We actually weren’t super excited going to Krabi. We put it into our itinerary to break up a long travel day between Thai islands. It sounded like a tourist town on the beach with a lot of hustle and bustle. It was…. but it is also a very beautiful area. Sunsets were amazing and the limestone karsts and mountains were very impressive. The vertical cliffs coming right down to the water reminded us a lot of Ha Long bay in Vietnam. The first thing we did was walk on the “monkey trail” to see the cliffs on the beach next to the main Ao Mang beach. We did see some more scary monkeys and some googly eyed monkeys but our pics from Prauchaup were a lot better.
Ao Nang beach itself in Krabi wasn’t as memorable as the awesome cliffs. The beaches have a gentle slope so the only boats that come in to the bay are the long tails. The long tails have an old car or truck engine mounted on a swivel at the back. The transmission is modified into a long driveline with a propeller at the end. The drivers are really good about pulling the shaft out of the water and shifting it to the other side of the boat to steer really well and avoid ropes to the other boats. We have seen these all over Thailand but here it was just overwhelming. The mufflers are gone, so the whole beach sounds like the old school hydro races in Lake Washington. We spent more time in our fancy pool at the hotel than swimming next to the noise making boats on the beach.
We decided against taking any snorkeling tours but one day we did take a long tail boat to the more isolated beach around the point. Tonsai beach, Railay West and Railay East beaches can only be reached by boat. It was a great day trip to have lunch away from the scooters and tuk tuks that drive down Ao Nang beach constantly. Next time, we might want to stay on these beaches even though it is a little bit more difficult to get there. We did see another monkey but he didn’t snarl at us because he was busy devouring a coconut.
Besides the trek to Railay, the majority of our 4 days in Ao Nang was spent swimming in the pool and eating. The food in Thailand has been consistently good but not many meals that was super memorable. The beach seafood places have been pretty fun but most of the time, the Pad Thai and Pad See Ew have been just about the same. We have paid $1.50 per a plate and $10 for a plate in different places and enjoyed them all about the same. In Ao Nang we found an Esan place to try something different. Esan is a province in the North East of Thailand that has their own language as well as their own spin on Thai food. It was a bit different but we were mostly impressed that this woman can cook in this kitchen. Food and prep stuff all around her including the floor but she was able to make some good roast chicken and noodles for us even though the Washington state health department would probably not have approved.
The main attraction in Ao Nang seems to be the sunset. Every night everyone ends up on the beaches or the beachside restaurants and spends an hour watching the sun go down. We saw it every night and the evenings are probably what we will remember most about Ao Nang. We bought $3 sugary cocktails and took way too many pictures along with the rest of the folks on the beach.
Next stop is Ko Lanta- another island!!!