Railay is For Rock Climbers

I've noticed during my travels around Thailand that despite the small width of most of the country, people tend to favor one side over another. The east side has the triplet islands of Koh Tao, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui, which have a lot of backpackers and newlyweds it seems. The west side is more accessible for tourists because of the airports in Krabi and Phuket, and therefore more crowded. Phuket, pronounced 'Puh-ket', used to be a low key hangout, but now the town has become extremely popular. But the backpackers that do travel to Krabi, seem to have only one thing on their minds; rock climbing.

Railay is a great little inlet south of Krabi If you head down to Ao Nang beach on the coast of Krabi, there's a whole bunch of longtail boats and speed boats waiting to shuttle people to the nearby hotels and day trip spots. It's only an 8O baht 15 minute longtail ride to get to Railay, however the driver of the boat won't leave until all the seats are full. If you're in a hurry or have a little more money in your pocket, drivers will usually allow a passenger to buy the rest of the seats in order to get things moving. But since these boats are the main use of transportation to and from, it usually doesn't take much time for the boats to fill up. If you have a lot of baggage, you might want to ask about the tides. If you plan it right the boat can take you almost right up to the hotel, but if the tide is low it's going to be difficult to drag the luggage up the soggy beach. Backpackers won't have much problems though because..of..well...the whole backpack part.

Railay comes off the mainland like a tail, much like Haad Rin does on Koh Pha Ngan. Railay West has probably the best view of the ocean and surrounding islands, its also where the majority of the boats come in, so it's more expensive to stay on this side. However the distance between West and East is only a 5-10 minute leisure walk. Even though the distance between the two is very small, the price differences are vast. A hotel on West might be in the 3000-6000 baht range, where the the hotels on East are more in the 600-2000 baht. The reason all the boats come in on the West side is because the East side beach is full of mangrove trees which makes it hard for the longtails to pull in.

 Railay is for rock climbers! The cliffs of Krabi are legendary and you'll be hard pressed to find one without a daredevil hanging off it. The rock climbing shops account for about half in the area, so you don't have to bring you're own gear if you don't have the room for it. And remember, as with any other activities, the more people you get in your group the more of a discount you can negotiate for. Or you can be like this guy here, and just free hand the rocks. *Please do not try this unless properly trained.