Finally! My first travel of 2017! It was about time! Let me tell you about my quick weekend getaway to beautiful Krabi, Thailand.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
After some stressful couple of weeks, me and my good friend KA decided to spent the weekend in Krabi, Thailand. This was my first travel of 2017! I've been busy with life and work and wasn't able to leave Singapore since December '16. Not the first time in Thailand but first time in Krabi! I've done some research on Instagram pictures and on LostLeblancs YouTube channel to get some Thailand inspiration. If you aren't following this guy and you're into travel, follow him now! @lostleblanc is his ig!
After walking along the main road from our Hostel and arriving after 20 mins walk (!) at Ao Nang Beach, we decided to indulge ourselves in some coconut Ice cream. That was the BOMB! So please if you are in Thailand, you must eat coconut ice cream! Below you'll see a picture of the place where we had it, super friendly guys and totally worth it for 80 THB!
Island hopping was definitely something on our list. Since we arrived at low season in Krabi we made a good deal with the tours. Don't stress out too much where to buy the tours because one way or another, those guys are all working together. We were better off with booking our second tour via our hostel. But lets get real and say that our first tour, we chose the 7 island sunset tour, was not blessed by good weather and not even editing can help the pictures we took. Like @itsatravelod girl says, those pictures are perfect for her hashtag #overdoseintravel for the real stories behind pictures. See them for yourself. The tourgroup generally was OK, not super friendly neither rude but probably our favorite moment was the buffet dinner at a restaurant at Railay beach area. We were too hungry from the whole day touring around 7 islands. We did see some fishes when we went snorkeling and we managed to cross some islands of on our must see list like Poda Island and Chicken Island. No sunset though :(
So since tour number one wasn't really WOW we still gave it another try for the next day and we were lucky! Halleluja! The weather was on our side even though there were small showers but nothing could have stopped us. We booked the "Hong Island" tour via our hostel. Please note that any tour you book has additional 300 THB fee for the national park entrance. The next morning someone picked us up and drove us to the meeting point. I honestly never heard of Hong Island but I loved it so much! You get to drive via a smaller speedboat through Hong lagoon but unfortunately no swimming because there are stingrays in the water and too many people around. Lunch and snorkeling at Lading Island and the best part was the two hour relaxed stay at Hong beach. Yes, not just a few people around but once you find a nice spot and enjoy the view and the snorkeling, you can get a sunburn and you get to see nemo. Absolutely enjoyed this tour. Since it was on a smaller speedboat, meaning fewer people, our tourguide was super friendly and food was pretty good too. Fresh fruits and thai chicken curry, yum!
Beach days were over and we moved to our second hostel to Krabi town. We decided to take the local bus for 100 THB total for both of us and it took us probably over an hour to finally get there. Things you do to save money right? We arrived at our amazing Hostel named the Sleep Club Hostel and for a two night stay at a private room with own bathroom we paid 1440 THB for both of us.
We went off straight away to eat our way through to the nightmarket. MAKE SURE you ask exactly where to go in order to get to the right nightmarket. We thought we found the right one and it turns out we didn't and were suuuuper dissapointed. BUT we eventually found it and could finally start eating. YAS! Didn't eat as much as expected but what we had was super nice. From freshly made pad thai over mini waffles (yes not thai food I know) to coconut ice cream, again! And no, I did not try the fried insects. I just couldn't...one day maybe!
After eating and resting we decided the next day would be a hiking kind of day. I am not much of a hiker to be honest and I am slighlty scared of heights, but hey! You only live once right? I did not regret this hike! There are tours offering a group hike with snacks and lunch but honestly, you can easily do this by yourself. We took a cab close to our Hostel to get to the Mountain itself, it took like an hour plus and it was 1420 THB both ways. Yes, a bit pricey but the guy will bring you there and pick you up after your hike. There aren't many taxis waiting for you after the hike. If so, they would be double the price. The Mountain is called "Khao Ngon Nak"also Dragon Crest Mountain. 565 meters tall from the sea level and the path from foothill to the hilltop is around 3700 meters and it took us aroud 2 1/2 hours up and probably an hour down, we were also rushing down. We spent a total of 5 hours because once you arrive at the top you totally wanna chill first and have your lunch. For us lunch was, cookies and fruits and water. Also you wanna spent a good amount of time on taking pictures and enjoying the view. It was honestly, the highest I've ever been and the view was awesome. It was a bit cloudy and we even got caught in a little shower which lasted just a few minutes but the view was still pretty amazing. Check it out!
After all, I really enjoyed this trip and had lots of fun! The hiking and the hong island tour were definitely our highlights. Krabi isn't just for island hopping yo! That is for sure. I'll be back here to enjoy some more local food and to hop over to Phi Phi island and explore the area over there. If you are staying in Krabi town I recommend our hostel but if you want more of a younger party crowd, there is a hostel called the Pak up hostel, maybe you should check that out. Either way, we were here at low season. Crowds will be different and more during high season but at least you get better weather :) Thanks for reading and feel free to share this post and let me know what you think! K
PS. Check out my youtube video about this trip! See video below!