Krabi 4-Island Tour

One of the must do thing in Krabi is to book one of the many island tours available. There is the 4-Island Tour (most suitable for families with kids), the Phi Phi Island Tour (for those who enjoy snorkeling) and there is the Hong Island Tour (for those who wants to try kayaking around the islands).

Why do I say the 4-Island Tour is the best for kids? Well, simply because my girls are still only 5 & 8, so snorkeling and kayaking are both out, which only left with this tour. In fact, on the 4-Island Tour, we have a segment where we did snorkeling just outside Koh Gai (Chicken Island), the girls had to stay on the boat and feed the fishes while we enjoyed the fun.

All the island hopping tours are available either in speedboats or long-tail boats. Difference is the price and the time spend on traveling between each island. For the 4-Island Tour, we chose the long-tail boat ride which was 450 Baht per adult and 300 Baht per child, which is a total of 1500 Baht (approx. S$60). If we chose the speedboat, the price will be doubled at 3000 Baht. Also if you take the speedboat, hearsay the ride will be more bumpy cos of the speed it is traveling in. But we thought the most authentic way is still the long-tail boat, it was a nice more “Thai” way of traveling. Just a word of caution, speedboat ride is not advisable for infants under 18 months, pregnant women or anyone with back problems.

The 4-Island Tour is typically from 9am to 2pm, with lunch included on one of the beaches, a simple Thai lunch. You can bring your own snacks if you think you may not like the food or not having enough, but do bring your own water. The 4 islands are Koh Poda, Koh Gai, Koh Tub and Koh Mor.

The view from our Longtail Boat.

Be safe and put on your life jackets. Pack a huge tube of sunblock too, you will definitely need it.

Reached the first island and we were already blown away by the clear sky and waters. What took us so long to visit Krabi, I do not know.

During low-tide, it is possible to walk over to the joining islands through the sandbar that appears.

Don’t bring anything too valuable, so that you can just leave your bag on the boat when you get down to walk around the beach. Buy a dry-fit cover for your phone (there are a lot of such covers in Krabi Town) so that you can freely take photos without the fear of dropping your phone into the waters.

These are the Longtail Boats we travelled in. It can safely ferry about 20 pax in one trip. And if you are keen to suntan along the beach, bring along a towel cos it is not provided.

Simple snorkeling gears are provided for some shallow water snorkeling.

We reached Koh Poda for lunch and some time for the girls to look for seashells.

Before the tour ends, we travelled to the famous Pra Nang Cave, located at the headland near Railay Beach.

Look at the number of people crowding near the cave.

Found the paradise.

Found a cliff and tried to show off some rock climbing skills, but didn’t really work out. Haha..

Around the same area is a good place for kayaking too. Imagine kayaking into the cave hole, sounds like what Indiana Jones would do.

We were truly glad to have taken the longtail boat ride, the experience was great and real.

Loved the island tour! To be honest, I don’t mind going back for the same tour, maybe with some friends, the experience will be different for sure.

All my photos are taken with Canon 5D Mark III, courtesy of Canon Singapore to loan me the set for this trip.

4D3N Krabi Trip

Having dreamt about visiting Krabi like 10 years ago, we have finally planned a trip to the island. Never been to Phuket either, many of our friends told us that Krabi is less commercialized and less crowded, which is true. The Krabi International Airport is just a small terminal which is probably like our own Budget Terminal in Singapore.

As told by several websites, we will be expecting the Rain Season in Krabi during Oct-Dec period, or what we usually call the Monsoon Season. However, the fact is during these months, the rain will come to the southern part of Thailand (Krabi, Phuket, Koh Samui, etc) but rain occurs mainly in the evening hours. But just to take note, in the month of November, there were incidents that one could face 2-3 days without sunshine in Krabi. Thankfully, we just encountered probably an hour of rain on the first 2 days, and the remaining 2 days were perfect weather, especially on the day we chose to do the 4-island tour. PTL!

If you are traveling overseas this period, when you stepped into our Changi Airport, you will be pleasantly surprised to be greeted by the Mickey Mouse gang.

Since we arrived quite early into the Transit area, we visited the Butterfly Area too.

 

2 hours of flight and 30mins of taxi ride (600 Baht), we reached our accommodation in Krabi, Holiday Inn Resort.

The place is beautiful and serene. Every place is just so resort feel and the moment we stepped in, we can feel the holiday relaxing mood.

We got a Deluxe Room which was huge, enough to place in another single bed and still much room to walk around.

We have a balcony which faces the sea (or just a glimpse).

More photos of the room.

 

The building we are staying in is the private pool section, where the level 1 guests can just dip into the pool directly from their balcony, how cool!

5 minutes walk from our building, we will reach the main pool area.

Just outside the resort, on both side, you can find the entire stretch of shops with Krabi shopping and food. A few cafes and some nice restaurants. There are stalls that sell cocktails (Tequila Sunrise, Mojito, Screwdriver, etc) for only 100 Baht.

Dinner for all our nights are dined just outside the resort, various Thai food outlets.

Spend the next few evenings to enjoy the amazing sunset just outside the resort along Krabi Island beach. The beach is not one of the most beautiful ones (as compared to the 4-island tour), but the view is spectacular.

 

Take a walk towards the Krabi Town, left of the Holiday Inn Resort. It will be about an hour’s walk all the way to the small town, but you will have lots to look out for to eat and buy along the way.

When you are tired, either go for a nice massage (typically 250-300 Baht for 1 hour full body massage) or just hang out at the bar for a drink and listen to some live music performance. That is the difference I feel between Krabi and Bangkok, Krabi is a more relaxing place, no need to rush around all the time trying to cover as much shopping malls or trying to beat the heavy traffic. Just chill!

On the second day, we sent the girls to the Kids Club in the resort. This is the first time we traveled overseas and left our kids to someone else’s care. Honestly, I was a bit worried about security and others, but the staff were very nice and seeing so many other kids enjoying themselves, I was more assured. And it was one of the best decision we have ever made on an overseas trip. While the girls totally loved the programs lined up for them from 10am to 7pm, Kless and I had the entire day to just laze around, drink coffee, enjoy the peace and rest.

Kless found one of her favourite drink, the Thai Iced Milk Tea. Supercup!

We took a stroll along the beach, so nice to paktor on the beach finally. =)

Looking out for interesting small creatures like the hermit crab.

Or just take photos of the surroundings.

Enjoying a moment of rest when it rained.

Another day another beautiful sunset.

The third day was the 4-island tour and  I will leave this to another post. All in all, this Krabi trip has been one of the most relaxing trip for all of us, we enjoyed the time as a family and also to see some nice things around. 4D3N is just nice, if you are keen to do more than one tour, then you can choose to extend 1-2 days max, more than that would be slightly boring. But if you main purpose is to relax and do nothing, then stay for a week or two, a number of Ang Moh people I spoke to were in Krabi for more than 2 weeks.

All my photos are taken with Canon 5D Mark III, courtesy of Canon Singapore to loan me the set for this trip.