Krabi, Thailand

Just come back from Krabi Province, Thailand *mission as usual*. The following should be posted in Krabi, but failed due to connection problems in internet service there:


Hey, I’m now in Krabi, Thailand! It’s a small beach city in southern Thailand, about 1 hour 20 minutes flight from Bangkok or 12 hours by car. Krabi is one of tourism destination in Thailand, but not as big as Phuket, and mainly offer natural and ecotourism attraction. There are several nice beaches here, but I think it’s not really special. Tourists mostly come here to go to small beautiful islands around Krabi, like Phi Phi Island and people there say Jame Bond Island (the James Bond movie was shoot there, even though it’s a long long time ago they’re proud of it and make it tourism spot).

Krabi also hit by the Tsunami. Not much damage in the beaches, but affected the small islands. It is low season this time, raining season, and especially after Tsunami, visitors decreasing. Still I met many tourists (Western, Japanese and local) walking around and enjoying the street beach – so it must be crowded when it’s peak season during October-February.

I stayed in Krabi Thai Village Resort, just within walking distance from Ao Nang Beach. Although the beach is just so so, I think the supporting infrastructure and facilities are really well planned. Just across the beach, side by side with the regional street road, shops and small restaurants/cafes lined-up neatly. Must be interesting place for investors, coz there are a lot of pizzeria, travel agents, dance floor, pub, ice-cream corner, hotels, laundry, tailor, internet service rental, several banks and money changers, minimart such as Seven-Eleven, and even McDonalds.

We can buy many stuff in those shops: textile, pearl, bracelet, necklaces, traditional snacks, ethnic bags, table cloth, skirt, T-Shirt, handicrafts, home decorations, souvenirs.
Some of the activities that are offered to enjoy: canoeing to Mangrove Cave, kayak, diving, fishing, spa, massage and aromatherapy (imagine Thai massage, hmm..) which varied from foot massage, back & shoulder massage, full massage – for 250 Baht (about 6 USD) one hour. Sure I didn’t have time and luxury to enjoy any of these :(

At least to host took us for ‘sightseeing’ to some popular spot which I happily registered coz I’m curious to know what are the local attractions that the govt want to offer. Well, only about three places that we visited during 6 hours ride – not worth, the places are far one another. We visited what they so-called hot spring, which is not hot or spring at all (Maribaya or Ciater in West Java are much better). Then a beautiful clear Emerald Pond with very clean water – but we had to walk 800 m in the forest-rock road during small raining; hey.. some of us are middle-age delegates! Then finally a gathrosthope fossil site which have been there for 75 million years and really being preserved under the Ministry of Energy. Even the spots I visited are not remarkable, I think all of them are really environmentally friendly which the govt have tried to keep it natural-safe while ‘selling’ it. Very clean, good signs, good roads, and not crowded by people selling something.

There is Moslem community in southern Thailand. I heard adzan on the way from airport. The seller in souvenir shops in the Fossil Site wore sarung, baju koko and kopiah putih, and his wife wore sort of kebaya, while his daughter use jilbab. When I asked for halal crackers and answered waalaikumsalam, I got discount :)


Two days in Krabi, then I went to AIT, Bangkok, to see baby Gala – the cute Cekin Head of Nita and Enda :)
Sorry, no pics yet… Never ending works waiting in office, and next week have to go to Phnom Penh and Bangkok for two different meetings (sigh..) Not to mention another meeting trip to Vientiane again next month…