After Singapore we flew to Krabi, Thailand, which is a smaller town/area on eastern shore of the Andaman Sea. Phuket is on peninsula out in the Andaman Sea nearly directly across from Krabi. We chose this location as our “beach portion” of the trip since Thailand is known for its beaches. A lot of people visit Phuket, but we wanted to try a different area as we’ve heard Phuket is very crowded with tourists. We were in Krabi for four nights at the Dusit Thani Krabi Beach Resort. Our rate at the hotel included free roundtrip transportation from the airport as well as a one-day tour of the Phi Phi Islands.
Similar to the Balinese, every Thai worker we met, including at the airport as well as the resort and elsewhere, greeted us and thanked us with hands together in front of the heart and a slight bow as a sign of gratitude and respect. During our time here we used the Thai Baht (THB), which $1 was approximately equivalent to 36THB and was our seventh currency of our journey. We put Thailand in our itinerary for three main reasons: beaches, temples, and Thai food. Our hotel was directly on the beach and our first night we ate at the hotel as we settled in from our travels. We watched a beautiful sunset, then set our itinerary for our Island visit for our second full day.
On our first full day, we decided to take some time to relax around the resort and enjoy the pool. Up to this point our trip has been fairly well packed with either traveling to a new location or sightseeing so a much-needed break was in order. We hung around the pool facing the sea for a couple of hours to get some sun! Mike also taste tested (drank) three different Thai beers, all of which tasted pretty similar.
Shot of pool view and around the Dusit Thani Krabi Beach Resort:
For the afternoon we took a shuttle from our hotel to the beachtown of Ao Nang or Ao Nang Beach, which was about a 15-minute drive from the resort. The town has a nice beach and impressive views of the islands that jut out of the sea in the distance. The town also has a large number of souvenir shops, restaurants (mostly Indian and Thai), tattoo shops, and artwork shops. Basically, it was your usual beach front town. We stopped in for some drinks and did some shopping around town.
When we arrived back at our hotel, we tried a different restaurant at the hotel to try to find some Pad Thai (signature dish, but the Thai restaurant in the hotel the night before didn’t have it…) Luckily it was available and we ate and then went to bed early knowing we had an 8am departure for our Phi Phi Island tour.
On this same day, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (aka “King Bhumiol the Great”, King of Thailand), passed away at the age of 88 after being on the throne for nearly 70 years. He was the world’s longest reigning monarch. He had ruled for so long that most Thais don’t know anyone different in rule and generally the statements that we heard was that he was beloved. The Thai people have declared a year of mourning for the passing of the King with the first 30 days being particularly somber. As a result, many entertainment, sights, bars, and restaurants across the nation were closed or changed in the days following the death. That said, we did not see that impact in Krabi until the night before we left where restaurants as well as the local 7-11 would no longer sell alcohol or had changed hours and services.
Phi Phi Islands
The Phi Phi Islands (pronounced P-hee P-hee, or just Pee Pee) are a set of small islands located slightly south of both Krabi and Phuket and in the middle of the two in Andaman Sea. There are a couple of islands that have resorts and the views there are stunning, but in recent memory these islands are more notorious as the filming location for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach”. Our guide picked us up at the hotel in a large group, then we drove to the pier located in Ao Nang. From there we were separated into groups based on itinerary with the most people going to Phi Phi. Longboats are typically used in the area, most likely due to large swings in tide (3 meters) as the long tail off the back of the motor with the propeller can be adjusted to various depths pretty easily. Unfortunately, our group was so large we were in a more modern boat.
Photos showing changing tide:
Our first stop was a picturesque bay where we drove through specifically to take photos before seeing if it was going to be possible to get into Maya Bay, which is the iconic location from “The Beach”. Fortunately, the weather and sea conditions allowed entry to the Bay and we drove in and parked our boat backward right into the shore…along with about 20 other large boats.
The Beach is beautiful and understandably due to the film many tourists want to see it, which somewhat changes the experience from the movie. The place was very crowded when we arrived, but our tour guide warned us to get out and take pictures immediately as “a million people are on the way”…and he was right too! We got out and snapped some photos, but shortly after these photos, huge boats pulled in with loads of tourists snapping pictures. Some of the boats were too big to even dock into the shore, so the tourists on them only got to see the opening of the bay looking at the beach, but the best view is without a doubt the beach looking at the opening of the bay. Erica was disappointed Leo wasn’t there or that Moby wasn’t there playing music (soundtrack to movie).
