Railay Beach

This morning we had a lie in, getting up at 10 and leaving the hostel at half past. We walked abut 100m to the pier to get a boat to Railay Beach. There was one with some people in already there so we didn't have to wait around. Normally the boats wait until they are full before leaving so there's no fixed schedule. It was about half an hour to Railay Beach east where we were dropped off, then a five minute walk across land to Railay Beach west.

Railay Beach is a very popular beach and I'd seen many photos and was expecting something pretty special, which may have been why I was a little disappointed when we arrived. It was still a lovely beach but the sand wasn't as white or the water as clear and blue as imagined. It was surrounded by tall limestone tree covered cliffs. We dumped our stuff and went straight into the sea, which was actually quite a challenge. The water wasn't clear and there were rocks, some of which were quite sharp in the water. It ended up being easier to lie flat in the water and push ourselves along. It was too shallow to properly swim but deep enough so that we didn't look weird. We floated about in the water for about an hour before going back to the beach to sunbathe. We spent the majority of our sunbathing time under a tree in the shade as it was so hot.

We left the beach around half 4 and had to wait until ten past 5 for a boat back to the town. When we got back to the hostel we put a wash on, showered, hung the washing out and then got a taxi to Ao Nang town to meet some friends of Lauren's who happen to be here on holiday. One of them also happens to be friends with (Leila's) Sam. It's a small world...

We had dinner and they had drinks (I had tummy ache so refrained) before getting a pimped out tuktuk back to the hostel, arriving back around  12:15am and going straight to bed.