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Krabi
Province,
Beaches
&
Islands
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This part of Thailand together
with
Phang Nga Bay
is
probably the top of the pop in
terms of nature scenery in
Thailand. A
spectacular coastline
and about 130 islands in front
of it in the emerald waters of
the Andaman Sea. Actually this
part of the Andaman Sea is
called Phang Nga Bay and Krabi
plus Trang Archipelago.
The main highway from Phuket via Phang Nga to Krabi is a good 4 lane,
sometimes only 2 lanes,
highway with bad accidents every day because of extreme curves and nobody cares about traffic rules.
The alternative
would be to travel to Krabi from Phuket via Phi Phi Islands with
the ferry, this would be at least a 2 day trip, but a real good one.
You can easily find some
good accommodation for still quite affordable prices. hotels, beach resorts, bungalows, just
name it. Most hotels, including the big luxury resorts are located
around
Ao Nang and to the north, such as
the
Sheraton.
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is a spectacular setting of limestone formations and some
marvelous beaches.
You also can find long tail boats and speedboats at Ao Nang to
explore the islands on your holiday trip. Chicken Island
is very close to Railay Beach and almost a must to visit, the white
beaches there are are real great.
Weather is very similar to Phuket weather, sunshine from
November to about May and some scattered rain and thunderstorms and
sunshine the other time. But even if there is rain, it wont be more
than 2 days of no sunshine, it means its still better than in many vacation places in Europe and elsewhere during
high season.
What most people in Europe and elsewhere
don't know, southern Thailand is a all year
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round vacation destination. Even when
there is some rain lets say from April to October it's always
quite limited and the is out almost every day for some hours. This
weather pattern is still better than in
many European countries in the summer. The catch is, prices here are less than half of European prices, means
taking the price for
a flight and adding
the accommodation costs its still cheaper than if you go to Spain,
Italy, France etc. altogether and this places in Thailand are
hard to beat. |
Consider the
low cost's of a great
Phuket beach and / or Krabi vacation or holiday and you will find out its
the right place for your vacation. There are plenty of exotic attraction, there are the
islands with fine white sandy
beaches, limestone caves to explore, diving in the coral banks
is a great experience.
Phi Phi Island
is also in Krabi
Province, this is the small
archipelago
where they shot most
of the movie "The
Beach" with Leonardo
Di Caprio and about
150 km further north
in Phang Nga Bay
they shot part of the James Bond movie
"The Man with the Golden Colt", its a very attractive environment
around here, at Phuket, Phang Nga and Trang, but in terms of beach
scenery Ao
Nang is probably the most spectacular. |

Railay Beach at Ao
Nang |
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including such
famous places like
Maya Beach.
Further in the south near the
Malaysian border is the
Tarutao Archipelago with Ko Lipe, it
needs the Bus or a car to go there from Krabi Province. About 200 km
to north east is
Koh Samui and a little bit further north of Koh
Samui, is the
Ang Thong Marine National Park and Koh Tao, one of the
best scuba diving destination in Thailand. Its a very compact vacation
destination in this part of southern Thailand, there is lots to
do or just loiter on the beach and enjoy the great nightlife of
Phuket or Ko Samui. Beside of all the Krabi beaches,
great scenery, caving adventure, kayaking, rock climbing over
Railay
Beach at Krabi's Ao Nang there are very good Krabi hotels
and beach resorts.
Most of this hotels
are
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Maya Beach
on Phi Phi |

Ao Nang
Beach |
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Phi Phi
Islands
panorama
picture |
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real good, not this
flimsy hotel stuff like in Italy, Spain, Greece and so on. Also the
wellness hype was picked up
some years ago and
almost every better
hotel offers spa,
massage plus
sometimes Ayurveda
and Yoga, herbal
saunas are also very
popular.
One of the real great stuff is the
food, Thai food is served virtually on every second corner and
its very cheap. By comparison, I go at least once per week -when I
am at Phuket- to a beach restaurant at Phuket
Chalong Bay. The lunch
or dinner with mixed fried sea food, boiled rice and a coke is for
about US$ 3,-. There is an nice view over Chalong Bay with all the
sail boats, catamarans on the one side and apartments and houses on
the other side, the right place to retire. Actually many people
retire in Thailand, southern Thailand, Krabi Phuket and other
places.
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Krabi is a laid-back
destination where comfort and relaxation is the top on the
agenda.
No wonder that Scandinavian tourists are most of the
visitors, they can continuing their
northern sleep.
The landscape is dominated by
limestone formations popping up all over the
countryside and the sea.
With abundant lush tropical
vegetation and still functioning jungle above the
water and beautiful coral reefs and a strong marine
life under the water surface, there's plenty to
discover.
Just take a daytrip, either from the hotel or
just travel to Ao Nang hire a long tail boat and move
from one limestone rock formations and spectacular
beaches on the islands to another.
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Island picture green everywhere |

and photos from climbing at Railay Beach |
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To use a tour guide at Krabi will about triple
the price, just note the islands you want to
visit, tell it to the long tail boat guy and it will
cost you about a third, what the tour guide know the
long tail boat guy also know. For a very special
trip you could take a tour with a sea kayaks company
and go. A boat day trip or more to Phi Phi is a must
too!
If you want camping you could go to Than Bok
Khorani National Park, a secluded place with no
accommodation but a very picturesque scene plus
limestone caves and mangrove forests.
In general, if
you are not Thai don't do camping you would be a
easy pray and maybe never wake up again.
A day
trip to Krabi from Phuket
by road.
Just
have a break from the usual and try some
relationship with nature, in one of the most
surrealistic places on earth. Surrealistic because
the scenery at Phang Nga Bay and the
Trang Archipelago, that's all around the same area,
is a reminder to the half mad world of Salvatore
Dali. The Spanish artist did it as art, around the
before mentioned area nature did it.
World famous
southern Thailand is full of
cultural intensity, spectacularly sculpted
scenery and a good infrastructure. Great beaches perfectly complement their
beautiful settings, you could either baking on white
sandy beaches or maybe
trekking in the jungle,
get a massage in a spa or enjoy a herbal
sauna.
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Thailand Road |

