I love where I live in Chiang Mai, in the far north of Thailand but during this time of year it is extremely hot here and we don't really have a great deal of relief other than swimming pools so since I am on a school break other than my online classes that can be taught anywhere with an internet connection, I decided to head down to Krabi province to experience their island locations.
Krabi is a very popular destination and can get really crowded but according to my friends that live there or near there, this is their "low season" so you can avoid the crowds.
I gotta say, this is a pretty awesome place and even though I will be here for about 10 days longer, I can definitely see myself coming back.
This is just some random bar on a beach in Raylay, which technically isn't an island but there is no way to get here other than boat because of the mountain separating it from the mainland. I sincerely hope that they never build some sort of bridge over here because part of what makes it so nice is that there are no vehicles and no roads wider than a footpath.
This above view is pretty great and normally I would expect to pay a fortune for anything here but no, the 2 beers I had before heading on were about the same price they are at my local pub back in Chiang Mai... awesome!
The beach looks pretty nasty at low tide so since I know nothing I asked a few locals what the deal is and the answer is probably pretty simple to anyone that is not a dullard like me: The beach has a slow incline/decline so when the tide goes out, it goes very far out.
The people that own the boats are aware of this and some of them just decide to take this part of the day off from work because it is too complicated to get people on and off the beach. They just leave their boats like that until the tide comes back in. Since they all know one another nobody is going to steal anything not that you would be able to because that sand is extremely mucky and would take your flip flop off your foot before you got 10 meters off the soft sand of the beach.
On the other side of the peninsula they have built a floating pier of sorts that can accommodate boat traffic all day every day and if you do need to get out of here to the mainland this is where you will need to do it during these times of day. I just used this time to walk around because one of the downsides of RayLay is that the longtail boats are quite noisy and the traffic with them is omnipresent during high tide.
here's something I have been talking about a bit lately: The rumors of the government making marijuana illegal again are kind of true, kind of not. This weed shop is still operating but in a not glitzy sort of way. They apparently cannot advertise and cannot make a bunch of noise about being open, but nobody is making them close down. I do not smoke weed - I am just one of those weirdos that prefers to be sober most of the time... so it doesn't affect me one way or the other. When I was speaking to a New Zealander who lives here most of the year she informed me that weed, on this peninsula, has always been available and the legalization just made it more glamorous and also, more expensive. She said the locals with the dispensaries don't really care if it is legal or not since all "laws" on this part of Thailand are made by the local police, not by national law.
While I am sure that this is probably wishful thinking to some degree, I did notice a distinct lack of enforcement of anything at all really while I was there. I think the rule of "do no harm, and none will come to you" is the law of the land here.
While there are a lot of bars, restaurants, and hotels here, there seems to have been a genuine effort to destroy nature as little as possible here. This is the pathway in my resort that I managed to get at rock bottom prices because there is virtually zero tourism here at the moment. The pathways are all paved but the enormous trees are mostly undisturbed. The paths wind around the trees rather than tearing them down to make way for a grid-like path. I like this and I think it is a big part of the reason why this area is so lovely.
It isn't a new place, it has been here long before I ever visited, so if that sort of environmental responsibility existed during the boom times, I am hopeful that it will continue. This is really a lovely place and somewhere that you should consider if you are ever traveling to Thailand. If you can endure the summer heat and also deal with the fact that it could rain like mad at any time, you can get accommodation here for 1/4 what it costs during other times of year.
It is called a lot of different things but "RayLay, Railay, RaiLeh, and even Ray Lay" are the names that are commonly used for it. They are all the same place and are located very near the very popular beach of Ao Nang on the mainland.