Krabi Town - Krabi Town Information

Krabi Town

Krabi Town is the capital of Krabi province and is situated close to the coast about midway down the province. The new international airport and Bus station are located on the outskirts of the town.
Krabi Town, with a population of 25,000 (in 2005) is growing rapidly.
The Town centre is attractive enough and an effort has been made to improve it, but it remains thankfully very much a Thai town. Just off the Main Street there is a Temple that is just in the final stages of construction, the pavements have all been resurfaced and there is a massive new government complex. The traffic lights are perhaps the most interesting feature though, with sculptures of a primitive man to commemorate the finding in 1986 of human artefacts and bones of 40,000 year old humans, the oldest traces of human occupation in the whole of South East Asia.

Krabi Town is undergoing a transformation though, only time will tell what the effect of having Tescos and other large stores located outside the town. As in Europe and around the world having these superstores around the edges of towns does raise the possibility that the life within the old town will be massively effected and that small businesses will suffer. Krabi however does not seem to have been effected in this way. The town centre is still as busy as it ever was. There are a good choice of restaurants and street food stalls. Some of the food stalls really do rival the restaurants for the quality of the Thai food at a fraction of the cost, so really are worth a try.

The Town Market is just off the main street and really is a place to be visited. The market has a huge array of fruit and vegetables, dry foods and meat; as Krabi has a large Muslim population, the meat area is strictly divided between Chicken, Beef and Pork. But where the market truly excels is in its fish area, there are around 150 individual fish and seafood sellers and every day offer a truly amazing selection. All is caught locally. Prawns of both farmed and sea varieties in sizes ranging from a couple of centimetres to magnificent lobster sized langoustines can be bought. The latter are not cheap though as they are first pick for the hotel and restaurant market. There is also a pre-prepared food section selling complete meals, snacks and sweets. Some of the sweets are really great for example knom sai sai which is a cooked banana stuffed with ground coconut wrapped in banana leaf.

The prices compete favourably with Tesco and make for a far more interesting and enjoyable shopping trip, everyone is very friendly although English speaking is quite rare, but with a smile it’s easy to do your buying as each stall will happily conduct a sale through sign language and punching out an amount on their calculator.

For the best produce you have to get up early though, the market opens at about 4am and is winding up by about 11 am.

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