Krabi

Krabi is about 6 hours from Koh Phangan, and the organised transport is very easy to navigate. I felt that Krabi had very little to offer, it’s run down and the shops are geared up for tourists. We only stayed there one night and that was enough- it was only a stop-over to Railay Beach.

The only way to get to Railay Beach is by boat and there are lots of long tail water taxi’s. Unfortunately, it’s 100THB per boat of 8 people so you have to wait around till there are enough people or pay the full 1000THB. Torrential downpour hit and we must have waited for an hour for more tourists with no joy. The taxi gave us a ‘discount’ of 200THB and as the rain lulled, we set off.

It’s about 30 minutes to Railay Beach and it started off as quite a pleasant journey, passing abandoned boats, a fishing yard, Mangrove swamps etc etc.

All of a sudden, the heavens opened (again) and it was so heavy that you couldn’t see through the rain (assuming you could open your eyes through the pain). Ian and I were huddled under a brolly, shielding ourselves (and our non-waterproof luggage) from the rain.

They drop you off in a floating pontoon (made up of a jigsaw of floating plastic boxes) and leave you to fend for yourself.

Railay Beach

Since they have a captive audience, food and drink on Railay Beach is fairly expensive (for Thailand standards) at anywhere between 100 (£2) – 400THB.

Normally, Railay Beach is described as a holiday destination, picturesque and sunny. We experienced grey skies, brown waters and washed up debris. But this didn’t stop us making the most of it.

On possibly the rainiest day, we decided to scramble up a sheer dirt ‘path’ with a sketchy slippery rope up it to reach the view point of Railay Beach. It was down-right dangerous, with no safety measures in place- typically Thai.

 

I only have flip flops with me on this trip, so I had to do this bare foot- safe to say we came out of it covered in red mud all scratched and bruised from the jagged rocks.

We managed to get two days of climbing in (see my climbing blog for details on price, location and type of climbing etc.) which were great fun! One of the days, it was pouring , so we went to Phranang Cave which was COMPLETELY sheltered from the rain.

The second day, we climbed on the outside of Diamond Cave and it WAS SUNNY (almost)! After the rain came for 15 minutes here and there, the rock dried almost instantly, so we got a good amount of climbing done on our last day at Railay Beach.

We stayed in Putawan Resort, right next to Diamond Cave which was ideal for climbing and also, gives another rainy day activity- seeing the cave and bats.

After 5 days of solid rain, we decided to cut our losses and fly from Krabi to Chiang Mai where, even if it’s raining, we could see temples rather than being stranded on the beach.