Do you know there is a Premium Outlet Village or Brand Factory Outlet in Krabi? We missed it and didn’t manage to go there for our first two trips to Krabi so we definitely will visit this place on our third time.

The Premium Outlet Village is located on the main road. Often if you travelled from the airport to Aonang, the outlet can be visibly seen on the right hand side.

The outlet has a few sections and fully air conditioned. It was like a very hot day and the next thing we want was air-cond.

The first section has the brands like Lacoste, Paul Frank, Roxy and such. Rachel is always an admirer for Lacoste. I bought her a few Lacoste apparels last year in Kuala Lumpur. The prices of Lacoste apparels in the outlet after discount are still cheaper than the usual prices in Kuala Lumpur and probably Singapore. However the newer models are not discounted.

They had a few German brands like Rudolf Korner and Erich Kramer. These brands are not available in Malaysia if not mistaken.

I was quite tempted with the Columbia shoes. Frankly, the prices look very reasonable to me. The problem is I didn’t hike that much, so I passed.

Sports brands like NIKE, Puma, Adidas and Reebok are there too. Rachel bought a few jogging pants from Adidas. She told me it is cheaper than in Malaysia.

We spent an hour or two, looking for good deals and we went to Lotus hypermarket after that. If you are a bargain hunter this could be a perfect place to you. However, not all items are as cheap as you could imagine. It depends where you come from and what you want.

So on top of the beautiful sea and forest adventure in Krabi, you can find time now for shopping!

The Krabi Premium Outlet Village is located near the Krabi Town and Krabi International Airport and it is located quite a distance from Aonang. If you want to go to this outlet, go to Krabi town as well so your trip is worthwhile. I have blogged about the Citygate Factory Outlet in Hong Kong previously and this will be my second review on the Brand Outlets.

We hired a tuk-tuk to travel from Aonang to Krabi town. We hired the tuk-tuk for a few hours so we need not to find another one to travel back to Aonang.

Krabi Premium Outlet Village Address and Contact:

888 Mooh 11, Petchkasem Highway #4,

Krabinoi, Mungkrabi, Krabi Province 81000

Shopping Hour : Open Daily 11 am – 9 pm
Customer Service : Tel. +660-7570-1222 – 4

http://www.outletmallthailand.com

How much would you pay for a Charcoal BBQ Buffet in Krabi, Thailand? I paid 119 Thai Baht (RM 12 / US$ 4) for it. How did we do it?

We understand Thailand is popular with 99 Thai Baht (RM 10 / US$ 3) BBQ Buffet. The same applies to Krabi Thailand. However, due to recent increase of food prices, it is no longer 99 Thai Baht but 119 Thai Baht.

To get to know more about this places, we asked the locals and we got the location from the hotel bus driver. There are a few restaurants in Krabi offering 119 Baht BBQ Buffet and we chose the nearest restaurant to Aonang beach.

The place is called Rim Ta Non Moo Ka Ta, translated from Thai by the owner. I recommend you all to print this picture to show the local driver or tuk-tuk instead trying to be smart and read this in Thai.

A five minute drive from Aonang beach, we reached this small restaurant by the road side. We stopped and went in to check out the restaurant.

The friendly owner spoke to me in Thai, assuming we are Thais. The locals who were having their dinner there were shocked to see us. I told the owner that there were twenty of us, she smiled and said okay!

We checked out the food section (on three tables). It is definitely much smaller version than the ones in Bangkok. The fresh vegetables, mushrooms were placed together with instant noodles and “bee hoon”.

Then they had the meat section with bacon, pork meat, chicken meat, cuttle fish, prawns, fish balls and etc.

They also had athe sauce section with a different version of chilli sauces and couple of other seasonings available.

The dessert section was together with banana, watermelon and pineapple. Fried noodle and fried rice was at the same section.

We went there with family and friends from United States. As I mentioned, there were 20 of us and I bet it was their best evening of the year!

