Tips On Krabi?

[four_engines]

Hi Everyone!

I've booked tickets for Krabi in Jan 07. I've been to other parts of Thailand such as Phuket and Bangkok but it's my first time in Krabi. Will appreciate tips on:

- Where to stay? I read that Ao Nang is popular. Is this the best place to stay? I don't need 5 star accomodation. Just reasonable hotel or resort with an attached bathroom and hot shower.

- Who to dive with? I won't be doing any live-aboard. Just day trips.

- Where to dive? Which dive sites are highly recommended?

- And any other tips and recommendations, please!

F/E

 

[Zippsy]

I was just in Ao Nang last month. All the regular boats were tied up on the only day I could dive (Int'l beach clean up day) so we were "stuck" taking a longtail for a 40 minutes ride to the nearby islands of Koh Ha and Koh Sie (just behind Chicken Island off the coast - spelling probably is wrong). For the fun of it, we did not have a guide and the viz was less than 20 feet because of the stormy weather. Despite that, the diving was still fantastic in my book. Every second there was something nice to look at: huge groupers, razor fish, shrimp gobies, sea snakes, trumpet fish and a wide variety of "more common" reef fish. It was the variety and abundance that made the dives special rather than spotting any "must see" fish.

I believe on normal days they also have day dives out to the more remote islands although I'm not sure I'd trade a 40 minutes trip to a very good site for a 2-3 hour trip to someplace else, just to see leopard sharks or mantas unless I had never seen them before.

We dove with Scuba Addiicts and I thought Tim Stocks did a great job of accomodating us.

FWIW, we stayed at AoNang Villa Resort Hotel which was nice but huge. It's right on the beach in a good location. Other things to do there is to rent a scooter and go get lost for the day. I think is was something like S$5 or S$10 per day to rent one with automatic transmission! If you are a male Singaporean, some of my friends thought it was cool to go to the shooting range. They always wondered what it was like to hold a gun with bullets in it AND actually shoot it too. After NS, they wanted to try.

 

[bubblemonkey]

Hi if I were you I would probably stay on Railey beach or if I really were you I would go and stay on Koh Lanta there are plenty of nice places to stay there and the island has a great vibe.
As for dive opps there are around 6 or 7 opperators in Ban sala dan the main town on Lanta so you can go and chat to them all and choose the best suited.

I will be on Lanta at the begining of Feb maybe we will see you there.

 

[four_engines]

Zippsy:

Thanks for the info. I'm happy to know that islands near Krabi has reasonable diving. I guess it's not very much different from the Tioman and Aur dives? So you didn't go any further than that to dive?

I like the idea of the shooting range. I can get the practice I need just before I go for my ICT. I wonder if they have RPGs there?

Bubble Monkey:

Ko Lanta sounds good but since I'm only going there for 5 days, I won't want to spend 2-3 hours travelling there from Krabi. So I guess I won't see you...

I read that you can do rock-climbing in Railey. Has anyone done that?

F/E

 

[Zippsy]

The islands off of Krabi didn't have the viz we had yesterday at Aur and the islands are so small that each one is it's own dive site but the sheer variety and proliferation of marine life, coral etc. made them excellent small sites. I'd say they were better dives than an average Aur / Tioman dive.

I didn't do any shooting but I was told they have just about any type of gun you fancy. RPG's might be pushing it though.