Sunny Sunny Singapore: Railay, Thailand

There exists a place called Krabi, which is a small province on the west coast of Thailand. I'm not going to try and describe what this place is like because the pictures will speak for themselves. It's pretty much a magical land that blends amazing beaches, dramatic cliffs, thick forests, mountain-top temples, and classic Thai culture. Oh, and incredible food. It's definitely like a place that you see on TV or on postcards but never think that it actually exists. Well it does, and now I'm going to tell you about it...

After arriving at the airport, travelers generally go to one of a few places in the area. Our destination for the first two nights was in a beautiful area named Railay. Although this distant peninsula is connected to the mainland, the only way to get there is by longboat as roads cannot be built through the impossibly steep and jagged cliffs that cover the landscape. After we waited for enough people to fill our longboat, we enjoyed the hour journey skimming above the water admiring the views. We arrived during low tide which meant the boat had to stop a decent distance from the shore and we had to hop out!

I had booked a resort to stay in on the West Railay beach, which was across a narrow strip of separating the east and west coasts. We walked to our resort where we found my name printed on the welcome board along with a beachside pool & restaurant and individual bungalows for guests. Definitely not my normal accommodation choice, but as my travel companion was my mother I felt it was appropriate. We spent the afternoon and evening enjoying the incredible views along the beach and even spent a little time at the pool.

We were lucky to witness an amazing sunset during dinner as well!

After breakfast the next morning, I decided to explore the area a bit. I started by walking over to Phra Nang Beach, which is often voted as one of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand. Unfortunately, by the time I got there so had about 1000 other tourists who got dropped off by boats on day trips, so I decided not to stay very long. I felt pretty happy that I was staying somewhere that people took day trips to, which was good enough for me. There was a pretty cool shrine in a cave that I checked out before I left.

I had read about a short hike you can take to a lookout above the cliffs, so that was my main goal for the morning. Along the path, I noticed there were a bunch of ropes that were basically dangling from above. I soon realized that this was the path that led up to the viewpoint, so I grabbed a rope and used it to boost myself slowly but surely up the steep path. Eventually, covered in sweat, I made it to the top and passed some monkeys on the trail before I got to the viewpoint. It was pretty incredible.

After I managed to get down from the cliff, which was decidedly more sketchy than climbing up, I continued to explore the area and found a cave that also considered itself a National Park. This was probably my favorite part of the day as the cave was very impressive. The formations inside were awesome and the cave eventually opened up into a large room where I sat and enjoyed the surroundings for a while.