They started off by putting the hot flaming charcoal pot on the table.

Then they put the BBQ set on top of the pot. The top area is for grilling while the bottom part is for soup. They put a huge piece of pork lard on top of the BBQ set to make it greasy.

The next few hours were purely a feast. The waitresses kept refilling the food and we kept on going having them.

Drinks were not included in the set but for 119 Thai Baht would you complain? Not for me.

This kind of BBQ Buffet is very popular among the locals. The food they served was fresh and clean. The owner and the staffs were friendly. The restaurant can be reachable via taxi or tuk-tuk. You can even walk back to Aonang beach for 15 to 20 minutes. Please print out the Thai card instead of showing the address in English, I bet it is safer that way. We loved and enjoyed their food, we definitely will go back there for a feast again.

Rim Ta Non Moo Ka Ta Address and Contact:

104, (33 Apartment)

No 2,Subdistrie, Ao-Nang

Distrie Maung

Krabi Province 81000

Tel: 089-8671174

Krabi has been one of the popular tourists spot in Southern Thailand in recent years. A favourite holiday destination by the Scandinavians, Krabi is considered as the next best thing after Phuket Island.  In Aonang, streets are filled with motels, hotels, bars, restaurants, massage centers and tourists. Aonang is a better option than Krabi town as the jetties are located there and there are more hotels and restaurants to choose from. One of the best part of staying in Aonang is the beautiful sunset that can be seen along the busy the main road.

There are a few popular island tours in Krabi. One of them is the four islands hopping tour or also known as the “Unseen Island Tour”. The tour was inclusive of Tup Island, Chicken Island, Poda Island and Phra Nang Cave. The published rate was around 1200 baht (around US 40) per person with the speed boat. This rate is based on peak season rate. Most of the tour operators in Krabi are selling the same tour packages, the difference will be the type of boat and the pricing. My friends and I had pre booked the tour with the long tail boat, we should have booked it in Krabi as it’s cheaper. The tour was inclusive of one English speaking guide. There are three popular island hopping excursions in Krabi, the four island tour, Phi Phi Island Tour and Hong Island Tour.

The tour van picked us up in early in the morning from our hotel and the jetty which is roughly 15 min drive from Aonang. There, we were assigned to our boat. As everyone had their safety vests, our boat was ready to go.

The long tail boat was not really a bad option. Though it was slower but we can enjoy the breezes of the wind and also a great chat altogether.

The Tup Island was the first destination. From far, we could see there was a beautiful sand pathway in the middle of the island. As we went closer, we can see through the sea bed through the clear sea water. It was like a picture of the postcard, the color of the sea was turquoise and the clear blue sky. It was a perfect day for photography and sunbathing.

We walked around the island, having fun taking pictures with beautiful island as the backdrop and dipping ourselves to the sea.  We spent an hour relaxing there as we proceed to the next island. We wished we could spend more time on Tub Island but we have 3 islands to go.

Next, we went to the Chicken Island. There were no chickens on the island and there’s no hero named chicken died on the island.

The Chicken Island is named such way due to the shape of rock formation that looks like a head of the rooster. However, I felt it looks like a camel to me. The rock formation can be visibly seen from far. Well, that was not the reason we were there, the actual highlight of Chicken Island is to snorkel near the island, the water there is like Tub Island which is crystal clear. The snorkeling gears were provided by tour operator.  There’s nothing beat the moment of diving in to the cold sea for snorkeling, it was refreshing!

Snorkeling around Chicken Island was nothing particular spectacular, there were lots of tiger fish and there quite a number of sea corals as well. I reckon places like Redang Island has more variety of fish than here.

Then, we sailed to Poda Island for lunch. Our tour was inclusive of lunch which is a packet of mixed rice and a bottle of mineral water.

If you are wondering, everyone else was having the same lunch box.

