Sunburnt in Krabi: What Helps and What Makes It Worse
Krabi sits eight degrees north of the equator. The sun is close to overhead at midday and the UV index regularly reaches eleven, which is the top of the scale. People who never burn at home burn here, often on the first day, often from a boat.
Boats burn people more than beaches do
On an island-hopping day the water reflects light upward, the breeze removes the feeling of heat, and there is rarely shade. Most of the serious burns we see came from a long-tail boat rather than from lying on a towel.
The underside of the chin, the tops of the feet and the backs of the knees are the places people forget and the places that hurt most that night.
The first evening
Cool water, not ice. Drink more than usual, because a burn pulls fluid toward the skin and leaves the rest of you short. Loose cotton rather than anything that clings.
Avoid anything that dries the skin further, which includes most alcohol-based after-sun sprays. Plain aloe gel kept in the fridge is more useful than anything expensive.
When a massage is the wrong idea
If the skin is red and hot to the touch, or blistering anywhere, do not have an oil massage. Pressure and friction on inflamed skin hurts and can damage it further, and a good shop will tell you so and offer something else.
The honest alternative on a bad burn day is a foot massage at 350 baht, which leaves the burnt areas alone entirely, or simply coming back in two days.
When it does help
Once the heat has gone out of the skin, usually by day two or three, an aloe vera massage at 500 baht is genuinely the right treatment. It is cooling, the pressure is light, and it addresses the tightness and peeling that follow.
Tell the therapist where you burnt before the session starts rather than flinching halfway through. Nobody minds working around an area.
Not getting burnt in the first place
Reapply after swimming, no matter what the bottle claims. Ten in the morning to four in the afternoon is when the UV here is genuinely dangerous, which is also when most boat tours are out.
A long-sleeved rash guard on a boat day is the single most effective thing, and it is what the boat crews themselves wear.
