Railay Beach is an hour & a half off Phuket and is known as THE climbing destination in Thailand. Also a perfect choice for a long weekend getaway.
We arrived Sunday morning after an early start and as the boat approached the beach, it looked like a scene from a movie. Giant monolithic rocks rose out of an aqua blue ocean. The sand was perfect white & the sun was shining.
We found cheap digs for the night & hit the beach for the afternoon. We managed to find a spot in the shade despite the MASSES of tourists. Bloody high season! The long tail boats come from everywhere to drop the day trippers off. Easy to see why though. This place is stunning!
There is quite a large community of climbers here, so the beach was filled with people with amazing bodies. They could be seen trying to climb up a part of rock you wouldn't dream would even be possible to climb. The climbers, combined with the backpackers, give this place a hippie vibe. Rasta bars are everywhere and muay Thai fighting seems to be the next past time after diving.
After generally lazing around for most of the day, Lindsay & I decided it was time to do some exercise. After all, we needed to do something to work off the cocktails we would have later. We decided to 'hike' to the viewpoint. I say 'hike' as walk doesn't really fit. We basically had to scale the side of a rock face. Mind you, we were nothing like the actual climbers at the rock around the corner, but we were pretty impressed with ourselves. In our flip flops we began our ascent, pulling ourselves up with rope & hoping like hell we didn't fall! The view from the top made it worth it, and I think I will be boasting that I did climb in Railay.
We spent the night chilling in the rasta bars and watching the most amazing firetwirlers I have ever seen! 5 people, twirling in sync, grabbing the backpackers & whirling fire sticks around them. Incredible!
The next day was more beach time. It's pretty hard to do much else here as the beach is just so great. Why fight it I say. Go with the flow! Thanks for a great weekend away Team Railay Beach!
