The Krabi Provincial Office of Tourism and Sports proposed the idea, currently labelled the "Andaman International School" project, to a review committee on March 2 headed by Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha.

The committee will vet and decide on which projects from Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket, Krabi and Trang provinces will be presented to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for approval.

"I want the Andaman International School to raise the standard of education in Southern Thailand to be as good as schools in Bangkok," Krabi Town Mayor Kiratisak Phukaoluan told the Phuket Gazette.

"I also want students in Krabi, as well as the rest of the Andaman region, to be ready for the [induction of the] Asean Economic Community [trade regulations] that will start in 2015," said Mayor Kiratisak.

"Children living in the Andaman region should have an educational institution that meets international standards. I also want children in the Andaman to understand the importance of education," he added.

The school would initially provide primary level education.

"The school would be built in Tambon Krabi Yai, in Krabi Muang District, and administered in affiliation with the Krabi Yai Municipality," said Mayor Kiratisak.

"The school will open as a bilingual school – English and Thai. The plan is to provide primary level classes from Prathom 1-6 [grades 1-6].

"However, in the first year the school would only provide classes for Prathom 1 and 2 students," he added.

Initial funding of 30mn baht would be sufficient to pay for two four-story school buildings, a concrete road, drainage system, a multipurpose field, a flagpole, a 318-meter long fence, entrance and exit gates, a school sign measuring 103.75m long, power poles and 500KVA transformer, and a water tank, Mayor Kiratisak said.

Reprinted from Phuket Gazette : ()

The new store will be located next to the Eagle Traffic Light on Maharat Road.

Tesco is building on 4 rai land and is expected to open on 27th january 2012.

Normally a Tesco Lotus " Talad" has a good selection of just about everything including a few small retail shops and food court.
Talad Lotus is a small store that 80% of products are consumer products and fresh foods and the rest are clothing, hardware and a few of electrical appliances.

Store area contains more than 4,500 products for your shopping.

Mall area contains small shops such as dessert shop, book shop, CD and Entertainment media, glasses shop, drug store. These shops may vary to space and size in each branch.

After a 1-1 draw against Rayong FC Saturday night, Krabi secured a berth in the second best Thai Soccer league next year.

We are all looking forward to some intense matches next year with Phuket FC.

If  you are interested in the local Krabi FC, more information can be found here :
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Krabi Airline has started to sell tickets for a brand new route from the airport to Krabi and Bangkok. First departure is set for December.

Every Wednesday and Saturday at 22.20, a jumbo jet Boeing 747-400 will be taking off from Oslo and fly non-stop to Krabi in southern Thailand. From there, the plane will continue to the old Don Muang airport in Bangkok before returning to Oslo's Gardermoen airport. Tickets will be sold at one fare for all seats on economy class, and one price for all on business class.

In the peak season, tickets on economy class will cost around 10,000 NOK including all taxes and fees.

The start of the new route has been postponed several times . First it was to be on 5 April this year. Later, June was mentioned. The date 30 August has also been posted on the company's website. Then 1 November was promised as the ultimate date for the start up. Now it is December.

Krabi Airline is a newly established Thai airline, and initially it will operate the routes from Oslo and Munich. Former employees of Thai Airways is in the management of the company.

"It has taken a little longer to start a new airline than we thought," admits Oddvar Sivertsen, Krabi Airlines sales agent in Norway, to Aftenposten.no.

Original news source: ()

The old office on Uttarakit Road in Krabi town is closed from 11th july 2011.

You find their new office at 382 Moo 7, Tharuea Road, Sai Tai.

It  is open every day from  8.30 -16.30 (lunch break 12.00-13.00).
Saturday, Sunday and Public holidays closed.

How to find them :
Go on the way to Klong Tilad Pier (Phi Phi / Koh Lanta boats ).
Pass by Education office, another 100 meters turn right, go on the way to the Marine Police  and next to them  you will find  the new Immigration Office.

