Stopover in Krabi

Located on a main arterial, Pura@Krabi is about 30 minutes from Krabi International Airport. (If you plan to go to Phi Phi Island, I recommend going through Krabi International Airport instead of Phuket Airport. The airfare is cheaper, and it’s not such a crowded airport.) Pura@Krabi is more like a guest house than a hotel.

The taxi dropped us off at the entrance of the building, which is a store front. After you remove your shoes, on the right there’s a desk, that functions as a travel desk/ check in counter. To the left are a few computers for internet surfing. You can also buy postcards, soft drinks, and tours from the owner.

The staircase that led to the third floor, where our rooms were located, is made of cement and stones were put in them… so if you’re not used to the reflexology walk, it can get bumpy and painful. There are no elevators in this building.

We decided that 2 rooms for 3 people would be better. The larger (green) room fronted the main street, so it was a bit noisy. The smaller (orange or pink???) room fronted a parking lot and had a view of the river. The green and orange rooms cost us 800 baht and 600 baht, respectively. The orange room had just enough space to fit a double-sized bed, and that’s about the width of the bedroom.

The air conditioning was excellent, which was a treat, because coming from Seattle and then landing in Thailand, we needed to acclimate gradually to the very warm weather. Pura@Krabi offers satellite TV.

The bathrooms were very clean. The floors were immaculate.

One thing about this hotel –

Since it’s next to a parking lot, the parking lot gets a lot of activity in the morning. Not because of cars parking in the lot. It’s because the morning exercise folks show up at around 5:30 AM, when the exercise leader blasts her portable boom box, which blares out asian techno pop music. We thought someone’s alarm clock had gone off and wouldn’t shut off. We looked out the window, and we saw men and woman doing aerobics. A dog – someone’s pet – lounged around and managed to avoid getting stepped on.

I wasn’t sure if breakfast was included or not, because we decided to walk around town early in the morning. We ended up snacking on deep fried dough at the local market, and I had noodle soup at a sidewalk noodle stand.

Overall, Pura@Krabi offers good value for your money if you just need a nice, very clean place to stay overnight before you take a ferry over to Phi Phi Island the next morning. The owner is extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

A Morning Stroll to Maharaj Market in Krabi, Thailand

I’m not sure how we ended up at this market, but it appears to be THE local market in Krabi. We found this market by going for walk in the main neighborhood. We were awakened by blaring Asian techno pop music playing next door to our hotel. It turned out to be the local neighbors showing up for aerobics class. So, since were up by 5:30 AM, why not go for a walk?

I knew Krabi has a large Muslim population, but I didn’t know how large the population is, until I went to the market.

Women in head scarves sold shrimp, crabs, meat, chili peppers. One stall had baby shark for sale. Another stall had meat and organs hanging from hooks. We treated ourselves to some fried dough for 10 baht, which is about 30 cents. Hot and fresh, the dough just melted in your mouth.

On the way back from the market, we noticed these traffic lights, which looked like they were carried by cavemen. See photos.

Our biggest treat for the morning was a procession of Buddhist monks collecting alms. Apparently, the day we saw the procession was a very special day. Young Buddhist monks were “free” to go after spending 3 months in a nearby temple. The alms consisted of more than just rice. The devout packaged together gift packages consisting of toilet paper, razor blades, ramen noodles, canned goods. It seems like giving alms to elderly monks result in more merit, because it seemed like the elderly monks got so much of the goods, that a person had to follow the elderly monks with huge woven baskets to carry the goods. By the time the younger monks (i.e. teenage boys) came along, all the packages were gone.

If you have jet lag, an early morning stroll is worth the energy. We didn't feel like we were fighting with tourists.