Klong Root (Clear Water Canal) — Local services in Krabi Province

A nice activity in Krabi. We have been in Krabi several times so we have visited most of the attractions here.

However some local people recommended us to try kayaking in Klong Root. Klong means « canal ».

We took a car to come here from Phulay bay a Ritz Carlton resort. It was about 25 minutes. We arrived at Klong root arount 8:30am.

There are many shops for Kayaking but we chose the first one. The fee per one kayak is 300 B. We also paid for having a guide to lead us. If a guide would be in our kayak, it costs 150B. But we would like to do kayaking by ourselves so we paid another 300 baht for our guide to have his own kayak. His name is Pee Mhid.

The water is crystal clear from the start. There are many tree stumps under the water so it has made our kayaking more fun. We could see many kinds of fish, big ones, small ones.

The scenary is beautiful with several mountains as our background. Many kinds of water birds, big and small ones.

After going through an opening canal, then we entered a narrow one in a mangrove jungle. We saw a big boa sleeping on the tree. Very exciting.

When we reached a corner, there is a shop selling drinks on the bank. At this area, our said we could come back and swim here. Because there is no plant or stump here.

We were kayaking further on the right toward to the origin of this canal. There were at least 6 kayaks here now so it was quite crowded. Then we got back to the corner and parked our Kayak at the side. Our guide is the best. He helps taking care of our parking and taking some pictures for us. He points us many good spots to see some special kinds of plants or animals. He didn’t hurry us up. We could spend time as much as we wanted.

The water is very clear and cool. It is refreshing. We really love this place. We enjoy our time here a lot.

Then, we got back to our kayak and head back the same way we came.

It took 1:15 hour for this activity including swimming in the water. A good exercise of kayaking back and forth, total of 3 kilometres.

Highly recommended to come early morning. They opens at 7am. When we were kayaking back, there were lots of...

Tldr; It's kind of okay.

First let's discuss pricing:

I found the place slightly confusing. There are many kayak suppliers scattered around. Based on all the comments here it seems that you should not pay more than 300 per two person kayak, although they will start with around 600.

A guide costed us 150, and even though he was a nice boy it didn't really add anything to the experience apart from him trying to unstuck us a couple of times.

It seems that you can negotiate deals incl. water/fresh coconut/watermelon & food and/or hats and bags. Good to know if you are trying to find a good deal.

Then on to the kayaking itself. As someone else pointed out it feels weird that the first km or so it's like you are paddling through a wasteland of completely destroyed mangrove. You will notice this because of the many tree stumps and rocks your kayak will inevitably get stuck on.

The water is still clear so there's that. However, we went on a Sunday afternoon, making it super busy and really detracted from how nice and calm the experience could have been. That's obviously on us, just remember to time your visit right.

The 'pool' where our guide stopped was also nice. Clear waters, fish, swimming.. all good fun. But again, being in such a small space with what felt like 200 other people isn't really optimal.

Even considering less crowds I would still not give it more than 3 stars because of the massive destruction that has been obviously...

Kayaking was great, but be wary of the “elephant tour” option as the place they go to has elephant riding!! Which is straight up animal abuse. The elephants are chained up at the ankle and neck, and forced to carry people on their backs. Elephants are not meant to carry anything on their backs and as a result their spines warp and causes pain to them. On our drive back to our hotel we had to stop and wait about 20 minutes for other people who got the kayaking & elephant package to feed and pet one baby elephant, who was being pulled by the ear by its trainer. Elephants in the place were chained up and swaying back and forth which is a sign of stress. Please DO NOT support places that have elephant riding, it is animal abuse. Do not book the elephant package with this company, only kayaking. Even just paying to feed the elephants and not ride them, supports this abuse. Spend your money elsewhere. If you want to interact with elephants go to Chiang Mai as they have a few very ethical elephant sanctuaries where they are not tortured and treated like this! Do not come to Thailand and ride elephants or pay the places that do it!! If I would have known I would not have booked this tour because business with the kayaking company probably supports the elephant riding business. I am sorry to the great kayaking business for the one star but they shouldn’t support elephant...