Since 24 March, Krabi - along with the rest of southern Thailand - has been pounded by relentless heavy rain, leading yesterday to several flash floods and landslides around the province.

We are still gathering complete information about the incidents; we can report after driving around the tourist areas and the provincial town this morning that temporary flood waters from yesterday have completely receded and there was no evidence of inundation anywhere other than plantation and national park land, though there were the remains of mud and debris along Ao Nang beachfront road from run-off from the hills last night. This was being cleaned by council workers.

Ao Nang Beach after heavy rain, 30 March 2011

The main incident near to a tourist area seems to have been near the Talaat Kao intersection in town, on the way to Krabi Airport, where a section of road near a small bridge collapsed, leaving many people trapped on one side. There was also a small landslide on the road from Klong Haeng towards Chong Pli Village; that section has been closed off for clearing.

All tourist excursions to the islands have been suspended due to rough seas.

Concerned relatives of any expats or visitors in Krabi should note that the reported (), which has killed several villagers, is in a rural area at least 40km from the tourist coast and is highly unlikely to involve any foreigners.

The rain has eased considerably today, and is expected to stop by Friday. Things should then return to normal by next week.

We will update with any further news as we get it.

In fact, there has been overwhelming support for victims of the landslide in Phanom Bencha and the flash flooding in other areas of Krabi, so much so that most of the donations are now being directed to far worse hit areas in neighbouring provinces, in particular the very rural and isolated area around Bang Sawan village in Surat Thani province.

A few local businesses in Ao Nang have been co-ordinating their own relief effort, driving out to affected areas and simply finding people whom other volunteers and aid workers have not yet reached. They found that though the waters have now completely receded many people have lost a great deal of their possessions.

Gidi Mevissen, one of the co-ordinators (above, in the cap, on April 7th with a man who had seen no-one for 7 days following the destruction of his home) has this message: "We are going again on the 17th of this month to the affected areas, we have now collected more than 90,000 baht and still some more money is coming in. We would like to go and buy some rice-cookers and water boilers, as they are hard needed. But food, clothing is always good, so the victims do not have to spend money on that and they will have spare money to buy other things."

If anyone would like to contribute, kindly bring donations to Carnivore Restaurant (directly opposite the car park of Thai Village Resort), before 17th April please.

According to the Australian travel website, Ao Nang beach, Krabi, gained the second spot right after Cable Beach, Broome in Western Australia.

Ao Nang beach is in Krabi province about 20 km from Krabi town. The coastal province has more than 83 offshore islands. While not as famous as its neighbour Phuket island it has its own airport and is served by domestic flights from Bangkok, international flights from Singapore and charters out of Europe.

In the website voting, the destination beat Nha Trang beach in Vietnam, Paradise beach and Yasawa in Fiji Island, Aseda beach in Brazil, Lanikai beach in Hawaii, US, Isola Bella beach in Italy, Clifton beach in South Africa, Seven Miles beach in Jamaica, and Mughsayl beach in Oman.

Expedia.com.au is part of Expedia Inc, a global online travel company. The website offers flights, hotels, hire cars, attractions and holiday packages to customers.

Some of its packages and hotel offers feature Krabi and Australian tourists are the fourth largest market to the resort area.

According to the Tourism and Sports Ministry’s statistic, from January to September 2010, 1,016,928 travellers visited Krabi, down 17.96% from 1,239,594 in 2009, The arrivals broke down into 380,752 Thai (-33.85%) and 636,176 foreigners (-4.19%).

The top five source markets in the first three quarters of 2010 were: Sweden (114,558, -11.74%); Finland (52,327, +135.43); UK (45,492, -11.41%); Australia (43,143, 25.33%) and Germany (42,418, -48.34%).

Krabi has 12,446 rooms mainly on beaches and islands within 20 km of the provincial town. The province lies 814 km south of Bangkok on the Andaman Sea coast.

Reprinted from TTR Weekly: ()

The new thing is that they now will fine every motorcycle rider and passenger without  a  crash helmet, before it was only the driver whom was fined.
If caught without wearing a helmet, you will have to pay a fine of 500 baht.

