Ao Nang I would say is the tamer version of Patong in Phuket. The streets are lined up with restaurants, bars, hotels, massage/spa parlors, tourist kiosks and the occasional mini markets. We’ve decided to have our dinners in Ao Nang after we’ve tried the very quiet dinner at our hotel – Sofitel. We figured that we want to see some other people around us and not just stare at each other the whole night which was the case when we dined inside our resort. Lol. Ao Nang is my kind of place as it offers a wide variety for just about everything you need. It’s very touristy though so if you’re looking for something more local, I don’t think you will like this area.
At dinner time, waiters and waitresses were all lined up on the streets like vultures waiting for their prey. As soon as you are near them, they will try to offer every single thing on their menu and convince you to dine in their restaurant. For whatever reason, whenever they see the Greek boyfriend – they’d always say that it’s a happy hour! Like they know that that’s what’s going to convince the boyfriend – cheap alcohol! I wonder if it’s just because he’s caucasian or they actually do sense that the boyfriend is a bit of a drunkard? 🙂
We’ve dined in Crazy Gringo twice which is in Ao Nang’s walking street. The food was good and the place was actually great as well. They’ve got a live Filipino band playing during the night which we unfortunately did not see as we went to another bar after dinner. Well, that’s actually what we’ve done everytime we were at Ao Nang – dinner and then bar hopping, a little bit of shopping, a Thai massage and then bar hopping again. 🙂
We’ve also dined at Aning Restaurant which is located in the main road fronting the sea. The food was also good and the service was excellent. Everytime we passed by that restaurant it was always packed, I’m not sure if it’s because they just really serve great food or if it’s the location. It has the perfect location for people-watching plus, the sea is right in front of you. Well, technically it’s not really right in front of you as you’ve got to cross the road to go to the beach.
Speaking of the beach, Ao Nang beach is not really that great. I’d rather go take a tour to Phi Phi or Maya Bay if I’d like to spend a day at the beach. I’m not really sure why I didn’t like it, it’s probably because I spent two weeks in the Mediterranean seas of Greece right before I went to Thailand for this trip and topping off the views that I’ve seen from the beaches of Greece will be quite hard to do. There’s nothing really spectacular about the beach that I did not see when I was in Phuket the last time. We didn’t take any tours as well since we’ve been to to most of the places that they have on offer on their day tours. Having said that, if ever I’ll go back to Krabi – I’d stay in a really good resort with a great pool like Sofitel and just go to Ao Nang during the evenings – which was exactly what we did on this trip. 🙂
All in all, I like Ao Nang but probably not as much as I enjoyed Patong and its crazy bystanders. 🙂
Old post, you should write a new one and delete this. I went to Crazy Gringo. No Philipino group. Good looking Western guy, food was very good. 😉
I really like Ao Nang too. It’s touristy indeed, but the red-light tourism is not so “in-your-face” as in Patong or Hua Hin.
I saw that Gringo place, but never went inside. Too bad, as the food looks good (my dad would have loved it).
There’s a red light in Hua Hin? I didn’t see it. Lol.