“Excellent place to stay”

This is an excellent bungalow location to stay when visiting Krabi. It is close to Ao Nang beach and Krabi town, with free shuttle services to and from both locations. We stayed in a bamboo bungalow for around 350 baht a night, for the pair of us, much cheaper than a dorm room at a hostel! Much nic… more

This is an excellent bungalow location to stay when visiting Krabi. It is close to Ao Nang beach and Krabi town, with free shuttle services to and from both locations. We stayed in a bamboo bungalow for around 350 baht a night, for the pair of us, much cheaper than a dorm room at a hostel! Much nicer and far more private too. The bungalow had a double sized roll mat, two pillows, a mosquito net, its own little balcony at the front and a private bathroom off the back. The bathroom had a western style toilet, minus the flush, you had to throw water down the toilet after use, bucket and tap provided. The shower was heated by the sun, so it only made it to 'warm' in the evening rather than 'hot', but then a cool shower is normally what was needed after a day out in the sun. Admittedly there was no roof on the bathroom, but for 350 baht for two people, it was excellent value. If you have to have a flush then the toilets near the restaurant are the ones for you to use. The site is not big, so they are never a far walk from you! The staff were so friendly, we arrived at the bungalows at the wrong time for the transport to Ao Nang, so they took us in a private taxi and collected us when we were ready, just sent them an SMS asking to be picked up. The English of two of the staff was minimal, but better than my 'hello' and 'thank you' in Thai, it was enough to cope with ordering food, arranging trips and return airport transfer. As it is in Thailand I don't think anyone has the right to moan that English wasn't fluently spoken there! The food they served was delicious and home made. Word of warning, don't ask for the hot curry unless you mean HOT! They grow the chillies there and the chillies bite back. If you don't want hot, ask for not hot and they give you what you want. As we were sat one morning having a late breakfast, looking over the salt lake towards the mangroves, we saw a troop of monkeys come and play in the trees on the other shore and the young ones were jumping into the lake, having a really fun time cooling off! There is a bridge leading through the mangroves right down to the river. Beautiful. If you are worried about the mosquito's while eating/drinking in the restaurant/bar, don't be. The moment you sit down, the staff come over with a mosquito coil, just for your table. I'm normally an 'all-you-can-eat' buffet for the mosquito's, even when dowsed in repellent, I was not really bothered by them here. If you don't want to eat there, it is a few baht more expensive (still reasonable), as is the way with hotels, then a few hundred metres up the road is a multitude of street cafes, restaurants, some street hawkers and there was a fresh food market there on one day. Some of the cafes have menus, some don't, you just ask for what you want, (remember you're in Thailand, a fillet steak and chips is not likely to happen at these cafe's!) if they have the ingredients they make it, if they don't they say so and offer an alternative! The standard bungalows looked fabulous too, basic, brick built with glass windows and real doors (the bamboo bungalows had bamboo flaps for windows and doors, but they locked shut and worked), a bed instead of a roll mat and a roof on the bathroom, so if you want to keep costs down, but want a mattress instead of the roll mat, pay a couple hundred extra baht for the standard. OK, this is not a five star resort, so do not expect five star quality. You are paying a basic price. For the money it was fantastic. We are very sensible travellers and do use a secure lock sack for all our valuables wherever we go, even in the five star places, so we found no issues with security here. It is not right on the beach or in the town, if you want pubs/clubs/bars all round you, this is not the place. If you want a relaxed location to sleep/chill out while getting out and about exploring during the day, this is a great place. If you are booking through a third party website, check the price. On the Amazon Bungalow website the prices are currently 400B a night, including moped hire for the bamboo bungalow (sleeps 2) and 600B, incl moped for the standard. I went to book through one site and they wanted about 1150 baht, per person for four nights!!! I went through Expedia.com.my (I'm based in Malaysia) and got it for about 1300 baht for the pair of us for four nights. Obviously exchange rate differs, but not by 1000 baht! Get the airport shuttle to Ao Nang (currently 150B per person) and then contact the hotel, on the number from their website, (the number Expedia gave me was not useful!) and they can come pick you up. Or get the public bus from Krabi to Ao Nang, tell the driver you are staying at Amazon Bungalow, near Ao Nammao pier and they will know the place. All in all fantastic value for money and a great place to stay, if you are happy with bungalows. If you want five star, pay five star price!

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“If only”

Chill place wanna be - but there's much to go until being such a place. The ones starting this business are not the owners any longer. And the current owners seem not to know why are they there or how to run this business. We have booked this place on hostel world and it looked appealing. In the … more

Chill place wanna be - but there's much to go until being such a place. The ones starting this business are not the owners any longer. And the current owners seem not to know why are they there or how to run this business. We have booked this place on hostel world and it looked appealing. In the confirmation email we have received some directions but useful for somebody knowing the area and having a car. Therefore, for us, the directions were kind of useless. We tried reaching them multiple times over the phone prior to our departure from Malaysia to Thailand - Krabi but with no luck. The phone number provided in the confirmation email was invalid. We did not know if this place really exists nor if it worth bother to go there. We managed to find a local bus from Krabi to Ao Nang and luckily the driver knew the place. All in one it sorted out just fine, but we also realized how far away is this place from the main walking street on the Ao Nang beach. About 7 km away. And the place really exists. We were told that the booking we have made through hostel world was not visible for the owners of this place. Luckily they still had rooms available. It's not acceptable to have such a bad booking management "system". We took a house rather than a bamboo hut because it just seemed bigger and more comfortable. The prices were 500 BH per hut per night sleeps 2- and 700 BH per house per night sleeps 2. The house was having just a fan, no AC and no hot water. Hot water is supposed to be a rare happening in Thailand. But considering the temperatures, it's not such a big issue. All in one the house was ok. The common area was quite good, and you could easily just gather up and meet the other guests. But it is missing the personality. There is a small bar with really good music. You can easily spend time in the common area, order a drink from the bar and enjoy the good music. The food you can order is just OK, but nothing more and it is quite expensive. The thing is that you really can't just easily go out into the city and have something to eat. You feel like trapped in this isolated place. Your only option is to rent a bike and it will make your stay much much better. For 200 or 250 BH per day you can have your own bike. Otherwise you can arrange taxis to Ao Nang for 50 BH per person or benefit one of the free taxis that run on fixed hours. If coming back at late hours, a tuk tuk taxi from Ao Nang will ask you for 300 BH. You can negotiate it down to 150 or even 100 if you're lucky. But it needs a lot of time to bargain. The wifi is only available in the common area and it is pretty good. The staff there is ok but other than the guy at the bar, the rest barely speak English. Constructions are still on going to expand this place - they even want to build a pool. But no matter how luxurious the place will become - if they don't give personality to this place, then it's useless. Not looking forward to go back again.

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