Ao Nang, Krabi...worth visiting

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Krabi, Thailand

We took AirAsia flight to Krabi from Bangkok in the early hours of the day. We were staying very close to airport in Great Residence Hotel so it took literally 10 mins drive for us to reach airport, did not have to negotiate the infamous Bangkok traffic in the morning rush hour. Quite convenient it was to shuttle between airpot and hotel however it came with its obvious cost, we had to letgo off the opportunity to go clubbing and other guy’s stuff the night before in Bangkok city. Only solace we found was in a nearby bar & restaurant, which was about 5 mins walk from the hotel, where we enjoyed some live music and some cheap massage later on. The bar was a bit overcrowded mostly by young locals, driving flashy cars with gaudy lights with their overly noisy stereos. There were also a couple of seven elevans in the vicinity, proved handy to buy bits and bob for our travel.

The flight was fairly short and landed even before we sort of got settled in the plane. Once we landed at Krabi airport I instantly liked the place. The airport was small but nice and quite well maintained, with interesting arrangements to greet tourists to have a glimpse of pleasure of traditional thai massage in the arrival terminal. However as we had to figure out how to get to our hotel we didn’t have much time to explore this. There were like a few options to get to our destination, like taxi, bus etc., however taxi being a bit expensive 650 Baht, we opted for the bus. It was like a small shuttle bus with aircon, however aircon was not very efficient or may be struggling to keep up with the scorching summer heat. As soon as the bus filled up, which didn’t take long, we were off to our destination.

Krabi town is actually not on the beach, it’s a bit far inside the main land. There are several beaches to got to from Krabi and our destination was the famous Ao nang beach. However the bus had to go through Krabi as some of our fellow passengers were dropped off in Krabi town and therefore the bus journey was a bit too long than we expected, almost like a hour and a half.

Finally when we reached our hotel, Buri Tara Resort, we were a bit knackered from all the journeys. The hotel was nice and possibly good value for money, however the location was a bit off the main attarctions like the beach and local shops/bars, however only about 5/10 mins walk. Although they call it a resort, but in my opinion it’s a bit of a strech. As we were travelling in the off season which was in Sept., almost the end of summer, we got good deals in tariff. We were offered a welcome drink upon arrival at the hotel and the girls in reception speak english. Even though I did a bit of a homework before choosing the hotel, checking google maps and various blogs however the actual location is off main attractions. Anyway, to get over our journey exhaution and to relax we hit the pool immediately after checking in to our room. They have a nice bar on the poolside where you can have a drink literally while you are in the pool, it was nice.

After spending sometime in the pool we decided to hit the town and try some local foods, as both of us were starving by then. Even the hotel was only 5/10 mins walk from the local shops/restaurants, in the scorching summer sun at midday, we wished it had been a little bit closer. As we were walking by the shops we spotted one restaurant where there was this Indian guy at door steps touting for customers. We stepped in with a bit of skepticism as how would be the restaurant serving thai food owned by an Indian guy. Much to our surprise the food was nice and the restaurant owner turns out to be a nice, friendly and really helpful guy. He helped us with lots of local information and even helped us with transports as he spoke fluent thai. We felt lucky that we stepped into his restaurant.

Ao nang beach seems to be quite nice and there were people in the beach even in late afternoon. After randomly strolling around the beach for a while, me and my friend decided to check out Krabi town and then come back to night scene at Ao Nang as it was Saturday night. Much to our surpise we found that getting to Karbi town was quite a bit of a trek if you wanna use public transport. Its quite far and takes abt 40 mins by human carrier/hauler. It was rather a wrong decision to get to Krabi, as there was nothing exciting. Wasting about a few hours we came back to Ao Nang, and while coming back we realized that unlike other thai beach destinations, Krabi seems to die down quite early in the evening.

When we finally reached back at Ao Nang, things were just started to heat up. There were plenty of roadside food vendors, which I love about Thailand, we tried some and it was fantastic. It was not just food we get to experience, we had some interesting insights about the local culture and people. We had dinner at this roadside Jamai Restaurant owned by a family, where only the girls in the family work and the man of the household just sits around and chill. Cooking, attendting customers, cleaning everything done by mother and daughters whereas the father did nothing other than enjoying his lazy time, even during the busiest time. Quite an interesting reflection of local culture.

Finally we decided to hit the bar scene and check out some local bars/clubs. Ao Nang is possibly started to get popular in recent times, therefore compared to Pattaya they have to go a long way as far the bar scene is concerned. However it was not bad, all the bars were tucked in one nifty alleyway with good choices of pool, live music and dancing. The girls seem to be nice and friendly however as it were a bit of an off season, they seemed to be a bit over attentive at time.

Next morning we decided to go island hopping, and we fished around for best deals from a range of choices offered by all these different tour operators. You can even go to Phuket from Ao Nang by boat, and there are long tail boats and speed boats. Even though we chose to go by speed boat, we later realized that it would have been a better choice had we decided to go by long tail boats. They are much cheaper and takes longer time due to speed. But that is I guess is a plus, because you get to enjoy the views while sailing, it’s a such a heavenly picturesque surroundings with all these floating islands and green water, amazing.

The tour covered lunch and also pickup and drop from the hotel, so we had nothing to worry about, and the weather was just amazing. One of our stop was at Hong Island, and we have been given all the gears for snorkelling, no need to rent, and it was fabulous. The yellow/blue colored fish, the crystal clear water and girls in bikini around, awesome setting. However the booze, if you want, would be a bit pricey in the island.

In the evening after a few rounds of drings we decided to hit some local massage shops to take away the exhaution from all the swimming and watery bumps from the speedboats. We tried thai oil massage, and it really felt great. The girls were really nice and with the tips they were overjoyed.

The next morning we flew to Kualumpur from Krabi, but that’s another story !

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