When we got to Rai Lay, it was low tide, exposing a shallow muddy area leading up to the beach. We had to get off the ferry and onto a longtail, which took us part of the way and then we had to wade through some water to get to a concrete walkway through the mud. When we got to the shore, we ran into the Israeli girls from Koh Phi Phi who told us about a cheaper place to stay around the bend, but which was only directly accessible at low tide and even then, required walking over sharp and slippery rocks. Plus, we later found out that it had only had electricity from 6PM to 6AM, but that wasn't a big deal. Since it happened to currently be low tide, we made the trek and grabbed a three person bungalow with an exotic view for $7 a night.

You Have Been In a War?
We heard from some other people staying nearby about a beautiful lagoon that could only be reached by braving, with the aid of ropes, a steep and muddy climb and descent. We were told that any clothes we wore would have to be thrown out afterward because they would be covered in red clay. It sounded right up our alley, so we headed over the next day. Sam fearlessly led us up and down the sheer rock faces. The journey was great fun and made Butterfly Valley look like a kids' playground. The lagoon had beautiful green water and was protected on three sides by limestone cliffs over 100m high. We had heard voices behind us during our trek, but apparently the climb down was too challenging and they decided to turn back because we had the lagoon all to ourselves the entire time. It was impossible to capture in pictures, but believe me when I say that it was one of the greatest highlights of our month in Thailand. There was also a neighboring cave in one of the limestone faces that we explored while trying to keep our footing in the insanely slippery mud. On the way back, Sam again took the lead and she decided to paint our faces with some of the mud. As same emerged from the jungle and climbed down the last portion, she caught the eye of a couple of people on the walk below. She was covered in mud from head to toe and her face was painted with mud stripes. The people on the walk looked perplexed and asked in an unknown European accent, "You have been in a war?"

The New Hit TV Comedy: Baywatch Rai Lay
Rai Lay is part of the Khrabi rock climbing mecca, with limestone faces primed for scaling everywhere we turned. We spent our last day climbing at one of the popular spots and my forearms were on fire before long. Mass and I were standing on the beach and a girl came up to us and breathlessly said that her boyfriend had swum out around some rocks and had disappeared. Mass was wearing swim trunks and was already done climbing for the day, so he volunteered to swim out and look for the guy, but he was worried that he wasn't a strong swimmer. I said that I would watch him swim out and when he could see around the rocks, if he saw the guy needed help, Mass should wave his arms above his head (the scuba surface distress signal) and I would swim out and help him. I was confident that I'd be able to stay dry because the guy was probably fine and his girlfriend was just the nervous type. I watched Mass go and as soon as he got far enough to see around the point, damn if he didn't start waving his arm high above his head. I could hardly believe it, but I ran over to Sam, who had just gotten down from a climb, threw my shirt and camera at her, and muttered something about someone in the water needing help. Then I fumbled with my climbing harness and Sam yelled that I could swim with my harness on, but by that point I was nearly finished taking it off. I sprinted into the water and dove into the waves as the rest of the climbers watched, dumbfounded. As I swam, all I could think about was how little I knew about rescuing a disabled swimmer. Was this really happening?

When I reached the area where Massey had waved from, he had disappeared. I didn't see him or the boyfriend anywhere. Mass had either gone to help the boyfriend on his own, or whatever had swallowed the boyfriend had swallowed Mass too. I decided to swim through the rocks and disappeared from the onlookers at the shore. I continued navigating between the rocks and yelling Massey's name. After searching for a few minutes, I decided to swim farther away from shore and finally heard a distant response to my shouts and spotted Massey's head bobbing up and down aways off. As I approached him, I heard him say, "There you are!....Oh, Buck, I thought you were the boyfriend. Did you come out because I waved my arm? I was just trying to signal a boat so I could search faster."

At that point, between the two of us, we had searched the entire area and hadn't see the boyfriend, so we decided to swim back to shore and get a boat. As we turned around, Sam, who had decided that we might need help saw us and turned back as well. When I reached the last of the rocks, I bumped into the girl who had originally asked me and Massey for help and a guy was swimming with her. It turns out that the guy was the boyfriend we'd been looking for and he'd been on the beach the whole time, the girlfriend just hadn't seen him!