Wednesday, March 25, 2026

SE Asia Days 1-5: Rail-YAY Beach

This trip started in an unusual way, with our family splitting up. Craig and Adventure Girl went on ahead a week early, adding on a side trip to Japan before flying to Bangkok. Erin travelled solo to Thailand on a 28 hour straight journey, which ended with her staying up for 48 hours straight. We found each other in the Bangkok Airport without incident and flew together to Krabi. It was a long trip for all of us but we landed ourselves in paradise at Railay Beach West. 


Railay is on a peninsula that's only accessible by boat. Although the longboat traffic is quite noisy and crowded during the day, the mornings are quiet and it's nice not to have any cars around. We spent our five days here lounging around our gorgeous accommodation wildlife watching, swimming in the turquoise waters, eating delicious Thai food, and recovering from the journey. Here are some highlights:

Sunset drinks

Spotting two Black Giant Squirrels
chasing each other. They were HUGE!

Making our way to our own private island
...  and seeing two trumpet fish on the way!

Our own private island!

Sunset swings in the hammock

Watching the troop of langurs
around our house. This picture was
snapped from our outdoor shower!

Things that made us smile in Thailand:
  • How the food was often heart shaped, like fried eggs, cooked carrots, and rice plates 
  • The shy smile people would give when we tried to say thank you correctly
  • Watching the langurs for hours and how Adventure Girl named them all
  • Our ritual of crowding into the outdoor shower each night at 6:40pm to watch the flying fox bats fill the skies
Best Quote from the Country:
From Adventure Girl, "Ummm...I think there's monkey poop on the floor in the shower." 
And yes, yes there was.