Krabi Province is one of my very favorite places in all of Thailand, and even though it was rainy season, I was very excited to fly south for a few days of rest and relaxation on the Andaman Sea. Since it is low season, we were able to get an almost unbelievable deal! We booked both our flight and hotel through a package via Air Asia and were able to get three nights and two round-trip tickets for just around $200 USD!
My wife has just finished a multi-year certification course from North Carolina State University and has just become Thailand's very first Certified Companion Animal Rehabilitation Specialist! It's been a long road with lots of stress and many late nights of study. Even though we had a great time in America a few months back, she wasn't able to relax completely as she was getting ready to take her practical examination and still had to study. Now, however, she's finally finished, and we wanted to get out of town for a few days so that she could spend some time relaxing and doing absolutely nothing, which she has very much earned.
After landing in Krabi Town, we took a cab to nearby Ao Nang, the coastal town that serves as the province's main tourism hub.
Nearly 1/3 of the population of Krabi are Muslim, and halal food, the sounds of the daily call to prayer, and the sights of minarets are common aspects of the local culture.
We arrived at our hotel a little early to check in, so we dropped off our bags at the front desk and walked across the street to get something for an early lunch.
Pinky and I ordered a bowl of massaman curry (a rich and creamy coconut milk-based curry made with cubed potatoes, tomatoes, and chicken), a big plate of crab fried rice, and two fresh coconuts.
Our entire goal for this trip was to rest, eat good food, take the occasional dip in the pool, catch up on reading, and recover from our recent job stress before going back to the real world. I'm at a sort of crossroads at my career as well at the moment, and I really needed to take my mind off of things for a few days.
The next morning, we woke up early to drive to get breakfast.
We arrived at Ruanthip Restaurant just as they opened. We were the first guests there, and the morning air was relatively cool as we sat in the open-air patio to order our meal.
We ordered a Thai seafood breakfast feast of softshell crabs deep-fried with crispy garlic, stir-fried shrimp with stink beans (more delicious than it sounds), whole squids stuffed with squid eggs, and a type of coconut curry crab dip served with a plethora of fresh herbs and vegetables to with it.
In the afternoon, we made our way down to Ao Nang Beach, which was just a 10-minute walk from our hotel.
Even though it was the rainy season, which meant that the sky was often dark and the sea muddy and grey, the sun had poked out from behind the clouds giving us a glimpse of the normally beautiful sapphire waters of the Andaman Sea.
Pinky chose a restaurant on the beach, and we sat down for dinner as we watched the sun set over the western sea.
My favorite dish was poa taek, or "broken pier soup". The name sounds kind of funny when translated into English, but I guess that the idea of it is that the soup is so full of fresh seafood that it looks like something you might find under a pier.
Poa Tak Soup is known for its fresh and spicy flavors and features seafood such as prawns, fish, mussels, and squid cooked in a spicy and sour broth with herbs and spices. The broth is cooked with tons of traditional and aromatic Thai ingredients such as lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, chilies, and palm sugar. Unlike tom yum, the broth is not sour so much as it is herbal.
Pinky, of course, ordered crab (her favorite food).
The restaurant cracked the crab shells for us and made it very easy to open the shells and get all of the delicious meat.
We also had a large order of fresh, juicy grilled prawns, seafood fried rice, and stir-fried black pepper softshell crab.
It was a wonderful, peaceful evening as we sat on the coast, listening to the waves crash against the shore and watching the golden sun set beneath the tropical horizon.
After dinner, we walked along the beach to the Ao Nang Night Market.
The market is located just outside the gates of the Ao Nang Stadium, which hosts muay Thai (traditional Thai kickboxing) fights each night. The loudspeakers blared with an Australian announcer introducing the upcoming matches.
The stadium, it seems, is one of Krabi's up and coming attractions.
Originally, we had wanted to visit to try lots of great local food, but since we had ended up eating a big seafood dinner, we just weren't that hungry by the time we walked down the beach to the market.
We ended up browsing the shops before buying cups of mixed fruit from one of the stalls. This ended up making for a great late-night snack back at the hotel.
We had a southern Muslim-Thai breakfast of roti (grilled flatbread), sweet and savory chicken curry, and a fried egg with a cup of iced coffee.
After breakfast, we hopped back in a cab and headed back to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.
It had been a short trip, but a very restorative one. Things have been very stressful lately, and it was nice to get away for a few short days.
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