Poda Island was slightly different from the earlier 2 islands. The island was slightly bigger and has the backdrop of a small rock island. As we walked around the island, we spotted 2 long tail boats offering food. Like the food stall, the 2 wooden boats were selling from fried chicken to Thai fried rice. It was an eye opener. They were also offering baguette and fruit shakes. There is nothing beats a good fruit shake under the hot sun!

The food and drink price in the range of 40-60 Thai Baht which is less than USD 2.  Slightly expensive than the stalls in Krabi but on an island like this, it’s worth it. We spent an hour lying down under the shady coconut trees after our lunch and fruit shake. Then, we went to the last island on the island hopping list, the Phra Nang Cave Island.

The first impression of the Phra Nang (Princess) Cave Island was packed. So who is Phra Nang? There are different stories on the legend of Phra Nang.

One legend mentioned that an Indian princess was killed in a shipwreck and her spirit occupied the cave while the other story was the wife of a local fisherman who lived out her life in the cave waiting her husband to come back.

Phra Nang cave has also become associated with fertility. Believe it or not, the lingams placed here are the actually carved wooden penises. Many fishermen will pray here for safe journeys with flowers or incense.

The island has a landscape of a huge rock hill and small resorts. The island is also very popular for its rock climbing activities. It is one of the top destinations for rock climbing in Thailand. Many rock climbers from all parts of the world went there to test out their skills. There was a few young climbers practicing at the lower part of the hill while the rest were seen climbing the hill from various locations. As we walked to the other side of the island, many climbers were seen getting ready on their gears. At least dozens can be visibly seen climbing the rocky hill.

As we walked back towards our long tail boat, we saw a stretch of long tail boat food stalls that we seen earlier at Poda Island. The beach side was parked by a long stretch of the long tail boats, it was really quite an effort to trace our boat if our guide wasn’t there. We left Phra Nang and reached Krabi in the late afternoon. The island hopping tour took more time than we anticipates, it will be shorter if we had the speed boat tour. We reached Aonang around 4pm.

We went for massage after that and then to dinner and shopping till late. Life in Krabi could never be better.

Overall, we enjoyed island hopping tour. Snorkeling near Chicken Island wasn’t that spectacular but we had great time there. Tub Island was beautiful and Koda Island was really relaxing. We enjoyed looking climbers stretching their arms and legs near Phra Nang Cave. Not forgetting, the clear turquoise water and the beautiful Andaman Sea. This is one of the reasons you should be going to Krabi for your holiday.

Stay on for Phi Phi Island Tour stories on the next few days!

My last trip to Phuket, I went to the Raya Thai Cuisine for lunch in Phuket Town courtesy of Tourism Authority of Thailand. I was there on a medical tourism trip with Indonesian blogger Wahyu.

The restaurant itself is a beauty. It sets in the old Sino-colonial building which many mistaken it as a historical residence rather than a restaurant. Walking into the restaurant is like walking into an old house with a couple of tables set beautifully.

The vintage design includes the floor tiles, the bar, the windows and the stairs are well maintained. As we were impressed by the architecture and the history of the building, we expect the food will have the similar influence.

Not much tourists know about this place, mostly locals patronize this restaurant. This is totally different then the ever popular Baam Rim Pa.

We started off with their signature dish, Crabmeat curry served with rice vermicelli. This was interesting as the curry was cooked with crabmeat instead of the whole crab. I wrapped the crab meat with the rice vermicelli and dipped it into the curry, it was delicious.

The next dish was definitely influenced by the Chinese. It was the Caramelized and braised pork belly. It was similar to Chinese dish “tong por” meat in a way, unique by its own.

Lastly, we had the Deep fried sea bass with shallots and red chillies in tamarind and lemongrass sauce. I am always a big fan of shallots while Rachel had no preferences on it. The perfectly deep fried sea bass had crispy skin and topped with crunchy shallots and spicy red chillies. It was yummylicious.

We didn’t order much as there were only of us. We didn’t stay long at Phuket Town as we need to go to our next destination. However, Wahyu manage to do some shopping at the textile shop nearby.

