Posts/July, 2008/

Rai Leh Beach

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Last Tuesday, we left Krabi to visit Rai Leh Beach. This area is a peninsula that juts out into the Andaman Sea, but can only be accessed by boat because of the high mountain range to its east. Therefore, we hired a long-tail boat from the Krabi pier to Rai Leh (1000baht).

We stayed at Rapala Bungalows our first night (350baht). It was a small bamboo bungalow with a hammock on the front porch. This may sound amazing…but it wasn’t. The mattress was sitting on the floor, which means that it was damp with moisture…meaning that it was probably covered with mildew and mold underneath the sketchy sheets. The bathrooms here also were nothing exciting, and the walls weren’t completely sealed so we were bitten by mosquitoes throughout the night. Needless to say, we looked for other accommodations.

Rapala Bungalows

Rapala Bungalows photo courtesy of Nik

The second and third nights we stayed at the Highland Resort (350baht). These bungalows were much nicer for the same price. The bed was raised off the floor with clean linens. The walls were still not completely sealed, so we still had mosquito bites the next morning, but the shower was clean and refreshing.

Highland Bungalows

Highland Bungalows photo courtesy of Nik

The view from the Highland Bungalows.

The view from the lawn in front of Highland Bungalows.

Also, the bungalows are set in a mountain valley with tall mountains on three sides with the fourth side opening up to the sea. The setting was beautiful….paradise!!

Rai Leh has the best sand you’ve ever set foot on.  It is super fine, almost like mud but not gross.  We spent most of our days here lounging and reading with an occasional walk to the rocky area to see crabs and sea cucumbers.  The at sunset, the locals congregated at the beach to play a full pitch game of futbol with a side game volleyball.  They were quite impressive, and I was very tempted to join…but it was all Thai men, so I didn’t think I’d fit in.

We camped out near that far rock for most of the day to stay out of the direct sun.

We camped out near that far rock for most of the day to stay out of the direct sun. photo courtesy of Nik

Soccer at Sunset. photo courtesy of Nik

Soccer at Sunset photo courtesy of Nik

The food at Rai Leh leaves a lot to be desired.  Most of the accommodations here are big resorts, so most of the restaurants are big resort restaurants.  This means ridiculously high prices for mediocre food (of course, we don’t know what the food tasted like because we weren’t willing to pay!).  We ended up having expensive museli and yogurt for breakfast (90baht), snacks for lunch and soup for dinner(50baht).  It was not the best, but we made it.

Nik’s Blog: Rai Leh Beach

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