Ahh, Krabi. I still daydream about these powdery beaches, shimmering turquoise waters and spending whole days cruising the ocean in a longtail boat. This part of our trip was dedicated to relaxation, so we didn’t really do very much at all here. I went off to try scuba diving near the Phi Phi islands for one day, but other than that we spent our time on the various islands and beaches, or lazily walking around town.
We chose Ao Nang as our base, but I have to admit, on arrival we weren’t all that impressed with the town. It felt like somewhere I’d been many times before, one of those identical seaside strips that you find all across the world, lined with tacky souvenir shops, pizza restaurants, cheap tattoo parlours, McDonalds and Burger Kings, and bars playing English music. It was a shame to see how touristy it had become, but there were still highlights, the natural scenery was breathtaking and the food was cheap and delicious. The location was also ideal, being pretty much in the center of everything Krabi has to offer.
We spent a few of our evenings around the strip, but for the most part we traveled out to the islands to get away from it all. Some, like the famous Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh were almost unbearably crowded, whilst others, like Lading Island, were closer to the relaxing paradise we had in mind.
PhraNang Cave Beach
PhraNang Cave beach is known for being one of the most beautiful beaches on the Krabi mainland, and also for its packs of mischievous wild monkeys. We watched as they stole food, drinks and sunglasses, rifled through bags and swaggered through the crowds without a second thought. They were definitely used to us humans, and that was both a good and a bad thing. I spent a good few hours just lying on my towel watching them and their funny antics, it was amazing to see them up close, but it also made me nervous and angry seeing people chasing them, poking them with branches or getting in their faces with cameras and phones. They didn’t seem at all aggressive, but rabies is still a very real danger across Thailand and I can only imagine how many people have been bitten here for not respecting their personal space.
Koh Phi Phi
After visiting the Phi Phi islands a few days before for my day of scuba diving, I couldn’t wait to get back in the water here. The sea around these islands is teaming with such colourful, diverse life and the crystal clear waters make it a dream to explore. We booked with Thalassa a few days before and took their semi-private Koh Phi Phi day tour. I honestly couldn’t recommend them more, the crew were amazing and we had the most wonderful day. They made sure we got to see the best of the islands, taking us to a number of less touristy spots and timing our visits to the more popular areas to avoid the big crowds.
This was possibly one of the most blissful days of my life, we snorkeled through whole shoals of fish, relaxed on shaded islands, ate Thai BBQ on the beach and floated in a turquoise lagoon, beer in hand, soaking up the sun. I’m not sure life gets much better than that.
Hong Islands
For our last island hopping adventure in Krabi, we decided to charter a longtail boat and driver to take us to see the Hong Islands. We paid a fixed fee for the entire day and were then able to hop on and off wherever we liked. It was so nice to have the boat all to ourselves and to be able to decide how long we wanted to spend at each destination.
The Hong Islands were much quieter than Phi Phi, and in my opinion far prettier too. The lack of crowds made it feel much more like the secret desert island paradise we’d dreamed of, and meant we could take in the beautiful scenery in relative peace and quiet.
