Trip to Rai Lay Beach

A man selling freshly grilled corn on one of the gorgeous beaches


This past weekend in Rai Lay, a penisula about 2.5 hours south of Khao Lak, was a fun and relaxing weekend in one of the many paradises that I am now convinced Thailand has to offer.

The beaches, which I spent most of my time on, were just like all the pictures you can see in tourism ads. The ocean water was crystal clear, even more so than Hawaii. The peninsula has several mountainous limestone rocks that are popular for exploring. Rock climbing, sea kayaking and snorkeling are the popular activities there.

Fire twirlers entertain at The Last Bar (at the end of the beach)


Saturday was spent mostly on 1 of the 3 main beaches of the peninsula, walking around a bit, watching fire twirlers and dancing to a variety of music at a couple of the local bars. The Thai people are so wonderful to share the dance floor with. Both guys and girls seem comfortable dancing like no one is watching. Groups of Thai guys were jumping up and down like crazy, going nuts dancing together, and I didn’t see a single Thai guy approach a girl and start to grind or get freaky- what a nice change for The States! I was dared to approach the biggest guy out of a trio of gangstas with white headbands, dance with him and tell him I liked his headband. He wasn’t looking my way at all when I was dancing next to him, so I tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “Can you do this?” before busting out my limited sea-walking skills.

Also on Saturday night, I met someone who is working for the Tsunami Volunteer Centre (TVC)- the organization we traveled with- that survived the tsunami. He was in a hotel near the beach, heard a loud noise and then the water came in. Almost a year later, he has a scar on his forehead and his left leg looks badly injured as it is still healing from the wave and getting stuck in some of the debris. His wife, who was in the hotel room with him, died in the tsunami. I think it takes a lot of strength for him to return and I admire coming back to help rebuild houses in the area.

After my first day of sleeping in since I’ve been in Thailand- the heat usually wakes me up before 8:30a, but I stayed in a room with tinted windows and a ceiling fan- I awoke to a cloudy day. At breakfast on Sunday, Dean, Robby, Vicki, John and I decided to try rock climbing and sea kayaking. We took a scenic, non-touristy route through a rainforest to a different beach on the west side of the peninsula and looked at the cave we planned to climb up to, when it suddenly began to pour. After running along the beach to find shelter, we tossed our bags into a dining area and ran into the ocean. The ocean water was significantly warmer than the rain, the wind was blowing up big waves, and I’ve never had so much fun swimming in the ocean before. We played chicken fighting and swam around until the rain stopped. It kept raining on and off, so we didn’t go climbing or kayaking. Instead, we climbed some little rocks to get to the 3rd beach on the west side of the peninsula. Then we hiked through another rainforest to get back to the east side. The plants in the forest are such a bright green and a lot of them have a fresh waxy look about them, I guess due to the rain and shade provided by the taller trees. I felt so refreshed and energized walking through the forest. It’s an experience in paradise I will never forget.

John (British) and I taking cover under an gi-normous rainforest leaf