Krabi, 25 - 28 April 2008

25 April (Friday)

12.05pm - Flight AK 862 to Krabi.

12.50pm - Arrived in Krabi Airport. The airport's so small. Hotel shuttle greeted us (paid THB1,100 for transfer of 11 pax with 1 van).

2.00pm - Checked in to The Verandah Hotel in Ao Nang, which is about 45 mins drive from the airport. Our 5 rooms were spread across 3 floors of this budget hotel - which is actually lovely, considering we paid about THB 850 per room per night. Comfy spacious tiled rooms with attached bathrooms, heated showers and air-conds. About 10 mins walk from the beach. Just across the street from city comforts like McD's, Swensen's, 7-11, various hawker stalls / restaurants and numerous massage shops. I would recommend this hotel to anyone! :)

2.30pm - Headed beach-wards for lunch. Not many places available for lunch, so we got ripped off having Ao Nang fried rice that cost us RM10 each. At least the fried rice was quite good.

3.30pm - Checked out prices for the next day's tour. Best option we got cost us THB 1,350 per person for 5-islands including Hong Island and kayaking. Settled and proceeded to Swensen's for Earthquake in the sweltering Krabi heat (Malaysians need their air-cond).

4.30pm - Went for a 30-minute pedicure that costs THB 150. You get what you pay for. I'd go for a PJ pedicure anytime :P

7.00pm - Went for dinner nearby at some roadside stall. Had the yummiest tom yam soup ever!

8.00pm - On the walk back to the hotel, stopped at this quaint restaurant with thatched huts for mango sticky rice - quite good too.

8.30pm - Followed KF to the tailor to custom-make a pin-striped suit. Apparently, it's cheap there and they could get it done within 3 days.

9.45pm - Went for a foot massage nearby that cost THB 180 for an hour (after 10% discount because there were 5 of us there). Fell asleep while my feet were being pampered. Oh this was good!

11.00pm - Caught the last hour of "Shall We Dance" (one of my favourite movies) on one of the numerous tv channels available in the room (they have, like, 60 channels!). Konked out past midnight.

26 April (Saturday)

5.30am - The sun was up bright and early. And since it's 6.30am M'sian time, I should be awake already. Surfed channels to pass time.

8.00am - Went downstairs to the lobby for breakfast - buffet style with toast, buns, ham slices, fried eggs, sausages, bacon, cereals, salad, fruits, milk and juices. Not bad.

9.00am - Tour operator picked us up in a pick-up truck (literally) and brought us to Nopparat Thara beach where we boarded the speedboat to start our 5-island tour.

First stop (about 45 minutes later) was at some deserted some strip of island which we were told we could spend about 40 minutes but cannot snorkel and to be careful of sea urchins, which scared us off! :P However, we gamely slathered on sun block, hopped into the sea, scraped our feet on the very rocky sand bed, then clambered back on to the boat.

2nd "island" was for snorkelling and we were excited about it, pulling on our snorkelling gear, but came out of the water so disappointed because the sea was so murky we could barely see our fingers!

3rd "island" was where we were brought to some lagoon, quite pretty, but we didn't feel inclined to risk our lives by jumping from the boat (although we were allowed to) as there were so many boats rounding the small lagoon.

4th "island" was where we had our packed lunch - rice with a small chicken drummet and some minced pork with fruits and a bottle of mineral water. Luckily we didn't exert ourselves too much earlier. But we were definitely looking forward to kayaking. There were little tables scattered around a small part of this island and a toilet facility nearby.

Kayaking - oh goodness, this was definitely an experience. My arms and shoulders still feel sore until today. An hour of fighting sea currents, boating into a quiet lagoon, lying down so KF could navigate us thru some rocky crevice (this was fun), and when I thought I was finally getting the hang of kayaking, we saw land.

5th "island" wasn't an island. It was a spot where we could jump down into the sea from the boat and swim / feed the fishes. YF went down and fed the fishes. This was the only place we actually clearly saw sea-life.

On the way back to Ao Nang, they dropped some people off at Railay - which didn't look as fantastic as people say it is, but I guess it's a bit better than Ao Nang or Nopparat Thara, both of which have coarse brown sand, like reclaimed beach. Our Terengganu beaches are a million times better. And the next beach holiday will be a local one, definitely!

4.00pm - Arrived back at the hotel to shower.

5.00pm - Traipsed to Ao Nang beach for a massage, where they promised "buy 8 free 1", which sounded good to the 9 of us. The settings were open-air huts with mattresses facing the beach. But we felt ripped off, although it was cheap - about THB 155 per person for an hour of Thai massage. I prefer clean controlled settings with curtains and air-cond, without masseurs who molest your husband for having nice skin.

