Our rock climbing day was the most active day of our trip. In my last entry I wrote quite a bit about that experience, but the day was jammed packed with other fun adventures, including a vertical climb to one of the most scenic and highest parts of Railay.
After climbing we settled into a hearty lunch beach side and enjoyed a yummy fruit shake to celebrate a great morning climb. Julissa and I kept it hard core and continued our trekking adventures after lunch. The View Point was next on our list. We were not sure what the view point was, but we overheard a few travelers talking about it and we decided to explore for ourselves. In order to get to the view point we were told we would need proper walking shoes and should expect a 30 minute hike. On our way to the view point, we ran into one of the party goers from the night before and he requested that Julissa and I give him proper dancing lessons. Apparently, he enjoyed our performance from the night before, but I digress.
We expected to hike and possibly do some a bit of climbing, but we did not expect to do a vertical climb without a harness or rope. When we arrived at the foot of the mountain, Julissa and I looked up at the steep trail leading up to the view point, took a deep breath, and started to climb. The climb was steep. Had it not been for our climb earlier that morning, I do not think I would have had the courage to make the trek. It was literally straight up, muddy, and seemed nearly impossible to me. It was also bad for Julissa because of her fear of heights. Lots of people were climbing, so we weren't the only crazy tourists. The whole point of the climb was to have a view of Railay from up top. Julissa and I had not realized that we were climbing the other side of the mountain that we scaled earlier that morning, which ended up being pretty neat. The view was breathtaking. The sky was blue, we could see the white beaches and crystal clear water from above, and different, vibrant shades of green covered the rest of Railay. When we made it to the view point, Julissa commented aloud, "I wonder how many babies were conceived up here." The views are quite spectacular and I am sure they have inspired the making of many Railay babies.
On the way down from the view point, if you head deeper into the mountain, you come across a lagoon that is also part of the view point excursion. The trek is deeper into the mountain and is a vertical climb down. We did completed about half the climb when we stopped. A couple of travelers told us the lagoon was muddy and not worth the trek. Julissa and still had yet to find the hidden beach and make the trek to Tonsai beach, so we opted to end our view point adventure early.
On our descend, I spotted a nice rock to sit on and I asked Julissa if she would go ahead with out me while I took a moment to meditate. It was magical. I sat on the rock with my toes digging into the ground for nearly 30 minutes and I offered my gratitude to the universe for the most wonderful three months of my life. It was as if all the experiences came together in that moment and filled me with light and love. I felt so much love and gratitude for the people I met during my travels, for the old friends with whom I was able to share new memories and for the teaching moments and lessons that I will carry with me always.
When hiking, I have no problem climbing up, but coming down has always been a challenge. The descend from the view point was terrifying. When I looked down, it was as if I was just staring straight down into the ground from several hundreds of feet up in the air. The easiest way to climb down was sitting on my bum, sliding down one step at a time. I just washed the shorts I wore that day and it took lots of scrubbing to remove the red clay dirt stains. I have never been afraid of heights, but this was scary. It took twice as long for me to come down from the view point. When I finally reached the bottom, I felt a huge sense of relief and accomplishment. I also found Julissa chatting it up with some Italian traveler named, but you will have to read about him on the entry "Garlic Bread or German Girl." The traveler led us to the hidden beach we had been searching for and it was worth the wait. The scenes from the movie "The Beach" do not compare to seeing it in real life. We laid out for about an hours and then hiked back to our huts to get ready for the evening adventures.
The Italian was staying on Tonsai Beach, which happened to be where Julissa and I had planned on going for the evening. You can get to Tonsai either by walking across the pointy rocks that connect Railay and Tonsai when the tide is low, or by longtail boat. We made the trek with the Italian as the sun was setting. It was spectacular. The rays were vibrant shades of purple, pink, orange and red. The trek over the rocks was slightly painful, challenging and potentially dangerous. It became dark very fast and it was difficult to see where we were stepping. Once we arrived to Tonsai, however, it was like landing in a completely different world. The distance between Railay and Tonsai on the beach side can not be more than a few kilometers, but there is a big difference between the two beaches. Tonsai was totally chilled out. It looked like a village of hippie travelers. We stayed for dinner and hung out with the Italian and his other Italian Rasta friend, but they were boring. Julissa and I fell asleep at a bar in two separate hammocks, while they tried to show off to the other girls that were actually paying attention to their shenanigans. Once we came to, and realized that we were bored, we let the Rasta Italian know we were leaving for the night. Although Julissa found him to be very strange, he was nice enough to walk us to the beach to find a longtail. It was high tide and with no flash light, there was no way Julie and I were walking back to our huts through the jungle.
When we got to the beach, the longtail guys were charging us 500 Thai baht to cross over to Railay. Usually, a ride is 100 baht, but since we were only two passengers and it was late at night, the price went up. I could sense Julissa's freak out sensors begin to activate as I tried my best to negotiate the price. Ten minutes passed and we spotted a boat coming in to the opposite side of the bay. Julissa and I ran to the longtail and asked them to take us to Railay. After negotiating the price to 200 baht, we jumped on the longtail and enjoyed a delightful boat ride under the stars and moon. We laughed at how boring the guys were...especially since they put us to sleep at a bar of all places! And we laughed at the prospect of getting stuck on Tonsai for the night.
Once we docked in Railay, we could not resist a late night snack and enjoyed a very delicious naan with nutella and banana. I really want to learn how to make naan...it's so yummy!
So this was a brief summary of our longest day in Railay. It began with rock climbing, trekking up to the view point, a scary descend, hidden beach, sunset trek, two silly Italian boys and a very good job at hustling our way home on the longtail. Thanks Railay and Tonsai for the great memories!
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