28th Feb - 4th March, Railay in Krabi

In the morning we jumped on the mini bus we booked the night before. As per usual it was 45mins late. It was only a short 3hr trip to Krabi town followed by a 15min boat to Railay due to there being no raods to the area at all. The first hotel we came across was very nice and cheap enough so we snapped it up. We had left Phuket at 8am and by 1pm we were in absolute paradise. Railay is a very quiet and relaxed area which is nice for a change. On both sides of our bay are towering limestone mountains in which people come all over the world to rockclimb on. This place is a climbing mecca!

That afternoon we went out looking for some easy rock to climb, after a while we found some but it was far to busy and crowded. Brad headed back to the room while Ross went to another beach to hunt for an empty piece of rock. He soon came across a small problem (probably around V3/4) which he started work on. He didn't complete on the first day as he was tired. The beach this problem was on had beautiful overhanging cliffs, golden sands and blue sea. It was amazing.

That evening we went for dinner and both had a chicken skewer kebab with salad, it was well tasty and very healthy :). Soon after we headed down to the only bar in town and listened to a live acoustic guitar set. Pretty relaxing atmosphere.

The following morning we got up and pretty much chilled on the beach all day. We walked for about 30mins to another beach called Tonsia, which is well known for its rockclimbing. Ross tried some problems but they were so hard so he just gave up and chilled out. That evening we once again chilled out in "Last Bar" and hit the sack early.

The next day it was Ross's Bday (Wahoooo he's getting old), we had booked a tour to go deep water soloing for the day. Deep water soloing consists of climbing up a rock face and then jumping back into the sea when you are at the top. It was so much fun. Ross was okay at it, just a bit scarred of the height. While Brad didn't get very high because he's not a regular and the wall was quiet hard (he tried blaming it on his shoes). It made you so tired as well as it sapped all your energy. After climbing we bumped into 1 of our friends we had met and he was on his way to climb up to "Viewpoint". The Viewpoint is a ledge around 3/4 of the way up one of the cliffs and looks over both Railay East and West Bays (Photos to come once we've figured out the problem with our camera). That evening we went to a nice resturant and Ross had a steak with baked potato and salad, it was a bit pricey but he wasn't to fussed as it was his Bday :). Brad went for a cheaper meal but at the same time it looked how it tasted, delicious. Later on we once again hit "Last Bar" and played pool for an hour and a half while listening to music and having a couple of beers. After the strangest and most calm birthday Ross had ever had we both went to bed at around 1am.

The next day we went to the stunning beach that Ross's problem was on, he soon completed the problem and named it "Big Balls" due to the 2 stalamites hanging down looking like testicles lol. The rest of the day we chilled out on the beach looking around at the limestone stacks that littered the ocean. We had another tasty dinner and hit the sack early as we were moving onto Phi Phi in the morning

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