The food at Raya Thai Cuisine was good, lived up to our expectation. Do visit them if you are in Phuket Town. Trust me you don’t want to miss this good restaurant. Thanks again Tourism Authority of Thailand for the lunch and the trip.

Raya Thai Cuisine Address and Contact:

48 New Dibuk Cross Road, Phuket 83000

Tel: 076-218-155

Email: rayarestaurant@gmail.com

Open Daily: 10 am to 10 pm

Our stay at Beach Terrace Hotel Krabi was a joyful one. We enjoyed the convenience, their affordable room rates as well as their good services. We will be going to Krabi again next month and will be reviewing another resort.

Beach Terrace Hotel Krabi Address and Contact:

154 Moo.2, T.Aonang, A.Muang, Krabi Thailand 81000.

Tel: 66 (0) 7563 7181 – 3

Fax: 66 (0) 7563 7184 – 5

Email: info@krabibeachterrace.com, booking@krabibeachterrace.com

Website: http://www.krabibeachterrace.com/

We celebrated our 2009 Christmas in Thailand with our friends. It was a five days four nights holiday and you can read about our adventure holiday below:

Krabi Trang Holiday Day One: Ku La Ka Sai Restaurant, Tham Le Cave, Pak Meng Beach Resort

Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part One: Pak Meng Beach, Koh Chuak Island and Koh Mah Island
Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part Two: Koh Kradan Island, Emerald Cave (Marakot) at Koh Mook Island and Sunset Pak Meng Beach

Krabi Trang Holiday Day Three: Krabi Duck Noodle, Tiger Cave Temple, Krabi Fisheries Research Center, Aonang, Azzurra Italian Restaurant.

Krabi Trang Holiday Day Four: Four Island Tour Excursion and Visiting Krabi Town

Krabi Trang Holiday Day Five: Breakfast at McDonalds Ao Nang and Goodbye Thailand

It was our last day in Krabi and we had four fantastic days holidaying in Trang and Krabi, you can read them as below:

Krabi Trang Holiday Day One: Ku La Ka Sai Restaurant, Tham Le Cave, Pak Meng Beach Resort
Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part One: Pak Meng Beach, Koh Chuak Island and Koh Mah Island
Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part Two: Koh Kradan Island, Emerald Cave (Marakot) at Koh Mook Island and Sunset Pak Meng Beach
Krabi Trang Holiday Day Three: Krabi Duck Noodle, Tiger Cave Temple, Krabi Fisheries Research Center, Aonang, Azzurra Italian Restaurant.

Krabi Trang Holiday Day Four: Four Island Tour Excursion and Visiting Krabi Town

We decided to skip our complimentary breakfast in the hotel and walked around in Ao Nang. The Aonang beach was already busy with tourists hopping on to their boats for their island excursions.

The shops in Ao Nang were already preparing to open during the early hours of the day. We thought of having our breakfast at some of the local restaurants but we ended up in McDonalds.

The difference of McDonalds in Thailand with McDonalds in Malaysia is they served pork burgers. Hence, please take note that McDonalds in Thailand is NOT HALAL. Thus, it is even more expensive than Malaysia.

Most shops were already opened after breakfast. We managed to shop around last minute and we bought ourselves hats. The hats cost around 200 Thai Baht each (US$7).

Then, we checked out and waiting for our flight at Krabi International Airport with our friends. We were heavy hearted to leave Thailand as we enjoyed our holiday there. Goodbye Krabi and Trang Thailand and till we meet again!

Our holiday in Krabi on day four will be only on two agendas, the four island tour excursion and visiting Krabi Town. We had three days of adventure and fun and you can read it at

Krabi Trang Holiday Day One: Ku La Ka Sai Restaurant, Tham Le Cave, Pak Meng Beach Resort
Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part One: Pak Meng Beach, Koh Chuak Island and Koh Mah Island
Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part Two: Koh Kradan Island, Emerald Cave (Marakot) at Koh Mook Island and Sunset Pak Meng Beach

Krabi Trang Holiday Day Three: Krabi Duck Noodle, Tiger Cave Temple, Krabi Fisheries Research Center, Aonang, Azzurra Italian Restaurant.

