Thailand: Krabi & Koh Lanta - Part 1

Airport

Since our flight was landing in Krabi around 3:00 PM local time and we would require another one hour to get Visa on Arrival, immigration, car collection, etc, we decided to stay in Krabi on the first day and then travel to Koh Lanta on the next day.

We picked up a DTAC Prepaid SIM, (50 Baht more than BKK Price) for data and navigation purpose.

First stop - Lunch at Tesco Lotus food court on the way to Krabi. We had a nice time communicating in Thai(!) with the locals.

Hotel

Day 1 being a stop over for our main destination, we directly headed to our hotel - Thip Residence Boutique Hotel. Nice clean and spacious rooms and away from the crowd (actually 6KMs from Ao Nang). Usually everyone avoids to stay away from Ao Nang beach but it is not a concern when you make your own travel arrangements and are not dependent on taxis or public transport!

We roamed around Krabi town and Ao Nang area in the evening, had dinner at a restaurant near the Ao Nang beach and retired for the day!

Our hotel was located near Ao Nam Mao Pier, the pick up point for some of the super luxury resorts located at Railey Beach which is accessible only through the sea. We did not go to Railey but decided to check out the local attractions near the hotel.

Fossil Beach

(Thai Su-san Hoi, literally “Seashell Graveyard”). Some 7 km west of Ao Nang, this mildly tourist trap-like attraction has slates of compressed, 40 million year old shellfish, which bear a small resemblance to concrete. There’s also a small grubby museum and a huge slew of gift shops. Entry is a steep 200 baht for foreigners, but only 20 baht for Thais. This tourist trap is simply not worth the 200 baht you have to pay as tourists unless maybe you are a geology student. As the official Krabi tourism website (rather honestly) states “most are either engrossed in this or totally indifferent”.

Susaan Hoi, or Fossil Shell Beach (literally Seashell Graveyard), is located at Ban Laem Pho in Krabi, in the vicinity of Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park.

It is an unremarkable site, with nothing much to do or see. Tourists are charged 200 Baht per person for entry and get to go down 20 more steps than the non-paying tourists. Since we were there early in the morning and the place was not yet open, we just took few photographs and left.

We had thai style breakfast (rice, chicken and soup) at a local shop which seemed to be popular with the locals and the drove over to Ao Nang Beach to check the area in daylight.

Krabi - Driving Around

A short video: This is what Krabi (Ao Nang) looks like from inside a car!

We checked out from the hotel and drove towards the ferry to cross over to Koh Lanta. (approximately 2 hours drive).

Ferry

There are multiple ways to reach Koh Lanta - Passenger Ferry which departs twice a day from Ao Nang, Speed Boats from Ao Nang and Vehicle Ferry which is operational throughout the year from around 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM.The passenger ferry and speed boats stop operation during the monsoon season due to rough seas.

There are two ferries to be taken to reach the main Koh Lanta Island(marked in the screen-shot below). The total time to reach the island takes around 1 to 2 hours after you reach the first ferry point. (depending on the length of queue)

The Sun was playing its part by trying to roast whatever was outside at this time!

All Photographs are copyrighted.