Exploring Railay Beach

The following morning it was high tide, either that or last night’s rain dumped a lot more than I thought.


I headed out in the general direction the bartender pointed last night in search of this lagoon. After about 30 minutes of searching without success I asked one of the guards walking down the beach. He showed me where it began, and I never would have found this, in fact I walked passed it a number of times and never saw it. To be fair, this place is not marked and there is not even a path, it’s just a few ropes with knots in them hanging down from the rocks above, which are the same color as the numerous vines that hung down as well. I strongly recommend that you do not do this alone or after any rain as it is extremely dangerous and slippery when wet. But no one was around at this hour and it was going to take forever to dry out, so I started climbing. I had my hiking boots on as I did not need the extra challenge of sandals. Just to the left of this path is the start of the way to the lagoon.


A place to say a quick prayer before tempting fate.


I started climbing wondering if these old worn ropes would hold my weight as I lunged from knot to knot, and hoping that the things they were tied to would not break free. After sometime I finally got to the top, however I was covered, and I mean covered in mud from hugging the rock face, sneaking under branches and crawling along the ground. My nerves had me shaking a little but the view was amazing.


There were a few trails on top and it took me a few tries to find the one heading down. I have to say the “path” heading down to the lagoon was twice as scary and dangerous as the first path heading up to viewpoint, including the second to last cliff which was an exercise in free climbing as the ropes had broken away. Before I got to this cliff I heard something fall from above, it sounded big and took a long time to fall. I started to freak out, but I did not hear any scream so I guess it was not a person or animal. I got up from my tucked position and did not see anything around me so I guess it came from somewhere else. This place was very surreal, amazing trees, almost cave like with the giant rocks towering thousands of feet above me and only a few shards of light able to break through, just enough for me to see my way. I had no idea such a place could actually exist outside of the movies. In fact I would not be surprised at all if I came across Gandalf and Frodo. A few more meters and I came to the lagoon.


After having seen this amazing place I very carefully made my way back, continuing to take on additional weight in mud, taking deep breathes trying to settle my nerves and remain calm. Once I was back I came across the same guard who looked at me and laughed at how dirty I was. But I did not care I was safe again. It had only been a little over an hour and the tide had gone out.




I went back to my room and cleaned up before heading out for a massage. I found a small place that offered one hour for 250 Bhats, best deal I have found yet, plus they spent a lot of time on my back, so this was one of the best massages I had in Thailand without a happy finish. The rock formations in Krabi are simply amazing and many consider it the Mecca for rock climbing, just as the Great Barrier Reef is for scuba diving. I was originally going to skip climbing but there are so many places to explore, both on the rock face and inside some of these mountains that I could not help but be inspired to do some climbing. So I signed up with one of the climbing shops. This adventure would be much safer then the lagoon, complete with decent equipment and professional supervision.


Many of the caves have shrines with what at first appeared to be matchsticks, however on closer examination, they are actually large wooden penises (insert your own joke here). I heard a number of variations on this but they generally say the cave is the women’s womb and couples who want to get pregnant have been leaving “offerings” since the beginning of time.


Railay Beach was pretty empty with few people around, it was actually quite nice after running around the last few weeks.






I picked up a Thai pancake, however this guy made a pretty bad one, so I had to go wash it down with a beer. I found a great open air bar on the west side, right on the beach, and just in time as the skies opened up again and it poured down. Once it cleared I went to see if it would be high tide again, but it was not. I jumped in a longtail to go explore Chicken and Poda islands, just off of Railay, however there was not much to explore, just your typical beach. Looking back on Railay.




It was a pretty full day and I was tired and ready for bed and some much needed rest.


VIDEO: Relaxing on Railay Beach