We also visited an area refered to as “Monkey Beach” where the monkeys come down to the shore when the tide is lower. Luckily there were a couple around even though the tide was still quite high. One little guy jumped onto a boat, but was too scared to jump and swim back…
Afterwards we moved to a new location to do some snorkeling and found a large number of fish and coral! We also moved onto a different island for some lunch and shopping, but all of the shops sold the exact same things as the shops in Ao Nang, so we didn’t buy anything… We snorkeled some more after lunch when it began to rain, then drove over to Bamboo Island for our last stop of an hour of beach time.
Upon our arrival back to our hotel, we took a nap and then ventured out for dinner outside the resort this time, although we were away from town with limited options off the resort property. We found a place very close to our hotel called “Sandwich Me”, but it was a Thai restaurant and highly rated on Trip Advisor. Mike suspected the restaurant name was chosen to draw in westerners and ruled the place out on name alone, but the positive reviews led us there anyway and we are glad we went! The wait staff were very friendly and accommodating. This is also the only place thus far to offer us chopsticks to use to eat, which we gladly accepted (and marveled at why they hadn’t been offered previously). We sat outside where the cook was actually working too. This was the best Thai Food we had in Thailand, no question, and such a great experience. It was fantastic!
Tiger Cave Temple
On day three, or our last full day in Krabi, we decided to book a private driver to take us to the Tiger Cave Temple, which is a Buddhist temple. Private car was the easiest way to get there without doing another full day tour. Basically we wanted to go see the temple, probably the most famous of the Buddhist Temples in the Krabi area, but still get back to enjoy some more pool time before moving on to our next location. When we booked the driver, which we did with an hour notice, the concierge looked at us and asked if we were sure…which we probably should’ve taken a cue at that point. She warned us that the temple is very high and there are 1,237 steps to the top, but we just looked at her and said yes. When the driver picked us up, he asked if we were sure we wanted to go, because it was 10:30 already and we had a 30-minute drive ahead plus it was the hottest day of our visit so far, but we pushed on. We did look at each other for a second since it seemed like we were crazy for going there…
When we got the foot of the temple there were many other temples and Buddha statues to see and admire. There is also a cave with a Tiger paw print inside, but we could not go in due to our attire. Erica was not allowed to summit to the temple without covering her legs since her shorts weren’t long enough, so she had to rent a wrap for 20 THB (approx. $0.56). After some photos at the bottom we began our summit!
Photos of climb:
Temple at the top, Buddha statues, and details:
Mike also filmed the descent of the stairs in 3x speed below:
Afterwards, covered in sweat with shaky legs from the walk up AND down we decided to cut our four hours short and just head back to the pool for some drinks and relaxation. We headed off the resort one more time for dinner since we had such good luck the night before, but Sandwich Me was closed so we tried the Coffee Club for food. This was where we learned that alcohol was no longer being sold as the country mourns the death of the King, but it didn’t affect our second best Thai food experience. We stopped by 7-11 on the way back to the resort for some water before packing up and noticed again that one could not buy beer anymore, despite purchasing it there one day before.
Thailand was a great visit and the beach/pool was definitely in order after all of the travels prior to arriving here. The area of Krabi and surrounding towns/beaches have a smaller feel and charm. The details in the temples and the beauty of the beaches was definitely worth the visit. Also, the driving here is kind of ‘free for all’ in that people drive on the shoulder, in the oncoming lanes, and not minding traffic lights too much. Somehow it is fantastic and exciting when you’re riding around in it too. They do drive on the left side of the road and right side of the car here like Indonesia and Singapore. The people were very friendly and spoke English and Chinese in addition to Thai, of course. We had no issues with communication and appreciated their accommodating our language, especially knowing we knew none of theirs.
Itinerary Change
Given the death of the King and the period of mourning in Thailand, we decided to skip our visit in Bangkok and push on to Tokyo for more time there. We read that many attractions, bars, restaurants, entertainment, and temples have closed or have changed services or hours to honor the King. There are also large crowds in Bangkok to see and pay respects the King in person as his body has been moved to the Grand Palace, which is closed. Given our limited window of time left on our journey we figured more days in Tokyo wouldn’t hurt. We would like to visit both Bangkok and more of Thailand if we find ourselves back in Southeast Asia in the future. For now, we’re off to Bangkok for an 11 hour layover before heading to Tokyo!
Thanks for reading.
Cheers and love,
Mike and Erica
Wanderlust with M+E 