"Phi Phi Don & Phi Phi Lay"
Krabi, one of the newer featured beach attractions of Thailand. This is certainly one of the more beautiful places to visit. This region was one of the many devastated by the Tsunami which struck on December 26th, 2004.
We stayed at the Krabi Resort in Ao Nang. Footsteps away from an outdoor food court and the shopping strip, which every little outlet sold very similar products. Our hotel was OK, definitely wasn't 4 star as it was claimed to be. It is relatively quite, but the tap water was very salty and our sheets felt icky. In fact the price didn't justify the room if u compare it internationally but is one of the cheaper ones we found. Other hotels in other regions goes as high as $1200 USD a night.
Island hopping is must do when visiting either Krabi or Phuket. These two cities offers similar tours from different directions. We had a chance to hop our way to Phi Phi Don & Phi Phi Lay, where the featured film The Beach was filmed, and also James Bond Island as the locals called it after the movie 007 Man with the Golden Gun was filmed there. The beaches are amazing as we got close with a lot of monkeys, fishes, and of course ate a lot of coconuts. Our tours also included a short stop at the floating market where we took a short break and had lunch. The coolest part of my experience was when we're on the boat coasting to the islands with the same couple from the day before, turns out they are from Montreal. It is quite an experience talking about hockey in Thailand, while island hopping.
The entire experience in Krabi overall was alright. It didn't live up to the hype for us, because it was too westernized. Everyone spoke very good English and the local delights were toned down for the visitors' taste. This was a much different Thai experience than the one I got in Bangkok. In Bangkok very few vendors spoke English, and the environment is just different.
On the exciting note was when we got held back for two days because our original flight on the 31st was cancelled due to the protest in Bangkok. Protesters in the southern region showed support by shutting down airports in Phuket, Hat Yai, and Krabi. This forced us to stay a few extra nights, which was fine for me, but Susy had to go back to work. We were scrambling to find a way out, and we even purchased bus tickets to Bangkok, hopping to catch a flight out of Thailand and somehow connect back to KL. Luckily we didn't have to endure that 12 hr bus ride, because after a day the airports reopened with military presence. We were able to book a flight back to KL directly from Krabi, forfeiting our bus ticket to Bangkok. I guess these are the things you can't budget for when going on trips.
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