The coastline of the province of Krabi, Thailand, is dotted with long, sandy beaches …

… green-capped limestone cliffs …

and small, boulder-like islands that jut out from the water like forgotten relics:

Most tourists come here for the beaches …

… and by the time it reaches high noon, they’re incredibly crowded (here, I’m at Phra Nang Beach on the Railay Peninsula).

Prescott and I like our beaches empty, so we much preferred the early-morning scene at shell-scattered Ao Nang Beach …

… the blissful quite of Pai Plong Beach …

… (which is accessible to non-resort goers only by a precariously rickety staircase) …

… and the quiet, cloudy evening time at Noppharat Beach:

I spent a lot of time investigating crab art …

… and crab activities, including digging …

… making tiny little sand balls (which become art) …

… and turning themselves into miniature water fountains!

The beaches are also a great place to go if you want to see the ubiquitous longtail boats, used by fishermen and tourist guides alike …

… and almost always elaborately beribboned at the prow:

But my favorite water activity in this part of the world has to be snorkeling, and I dedicated an entire day to a boat trip out on the water.

This was a small boat, just enough to hold nine prospective snorkelers and two crew members (ours is the one on the left below):

We went out about thirty minutes off shore, out to the little rock islands that still support some reef life at their barnacled limestone bases.

This is what you see when you peek just below the water up against the cliffs:

We didn’t have the best day for visibility — for reasons I don’t understand, our boat company took us out at high tide, and the waves were churning up a bunch of silt. But we still came across some beautiful things, including the biggest pufferfish I’ve ever seen …

… two large cuttlefish (which did not look friendly)…

… anemones galore …

… some with clownfish living inside (both those that looked like Nemo…

… and those that did not) …

… and several beautiful soft corals:

But my most exciting sighting of the day was this jellyfish!

This Versuriga anadyomene comes with its own hitchhiker fish that hide in and around its bell (you can see them swimming along at the bottom):

I love seeing how jellyfish move in the water:

And there were clams, of course, clams of all colors (though blue seemed to predominate) …

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… and a smattering of fish, though of fewer varieties than I might have expected.

But while I enjoyed my time in the water, I also loved just looking out at the rocky islands …

… and their bold limestone stalactites:

We even had a chance to climb into one of the rocky cliffs up on shore, starting our way into this cave at the end of Phra Nang Beach …

… then venturing further in …

… and finally scrambling all the way up to this view:

It’s a beautiful coastline — great for exploring!