6.30pm - Joe met up with us to make us a round group of 10. And we headed for dinner at Bernie's Place, which had an all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet for THB 250 per person. An ice-blended fruit shake only cost THB 30, and the place serves beer and alcohol. Seems to be frequented by quite a number of Westerners, with a large screen for football matches.

8.00pm - KF went for 2nd fitting at the tailor's. The shirts and pants were ready. The general outline of the coat was ready too, but the guy still had to put pins and tucks here and there.

10.00pm - Played Taboo awhile, then some went to bed, some proceeded to Luna near the beach for drinks. I knocked out past midnight again. This "holiday" is turning out to be more tiring than I thought it'd be.

27 April (Sunday)

7.30am - Woke up at a reasonable hour this time.

8.30am - Went down for breakfast. Lobby was filled with people, guess a lot of guests were checking out already. We hired a private van (from the same person who'd sold us the islands-tour) who'd bring the 10 of us to the hot stream and Krabi town for the day for THB 2,500, complete with air-cond van, petrol and driver.

10.30am - The driver picked us up. Drove us about 30 minutes to this restaurant for an early lunch. Quaint restaurant built on stilts over some water filled with big big fishes. Menu had no price, but had many strange dishes (crisp caterpillar, red ants). Being Malaysians, we were skeptical about the place due to its price-less menu, so we ordered selectively.

12.30pm - Arrived at the Hot Stream, paid THB 70 per person. The water was indeed hot, supposedly around 40 degrees Celsius. We soaked awhile, came out, and continued sweating profusely. We must have been crazy to want to soak in a hot tub in the hot afternoon sun. An ice cream cone later did nothing to cool us down.

The driver then drove us to the Emerald Pool, where we had to traipse 800 metres in to reach the pool. And when we did, we saw it was this huge emerald-coloured place that looked more like a public pool. We went in, having paid THB 160 per person (our driver secured us 10 tickets for the price of 8). But again, felt ripped off. The water was not as hot as the Hot Stream, but it wasn't refreshing cool either. We climbed out after 5 minutes. And did a 1.4km trek through the rain forest (walking along mud trails and chopped-off tree logs). By this time, most of us were feeling that Malaysia should also devise some plans to rip off tourists as well.

On the way back to Krabi, we stopped by at their factory outlet store, where KF bought a pair of Geox shoes.

We then decided to skip Krabi town (on the advice of the driver, which we accepted because we noticed the town looked really uninteresting) and gladly arrived back at the hotel.

5.00pm - Took our baths, which was essential, as we'd soaked together with strangers in numerous public pools earlier. KF and YewL went for their final fittings at the tailor and collected their suits. YF bought me a pork burger from McD's (which was soooo yummy) as I was complaining of tummy ache.

7.00pm - Had typical Thai dinner at Banyan restaurant. Tummy already felt like going on strike, lots of wind and irregular purging. Sat thru dinner, near the toilet.

8.30pm - Went back to hotel after dinner to rest, while the rest went shopping along the beach. I needed to be in close proximity to a toilet, couldn't risk roaming the streets.

9.30pm - Downed a packet of "po chai" pills. Decided my tummy should be able to last for a couple more hours, then headed out to the massage place (same one as the 1st night) to get an hour's foot massage and a 1/2-hour shoulder and back massage. Cost a super cheap THB 270! Luxury = cheap but good quality massages. Most of the 9 of us had more than 1 massage session.

Midnight - After leaving the shop, we went to McD's and I had my first BigMac in my life - but with succulent pork pieces - oh so yummy! They make it fresh on the spot, and you can choose if you want pork or beef. They also had prawn nuggets and yam pies and mini McFlurrys. Thai McD's is fun. We then went next door to 7-11 to stock up on Lay's chips (a must-buy from every Thai trip). Some then continued on playing games, but KF and I decided to knock out at about 1am.

28 April (Monday)

7.30am - Got up early to bathe and pack up. Lugged everything downstairs.

8.30am - Breakfast, took charcoal pills and checked out. Paid THB 200 for the lost room key.

10.00am - Departed to airport. Started drizzling. We cheered because the weather actually held up rather well for the past 3 days we were there.

10.45am - Arrived at Krabi airport. Hung out at coffee house. Checked-in to flight. Waited for the gate to open and popped a bottle of "po chai" again.

12.50pm - Flight AK 863 back to Kuala Lumpur.

3.05pm - Landed back in LCCT, back to reality. Thank goodness only 2 working days before Labour Day.

Krabi - good place for cheap massages and a dose of Thai food (which is actually better and more authentic in Bangkok or Chiangmai). Otherwise, look elsewhere for a beach / island holiday. The company was good, however, so that's what matters the most. I wouldn't go back there again, but yes I would suggest it as a cheap holiday location, if you're really looking for a holiday with absolutely nothing to do.