More Railay

After a night of drinking buckets (a concoction of thai whiskey, red bull and coke) and watching toned, tanned men throw fire at aptly named 'The Last Bar' (located at the end of Railay East), I was yearning for a day of nothingness. Jon and I made for the beach where I was promptly found by my Phillipino bartender from the night before. He tried to teach me how to throw fire. Tried is the operative.

In the meantime, Sara made for the steep jungle path and came back nearly four hours later with new friends in tow. Guy and Adi live in Australia and invited us back to their uber chic bungalow where we snacked on fruit and coffee. Later that night, they took us on the whistlestop tour of Railay including Local Thai Food that serves, get this, local thai food, then on to The Last Bar and finally over to the other side of the island for an inebriated wander to the cave of phalluses and swim with the bioluminescence.

But before that, we had stops for drinks:

the bookshelf of my dreams

And onto the evening:
This little hole in the wall was probably the best food we had on all of the trip. For the grand total of something like £3 each, we had a homemade meal of spring rolls, thai curry, rice and beer. By the end of our three-ish day stay, we'd had about five meals there. At 70 baht, the cashew and chili stir fry was by far our favourite.
signposted next to Local Thai Food at the outdoor internet cafe where the high tide water lapped the lower level of the concrete floor...
buckets at the last bar and my new bracelet!
Guy and Adi!
our new crew, including Nick, the 22-year-old American travelling solo through Asia. I didn't know americans did this kind of thing!
dodgy two-in-one men's/women's bathroom
fire throwing!

after meandering in the dark to the other side of the beach, we ran the myraid crabs off the beach and into the water before heading to Tham Phra Nang (Princess Cave). As ancient tradition stands, the fisherman of the area honour the spirit of a drowned princess who inhabits the cave. By placing carved wooden phalluses, they hope the princess's spirit will provide them with multitudes of fish.
These two photos are the less crude of the bunch:0)

From there, we took a moonlit swim in the Andaman Sea where the plankton took a liking to us and lit up when we moved hands, arms and feet. It was like a little underwater lightning show.

We spent the next morning in a slight muddle-headed stupor before being tractored out across the low tide mudflats to our longtail boat that would take us to a ferry that would take us to the Phi Phi Islands. No one said transport in Thailand was easy. As a final treat, this man:
took a shine to me and kept staring at me like I was the one dressed like Jack Sparrow, not him.

Upon reflection of the rest of the trip, we decided we would've scrapped Phuket, and perhaps the Phi Phi islands to spend another day or two on Railay. It suited us, the lawless, laid back, rock climby, monkey infested, beachy mainland tucked away from everything else. Simply fabulous.