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Krabi Province
Krabi is one of the southern provinces of Thailand, at the
shore of the Andaman Sea.
Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise)
Phang Nga,
Surat Thani,
Nakhon Si Thammarat and
Trang.
Phuket
province to the west is also neighboring, but without any
land boundary. The capital of the region is the city of
Krabi.
Geography
The province is located at the shore to the Andaman Sea.
Most notable are the solitary limestone hills, both on the
land and in the sea as islands. Rock climbers from all over
the world travel to
Railay
Beach to climb. Of about 130 islands belonging to the
province, Koh Phi Phi Lee is perhaps the most famous, as it
was the set of the movie The Beach. The coast of the
province was badly damaged by the tsunami on December
26 2004.
Other islands include: Koh Phi Phi Don, part of the
Phi Phi
Islands, and
Koh Lanta,
a larger island to the south.
Accommodation on Krabi :
The limestone hills contain
many caves, most having beautiful stalactites and
stalagmites. Tham Chao Le and Tham Phi Hua To, both in Ao
Luek district, contain
prehistoric rock-painting depicting humans, animals as well
as geometrical shapes. In Lang Rong Rien cave in 1986
archaeologists found 40,000 year old human artifacts - stone
tools, pottery as well as bones. It is one of the oldest
traces of human occupation in all South-East Asia. The caves
of Krabi are also one of the main sources of nests of the
Edible-nest Swiftlet, used to create bird's nest soup.
History
The first human remains in the province
date back to 25,000 - 35,000 B.C., but the first recorded
history dates back to Kingdom of Ligor in 1200, when the
city Ban Thai Samor was part of this kingdom. In modern
Thailand, Krabi was administered from Nakhon Si Thammarat,
even after 1872 when king Chulalongkorn gave Krabi the
status of a town. In 1875 it was made a direct subordinate
of Bangkok, thus becoming what is now a province. In 1900
the governor moved the center of the province from Ban Talad
Kao to its present location at the mouth of the Krabi river.
Attraction at Krabi
The distinguishing feature of both Krabi and neighboring
Phang Nga is the massive limestone karsts, rising
vertiginously out of the flat rice paddies on land and
as islands from the sea. Add in some gorgeous beaches
and excellent scuba diving and rock climbing, and it's
little wonder that tourism in the area has been booming.
While less commercialized than neighboring Phuket, Krabi
Province cannot be described as undiscovered: it
receives two million visitors a year, and the major
tourist areas cater extensively for foreigners.
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Krabi Province and the Andaman Sea have a number of
excellent dive sites. You can find dive resorts at
almost every coastal destination in the region and
on the islands that tourists visit. Dive resorts on
Phuket
will visit some of these sites too. Most will offer
a selection of dives at the following sites:
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