Travelogue 11: We Repeat Krabi!

My post in 2014:http://zuldiya.blogspot.my/2014/09/travelogue-4-amazing-krabi.html and we repeat this trip after 2 years. Number of people remain the same so does the number of baggage and strollers. We chose the same villa i.e. Baan Santhiya in Ao Nang to reminisce our memories in 2013.

It was Malaysia Day and we celebrated the establishment of Malaysian federation in Thailand. Browsing through tripadvisor.com and few other sites, we got the head up that the weather will not be as good as the one we had in April 2014 and September is the wettest month which should be avoided by tourists. But we had our Plan B which was eating and 'spa'ing.

Day #1, 15 September 2016

The 'Twins" in front of the villa

Baan Santhiya

Arrival at Krabi Airport, checked in at Baan Santhiya, settling down and we had dinner at a very humble stall at Ao Nang Mosque area. Baan Santhiya provided free tuk tuk which can cover Ao Nang area and it's chargeable at THB200 per trip after 6pm. Ordered food were the usual suspect i.e. Tom Yum, Steamed Fish, Squid with Salted Egg, Thai Basil Chicken and for the dessert, we had nutella pancake. We were then went to Boss Tailor to make custom blouses, suits and pants.

Day #2, 16 September 2016

Departed from the villa at 730am, we chose to go to the Emerald Pool on Friday after reading through the net, almost everybody experience the same problem, too many people in the small pool. So we decided to arrive early in the morning on weekdays. It took around 1 hour ( normal walking pace) to reach there. 

Only us at the Emerald Pool

We were the first group to arrive and there is National Park fee charged at THB 200/head. Walking for about 2km on a wooden boardwalk and concrete walkways. As we were the early birds, our group was accompanied by 3-4 stray dogs which personally, for the fee that has been charged (Tourist pay 90% higher than local people; Thai people charge at THB 20 only), Tourism Ministry of Thailand..please do something about the dogs.. They have their rangers inside the national park but they did nothing about it. Other than the dogs, we got a first class view and experience as nobody were there in the pool for about one hour. We had the pool for ourselves. And the other lagoon which only for sighting known as blue lagoon is really blue.  The water in the pool come through porous rock layers and contain a high amount of calcium carbonate making it unsuitable for drinking. The changes in colour depend on the algae and temperature of the water. Therefore different time and temperature will give you different shades of blue.

Next stop was the Hotspring. Unfortunately we were informed that it is under maintenance. There were still people swimming in the Hotspring but the color of water was like Thai Iced Tea, so we ended up taking picture with the signage.

Lunch was superb at Pak Nam Krabi Seafood. The restaurant is located beside the river.

Menu: among others, Green Curry Beef, Tom Yum, Soft Shell Crab with Salted Egg, Steamed Fish, Tod Man Pla, Prawn with Tamarind sauce

Next activity was 'spa'ing while the 'twins', fathers and uncle shopped at Tesco. We chose Kantawan Spa which is located nearby the restaurant as it offers Onsen and Salt Sauna other than typical Thai Massage. Worth every single penny!

We ended our day at Krabi Night Market which open from 5pm onwards. Plenty of halal Thai street food available and it's delicious especially the coconut ice cream (known as sangkaya in Malaysia) and fried ice cream (milk is fried on the frozen pan and taddaa it become ice cream). It's a tourist market so it's crowded with people and quite pricey.

Day #3, 17 September 2016

It's island hoping day. We totally aware that the weather was not that good. It's raining heavily at night before until dawn. But the agent said it is safe to go for island hoping. With the hope that everything will be just fine, ended up it became the most horrible island hoping experience that we ever had. The sea was very super duper rough. Never experience that before. Even the boatmen said that day was among the worst along the year. We even thought that all of us will be dead in the sea. My kids were crying and being a mama, i also cried with them (not helpful huh!). My mom, hubby and brother in law had a sea sick and vomit in the boat. We did not enjoy the boat ride and scenary at all.

We took Phi Phi Island Package via speedboat which cost us THB1,350 per adult. It took 2 hours for the boat to reach the first attraction famously known as Bamboo Island. Too exhausted, we only let the kids play with the sand at Bamboo Island. After an hour, we need to embark on the speedboat again. Everybody was traumatized but no other option we have to proceed with the next attraction which is Monkey Bay. We insisted of not going because monkey is so common in Malaysia, but given that there were tourists from US, Israel and Europe, monkey is really an excitement for them.

Next, Phi Phi Don. It was crowded with people and boat. I would say Phi Phi Island is over rated as compared to Hong Island. There were so many speedboats we couldn’t even see the beach. In fact there was no physical space to park the boat so we had to force our way between two other boats. The smell of diesel didn’t help. Not a promising start.After a tasteless lunch buffet next to the beach with thousands of people, we got to explore the surroundings a bit and try to take in the scenery past the touristy stuff. Phi Phi Don has one of the more intense vibes supposedly based on my search from google. Maybe my experience could have been better if it wasn't a rough boat ride or maybe being an introvert person, it’s not just my kind of place. But I’m afraid what I saw didn’t exactly got me craving for more.

It's windy that a bunch of sand gets blown all over

Next, as it was a bad day for the boat ride, Maya Bay which apparently the most wonderful beach in Thailand at least, is not accessible. The speedboat brought us to Loh Samah Bay for snorkeling. And every other boats were heading to the same snorkeling spot which make the scenery less attractive. Girls stay in the boat, men including the boys went down for snorkeling surrounded by the boats. According to them, the coral at Hong Island was much better and as there were too many boats around them, the diesel smell and maybe taste were too overwhelmed. But at least the kids really enjoyed the experience of swimming with the fish.

Heading back to Ao Nang at last, the boat ride was as rough as the morning ride. Traumatized with this experience, we will put a halt for boat ride until further notice.

As planned, next agenda - self BBQ'ed dinner at Baan Santhiya with raw seafood bought from the local market.

                                                         The price of seafood at the local market in Krabi almost half than price of seafood in Kuala Lumpur. We bought the paste and spicy dip at the local market as well. 




















Day #4, 18 September 2016

Last minute shopping, eating and spa'ing at Ao Nang while catching pokemon. Overall, other than the rough sea ride, we had a blast!