Of all the places we visited in Thailand, Railay was my absolute favourite. The kind of landscape that makes you physically gasp, I would happily revisit Railay over and over and over again. It’s difficult to choose the right adjective to describe it, but I think the word ‘dramatic’ is pretty high up on the list.

Railay is one of the world’s premier rock-climbing spots, it’s not very hard to see why. With plenty of rock climbing schools littering the area, it’s a great place to learn as a beginner or to top up your skills.

Full of caves, we stumbled across this little beauty on our way over that was practically deserted as people flocked straight to the beach. It was full of bats, cue small freak out as they flew nice and low next to our heads.

Spooky!

The eastern side of the island isn’t as picturesque as it’s sandy counterparts, but arguably has a dramatic landscape all of its own.

These cheeky monkeys liked to steal EVERYTHING from local tourists, to the point where I watched them shimmy up and down the trees overhanging the beach only to jump down on unsuspecting beach bathers belongings and have a good rummage. The hotels even had guards armed with slingshots to keep them from climbing through the windows! One of them stole Simon’s empty Fanta can as he went to put it in the bin, emptying the contents at the top of a tree only to throw it back down again (don’t worry: we then proceeded to put in the bin once the monkey had lost interest).

Of course, the beach was simply amazing. The beach where you land isn’t actually the main stretch of sand, but by going round the island. You end up here:

Paradise!

I thought this boat making smoothies and hot food was ingenious – I just wish they wouldn’t use polystyrene / plastic containers, as they inevitably end up being dropped by some lazy individuals… tsk.

Oh and another interesting aspect of the beach – a shrine full of wooden Penii! Don’t get that at Blackpool now do ya? A tradition particular to Railay, the fishermen believe it brings them good luck.

Lots of animal wildlife amongst the rocks as well as some artistic interpretations of how to spruce up the landscape generally.

Railay was such a great day, I was so disappointed we couldn’t stay any longer! Had I have known, I would have loved to go rock climbing or bouldering here. Sigh! Until next time…

Over and out,

Liv

xxx