Day 74: Railay
08:00 — Tesco breakfast
Claire: This is just the third time in 74 days we haven’t had breakfast made for us in the morning. Thankfully the local supermarket stocks plenty of western food for the plenty of western tourists that love their plentiful western comforts.
Unfortunately this Tesco doesn't sell coffee filters so our quest to make our own coffee isn't going too well. Gav is being very inventive creating filter contraptions with everything from yoghurt pots to water bottles. Our hotel room looks like something from Breaking Bad. Aah the lengths we go to avoid another Nescafe!
11:00 Railay bound
After a mix up with piers (nothing is ever straightforward in Asia) we board our 8 person longtail boat to Railay, which is also spelt Rai Leh. Although it's a mainland peninsular, it's only accessible by boat because it's surrounded jungle! The boat ride was less than 15min and was a fun journey passing all the limestone formations, jagged cliffs and approaching the beautiful beach.
Railay has 4 beaches and we were dropped at the main West beach with fine white sand and shallow water. The jungle back drop was definitely a contrast to ugly Ao Nang! To get some shade we wandered through the village which was charmingly tiny — there's no roads here so no tuktuks, cars or buses to avoid! We soon realise why it's so expensive to stay here too because there is just a handful of accommodation options.
Because of the amazing cliffs here it is a rock climbing hotspot. I'd wanted to trek to one of the viewpoints but Gav now refuses to do any potential sweaty activity between 12-3pm each day. I'm also tempted by the rockclimbing but we'd definitely need longer than a few hours to master that one. Next time!
