there is a lot of great rock climbing to be done in Railay. the trail that Husband and I took to find the lagoon [rumored to be hidden somewhere in the jungle] involved more rock climbing than we anticipated. it may not have been the best idea I ever had to go through with it. being, as I was then, a girl who was recovering from a scooter crash related knee injury and hadn't really worked out in 6 months. but, we did.
I should also mention that in the interest of saving space while packing [and in an attempt to be realistic- really, like I was going to start working out again while on vacation?] I left my nikes and workout gear at home. so I ended up doing this climb in flip flops, a bathing suit, and jean shorts. oh. and with a DSLR slung around my neck. when I make a bad decision, I really just go all in.
the hike/climb involves going up a steep, rocky incline with the aid of some ropes. and then to get to the lagoon you have to go down again. a few times. we made it down two levels before we decided to call it quits. we could see the lagoon [pictured above. kindof.] but we could also see that the next stretch of rock was completely vertical and had no ropes. and that there was at least 2 more drops after that.
I really wanted to climb all the way down. we could see it. it was so close. and we had already come all that way... but we decided that we wouldn't go any further, for fear of not being strong enough to get back up. it was really tough for me to give up and climb back. I'm stubborn. and I don't like not being able to do things. but it also was probably a really good decision not to get us stranded out in the jungle with no cell phone and no one knowing where we were.
I would love to say we made it all the way to the lagoon. but we didn't, and that's ok. looking back it seems pretty impressive that we made it as far as we did. and since we've been home I've been working on building my strength back up... because there's always next time.
