Friday, 11 January 2013

Krabi Day 2 - Railay Beach

The next morning we woke bright and early for our breakfast at the resort. Breakfast was simple, without much choices, but it was sufficient. The various dishes differed every day we were there, and the only repeated dish was the tray of bread at the side. The dining area was bright and airy, and there were more than enough seats around so everyone was comfortable. The only sad thing was that the food was not exactly delicious. It was decent, but I would not be eating there if breakfast was not included in my resort package.


We strolled to Ao Nang beach where we purchased tickets for the longtail boat to Phra Nang Beach. You can choose whether to alight at Railay West or Phra Nang beach, and honestly it did not make much of a difference because you could walk along the paths to explore Railay. But we decided to stop at Phra Nang first to check out Phra Nang cave.

Phra Nang beach is quiet, isolated and without many tourists around. It was generally very peaceful and a good place to curl up with a book under the warm sun. I love the fact that for a good long stretch of the beach, I could pretend that we were the only two people around and attempt to shut out the world.



If you are at Phra Nang beach, you must check out Phra Nang cave. It's right at the end, near the trail to Railay East, and has a temple within. The waters are also really shallow here, so you could wade out into the waters and enter the curve of the rocks.


Thereafter, you could find the trail that leads you to Railay East. The trails are such that you could walk from Phra Nang to Railay East then Railay West, which was the course we took. The trail from Phra Nang to Railay East is amazing. It was lined with awesome limestone rocks with caves within, and if you are lucky, you might spot a whole family of monkeys jumping around from tree to tree.


Railay East was slightly more disappointing. The beach gradually gave way to a raised platform where the eateries and bars were located. A large portion of the beach was quite polluted, with murky waters and black pipes hitting the shore. I guess most of the guests staying in resorts along Railay East simply take the short walk over to Railay West for the larger part of the day.




We were beginning to feel hungry, so we stopped at a small modest eatery called Mom's Kitchen for lunch. We then proceeded to have the worst meal we had in Krabi. We ordered stir fried vegetables and chicken fried with basil leaves. Both dishes were horribly salty, without any flavour, and was just so disappointing. It was so disappointing, I did not even remember or bother to take a picture of the place.

Continued our stroll to Railay West. The beach here is awesome. Clean clear waters and limestone cliffs, a row of sea-facing resorts, and a small walking street. There is evidently more people along this beach, and more longtail boats to cater to the tourists returning to Ao Nang, so you do not have to be afraid about not being able to head back.


We were hugely dissatisfied with our pathetic lunch at Mom's Kitchen, so we went into the restaurant at Railay Bay Resort and Spa for a couple of beers and a mushroom pizza. It was so relaxing to sit in a large oak chair, and look out into the sea with a large bottle of beer in hand. And the pizza was amazing! I loved it. They were so generous with the ingredients and the pizza was thick and fluffy.


Took the longtail boat back to Ao Nang, where we had a quick shower and a short nap before heading out for dinner. We decided to have dinner at Swiss Chalet which is right beside our resort as it was reasonably crowded for the isolated location is it in. They serve Swiss and Thai food, and we ordered Thai. We had a bowl of tom yum goong, pineapple fried rice, and omelette with minced pork. The food was so good! I especially loved the tom yum goong which was nice and sour, and the omelette with minced pork as it was slightly spicy and sweet. Such a nice dinner!



Day 3 up next where we took the day tour to Phi Phi Islands! Read about Day 1 and Day 4 too!

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