Four Island Tour Excursion of Krabi

TheThe Tup Island

We started our day four with the newest attraction in Krabi, the Unseen Four Island Tour Excursion. The excursion will take almost the whole day and we went on four islands. It was the Tup Island, Chicken Island, Poda Island and Phra Nang Cave and the activities include snorkeling, island hopping and beach activities.

You can read our full experience of the Four Island Tour Excursion at The Four Island Tour Excursion of Krabi. Thus we also publish this story on Gaya Travel Magazine as Krabi’s Four Islands Tour.

The four island hopping excursion was worth every penny. We recommend first timers to Krabi to take this tour.

We went back to the hotel and had a short nap. In the evening, we hired a van for 2000 Thai Baht for four hours. We decided to venture Krabi town which is 30 min drive from Ao Nang.

Krabi Town

If you are looking for authentic local Krabi food, Krabi town is the place.

There was a wet market where you can buy ready-made Thai food and products and the other was an open-air night market.

We spent almost two hours walking around the night market. They had local food like ice sticks, skewers, Thai snacks and Thai desserts. Thus, you can see their creativity on their food with combinations of colours and flavours.

There were also Thai made clothes, products, apparels and even paintings available in the night market. That’s why we spent our whole evening venturing the market.

This was our last night in Krabi, we will be flying back to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on the next day so we had the drinking game again in the hotel. We were so wasted. We enjoyed our holiday since day one. Trang and Krabi are amazing places for holiday!

Our Krabi Trang Holiday Day Three continues with us going to Trang town for their local famous food. There is a recap what we did on the first two days, Krabi Trang Holiday Day One: Ku La Ka Sai Restaurant, Tham Le Cave, Pak Meng Beach Resort, Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part One: Pak Meng Beach, Koh Chuak Island and Koh Mah Island and Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part Two: Koh Kradan Island, Emerald Cave (Marakot) at Koh Mook Island and Sunset Pak Meng Beach. It was for the crispy pork, swiss rolls and pastries. You can read our full review at Trang Famous Food.

Krabi Duck Noodle

After the quick bite, we were on the road again, this time traveling back to Krabi. We stopped at the Duck Inn Resort for their famous duck noodle. This is one of their local delicacies in Krabi that is not to be missed. This place is usually packed with loads of tourists.

Krabi Duck Noodle Contact:

Tel: 075-663185, 081-4776002

Tiger Cave Temple

Next, we went to the Tiger Cave Temple. It is called the Tiger Cave temple because of the rock outgrowth nearby resembling a tiger’s claw.

There is a beautiful temple sits at the bottom of the hill. The pagoda influenced temple is visited by hundreds of visitors daily.

Monkeys were straying around the temple compound area. Please beware of your belongings if you are near the monkeys as they can be quite playful. Venturing the top of the hill is an uphill task with 1,200 steps in between. We were told the view from the top is breathtaking!

Krabi Fisheries Research Center

Then, we went to Krabi Fisheries Research Center, one of the newest attractions in Krabi. This project is initiated by the Thai government to research and to breed the marine life.

The centre breeds endangered species in large salt water lakes next to the coast, for research and conservation – most fish are eventually released back into the sea in order to boost local populations. Popular fish such as clown fish are breed here.

We went back to Ao Nang in Krabi and check in at Beach Terrace Hotel.

This was a typical sunset view at Ao Nang beach. The scenery is one of the reasons why Ao Nang is so loved by tourists in Krabi.

Azzurra Italian Restaurant

For dinner we went to Azzurra Italian Restaurant in Ao Nang, an authentic Italian restaurant in Krabi since 1998. Ao Nang is also a popular shopping district with dozens of bars, pubs and restaurants. There are also food stalls along the Ao Nang main road. Some of the food is HALAL and cooked by Thai Muslims.

