Because most of our past trips we didn’t stay in one place for too long, usually I don’t go for Friday praying during travel. However, we stayed in Krabi long enough that made me obligated to perform the prayer in the mosque instead of replacing it with Zuhr prayer at hotel. Thankfully it is very easy to find mosque in the region. Even, in Ao Nang a mosque is just a stone throw distance from our hotel.
We used islamicfinder to check the prayer time. Although we referred to it rarely because the prayer call sound is announced from the mosque. The Zuhr time during visit was around 12.15. It was raining on that Friday on that hour. Fortunately the hotel staff said, in Krabi the actual Friday pray will only begin 1 hour later.
It was around 12.10 at that day, I was waiting the rain to abate in the lobby hotel. Initially I intended to walk from hotel to the Ao Nang Mosque. But because the rain was heavy enough, regardless how large your umbrella wouldn’t protect you from the rain splash. Then I changed my plan to just hop the hotel shuttle to the beach. Unfortunately, the shuttle just left few minutes earlier and the next one will come only at 1 pm which is too late. I dropped the plan and asked the receptionist our rental key car that we left the night before because we parked the car in parallel, blocking other cars since we didn’t get parking space anymore. Somehow the receptionist that on duty today couldn’t find my car key, although I remember, her colleague, put the our room number tag on the key the day before. Finally after some time and my annoyances accreted, she got my key.
The distance to the mosque is only about 300 meters. As I got out from the lobby, I just need to drive through the small unnamed road leading from hotel to the main road. Just before the main road, I saw a space beside a building which I could use to park the car without going out to the main road. It seemed that the parking rule was lax, and many cars parked at the side main road too. After parking, I just needed to walk slowly with umbrella to the mosque entrance because the rain was still dripping.
Ao Nang mosque is one of many mosques in Ao Nang area and even more mosques in Krabi. This mosque prominent because located in main road toward the beach. On the night, colors light will be projected to the domes of the mosque, make it looks very beautiful. Some tourists complain the prayer call that happen 5 times every days are very loud. But considering there are many muslims in Krabi and prayer call is a norm in a muslim community and that prayer calls have happened for decades, their complaints seems not valid. Furthermore, some tourists also sometime make a lot of noises in bars or in front of hostel.
Talking about the Friday pray again, there were no many differences except the language that is used for the sermon. The sermon used Thai and I was lost in translation for the whole sermon duration until the preacher start to recite prayer in Arabic which I am familiar with. Most of the congregation looks like Malay people, but there some native Thai people as well. There were some tourists which from their looks come from different countries.
After the prayer ended, I went out from the mosque and walked to the car. Then, our rented car was besieged by many other cars that were not before. I waited for sometime until the driver that was still in the mosque comes. I headed back to the hotel once the car exist freed up. And that concluded the Friday pray experience in Krabi.
To see what other fun activities you can do in Krabi, please see this post.