Krabi, Thailand: Escaping to the Islands of the Andaman Sea

Flying into Summer

We took a Japan Airlines direct flight from Haneda airport in Tokyo to Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok. Before the 7 hour flight we decided to check out a lounge nearby we had access to thanks to Priority Pass and had some tasty treats, and of course, a bit more Sake.

The dinner on the flight was surprisingly tasty, I had the “western” meal which was a curry with rice and cheese. We also got a tub of ice cream for dessert after, and a cream bun later in the flight. The flight attendant was excited when Mr. Wander asked for “Super Dry”, he goes “OH! You know the beer!”. 

When we landed, customs was really quick and after a bit of walking we met up with Mr. Wander’s aunt and uncle who live in Bangkok and had been waiting for us at the airport. They arranged for a van to take all 9 of us to the hotel for the night. We went to dinner a few blocks away and got our first taste of authentic Thai cuisine! I had to have some Thai tea, and we tried many things I have never seen before, including this gorgeous Lotus flower wrap, which had lotus seeds, ginger, tiny dried shrimp, and a sauce you put in the pedal and eat like a tiny taco. It was so good!

To the Beach!

The next day a van took us back to the airport and we were off to Krabi in Southern Thailand. It is amazing how much smoother things go when you have someone with you that speaks the local language! In the airport by the check-in there are replica statues of the giants from Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaeo).

We made it to Krabi an hour or so later and had a 45 minute van ride to the hotel on Tubkaek beach on the Andaman Sea. After checking in, we went down to the beach bar for a lunch where we got to try some new southern Thai foods like Morning Glory and authentic versions of a few of our favorites, like Pad Thai and Panang Curry.  We relaxed a bit in the afternoon until sunset at low tide, pictures never do it justice but I tried.

Then it was time for dinner where we went to a nearby resort that had good seafood. We got two huge fish, a grouper and I think a red snapper for the table and shared many other dishes. I’m not one to seek out fish but these were both really delicious. We also tried for the first time what has become one of my favorite desserts, sesame balls in a sweetened ginger tea. Something about the black sesame filling and the ginger hits just right. We had it about 3 other times while around Krabi and after we got back to Bangkok.

Wandering around Islands

The next morning our lovely hosts (Mr. Wander’s Aunt and Uncle) had reserved a long tail boat, specific to this region, to take us out to some of the islands. We boarded the boat at low tide so we had to walk quite a ways out to get on.

Koh Hong was the first stop, part of the Than Bok Khorani National Park. It has a nature walk about a kilometer long around the island, and stairs going up to the top of the island that gave us both a workout and a 360 view of the surrounding islands. 

After all that hard and sweaty work climbing to the top we had to cool off in this sheltered lagoon. The sand was so soft as you waded in, and when you got close to the rocks and stopped moving, so many striped fish came to hang out by us! Mr. Wander and his mom were especially good fish whisperers.

Next we headed to an area that you can only access by boat if the tide is high enough. There were a ton of boats cruising around showing their passengers the area so I don’t know how Mr. Wander and I got this picture without any other boats in it!

Our driver took us to see an island that is home to several monkeys we could see them from the boat as we slowly passed by the island. Our last stop was an area buoyed off another island that was good for snorkeling. This was my first experience but I just couldn’t get a good seal and kept taking in water. There was a big jellyfish that I saw just before getting in the water, I think it freaked me out a bit so I couldn’t slow my breathing enough for it to work for me. I kept feeling little bites, and worried it was a jelly fish I swam back to the boat asap. Found out later it was an insect that bites you in the water.

The boat took us back to our resort and a few of us decided we didn’t have enough of water and jumped in the pool. We all got ready for a late lunch at the resort. I was so tired by this point I decided to take a nap. Mr. Wander woke me up in time for a dessert dinner at a nearby resort down the beach, since we were all too full from the late lunch for anything bigger. We tried some new desserts but I was too tired to take any pictures! So here’s another sunset pic instead.

A Day to Relax…or catch up?

After over a week of solid travel we all decided we needed a rest day. While most of the family relaxed by the pool or on the beach, Mr. Wander and I worked on getting the first Japan post up, and booking future legs of the adventure. We also have been in process of selling our house and needed to sign some documents to keep the process moving forward. We did get a few tropical drinks with lunch.

I did get a little swim in before the sunset which was quite refreshing, and Mr. Wander and I did a little walk to one end of the beach.

Touring our way back to the airport

All packed up, our van picked us up at 9am to have a little adventure on the way to the airport since our flight was in the evening. We were dropped off at a dock in the town of Krabi near the black crab sculpture.

Another long tail boat in the Pak Nam Krabi river took us to a community living on the island in the delta of the river as it empties into the Andaman Sea. We piled into 3 Tuktuks which toured us around the island to teach us about the community and take us to a few shops to help support the local economy

Our first stop was at a presentation on how they made fire, using friction and special flammable material from trees that grow on the island. They also talked about the long tail boats that we had arrived on, how it had started from their community and most in the area had been built and maintained by them. They then took us to a rice field where they plant the rice by hand. They said that because they have mostly brackish water for the rice to grow in, it tastes better by getting that little bit of salt.

The next two stops were quick at a few shops, one was where they make many cool things from coconuts, I got some earrings, but they had really ornate carvings of palm trees, elephants, turtles, crabs, mushrooms (left in photo), boats (top and right on shelf), and flying fish (top right) to name a few.

The other shop was for honey. They had 3 different types, a sweet honey, a sour honey, and a sweet and sour honey. The sour was my favorite, if we weren’t going to be crossing so many borders I would have gotten some!

Lastly we got to see the process of how batik fabric is designed and dyed. Designs are painted or stamped using hot wax, so that when it is dyed the areas with wax doesn’t have as much color. The wax is then boiled off leaving the beautiful design behind. As both of us were quilters, my MIL and I had to get some Batik fabric. I told myself this was my last physical souvenir for awhile since I could send these back with his family when they left in a week.

The end of our tour on the island was at a floating seafood restaurant. In the dock they had netted pools with live fish and crabs and after you ordered you saw them pull up what they were going to cook for you. They had some really massive fish in some pools too!

Becuase the tide had risen, the boat could take us through the mangrove trees. The path snaked back and forth, it was impressive how well he could navigate with such along boat, plus the long “tail”motor besides. Lastly we went to another island (or part of the main one) and walked up stairs into a well known cave. This cave was used by Japanese soldiers during World War II to live in. There had been many findings of pottery, stone tools, cave drawings and bones from ancient humans living in the cave.

The boat brought us back to the dock where we started and our van took us a short ride to the Krabi Bead Museum. There were many beautiful beads and it talked about how it was traded along with silk and beads of different materials had been made for thousands of years. In each of the little jars on the wall is a different bead! This whole circular room was full of them.

We decided to get a snack at a cafe and Mr. Wander tried a specialty in the area, Orange coffee, which was ½ orange juice and ½ coffee. I had green milk tea and we all got some tasty snacks. Finally it was off to the airport for the 2 hour flight to Chiang Mai. We made it to our hotel, De Charme and all went to bed.