In Azzurra we had Cozze alla Marinara, Scalopping di Maiale al Lime, Gnocchi al Pesto, Zuppettina di Mare and Tiramisu. It was not cheap but we enjoyed the authentic food. The owner is an Italian who married a local. The restaurant was packed during the evening.

Azzurra Italian Restaurant Address and Contact:

142/1-2, Ao Nang Beach Rd,

81000, Thailand

Tel: +66 081 8938817, +66 075 637848

Email: francoazzura@hotmail.com

Website: www.ristorante-azzura.com

After dinner, we went back to hotel and rest. We need all the rest because we will be island hopping on the next day!

This is the continuation of Krabi Trang Holiday Day Two Part One: Pak Meng Beach, Koh Chuak Island and Koh Mah Island which we posted a few days earlier. If you enjoyed our little story on part one, part two will be more adventurous.

After two snorkelling sessions at Koh Chuak Island and Koh Mah Island, we sailed to Koh Kradan Island for lunch.

The boat anchored at Koh Kradan Island and the view is beautiful. The water near Koh Kradan Island was crystal clear, we can see the corals at the bottom. The visibility of the water was good, the sea wave was calm and the weather was excellent. We got really lucky on Christmas day!

We had lunch on the boat as it was packaged with the snorkelling tour package. Don’t expect something luxurious or “heavy” since we will be snorkelling later on as well. Thus, we had an Asian style lunch. They served white rice with soup, luncheon meat, chicken, vegetables and watermelon. That was really good enough for us.

Heavy lunch is never good for snorkelling except you want the fish to get extra free food, if you get what I mean.

Thanks to the clear visibility underwater, we have clearer view of the sea corals.

Underwater pictures were taken with Olympus Tough 8000 Series.

After snorkelling near Koh Kradan Island, we went to our final destination (not the movie), Koh Mook Island or Emerald (Marakot) Cave.

In 2005, I was here but never had the chance to go to Koh Mook Island due to bad weather and strong waves so it was good to come back again for it.

There is a reason why Emerald Cave of Koh Mook Island is the main attraction of Trang. The best view of the Emerald Cave is within the island and not around the island. For that, we were required to swim into the island under the caves.

High tides or strong waves would make this trip impossible. We led by our guide and there is a rope for us to hold on.

We formed a queue and we swam into the dark. The area was pitch-dark and not even a single source of light was available. It was similar to the similar to the movie, Sanctum.

After we swam for a few minutes, we saw the light at the end of the cave.

There is a beach within the island with a small little forest.

There were already a lot of people on the beach as we went in.

If you are wondering why it is called the emerald cave, you can clearly see the emerald colour of the water and also the cave of Koh Mook Island.

We didn’t spend much time at the Emerald Cave as we were too tired.

Goodbye Trang’s four island tours!

By the time we reached Pak Meng Jetty, it was already late afternoon. There were roadside stalls near the jetty selling local delicacies.

Homemade ice cream wrapped with bread is probably some of the unique ones.

We went back to our resort and took a short nap.

Then we walked to Pak Meng beach for the sunset view. The beach is located in front of Pak Meng resort.

While some were still sleeping, the girls didn’t want to miss the sunset.

When you have a group of girls together, they tend to do weird posing for sunset photography.

We waited for the magic moment before we went back to the resort for dinner. The magic moment is a few minutes moment before the sun setting in. During this moment, the sky will turned to beautiful blue colour which will last for a few minutes.

Lastly, after dinner we all gathered and played drink games. Since liquor is cheap in Thailand, we got ourselves a bit carried away and we were pissed drunk at the end of the day. It was a fun and enjoyable day in Trang and also our last day in Trang.

Please check out our upcoming adventure stories in Krabi in the next few days, you will not be disappointed!