Krabi/Railay

If travelling through India had taught us (well, ok maybe just me really but hey let’s make it sound like we are both narrow minded bigots!) anything then you shouldn’t be put off by preconceived ideas and beliefs on places you have never visited before – I was wrong before and I am ready for Thailand to prove me wrong again! It can’t all be drunk English and Australian kids looking further afield than Ibiza or Bali respectively or middle-aged perverts… can it?!? No, again I was wrong – it’s that and more… it is not only both those things but it is now a family resort, making for a great mix of people to be astonished by! Blonde, bronzed, beach bum, body beautifuls that strut around like peacocks all day. Large, loud, lobster and prouds who wobble and waddle around with bottles of beer in their sweaty hands all day looking for an authentic bar that feels like the working man’s club back home. Sleezy, creepy and frankly quite freaky old men that I’m sure are in waiting to be put on a list of wrong’uns published by the Daily Mail soon! So that has set the scene of the people we are amongst, now the place itself – karst formations scatter the horizon of both land and sea, weird stalactites hang (do they hang or have I got the wrong one?!) from the rocks and caves like wax dripping from a candle, sandy coves and bays are lapped gently by the warm Andaman sea, dense jungle runs from the hills right down to the coast line… it’s pretty picture postcard kinda stuff, well if you like you postcards to have lots of people beautifying themselves in them! We tried the beach life one afternoon, if you can’t beat them and all that! Lasted 20 minutes before we gave up bored of just sitting there taking the pee out of people, so we hired a kayak and went off exploring the bay and rock formations instead!
As well as your standard everyday beautiful people Railay also attracts the rock climbing fraternity – tall, skinny, muscley and climb rock faces like they were stairs! Shona being quite handy in this field herself was soon scaling rocks like spider women, so then it was left to me… what can I say, more sloth than spider man, a lazy sloth who couldn’t really be arsed at that! Me and climbing have never really hit it off, but hey, I got there in the end in my own unique and not so graceful way.
You can see why people come here in their thousands and I’m not saying its a bad place – its stunning, speeding around on boats between the islands and through karsts, snorkelling off of little islands amongst coral, exploring different bays and sandy beaches, beach bars open 24 hours a day and more. It’s just all a little bit Magaluf for me albeit a more exotic Magaluf! Although I didn’t see a Rose & Crown pub surely it won’t be long, it’s already overrun with English, serves all-day breakfasts and shows premiership football.