It took a while for Krabi Town to grow on me. We spent a night in this jumping off point for the islands in southern Thailand before taking a ferry to Koh Lanta. Then stayed 3 more nights before returning to Bangkok.

It shouldn’t have surprised me that this southern Thai town is hot! We booked a non A/C room, thinking it would be cooler in December, but it wasn’t. And the room turned out to be an internal room with no outside windows. If we kept the fans blasting all day, even while we were gone, it was somewhat tolerable for sleeping in.

The night market here, compared to the night markets in northern Thailand, was just so-so. And honestly there is not much to do in Krabi Town.

7 Island Tour .

But . . . one of our most anticipated activities on this trip could booked from here.

We were picked up at our guesthouse at noon for the 7 island sunset tour. After a long wait at the pier, we boarded the boat and headed to Railey Beach to pick up additional guests.

While we waited in the bay, Rand asked if we could jump off the top deck into the water.

“Sure,” said our guide.

Sometimes it is great to be in a country with few lawyers.

I can’t resisted jumping off high objects into water, so I climbed the stairs, balanced with my toes off the ledge, and jumped. The rest of my family followed. Even Sierra jumped. Soon other guests were jumping.

Eventually it was time to move on. We saw Chicken Island and stopped at several spots to snorkel. None of the snorkel spots were as good as the 4 island tour near Koh Lanta, but it was still fun.

We stopped at cliff jumping spot near a small cove. I, of course, wanted to climb the rope ladder and jump, but first we swam to the cove and sat on the sand, enjoying the beautiful surroundings. By the time we got back there wasn’t time to jump. Oh well.

We were dropped off at Poda Island to wander the beach and enjoy the view. Then we were taken to Railey Beach for dinner.

Then finally. Finally! The event we had been waiting for.

The sky had turned dark while we were eating dinner. The boat exited the bay and turned away from the lights of Railey Beach. It edged along the rocky cliffs and stopped.

One of the guides filled a bucket with sea water and another flipped off the lights. We stood in the darkness. The guide put his hand in the bucket and swished it around. Suddenly, tiny specks of light appeared in the bucket. Then he dumped the bucket onto the floor of the boat and the specs scattered everywhere.

“Who wants to jump in?” he asked.

The quiet darkness didn’t seem the right environment for shouting, but my family all whisper-yelled, “Me!”

We donned masks and snorkels and jumped in. Don’t get me wrong, we were a little freaked out to jump into dark water. But we wanted to swim with

BIOLUMINESCENT PLANKTON!

The best way to see them was to lower your face into the water with the mask on and madly kick and flail your arms in front of your face. Apparently, they only light up when you annoy them.

This got tiring pretty quickly, but we didn’t want to get out. It was so cool!

Mangrove Forest

With 2 more days left in Krabi, we weren’t sure what to do. We had spent most of our extra money on the island tours and Rand going scuba diving. But hanging out in the room wasn’t an option because it was so dang hot.

A mangrove forest surrounds the nearby island of Koh Khlong, so the next morning we went to the pier and found a boat driver that would take us on a two hour tour for 800 baht.

First, we stopped at a cave with strange mannequins inside. Then we drifted through a path in mangrove forest surrounded by the tangle of roots on either side.

We ended up at a fish farm and decided to have lunch. The seafood was pretty good for a tourist joint. Then we explored the raised walkways of the little floating town.

Railay Beach

On our final day in Krabi we took a boat to Railay Beach for 150 baht per person. Rand, Kali, Arwen, and I spent the day exploring (Sierra stayed back because she wasn’t feeling well).

We had considered staying on Railay Beach instead of Koh Lanta, but I am so glad we did not. The beaches are crowded, but they are beautiful and it was fun swimming at the beaches and wandering around the area for the day.

 

Our final two nights in Krabi we ate dinner at street stalls by the pier. We should have been eating there the whole time. The street food was fantastic. We got sentimental as we realized that we would soon be leaving Thailand and all of the delicious food.

Krabi is great base for exploring this part of southern Thailand.