En Route: Krabi, Thailand!
I feel like Thailand is the epitome of SE Asia! It's the most visited of all the countries and the one most accustomed to tourism. I completely understand why though! It has beautiful beaches, delicious food, cheap accommodation, and where you can see elephants, turtles, and go diving, etc. A lot of people come to Thailand and get sucked in. They end up working and staying in the country much longer than anticipated. I've met multiple people whose original plan was to only travel the country for a month but ended up staying 6 months to years. I somehow found myself with a hostel gig in Koh Phangan for 2 weeks. I am going to book my flight out to Vietnam to ensure that I don't get stuck here and not make it anywhere else in SEA.
My first location is Krabi. I took an 8 hour bus from Penang and stayed in Krabi for a few nights. A lot of people say there's not much here but it's a good hub to visit other islands off the west coast of Thailand. For example, I went to Railay Beach and Koh Phi Phi, using Krabi as a hub to store most of my stuff. Here is everything I did in Krabi during my 2.5 days in the town:
Eat at the Night Market
This is the first night market I've been to in Asia so I was head-over-heels excited for all of the good and cheap food. I heard that it can't be compared to the one in Bangkok but it was still a sweet place to grab food at night. The market is in full swing on weekends, Saturday and Sunday night. I just happened to arrive on Sunday so I was able to enjoy it in its entirety. However, everyday during the week a portion of the night market is open so you can still go there everyday to get some good eats, like 20BAHT for Pad Thai. I also had THE BEST Thai Milk Tea EVERR!!
Climb up to Tiger Cave Temple
There are about 2,600 steps to get to the top of the temple and took me about 30 minutes or so. There's no entrance fee so you just need to get transportation there. A lot of people would rent bikes and drive themselves there. You can take the local bus for 70BAHT one way or 140 return. I ended up going with my hostel because they organized mini buses to take guests there for 150BAHT. To me that was the cheapest and best option to see the the temple. I definitely think it's worth the climb up because you get to see an awesome view of the city. Be careful though, there are tons of monkeys on the. One grabbed onto my shoes and wouldn't let go. I have to shake it off before I could continue walking. Another girl had a sarong around her waist and a monkey stole it from her. Since we were at a temple, she needed to cover up her legs and resorted in using an old tablecloth.
Visit Railay Beach
A short boat trip from Krabi is Railay Beach. For 150BAHT, you can ride on a long tail boat that fits about 8-10 people. I tried soooo hard to bargain. I walked around and talked to about 10 different stores and tried sweet talking the drivers to give me a discount but no luck :/ I was debating to not go because 300BAHT for a return transportation was pretty expensive. But in the end I'm really glad I did it! The beaches were beautiful and I climbed through the island to get to a hidden lagoon. The best beach in Railay is Phra Nang Beach! I lucked out and caught it on a sunny day. I know girls who went the day before and got rained on the entire time. We only had about 15 minutes of light rain.
I stumbled upon the entrance to the hidden lagoon on my way to Phra Nang Beach. I honestly didn't know what it was or what to expect. It was a freaking climb! I had to use my hands to climb through and got completely covered in the red mud because of the rain. I didn't have shoes either so I had to do it barefoot but I guess that was actually the better option because everyone else's clothes and shoes were basically ruined from the "hike." It was a pretty fun trek in because it's not like a regular hike and something cool to do because just laying on the beach.
