Bangkok to Krabi to Koh Lanta

We headed from Bangkok to Krabi today, our first paid flight of the journey. The price was about $120 for the 4 of us for one way tickets. Flight time was 1 hour 20 minutes. Bill and Mel went to the Thai Airways lounge and Zach and I roamed the airport checking things out. Zach made his usual stop at the bookstore (he stops at all bookstores looking for Andy Weir books). They didn’t have any in stock and he had them look up The Martian, which is his favorite book. It is $30 here for the paperback. I looked at a basic fun science book for Zach (same one I have seen at Costco). Only difference was this one was $24; Costco was like $7. I guess we have found the expensive items in Thailand.

We caught our flight and thankfully someone from our hotel was waiting for us at arrivals with a sign that said Charles. The kids always crack up when they see Charles since no one ever calls Bill by that name. We loaded everything into the car waiting out front, and off to the hotel we went. So simple.

Our plan when we originally booked this stopover was to use this time to visit Krabi town, do laundry, and recoup. Because we weren’t sure what we were in for in Thailand, we wanted to have extra time built in so we didn’t feel rushed hopping from location to location in case anyone got sick or needed a moment. Well let’s just say, we are all (thankfully) healthy and doing well. One night would have been plenty. The hotel in Bangkok did all our laundry so we were set.

At this hotel in Krabi, the Nap Krabi, we had to book two rooms because with 4 people we exceeded the max allowed in one room. Well, one room had a non-working AC, which is no fun in this heat and humidity, so after a sleepless night for Bill and Zach, sweating, they changed rooms the next day. The hotel had a shuttle into town so we hopped on and went off to explore. I’m glad we had some time in Krabi, but one night would have been plenty. It seems like most people use it as a base to explore the islands on day trips. Since we were headed to one of the islands for a week long stay, we didn’t need a home base. Good to know for next time.

Other than wanting to explore the town a bit, why didn’t we just make the journey to Koh Lanta (our destination) straight from the airport? Well, we couldn’t really figure out how involved it was to get there. We were told there were 3 options, all which involved a personal driver/van, a ferry or speedboat/car but none were completely clear. We were told not to travel at night or in bad weather. So it seemed like a lot of unknowns. Since we were arriving after 7pm, an overnight was necessary so we figured why not 2 nights to be safe. That is one of the challenges when traveling to remote destinations, clear information can be difficult to come by. However, after doing it, we now know how to do it more strategically in the future.

We opted for the personal van, door-to-door service, from Krabi to our hotel in Koh Lanta. The driver picked us up at 10am and it took about 3 hours total to get to Koh Lanta. It was such a fascinating ride through the countryside. A long drive, then a ferry ride from mainland to island (in the car) pushed by a tugboat, more driving, a new bridge (thankfully as I guess there used to be another boat ride) and we arrived. Oh and the monkeys! We finally saw monkeys while waiting for the ferry. Such cute little monkeys but glad we were viewing them from the car.

We arrived at our hotel in Koh Lanta around 1pm and wow! It is beautiful here! Off to explore, stay tuned for pics of this place in my next post.