We concluded our trip to Thailand and Cambodia with 3 1/2 days in Krabi, Southern Thailand. This was by far the most difficult portion of our trip for me to plan because there were SO many gorgeous options of where to stay and what to do. The beauty and opportunity to see and experience so much proved to be overwhelming and it took months for me to make decisions about where I wanted us to be based. I actually chose and booked and cancelled three different places before finally deciding (or rather Sam decided for us, thank goodness) on Krabi, and staying in Ao Nang Beach. Our main reason for choosing Krabi and Ao Nang was that we wanted to jump off to the Phi Phi Islands and Ao Nang was a perfect place to charter a boat and head out from. Also, we wanted to be on the Andaman Sea side instead of the Gulf of Thailand.

We stayed at the L Resort right in the middle of Ao Nang Beach and directly across from the beach itself. We chose a pool access room which we used extensively. For example, we would get home from walking around exploring, open the back sliding door in our room and fall directly into the pool. On repeat. ALL of the time. The pool access saved us, because as I have mentioned before in previous posts, Thailand is SO HOT. Get used to that dribble of back sweat starting at 9:00 am and just make peace with the fact that you will always be sweaty and hot. Live in your swimsuit. Make friends with the pool and cold shower. Get on a boat and jump in the water because you will finally be able to cool off. It’s that kind of hot :).

Anyway, our hotel was a great respite from the heat. The location was absolutely perfect because it put us directly in the middle of the promenade with all of the shops and restaurants of Ao Nang PLUS it was directly across from the beach. Literally perfect. We stayed in the L Lite Room with Pool Access and the room was a good size with a great bathroom. The bed was firmer than we would have liked and the air was always absolutely freezing BUT if given a choice I would rather have a very cold room instead of a steamy one so…?

Our main activity while in Krabi was chartering a private speed boat for the day to travel around the Phi Phi Islands (Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh), Chicken Island, Maya Bay (where the movie “The Beach” was filmed), Bamboo Island and Koh Poda (which is right off the coast of Ao Nang and was my favorite to look at). We paid about $350 to charter a boat with a driver and helper for the three of us for the whole day and it was worth every penny. We told our captain that we wanted to go to Maya Bay first and as early as possible so that we could avoid the crush of tourists sure to show up later in the morning. It was SUPER bumpy getting through the currents into Maya Bay but I loved it.

Our captain took us to a beautiful place to go swimming where the water was a perfect shade of turquoise. I loved it. I am NOT a water person so jumping into the water in Thailand took me out of my comfort zone but I am so glad I did it. Then we went to another area and jumped in the water with our snorkels. No joke, there were schools of yellow striped fish and blue and yellow fish that looked like Dory from “Nemo” and “Finding Dory”. So incredibly cool. And there were SO many of them. I absolutely loved it.

We stopped on Bamboo Island where they had a little snack shack with Hagen Daaz ice cream bars. Can you say HEAVEN????? Walking around on white sandy beaches and eating ice cream is ridiculously awesome. Then we noticed that Sam’s wallet hadn’t really been that waterproof after all and most of our Baht was soaking wet. So we set up a Baht drying station on our legs while sitting on the beach :).

Our boat stopped on Phi Phi Don for us to wander around the island and find some lunch. The pad thai that we ate at a tiny restaurant without a fan or air conditioning was some of the best I had on our whole trip. By now we were pretty tired after being in the sun and the wind and in and out of the water so we made our way back to Ao Nang and our hotel.

The rest of our time in Krabi was spent shopping for souvenirs, finding mango sticky rice and rotee whenever and wherever possible, getting massages and lounging in the pool. We went to the same restaurant for dinner three nights in a row because it was THAT good. It was located right on the beach and had the tastiest food of our whole Thailand trip. On our final night in Krabi we ordered so much food that it filled our entire table. There is no such thing as too much Thai food; we ate it all.

We also found this cute European/western cafe with incredible air con and delicious milkshakes.

The sunsets in Ao Nang were breathtaking every single night. Sam and I sat on a bench one night and talked about the next few trips that we would like to take together. I love that we are both equally passionate about travel; it is one of our most favorite things to do together. Sitting on that bench and looking out over the sea, feeling so grateful to be in Thailand and so grateful for more travel opportunities ahead of us over the years is one of my happiest memories from our time in Krabi. By the way, we decided our next big trip would be to Japan and South Korea :).

And finally, we got used to seeing the Lady Boys each night on the main promenade as they promoted their stage show. On our last night we had to stop and get a photo:

I finally really relaxed while we were in Krabi. After so many flights and travels and cities over two weeks, being able to stay put in Krabi for a few days was greatly needed. I actually came down with a sore throat while we were in Krabi (once my body relaxed it realized it was sick!). I went to the pharmacy and got checked out by what I am assuming was like a physicians assistant here in the US. She prescribed an antibiotic and within two doses I started feeling better. The shopping here was also perfect for last minute souvenirs. We loaded up on lots of gifts for family and friends without breaking the bank.

THANK YOU Krabi for being the perfect final destination on our whirlwind Thailand and Cambodia trip!