South East Asia : Krabi, Thailand

19th to 21st Oct 2009

More photos of Krabi @ My-Facebook-Album

From Langkawi, we took a ferry to reach Satun, Thailand. After getting our passports stamped at the port, we headed to Krabi by a pink double decker bus. Good roads, beautiful paddy fields view along the roadside, entertaining Thai comedy video played in the bus and a little nap in between helped me pass the time. It took us about 4 1/2 hrs to reach Krabi and it was about sunset.

Krabi has two very popular and beautiful beach areas. One is Ao Nang, a hustle bustle place with long beach and the other is Railay, a calm and more scenic beach. We choose to stay put at Railay first.

Railay beach


Railay beach is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs and is cutoff from the mainland. It is accessible only by sea and we took a long tail boat to reach here. It was already dark when we reached this place and had traveled the whole day. After relaxing for a while in the resort, we went for a brief walk along the dimly lit narrow path. The entire East Railay beach is only about a Km long and the interesting part about this path is that we need to walk through many restaurants and cafe. This place was very relaxed and less crowded, though every inch of the place is developed. It felt like we were in a small island.


The next morning, we went to Railay west to take our long tail boat for the day tour to near-by four islands. The west beach was stunning with huge cliffs on either side, calm clear blue water and fine white sand. It deserves all the praise given by the fellow travelers on other blogs. The four islands tour included Phra-Nang beach, Poda island, Chicken island and Tub island. Phra-Nang and Poda were breathtaking and I went crazy looking at the beauty. We went snorkeling near the other two islands and found variety of fishes. We had enough time to explore the under water life and go behind some fishes! Coral life wasn't exciting enough as many of them were dead and the live ones were not colorful.


In the evening, we sat along the west beach side restaurant and watched the sun set while sipping the hot Cappuccino. The color change in the sky and its reflection on the water was brilliant. We kept watching till the place went dark.

The huge cliffs in Railay makes it the one of the best destination for rock climbing. We initially planned to take a day for rock climbing. But, Jomy had twisted his leg the previous day and he couldn't do it. I for some reason decided to drop it as well (Shame on me!) and ended up watching experts climbing the rocks!!

Ao Nang beach

The next day we spent our time in Ao Nang beach. The place was bustling with people, numerous resorts and other shopping centers. The beach coastline was very long, clean and very good for swimming.

At night, with scores of bars and restaurant, Ao Nang was a party scene. But, we peacefully sat along the beach side benches and munched chicken satay bought from the late night street food shop. Ao Nang was different from Railay and I enjoyed the experience in both the places.

South East Asia : Pulau Langkawi

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On 17th day of Oct, while rest of my family & friends were celebrating Diwali in India, Me & Jomy set out to enjoy the beaches of Malaysia & Thailand. We reached KualaLumpur in the evening and flew to Langkawi after couple of hours wait.

Langkawi, one of the most popular Malaysian islands is said to have many good beaches like Cenang, Kok, Datai bay, Tengah. Without really doing much pre-work on things to do in this island, we had planned to spend only a day & 2 nights here. Only after reaching here, we found that a day was just too little to explore this island. But, I think it gave us enough time to get a feel for this place and people!

The nights were very lively with rich lights along the clean streets. Many restaurants displayed variety of fresh sea food waiting to be cooked in the style we prefer. On both the nights, we tried Malay cuisine and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found that Malay food generously uses coconut milk and is spicy with good flavours. The culinary style here has very good influence from India & China.

In the day, we went around the island on a motorbike. Motorbike & car are available for daily rental and is the most common way of going around the island. With intermittent rain and clean roads, it was pleasure driving along the coast lined up with dense trees.

We were staying in Cenang area, one of the bustling places in Langkawi. It has many good resorts and restaurants lined up along the beach side. It also offers plenty of budgeted stays for the backpackers. We started our day trip from Cenang towards Kok beach holding a detailed Langkawi map in our hand. On our way from Cenang to Kok, we stepped into the tropical forest which didn't have any proper route. While wandering here, we caught a glimpse of monitor lizard, which quickly slipped into the dense forest sensing our movements. This lizard is not as big as Komodo dragon, but it was big! Also, unexpectedly we found access to a very small beach. On this isolated beach, we met a small group of Malaysians from mainland who were camping here for few days. After chit-chatting with them for sometime, we continued our drive towards Kok.


As mentioned in many travel sites, Kok was certainly more beautiful with pristine beach and very few people. After spending some time here, we proceeded to Datai Bay in the north west corner of the island. It took nearly 30mins of bike ride to reach this place and once we reached, we found that we need to pass through a private resort to access the bay. As expected, the resort doesn't allow outsiders to stroll on their own in their premises. But, we managed to talk with the resort folks and they agreed to take us to the beach by their mini electric car. They also gave a tour of their resort! The resort is "Datai Bay" and is filthy luxurious. The cottages are build in the unspoilt natural tropical forest aging 50 million years, with clean river flowing in its backyard. They looked Superbb! The resort also has two swimming pools with one being on the beach side! And above all, the beach was an absolute beauty. I totally believe this is one of the must stay place in Langkawi, if you don't mind the pinch in your pocket.

Later in the evening, we took a cable car ride over the Machincang moutain range. The view enroute was breathtaking. With clear sky, one is expected to see a 360-degree view of the islands around. But, the time we took the ride, the sky was filled with clouds and we couldn't see the 360 degree panaromic view. But, surely the ride itself was enthralling when it glided above the virgin tropical forest and it was a unique experience.

After sunset, we decided to visit Kuah town without any plans in mind. We just ended up driving up to this place and returned doing nothing. The duty free shopping malls had closed by then and we couldn't shop!:(


In the next morning, before leaving Langkawi, we went for a early morning walk along the Cenang beach. I was totally flattered at the first sight of the beach; it was vast, fresh and clean as if new. I felt very peaceful and calm while I inhaled the pollution free clean air.

Then the time came for us to leave Langkawi and head towards Satun, Thailand.

End of Langkawi.