautiful scenery. Just be prepared to share it with about 300 others.
















16/12/09