Is there anything to do in Krabi?
Leaving Rob in Koh Pha Ngan to make his own way back to Bangkok, Tommy joined me at 6am for the bus down to Krabi, on the South West coast of Thailand. A few days earlier when I bought the ticket, just after handing over the cash, the boys laughed when I asked “So… Is there anything to do in Krabi?”. The girl also laughed…I was serious…Turns out there is a lot to do in Krabi and we really liked the town.
Our bus down was another adventure, first getting the ferry with 2 Thai kids running around screaming the entire trip, and I could see a large number of passengers ready to shut them up! We then took at least 3 tuk tuks in an endless run of transfers, every time stopping 5min down the road at drop off/pick up points. Finally getting on a standard bus for one leg, only to change again to another tuk tuk, and a local bus for the last leg which kept stopping to pick up anyone, from monks to millitary, and I was without a seat for 3hours! The bus station stops in the middle of no where, out of Krabi Town, shared a tuk tuk into Ao Nang Beach which seemed the best place to base ourselves, and began the search for accommodation.
We stayed at PK Mansions, a great family run guest house with nice rooms, 2min from the beach, 600/night. The family became only more interesting as we got to know them, with the dad having worked all over Asia, including a large stint in post production! And his daughter was a successfull actress!
We crashed after dinner and hit the beach the next day, baking in the heat. I found these urchin-like things washed up all over the beach, some of them long dried out. Later we tried to get to Rai Leigh beach but they’ll only leave with a full boat. So instead I walked to Bai Bon beach, a private beach around the cliff head with its own security sign-in point! Only those at the resort use this beach, and the few people there were sitting in the resort, so there was no one on the actual beach at all. That’s how I noticed these patterns in the sand, undisturbed. They are all from crabs rolling little balls of sand outside its hole. There’s nothing really here for anyone not in the resort so I left soon after.
That night we went to the bar stretch and played pool for a few hours, and ended up joining the staff for dinner when they shut at 2am! Most of Krabi’s restaurants shut around 10pm but they knew a 24hr food place a few min up the road. Quite easily walkable, instead we squashed 3 to a moped each and clung for life as they weaved us up the road!
We managed to wake up early enough to get an early (and full) boat to Rai Leigh Beach. The East side is the more affordable and less resort covered beach, and also where the boats pull up. We stayed there a bit before hiring a Kayak for an hour and paddled out around the many rocky islets. Note you have to get the long boats back to Ao Nang by 6pm or they heavily ramp up prices with an excuse of tides or light or something. Also make sure you buy a return from Ao Nang because you can’t buy tickets from Rai Leigh!
After dinner we were walking back and this small Thai kid, maybe 2 years old, stumbled into our path and looked up to see my knee at his eye level and just let out a massive scream! Am I really that scary? We were both pissing ourselves laughing. Then returning home later after more pool and drinks, looking down a side street there was a Thai presenting a little too much information to anyone that walked past. Ahh Thailand.
