Day 7: At Railay Beach, Who Needs Money Anyway?

December 26, 2024

Today we embarked on the first off-campus excursion of our Krabi trip to Railay Beach, which is around an hour long boat ride via a traditional Longtail boat. The beach is only accessible via boat, so we were hoping that would have made it a bit more exclusive and therefore less touristy. We could not have been more wrong.

Our boat transfer wasn't scheduled until 11 am, so we were able to have a leisurely morning and have another great breakfast buffet at the hotel. The Singapore influence has already taken hold of Emily who made her own Kaya toast with a coconut spread and butter on toast. One thing I have yet to figure out is how to order just a plain black iced coffee. I have tried ordering three different ways ("iced coffee black", "ice coffee plain", "ice coffee no milk") and each time I thought the server understood what I wanted. And yet each time a coffee with more milk than coffee has been served. I'm thinking "iced Americano" may be my best bet, but stay tuned.

We then went back up to the room to get ready for our big day out. On our way back to the room, we started listing the items we would need: sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, spare battery etc. One thing we did not mention on our verbal list was a wallet...

So, we headed down to the beach where our private longtail boat awaited us. These boats are true to their names - long with a tail. One interesting feature of the boats is that they are powered by what has to be a repurposed diesel car engine and then a combo propeller / rudder situation that extends from a long pole behind the ship to steer and move us forward.

The trip took around an hour, hugging the coastline of sheer white limestone cliffs. When we arrived, we saw a sea of tourists and a long line of boats parked on the shore. We got dropped off on the beach at noon and were set to meet our same boat driver back in 5 hours. The beach is a long, white sand beach that's in a sort of protected lagoon so the water is extremely calm and warm. The view out on the water was really beautiful with small islands popping up out of the sea and more limestone cliffs bookending the beach.

For the first hour or so, we walked across the beach and entered the Railay Beach town, which is basically one long street lined with bars and restaurants, weed shops, and massage parlors. Towards the end of the street, we hit a bit of a traffic jam as several monkeys had decided to check us (mostly Emily) out, which led to a photo shoot and a standoff until the monkeys allowed us to continue. We continued wandering to East Railay, which is a much less attractive beach, but is seemingly the entryway to the rock climbing spots. Apparently Railay Beach is known for its rock climbing - an activity we did not partake in.

We walked back towards the main beach with the goal of getting some food and a couple of drinks before we would get a cheap Thai massage. We found two amazing seats on a counter overlooking the beach at the entrance to the town, perfect for people watching.

As we were looking through the menu, I realized that we had forgotten the most crucial item: a wallet.

We tore through our bags, but I knew immediately the wallet was not in there, nor was any other cash of any denomination. Oops. We were reminded of our other now-famous travel mishaps, namely realizing my passport was expired 8 days before our trip to St. Lucia and us forgetting sunscreen on an all day uncovered boat adventure in Santorini. Not to brag but I have an extremely small amount of Bitcoin I thought I might be able to withdraw from at an ATM, but that was a dead end.

By the time I got back from my ATM stroll, Emily had befriended our counter neighbor who was in town from England with his family. Anthony also worked in education, so he and Emily had much to talk about. Eventually, we casually mentioned that we had no money and that we could potentially send him money through whatever service we can in exchange for cash. Lucky for us, Anthony was enough of a sucker that he fell into our trap and we robbed him for all he was worth and now we live in Krabi full time. Kidding! I was able to send him 1,000 Baht via PayPal, he gave us a 1,000 Baht bill and we were back in business!

We now had 1,000 Baht and had to budget the rest of our day very carefully. We immediately spend exactly 500 of it at that restaurant on Pad See Ew, a Chang beer for me, and a Pina Colada for Emily. We also budgeted our next 400 Baht for two, 30 minute massages. I also approved a purchase of one "lite" Coke for 30 Baht for Emily while we waited for our massages.

After lunch and with 500 Baht to our name, we thanked Anthony profusely and headed to find a quiet spot for a dip in the sea. We put our stuff down in a break in the crowds and as we waded into the water, a family put their stuff mere inches from our towels...which was an odd move. Our dip was not as peaceful as I had hoped as I was monitoring our stuff carefully in case they were plotting to steal the most disappointing loot on the beach. Luckily, it turned out the family was just weird and our stuff was fine.

My second ever massage was...not as good as my first. I didn't expect it to be anywhere as Zen as my first, but it was extremely hard to relax as our masseurs were having a full on loud conversation with each other the entire time. But for 200 Baht (or $5.89 USD) each, I certainly wasn't complaining and have no regrets about having spent most of our remaining funds on it.

We still had an hour or so to kill before we would be picked up, so we walked to the other end of the beach to wait. On the way back to meet up with our boat, we saw some more monkeys playing around in the trees! Eventually, we found our boat driver, or more accurately he found us, as we could not find him amongst the hundreds of identical ships, and we made our way back to the hotel. He chopped open a couple of coconuts for us and had some fresh fruit waiting as well!

It was a quick turnaround before we were going to be picked up for dinner at Ruen Mai, which was a 45 minute drive inland. The restaurant was tucked away in the forest in a hut and was, again, so good. We had a seafood salad that was sort of like a warm ceviche, crab curry, sliced pork with sato which is a fruit from a local tree, and "fried" veggies (we have now learned that "fried" on a menu means stir fried and not deep fried).

Then, we had our first (and certainly not our last) mango sticky rice. It was a revelation. I'm mad at myself for not having it before and am excited that we still have so many days in Thailand to have so much more of it.

We then met up with our driver and headed back to the hotel. The dark, windy roads almost got the better of Emily, but we made it back in one piece and headed straight to bed as we had to wake up extremely early for our next excursion to the Phi Phi Islands!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Krabi and we are so sad at the thought of leaving, but we're going to savor every last minute until we do and are excited for the trip tomorrow. Will report back on the trip shortly!

Love, Max