Rockclimbing in Railey
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
After 10 days in Malaysia doing nothing but eating, we decided we better get some exercise before things got out of hand. Railey beach, Thailand was the perfect call and a great place to spend my 35th birthday. We took a longtail boat (think large canoe with a car engine strapped on the back.) out to Railey beach (which is near Krabi but the cliffs make it it unnaccesible by car). We got really lucky and scored a great little bungalo for a cheap price. Our first mode of business was getting signed up for an all day rock climbing course and then go explore the beaches. I won’t even get into describing the beaches, they are just too beautiful that even our pictures barely do it justice. It’s what you imagine Thailand to be, huge cliffs plunging down into blue water, soft white sand, etc. Railey is a great place for active people since there is a lot to do besides hanging out on the beach. Theres kayaking on the ocean through many caves, hiking, scuba diving and of course rock climbing.
Christy was a little aprehensive on rock climbing but like a true trooper, she wanted to give it a go. We followed our guide to our first climb thinking it would be something like a steep hill. NOt quite, this was a shear cliff. Not sure how this qualified as “beginner” but oh well, “when in thailand…” After climbing up the cliff side a couple of feet, Christy said “that’s it, I’m done, hate it, never want to do it again, I’m freaked out and scared of heights.” Being the understanding husband that I am, and also not wanting to get my head chewed off, I said “ok, no prob, we’ll take your gear back and you can hang out on the beach.” Luckily we had a wonderful guide who convinced her to give it one more go. She reluctantaly said OK and went for it. When she repelled down, I could see a big smile on her face and knew she was good to go. The rest of the day we climbed crazy cliffs and had an awesome yet exhausting time. I could barely hold a bannana lassi in my hand that night.
On January 10th, my birthday, I decided that I wanted to take things nice and mellow and relax on the beach. On the way to the beach we saw a trail that lead up into the mountain. “Lets see where that goes” I said. Well, our relaxing day was no longer and we were hiking up a huge rock face which eventually lead to great views of the whole bay and to a hidden lagoon. It was an amazing view and a very scary decent down to the lagoon. That night, as we had dinner celebrating my birthday Christy said “I feel bad, we didn’t do anything special for your birthday today.” I think this girl might be a little jaded after traveling for 5 months, spending the day hiking and hanging out on a beautiful beach in Thailand is just another ordinary day.
One of the main advantages of traveling with no itinerary is you can change your program when something good is presented to you. We were planning on leaving the day after my birthday but when our new friends from Alaska that we met at the rock climbing school invited us to go climbing with them and then have dinner at their house, we decided to stay another day. Can’t pass up an offer like that. So we spent the day rock climbing and then finished it off with a great meal prepared by a Thai chef in a beautiful house tucked right up against the cliffs of Railey. A perfect end to a great week at one of our favorite beaches yet.
Steve