Its been a while since I did a trip review, not because I didnt go on short trips but probably because those short trips were just 2 days long and could not warrant any substantial content. Also trips must have pictures! So there weren't too many pictures for those places and it probably would be too boring to do a review about it. Anyway, for those who don't know where Krabi is, its actually a state or province or city within Thailand! I am sure most of us know about Phuket and Bangkok. Krabi could actually be called a more serene version of Phuket, with about the same sights and things to do as Phuket. In fact, if you checked the map, you will realised that Krabi and Phuket are just right across each other, with Ko Phi Phi island being in the center, about the same distance from both places. That is why some of the Phuket tours to the islands are the same as those provided in Krabi.
For those who want info quick, this is what you expect and the highlights of Krabi.
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| Tom Yam, Plenty of it |
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| Rocks sticking out of the sea.. plenty of this too |
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| Clear waters, snorkeling spots |
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| Beaches on the islands |
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| A bit of canoeing under rocky formations |
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| Mangrove canoeing |
Without further ado, lets move into the review part of this article!
By the way, I have modified the review scheme slightly to be able to give more essential details to those who want to go to the place. Will do an independent post some time, to actually explain these review points.
Activities
So what exactly are the things to do? Is there a good variety? Is there fun for everyone?!?! These are the questions that you would ask.
As stated above, Krabi is a less crowded area as compared to Phuket. However, the activities and things you do there are pretty similar. When you reach Krabi, or Ao Nang which was where I stayed, you will notice the plentiful activities and short tour kiosks spread all around. Most of the activities will be the same no matter which kiosk you use. From all my research that was done, these are the activities.
1. Scenic visiting to places. The first and more popular visit is to Phi Phi islands which was the one we went on. Besides Phi Phi island, the other 2 more popular visits are the 4 Island tour and also Hong Island tour. Below are some pictures of the Phiphi Island. These activities are mainly focused on just visiting, but there are snorkeling options as well as canoeing options provided.
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| Beach where they apparently filmed "The Beach" |
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| Viking Caves |
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| Some tiny beaches trapped between rock formations |
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| This was Maya Bay, another beach stop |
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| Name of the place |
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| PhiPhi Island itself |
2. The next activity that we went on was a Canoeing expedition at Bor Thor. I believe that there is another place to canoe but i cannot remember the name exactly. This would be more physically strenuous as it requires you to canoe for about 2 hours but of course you can always rest occasionally. There is also a longboat option which is like a speed boat and in this case you do not need to exercise as much but i believe one of the areas which is a lagoon surrounded by hills is only accessible by canoeing, however its not that unique in honesty. Anyway the main difference is that this is more mangrove based and adventurous feeling as compared to the open sea. Here are some pictures
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| Docks where you would set off from |
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| Lagoon accessible only by canoe |
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| Another shot of it, low tide you could stand up in the lagoon |
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| Many Many rock formations inside the caves that you would canoe under |
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| And at times it is pretty dark and adventurous feeling. |
4. They also have scuba diving excursions which you can even book right there when you land on the island, probably for people with more time and budget
5. For the adventurous there is also options that are focused on white water rafting as well as ATV... which is off road driving with those vehicles.
6. Another famous activity in Krabi is the many spa and massages that you can have. There are many types of shops but many are not as private as I would like it to be.
Didn't have the time to do all these activities but for most cases, there are quite a variety of tours and things to do there.
Scenery
As per my experience, for Krabi, its scenery is probably considered above average. It has nothing majorly specatular such as giant structures or ruins, neither does it have very amazing natural structures like mountains or volcanos unlike Bali. Its unique points probably would be those Island rocks and mangroves but these are not that rare in the world.
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| Rocks.... |
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| More rocks! |
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| Some caves that you can move around in |
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| This was a natural swimming pool that people could swim in. Meaning there are fishes inside but no control on depth or ground quality. |
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| The non-crowded beach of Ao Nang |
Shopping
Lets just get this out there, Krabi is no Bnagkok. I stayed at the more popular town of Ao Nang in a hotel that advertises its pros as being near the Ao Nang town itself. There are no real giant malls in the entire of Ao nang area and the only other place that we did go for shopping was the night market down in Krabi town. Apparently the night market is only open during the week ends including Friday so take note of that when making your plans. Also the transport there might not be entirely cheap. A van ride there was 300 baht to and fro so probably you might need to consider tuktuk. But that would mean the ride would be not as comfortable unfortunately. Here are some pictures of the night market though :)
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| Night market.. its a bit smaller then it looks though |
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| Has many food stalls... |
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| This is the view of Krabi town. |
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| A single shopping center that we found in Krabi town, next to the night market |
In Ao Nang itself however, the shopping area is more of a horizontal style just spread along the road. Most shops are selling about the same things and due to the prevalence of food stalls that takes up the stall lots, there really is not much to shop. All in all, Ao Nang is probably not a shopping place and if you have to shop, your best bet is to try Krabi town although I am not sure how you would get around in Krabi town itself.
We also had a stroll out at about 2 am but at that time, it is safe to say Ao Nang city is completely non active. The roads are really pretty dark and lonely at that time so do take care.
Food
Now we move down into the food section! Food in Krabi is rather.... confusing.. there are plenty.. and i mean plenty of stalls that sell european food and ALSO thai food at the same time.. problem then is.. is the food any good.. there is macs and Burger king that is strangely expensive in the Ao Nang stretch and also has stuff like Star Bucks and Black Canyon. Of course when you are there, this is what you should eat..
