Kayaking Adventure
Krabi’s Ao Thalane or Thalane Bay is a sea kayaking adventure waiting for you to explore the hidden paradise of Thailand. Before this trip, I was excited to try my hand at kayaking again but Shane wasn’t eager after our disastrous experience in Penang many years ago. I was paddling in circles splashing salt water on his face and eyes! He didn’t want a repeat of this scene. He loves me A LOT to try again with a guided tour. I have to promise that I listen to his instructions this time. LOL
Krabi’s Ao Thalane
Krabi’s Ao Thalane is located about 29.2km north from Ao Nang Beach where we are staying. It has small fishing villages surrounded by beautiful mangrove forests and hidden bays. This bay area offers a unique kayaking adventure around quiet canyons and groves with incredible towering karst formations. The diverse ecosystem promises sightings of wildlife indigenous to the mangrove forests.
Half Day Afternoon Kayaking Adventure
A tour booth near our hotel offers this half day afternoon kayaking adventure at a discounted rate. We took the offer without making sure the air-conditioned van that was supposed to pick us up was really as advertised. The vehicle that came was an open air truck with wooden benches that we have to share with 2 other tourists. Our driver, Saman offered the front seat to Shane and he turned out to be our tour guide as well. Thankfully, Saman was a great guide but unfortunately, we were told we cannot visit some of the places because of low tide.
Please make sure when booking for this tour to find out about the tides so you do not get short changed like we did.
Attention!
Getting on the Kayaks
I did mention low tide, right? Our small group of 4 resigned to the fact that we cannot visit the limestone caves, Crocodile Cave and lagoon. What we didn’t anticipate due to low tide is having to walk across the mud plain to get on to our kayaks. My worst nightmare came through – wading thigh deep through stinky, sticky black mud. Shane shook me off a few times because I was clinging on to him making him sank deeper. I was so afraid I was going to fall flat on my face because it was so sticky. I retched a few times because it stank so bad and started a chain reaction with another female member of our group! Too bad nobody took a video of us!!! When we did reach our kayaks, Shane washed off the mud clinging on to my legs. I am shivering just thinking about it!
Check where the kayaks are launched. Choose a tour that offers kayak launched at a pier. Alternatively, chose a tour during high tide and bring along your water shoes. Walking on mud barefoot is quite dangerous.
Attention!
It’s Worth It!
We didn’t know what to expect except followed our guide’s kayak. After paddling a short distance through open water and around sand bars, we reached the first limestone cliffs. From there it was navigation through some shallow channels, with towering almost vertical karsts and mangrove roots jutting across everywhere. We came close to the cliffs, touched some sea anemones gently and because of low tide, small crabs are crawling all over the sands. We saw monkeys climbing down to feast on them. Sea eagles hovered high above. It was great that our group was small enough for us to stop paddling and simply listen to the sound of nature. We paddled through some sharp bend, always with our guide showing us the path to follow. We stopped at a natural beach in the middle of this paradise to snap more photos and simply walk around looking at crabs. It was also a resting spot for other tour groups. Simply WOW! It’s worth it, despite not being able to cover everything and the stinky mud.
Here are some amazing photos we took:
More Trips around Krabi
Although the kayaking adventure at Ao Thalane was superb, we cancelled all our tours with the lady operator manning the booth. We plan to do more trips around Krabi on our own. Having said that, I feel everyone who visits Krabi should go on this kayaking adventure. We saw families with small children and older folks like us. You can also arrange with some tour operators to have someone paddle the kayak for you.
We look forward to share more of our trips soon.