Ao Nang Beach: Krabi
Author: LC | March 10, 2022
“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.” – Jo Walton
After barely enduring the heat, we decided to head to Ao Nang beach town for couple days. It's the main beach town in Krabi and it can be reached by taxi or scooter from the airport. In fact, we carried all our luggage on a single scooter ride from our hilltop hut to the beach resort! It's also a good hub for other beaches that you can only reach by boat.
Once again, we found the streets and hotels were mostly empty. Despite the fact that this beach is apparently usually quiet and peacefully idyllic as most tourists head out on island hopping day trips in the morning, this time it was even more quiet than normal and we could count all the people we saw on one hand. It saddened us to see so many closed shops, restaurants, and hotels.
While we were sitting by the beach and wondering if we would ever get tired of the marvellous sunset that lights up the sky in orange, red, and gold, local masseuses were walking around asking the very few tourists if they need massage after they lost their steady job at massage parlours . "Life is unfair" and this unfolded right in front of us. It's so raw that it's hard to look away.
As much as COVID has had a global economic impact, we definitely notice it more here due to Thailand's heavy dependency on the tourism industry. We did our best to always frequent small and local shops and restaurants to help give just a little bit of support.
This area was also hit by the tsunami in 2004 but you don't really see the physical impact anymore besides the signs on the beach reminding you to run away to higher ground if it happens again. I'm sure some local people who were here then, especially those who lost people or property, are still impacted in ways that are hard for us to see in our short visit.
"Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough." – Oprah Winfrey
One of our favourite things here is that you can find delicious food in random small restaurants and street stalls. We almost missed this place - KAI TUAN (ร้านอาหารตามสั่ง ไก่เถื่อน) as it doesn't look like an restaurant when you walk by it. It's a size of one car garage with kitchen in the back and 2-3 tables on the side walk. The couple were friendly and rightfully proud of the food they serve. She made the best Pad Thai and curry that we had in Krabi.
There are many other family run restaurants in Krabi that are worth a visit to get a taste of authentic Thai food.
After a few days of relaxing, walking the Monkey Trail (no monkey in sight) and watching the sunset by the beach, we took a long-tail boat to Railay Beach which can only be reached by boat. You can purchase a one-way (THB 100 per seat) or round trip ticket to Railay Bay Beach at the An Nang Pier ticket booth. When we were there, there was no set schedule despite many websites including rome2rio saying this is the case. You just have to wait for enough people to fill up the long-tail boat (minimum 8 seats) or buy 8 seats all for yourself if you prefer not to wait. I imagine it wouldn't be a long wait under normal circumstances, but we considered buying all the seats on two occasions while waiting for what seemed like a long time.
To be continued....To the Railay Beach