Away to Railay

To get to Railay, we simply needed to stroll along the seaside walk in Krabi Town, where numerous longtail "captains" regularly call out, "Railay?? Phi Phi??" -- each trying to beckon tourists to their particular longtail boat. We happened to befriend a captain, Anan, several days earlier -- he kept meeting us on our walks -- and on our departure day we chose to go with him. On board were wooden bench seats and a tarp covered roof, flowers, & ribbons hanging off the tip of the bow. The ill-fitting & rarely used life jackets aboard were hot pink and lime green sateen and maybe they would barely keep one afloat were we to capsize, but we felt we had to go through the motions for the kids.

You leave Krabi Town via a muddy brown inter coastal river edged by mangroves -- as you go along, slowly the brown of the river gives way to the green-blue (not quite turquoise) water of the Andaman Sea. Beautiful! The longtail boat experience is very enjoyable because the boats are quite small so one is close to the water. Coming from Krabi offers many great sights including lots of rusty fishing vessels and beautiful coastal viewpoints. The geology of the Andaman coast is very dramatic with huge Karst limestone cliff faces jutting up all over the place alongside lush tropical vegetation and a mostly mangrove coastline. After a water-sprayed 30 minutes or so , you see the steep, majestic, almost Gaudiesque Karst limestone cliffs of Railay rising out of the sea. An amazing tropical sight.



Railay is a climbers paradise and many of the people who flock here come for just that -- climbing. It was also Chinese New Year week and so the place was absolutely hopping with tourists from all over Asia and the world. We had already booked a room for our entire stay here while we were in Krabi -- perhaps 'duped' by the statement from the friendly agent that it would ". . . be very difficult to find a place at all if you don't book now . . . Chinese New Year!" We had been drawn in by the resort's brochure pictures. Well . . . the "resort" itself was a lushly landscaped, well established place on the East side of Railay -- the grounds were very well-maintained with beautiful tropical plantings and a very relaxing pool. Our room, on the otherhand, was a little like a dingy, road-side motel room with a loud fan and screens on the windows (no mosquito nets in sight, but the screens seem to work very well, plus there weren't that many mosquitoes!) Despite the beautiful Island setting we felt a little disappointed with our room given its price (it overlooked an open sewer, a garbage heap, and a beautiful limestone cliff) and Ronato worked his magic to get a new room -- less bed space, but a better view overlooking the gardens. As it turned out, our room was quieter than the bigger, closer-to-the-pool rooms. The hotel seemed to have at least 50 employees who cleaned not just the rooms but also the walkways on a continual all-day basis -- no petal, leaf, or twig sat for long. In front of the resort was a small mangrove outcropping. Depending on if the tide was in, the mangroves were quite an amazing sight -- when the tide was low the long roots of the trees were exposed and this is apparently where many of the indigenous fish species lay their eggs in the protected nooks and crannies. Sadly much of the mangrove coastline has become threatened by fish and shrimp farms with unfortunate future outcomes for many of the ocean wild-fish stock. It took a little to adjust to (I -- Skye -- had visions of looking out on white sand and swaying palm trees, but it turns out you pay a premium for that at Railay) but once we had settled and had come to appreciate the cool look of the mangroves and the important role they play, it was all good.


We came to Railay knowing it was very much a tourist mecca, thinking we would start with some good R&R before going to more remote southern island locations. We were still working on "just relaxing" -- when one gets to a new place there is often so much to check out that it is sometimes hard just to kick back and do nothing. That said, we definitely, got into the groove -- taking afternoon siestas, lying on the beach or by the pool, really only having to think about where we should eat our next meal -- in between, we checked out the various aspects of life on Railay. One of our favourite hangouts was a beach that has a large cave worn into the limestone cliff right beside the beach. As the legend goes, somewhere around 300 BC an Indian princess' barge sunk just off the coast here and her spirit came to inhabit the cave. Local fishermen would make offerings, in the form of phalluses (to signify bounty), to her spirit, asking for bountiful fish harvests -- apparently she was generous and their wishes were often fulfilled. Now, there is a large shrine in the cave surrounded by large wooden & stone phalluses, flowers, incense, food offerings, and photographs. It is amazing to think that this one cave has been a place of offering and worship for over 2000 years!

While we were on Railay, both Kai and Pippin quickly made attachments. They have both been quick to form friendships with other children in the various places we have stayed. There was one family from the UK staying at the resort, mum and dad are both climbers and they have 2 little girls Nellie & Railay (yup, you guessed it, she was conceived here) who became quite attached to Kai and Pippin -- both very cute little monkeys. Pippin also befriended a girl from Paris (but living in New Caledonia with her parents) named Jad who only speaks French! It took them a few days of circling around and eyeing each other before they tried communicating and interacting, but towards the end they were practically inseparable. These little friendships and connections have become important for Kai and Pippin, especially since they both really miss their friends at home -- through this, though, they are coming to see that you can make friends anywhere.









Pippin & Jad Kai & Nellie

Besides playing with new friends, another one of Kai and Pippin's favourite things to do at Railay was to look for monkeys! This provided endless hours of entertainment and was a great motivator to go on regular walks. They really are fascinating little creatures and function in huge bands swinging from tree to tree looking for their next source of food. Sadly this brings one to the topic of trash and the lack of infrustructure to deal with solid waste here in Southern Thailand. It is everywhere and I would be lying if I did not say it hurts a little to see the quantity of plastic junk constantly filtering into our environment. Collectively we are all part of the problem because it is very hard to function here without buying water and other drinks (since the water is not safe for consumption). At times one feels like we are choking on all the trash- and tourists have not helped this scenario. Going to highly touristed areas like Railay really make one see that side of tourism. From that point of view we were ready to move on to places where Thai people live not just because their presence supports tourist experiences. Interestingly, the kids are quite perceptive in this regard and were happy to return to Krabi town- with its more Thai flavour.

We came back to Krabi today with a healthy case of "skietgat"... needing the bathroom on a little too regular basis. Maybe too much of the exotic food?! Next we head to go see some elephants (speaking of being tourists) . . . it will be a very enjoyable thing to do with the kids. We look forward to sharing it with you in our next blog.

Until then ...

Skye, Nato, Kai & Pippin