Once at the beach, we did the usual, Jenna sat down in a cafe with the bags and I went off in search of somewhere to stay. Usually I'm back in 20 minutes with a couple of options, but this time around it didn't really work out. I walked for maybe an hour and couldn't find a thing. Everywhere was either too expensive or not somewhere we'd really want to stay and it was tô hot for a long walk as it was!
We eventually found somewhere fairly nice and it was only a short walk from the beach. The beach itself was beautiful and almost empty. We spent a couple of days sunbathing on the beach, but other than that, we didn't feel there was much else to do. There weren't too many backpackers there and it didn't really have much of an atmosphere to it as everything felt so spread out without much of a community feel to it.
We rented a moped for the day and drove all around the island. It was a beautiful island, but not as spectacular as some of the other places we had visited. We drove to the lighthouse where you could see the sun go down over the sea, and that was pretty good. We enjoyed ourselves in Lanta but we definitely preferred Phi Phi.
Railay was an amazing place and far better than Koh Lanta in our opinion. The limestone cliffs surrounding the area towered above the beaches. The beaches were crowded but still a good place to chill out during the day. One long tail boat would pull up to shore at lunchtime and sell delicious food cooked from a single frying pan on the boat for next to nothing. There wasn't really much in the way of nightlife or entertainment, but we were happy enough buying a couple of drinks from the shop and sitting out on the beach into the evening.
There were a couple of really good walks through the limestone cliffs and caves. The cliffs overhang by maybe 30 meters and it's difficult to work out how they don't collapse. Rock climbing is a popular activity in Railay, but we didn't give it a go. We did try climbing up to a lagoon and viewing point which was maybe a 15 minute climb up some pretty steep rocks. We made it to the viewing point, but the lagoon was just too steep for us!
When the tide was going out, it was possible to walk 200 meters out to sea in waist high water. Quite a strange feeling being so far out and still touching the floor! Jenna bought some bananas to feed the monkeys that were camped outside our hotel. She'd try to feed the smaller monkeys, but then the largest one would barge past the others and frighten Jenna into dropping the remaining bananas onto the floor! We'd definitely recommend Railay to anyone visiting Thailand.
Unfortunately when we arrived in Thailand, we arrived at a land boarder, as opposed to an airport boarder. Therefore we were only entitled to a free 15 day visa, rather than the usual 30 day. We had no choice but to make our way out of Thailand, as buying a visa once you're out here wasn't really an option for us. So we made our way up to Bangkok on a 13 hour overnight coach. The idea now was to travel around Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, and then to re-enter Northern Thailand and get ourselves a 30 day visa. We'll then visit the the South Eastern beaches we've missed out on, before coming home. I figured out this would work from a practical sense, and Jenna worked out that this would ensure she had the best possible beach tan before we return home - so we were both in agreement!
We only had a day or so in Bangkok and were a little unsure of what to expect following some mixed reviews. But we found it OK and not as chaotic as we had imagined. Maybe the fact that we'd visited the madhouse of Jakarta helped.
Jenna commented on an earlier blog that I had lost the camera lead. So we spent a good 3 hours trecking around various shopping areas in Bangkok trying to locate a replacement. Every camera accessory under the sun could be bought, except a lead for our Samsung camera! I don't think the salesmen really got the idea, as they kept telling us that we could have a lead if we bought a brand new camera. You don't buy a new car if you lose your keys do you?! A replacement memory card was possible, a replacement case was possible, a replacement lens was possible, but a replacement lead to charge up your camera? - that was not possible! In the end we found one lady who sold us one for way over the odds, but by this point we didn't care!
We left Bangkok and made our way to the Cambodian boarder by bus. The journey through the Thai countryside was good and we arrived into the boarder town of Aranyaprathet without too much hassle. The town was really grubby and not somewhere you'd want to spend any time. There was even a young elephant being walked down the main road through passing traffic which didn't really seem right.
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