Exploring Railay

Yesterday we spent the day exploring more in depth the caves and mountains of Railay. We climbed up the mountain of cave beach to some of the amazing viewpoints. It was really breathtaking, which made all the intense and scary climbing so worth it. We definitely got a good workout. After the caves and climbing we were kind of gross so we swam out to one of the little islands just off the beach where we ran into John and Shirley again. They had kayaked out to the little island.

After lunch we did a sunset snorkeling excursion. The neatest part of this trip was when they took us to an area after dark where we swam in the ocean with the bioluminescent algae. Whenever you move the water lit up. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen. We all swam and splashed around for a while and Stephen did a cannonball of the boat to spread out the glow : )

This morning we have just finished breakfast and lounging by the water. The guys are trying to figure out where we are going to stay tonight on Khao Sok. We might do a little rock climbing (since Railay is so famous for it and it is pretty affordable) before we head out.

We are actually all getting adjusted to the culture here pretty quickly. We have learned quite a few Thai sentences. We are also getting better at remembering to take our shoes off before we go in shops. Something I think is really interesting has been learning about the religion here. For example, in the Jim Thompson house there was a miniature house on the lot (the size of a large dollhouse) which is kept in the northeast corner so the sun cant set on it. It is supposed to drive away evil spirits and they put offerings of food and flowers in it every morning. We have seen these little statues and structures a lot with the offerings in them, even at the shops.

view from the caves