Rocking Railay

The sun, sand, sea, and rock climbing. Does it get better than Railay, Thailand? 

- Lee Yu Kit

“My grandmother can climb this in ten seconds!” declares the instructor. A fearsome looking specimen with Rastafarian dreadlocks, mirrored shades, and tattoos covering much of his lithe upper body, he stood at the base of a limestone rock cliff, with a nylon climbing rope dangling from the cliff surface, anchored to a point some ten metres above. Around him we stood, novices to rock climbing, visitors from various parts of the world, seduced by the promise of sun, sea, and rock climbing.

The instructor is Thai, and from one of perhaps ten rock climbing schools scattered around the Railay peninsula – an improbable nub of land jutting into the azure waters of the Andaman Sea from the Thai province of Krabi.

Railay is unique in several respects. Although it is a peninsula, the only way to reach it is by sea, as an impassable barrier of thickly forested limestone cliffs cuts it off completely from the mainland. There are beaches on three sides of the peninsula: Railay East, Railay West, and Phra Nang beach, which is known to be one of the finest beaches in Thailand.