Krabi, Thailand
Our introduction on arriving in Thailand set the tone for what we experienced for the next few months while in the country. Our flight from Kathmandu, Nepal was an hour late for what what was to have been a tight 90-minute layover in Bangkok, Thailand before flying into Phuket’s airport. I had already accepted the fact that we would not make the connection because Bangkok is a very large airport and we had the added time of having to bus from the plane to the terminal since jetways are rare. When Trish mentioned our tight connection to our flight attendant, she said she’d get us help and we did not hear from her again. However, after coming off the bus into the terminal, a Thai Lion Air representative met us and jogged us through immigration and then jogged us through transfer security and then by this time she led us running out of one terminal and into the domestic terminal and to the gate where she stayed to ensure we were checked-in and on the last bus departing for the plane.
When we landed in Phuket, our checked backpacks were nowhere to be found. With such a tight connection, I figured there was no way they made it. But again, an airline representative approached us at the baggage belt and verified our bags had been routed to the international terminal since we’d had no chance at clearing customs back in Bangkok. She then proceeded to walk us the 15 minutes over to the international terminal and down to baggage claim to get our bags. Wow! I tell this story, because it was just an early example of the helpfulness and kindness that we found in the people we met over the next 7 weeks.
The Krabi Peninsula is on the west side of southern Thailand and sits on the Andaman Sea. Krabi has massive limestone cliffs all along on the peninsula and also jutting out of the sea forming all kinds of islands just off the coast. We arrived planning to stay a week or two max. However, we stayed a month as we got completely drawn into the slow and wonderful pace of life in the islands, hopping from village to village and island to island to explore some of the best that Mother Nature has to offer.
Our first stop was the small resort town of Ao Nang. Ao Nang has some “ok” beaches but is the ideal location for island and remote beach day trips as it has both ferry and long-boat taxi service.
As I mentioned, Ao Nang is a great island-hopping base. We did three day trips from Ao Nang. One day we took a long-tail boat taxi for the 15-minute ride to beautiful Railay Beach. A small lagoon and village nestled beneath towering limestone cliffs, Railay is just around the corner from Ao Nang on the mainland, but is only accessible from the water due to the cliffs that surround it. Railay Beach was probably the most picturesque beach we’ve seen.
We scheduled a day trip to the island of Ko Hong next; however, Zach woke up feeling crummy the morning we were to go. Luckily the tour operator was understanding and we had no issues rescheduling last-minute. Two days later, Zach was back in the game and we headed out in the early morning. Ko Hong was far enough offshore to require a speedboat, so we took a songthaew the 40-minutes to the pier farther north of Ao Nang to catch the speedboat.
A songthaew, the shared-taxi option in Thailand, is a pick-up truck with a bench on each side of the bed. The fancy ones have a sunshade over the bed. So off we went down the highway in the back of the pickup. Zach was in heaven as we buzzed down the highway. Trish and I pretended it was 1977 and agreed to not discuss our flexible safety standards. (Side note: a month later we were sleeping in songthaews as they raced down the road, so we clearly adjusted) From the pier, we took a speedboat an hour out to the Ko Hong islands. We boated among the islands checking out the different beaches, kayaked, and swam in the lagoons. It was an incredible day!
Our last day outing was to the Ko Poda and the three other islands right off the coast of Ao Nang. Because it was three of us, it was less expensive to just charter our own private long-tail boat for the afternoon rather than pay for taxis rides each way. Long-tail boats get their name from the super-long prop extensions as you can see. We had a calm ride out and then on the way back in early evening the wind kicked up and made things very interesting getting through the big waves. We had a good captain though as no mishaps, though we saw one boat flipped over and being towed turtle back to the mainland.
Besides being central to island-hopping, Ao Nang has plenty of great restaurants and street food to kick off our introduction to Thai food. I’m not sure a fried banana coated in powered sugar is technically Thai food, but who knows.
After a week in Ao Nang, we asked our hotel owner where she recommended we go for a longer island stay for Christmas and New Years. She recommended we head to Ko Lanta, an island that lies off the south end of the Krabi peninsula. She said we would enjoy Ko Lanta if we wanted something even more laid-back than Ao Nang. Sold! We’ll cover Ko Lanta, Krabi in it’s own post later.
