Krabi and Ao Nang

From Koh Tao, Kim and I headed across the narrow strip of southern Thailand to the Andaman coast.  The combination of a 6.5 hour ferry ride and 2.5 hour bus ride meant we arrived just about sunset on the first evening. 

This area’s known for beaches, gorgeous cliffs, impossibly steep mountains, and more tourists than you can count.   It lived up to all of those.  The weather here is hot – really hot.  The weather on the rest of the trip has been great – warm, but not uncomfortable.  This was the sweating-in-the-shade kind of hot. 

Overall we were impressed with the landscape of the area.  The steep mountains and sheer cliffs combined with beautiful beaches to make unique and absolutely gorgeous views.  The only problem was that it was a bit too crowded and touristy for our liking.  We made a rough guess  that tourists outnumber locals about 1,000 to 1, and that 1 local is working at a hotel, restaurant, or tourist shop. 

The main reason we came was to do some sea kayaking along the limestone cliffs that make the area famous.  We made it onto a tour that took us along the huge limestone cliffs with caves reaching back from the water.  We squeezed through a tight canyon with huge palms hanging off of pockets in the cliffs and monkey s following us in the trees.   Our tour came out in a lengthy mangrove swamp where we paddled between the crazy tangle of roots standing above the surface of the water.   The whole thing took a couple hours and was definitely worth coming over to Krabi for.