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| How many Tom Yam do you see here... |
People
As with many touristy asian destinations, the people are rather assertive and might just border on rude especially for those who want customers for food. They are generally able to speak english and you should not have big problems telling them what you want as long as its something common.
The guides are also english proficient but they tend to not be as nice as some tour guides that i know of, probably because they are just gonna guide you for a day. So they sometimes do show their annoyance and its not always CUSTOMER is always right. In the end they are basically functional and probably a bit jaded by the many tourists that they have served.
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| Here a pic of our driver cum canoeing leader cum tour guide |
Accomodation and Ease of getting around
There are actually many hotel choices for all budgets and all types of people. We personally stayed in Ao Nang Princeville hotel which was a 4 star hotel that we chose because it was really in the city center and near the beach. In all honesty though, don't let the locality of the hotel affect you too much because the walking area is really very tiny for Ao Nang so even if you got a place at the outskirts, its really not that far from anywhere else. There is also no real need for a pool unless you are a pool lover because the beach is really pretty convenient and not crowded. Just note that if you are picking hotels at Railey or at Phiphi there is probably a need to consider how you can get there in the first place. Here is some pictures of the hotel
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| Beach right in front of us |
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| Room is big.. |
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| Toilet has shower and tub |
Transport wise, for any tours that you get you will be assured you have some form of transport to bring you all around. Question to ask however is whether you will be alone on the tour. For us in the first day we had a big bus to bring about nearly 16 - 20 people out including the speed boat itself. I have seen slightly bigger boats which might affect how you enjoy the tour. 2nd day however we were on those open back vehicles with a 5 passenger cabin on the back. As a result we got to make friends with Natalia and Alfredo from Spain who were alot of fun on the mangrove canoeing ride. Someday my muscles will be as big as his. :) But if you are those who don't like to socialize too much.. consider this before you make your booking. They probably would not accede to your request though...
Getting to the hotel is also not free! So make sure you are prepared, but you could just get a taxi to whatever area you have at a reasonable price, it was more expensive to get a ride preplanned from the hotel actually. The taxi limo vehicles are pretty cool though. Still he was smart to stop as at a "Tourist stop" where some guy came down and asked us to book for a tour on the spot.. remember.. prices for tours using this style of selling... not particularly competitive...you could try to squeeze out a deal from him but at the very best it could just be reasonable only...
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| From Airport to Hotel |
Cost
Overall I would say that this trip was the most expensive, but part of the reason was because of how late we booked the hotel and the tickets. Hotels and tickets went up to about 475 per pax for a 4 day 3 night stay, but the hotel price was considered rather steep.
Food was from 140 for a tom yam and phad thai combo, and the most expensive that we ate was a 600 baht at the black canyon, admittedly we did buy pretty expensive stuff there. Just put about 250(10 SGD) baht per person per meal and it should be fine. Stuff sold at the night market is considerable cheaper so put that in mind when searching for souvenirs. Burger king was particularly expensive. I tink its 250 baht per meal inclusive of drink.
Transport is not cheap also, considering that the taxi from airport to hotel was 600 Baht which is about 13 dollars. So dont be expecting Bali's cheap 1 USD tuktuk prices here.
When booking tours please make sure you check a few stalls. For example the Phiphi island tour flyer price was actually 1800 baht, but when we asked around we could get as low as 1100 baht per pax which is 44 dollars. For the 2nd trip it was supposed to be about 1300 baht for a Bor Tor trip but we managed to bring it down to 950 baht per pax. Note that most trips do include lunch during the tour which although is simple, but generally gets the job done.
Massages would be in the range of 200 to about 350 baht. We managed to go for a few different massages at about 300 baht a piece which is just above 10 SGD so its reasonable.
Overall we spent about 300 per person for the 4 days that we were there and the grand sum for airfare plus hotel plus tickets
Overall
Activities : 4 (There is a good choice as there are sea activities, land tours and things to do here and there. Lacking in night activities but if you were there for more then 3 or 4 full days you probably can still have many different tours to go for.)
Scenery : 3 (There are nice places to see and be at, but it just loses out to those places that were made for scenery.)
Shopping : 2.5 (Passable shopping, at least it still had the night market. This shouldn't be your choice for a place for shopping at all.)
Food : 3.5 (The extra .5 marks is for those who love Tom Yam, but in general you should only expect to see Thai food, European food such as pasta and pizza and thats about it. No jap or korean or variety in that sense. Food is pretty good tasting though if you go for thai cuisine.)
People : 3 (The people are at best ok. They aren't entirely genuinely there to please as they are there to get your business. They however are still able to get their job done and even will call you in your hotel room when your ride is here. The reason is probably cause other customers are waiting for you too)
Accommodation etc : 4 (The variety is there but of course hardly any of the accommodation will be considered extremely good as they are merely just trying to be as functional and efficient as possible. Transport is easy to obtain to get to anywhere but they won't be entirely cheap also.)
Cost : 3 ( Same as Bali i would say. Due to its touristy nature, nothing is really cheap and everything can be said to cost at best slightly cheaper then things here in Singapore. Except massage which is cheaper, but also not as professionally carried out in terms of the massaging shop)
Overall : 3.29 (Overall its a good place to go for a getaway of possibly up to 5 full days. So probably if you want to experience everything, set aside a week there and you would have enjoyed all that Krabi has to offer for the rest of your life. And probably would have relaxed sufficiently there too. Of course if you have been to places like Phuket, then Krabi might be just too similar so this should not be a choice if you want something different.)
This is my 3rd travel review that I have done! Comment if you want to know more!! Thanks for tuning it, hope i have many more trips to share with you about. Will publish it first and maybe make some changes if i tink about it
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