Day trip from Phuket |
The
ideal place to shoot great photos of Krabi,
several movies have been made in the area because of the stunning
scenery in Krabi province and the Phang Nga Bay, the surrealistic
forms of the limestone formations popping out form the Andaman Sea
are something real different, read
more.
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Ao Nang |

Phuket by road |

Road works |
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Here are some impressions from the Sheraton Krabi
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Krabi Sheraton elephant Jane and Tarzan |

Krabi Sheraton elephant Jane Tarzan |

Krabi Sheraton elephant Jane got the right stuff |

Krabi Sheraton elephant Jane and Tarzan have fun |

Krabi elephant Jane Tarzan and the beach |

Beach Krabi Relax and Swing at the
Sheraton Krabi |
Caves tours in the Krabi
area are
via
Ao
Luk. At the main
intersection at Ao Luk make a
right turn -there are signs- and
after about 30 minutes drive the mangrove
forests and great limestone
formations appear, behind are the caves.
The whole area is virtually like
a very huge Swiss Emmernthaler
cheese, holes everywhere. There
are places in Krabi province
with a beach cave, but in the Ao
Luk area the caves are in the
mangroves. The Tam Lot Thai cave
is particular attractive since a cave river
run through. You can glide
through this Krabi cave either
with a kayak or by the long tail
boat. If you hire a longtail
boat they boat guy will also
show you the prehistoric cave
painting. There are also a island
caves on other Krabi, Phang
Nga Bay and in
Trang
Thailand, Koh Krabi -where Koh
or Ko- stands for island in
English.
Krabi province
is for sure one of the most attractive in
Thailand with a beautiful
nature scenery and a Krabi river
here and there. This attracts
lots of Krabi tourism. Via the channels in the mangrove
forests its easy to penetrate
the limestone cliffs formations via a
Krabi caves tour. Accessible with
the kayak or per long tail boat
its somehow romantic to glide
through the partly submerged
dark stalactite environment.
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It
never gets really dark since the
cave opening on both ends lets
enough light pass. The caves are
not very big, maybe 50 - 60 m
in length , so there is not much
environment for a good
cave hiking. Navigating
the rather small
cave river on your cave tour let
you feel a little bit of a
caving adventure. Cave climbing is mainly up the
very slippery limestone rocks to
have a look for the ancient wall
and ceiling painting.
The
limestone caves are full of
stalactites and stalagmites as
you can see in the pictures and
in the video.
Some
kayaking activities are offered
but its less of a
kayaking adventures since the
streams in the Krabi and Ao Luk
mangrove forests have no speed
and no rapids. If you are
searching for some real
kayaking adventures
have a look here. |

Caving Thailand |
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Thailand caving by boat

Krabi Cave tour by boat |
Since the water level inside the
caves is not more than maybe
up to 2 meter above ground no
cave dive is possible.
But in any case if you do
a Krabi cave trip or a southern Thailand cave exploration in general be very careful in the rainy season, it
happens every year that tourist are dying because of a flash flood
erupting out of a sudden
thunderstorm. Don't push your guide if he try to
tell you we better don't do this and that. The latest accident was in 2007
in the Khao Sok National Park where a sudden flash flood killed 3
tourists. Khao Sok is also a very interesting destination.
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Fisherman in the Mangrove Forest

Thailand caving Krabi navigating into Limestone Cave |
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Everything is in motion.
The spectacular mangrove forests an limestone wilderness of
Ao Luk in Krabi province Thailand attracts
paddlers from all
over the world. Paddling into limestone caves with ancient
cave paintings. Its great water sports with the kayak and
life jackets. Gliding in dark green water through the cave, no
water flow in the cave. Mangrove forest-fringed
limestone cliffs which
popped out
of the
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Thailand caving Krabi cave tour stalactites

Thailand caving Krabi tour needles of stalactites

Krabi prehistoric cave paintings animals |
millions of years ago. There are
no rapids, everything is very calm and we dip the paddle back into
the clear emerald green water with plenty of fishes following us in
the hope to get some feed. Some ducks in between and a fisherman who
throw the circular net to catch something for dinner.
further north in Surat Thani
province. Khao Sok is part of a bigger wildlife
sanctuary with a interesting
wildlife population.
is within
the largest contiguous wildlife reserve in southern Thailand
with a huge artificial lake created by the Cheo Lan Dam and several
scenic waterfalls. More than 100 small islands still emerge from the
reservoir and caving tours are for real caving adventures.
The reservoir
is about 165 sqkm large
and has some spectacular limestone cliffs emerging out from the
water. They say there are about 25 mammal species, 170 bird species,
this includes 5 hornbill variants and storks. A small wild elephant
population and some tiger still roam the jungle.
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Krabi Pre Historic Cave painting

Krabi prehistoric cave paintings hands
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The Khang Khaw Cave is the
biggest and there are some more caving adventure waiting elsewhere in the National Park. There is
no possibility for scuba cave in the underwater cave, that
means no sublevel caving at Krabi or Surat caving.
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