Thailand has launched a campaign to promote “100 percent crash helmet use” among motorcyclists to ensure road safety.

The decision came after the Cabinet, during its meeting on 4 January 2011, agreed to announce 2011 as the year of campaigning for all motorcyclists to wear crash helmets.

Don´t forget it is for your own safety to wear a helmet, no god or spirits will protect you while riding a motorbike, only a helmet.

Hotels are fully booked until early March and restaurants are reporting better sales than at Christmas time - the traditional "peak season" here. But with more families choosing to spend Christmas at home - partly due to the prohibitive pricing in operation during the festive season, and partly due to the real risk of rain with later monsoons each year - February's near perfect weather (blue skies and not too hot) and more reasonable rates are proving  very popular indeed.

So much so that we also have many reports of fully booked flights into Krabi, giving support to many local hoteliers' complaints that limited seat numbers are restricting growth. The paltry 8 flights a day serving mainland Krabi, Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi (nearly 20,000 rooms), are simply not enough to cater to current visitor demand. Compare this with neighbouring Phuket's 80+ domestic and international scheduled daily flights for the island's 40,000 rooms and you can see the difference.

There was very heavy rain here during most of October, and there has been some cloudy weather and showers in the early part of November (though much less severe), but even so Krabi only experienced a few temporary and very localised flash floods.

The sea, for the most part, is calm; Krabi is located in the sheltered Phang Nga Bay, with many islands along the coast, so is not affected by the reported 4 or 5 metre waves "in the Andaman Sea" (an area of 600,000 sqkm !). In addition, all tour companies follow local advice issued by the Thai Metereological Department, so will not go out in any dangerous conditions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below!

The service is run by Ao Nang Orchid Travel, and departs from Ao Nang at 11.30am, with the return journey from Koh Phi Phi at 2.30pm. Tickets widely available from any agent on the beach front.

Note: speedboat travel is very bumpy and is thus not suitable for very young children, older people, or anyone with previous back problems.

It is located just behind the evening market on Maharat Soi 10, main entrance from Uttarakit Road where you also find the statue of the Black Crab.

Here you will find clothes, shoes, bags, mobile phones,electronic, souvenirs, OTOP products etc.
If you get thirsty during your shopping mania, you will also find a bar and restaurant, so come to town and enjoy your night.

The town is looking forward welcoming boats from Phuket, Penang, Langkawi and Singapore and will be the only marina along the Andaman cost where you anchor up right in the town.

The mooring  fee will be 20 baht /ft. per day. If you sign up for a membership of the Krabi River Marina, you will only pay 10 baht/ft., membership fee is 500 baht a year.
Water supply is 70 baht / cubic meter  and electric is 20 bah / unit.

If you need further information, don´t hesitate to call khun Witya on mobile 081-6407136 or 075-611115 or click ()

Kon-Tiki Diving and Snorkeling Center is organizing a beach clean-up event to clean the beaches of Ao Nang on International Clean-up Day in partnership with Project AWARE, the dive industry’s leading nonprofit environmental organization on 25 September 2010.

We need people of Ao Nang, snorkelers and beach walkers to sign up to take part in this volunteer effort on behalf of the marine environment. So why not make a difference and do your part to protect our local beaches and marine habitats whilst having lots of fun at the same time!

When? September 25th 2010

Where? Ao Nang Beach and Nopparat Thara - Meeting Point National Park Headquarters

Cost? Free, but of course welcome to make donations!!!!!

Every volunteer will receive a Project AWARE Certificate of Recognition and decal to proudly display.
Please register your interest by contacting Malene Jensen at manager@kontiki-krabi.com before 20 September 2010.

At the time of writing we are still looking for sponsors, to ensure all cleaners can enjoy a well earned lunch once the beaches are clean. Please contact Malene, should you be interested in making any donations for the arrangement. This is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing you on 25th September 2010.