Krabi Holiday Day 3

Tuesday, 22nd November 2011


Today we have no driver, as we have earlier planned to have a free and easy day.

We took a walk down from our resort to the beach which is about 5 minutes walk, and at the beach, we approached some boatmen on prices for a short half hour ride out to the sea, no stopping, no need to reach any island. All we wanted was for the kids to experience a boat ride on the long tail boats. But their quotes were unreasonably high, however, trust Daddy to haggle it down to a bargain.

One thing we learnt from here, is that the local Thais here doing business are more superstitious, preferring to start of their day with a sale (even at lower prices) than to close their day with a sale, if you know what I mean. That means, shop in the morning is better than shop at night.

The weather was gloomy, a little drizzling after 15 minutes on the beach. William quickly occupied himself with building a sand castle, or more like a sand house, whilst Vic and Daddy checked out the waters near the boats and mummy stood guard in between. William is quite alright to play by himself, so long as he doesn't "need help."

The majestic rows of long tail boats awaiting passengers on Ao Nang Beach

Daddy and Vic walking on the beach, hand in hand... how come I didn't get to do that?

William happily build his sand house in his own words, "all by himself"!

Daddy approached the 3rd or 4th boatman before almost securing a deal with him. Finally the price we got was THB1000 (all 4 of us) for a 90 minute boatride to Railay Island without stopping. Not bad, from an initial opening price of THB1800.

We took refuge under the small roof in the long tail boat, and enjoyed the wind blowing in our wind, the scenery around us, watching other boats pass us by and occasionally spotting some tourists snorkeling.

On the boat

Scenery

I didn't check the time we got on the boat, but the ride felt more like 1 hour instead of 90 minutes. We didn't feel ripped off though, since we only wanted a quick 30 minutes ride in the first place. The kids can now add on another "transport experience" on top of the tube, train, LRT, cab, bus, ferry, aeroplane, horse and elephant rides they have had. I think Vic can remember, but I doubt William can.

Getting off the long tail boat.  Daddy carried William to the beach first, then helped me down, followed by Vic and finally the stroller.  My eyes were on Vic and Daddy for that few seconds, and suddenly, hubs realised that our boy has gone off by himself...

As I called him, he took a look back, then continued to walk further down the beach.  I was confused, but eyed him.  We later found out he wanted to check on his sand house which he built.  

Look at me, not the babes in bikini in the background!

It started to drizzle heavier after we got off the boat, and we walked quickly along the shops, looking for a lunch place. During this time, I bought a picnic mat, which I have yet to open ceremony.

We ate at Black Canyon Coffee, which serve delicious Thai food as well as an impressive variety of coffee.

We stayed in the resort in the afternoon, all of us rested and when we were all packed and ready to go out, the sky poured. So we ordered room service - food was not nice at all for THB645!!! We ate dinner on the bed watching Cartoon Network, all of us - contrary to what some very creative friends think, that kids were watching CN whilst parents ahem... haha!

Pineapple fried rice. This is the only dish that is "edible"

When the rain stopped, we walked out to the shops abit, but didn't shop much as we under budget our cash (again, happens everytime on our holidays) and weather was still wet.

Making funny faces for the cameraman ie William, in a tuk tuk

Retired early for the night.  Tomorrow we check out.

Krabi Holiday Day 2

Monday, 21st November 2011

Today our itinerary starts at 11am after buffet breakfast at the resort. Breakfast was nothing to shout about, the usual sausage, ham, toast, cereals (which thankfully the kids have taken an intense liking to), omelete, fruits and some main courses that even me or my maid could cook better ; P

Our driver arrived slightly before 11am, and we were notified in our room by the receptionist. All packed with extra clothings, water and milk for the whole day out, the kids ran excitedly to the lift with the parents running after them.

Our driver is the husband of Patty, the lady whom we dealt with over email and who picked us up at the airport the day before. However, he doesn't speak much English, so we didn't communicate much with him. We have already planned to go elephant trekking, which is the first on our itinerary.

The weather was cooling, and I was praying it doesn't rain. It drizzled a little though, towards the 2nd half of our 1 hour jungle trekking (cost THB800 for adult, and THB400 for child, William goes free) and we were given umbrellas to hold. Comparing this experience with my first elephant trekking in Phuket last year, I think this was special due to the river crossing, but last year's was more dramatic and "scary" due to the very steep routes.

Crossing the river

Trekking the jungle - with some really muddy parts and squeezing in between bushes and brushing against tree branches.

After the 1 hour trekking, we get to feed the elephants pineapple.  All inclusive in the price. 

Vic was really scared to feed the elephant.  William was more daring, but needed to be guided.  As for mummy, she had to be brave for the kids but heart beating fast, no choice. 

After the elephant trekking, the driver brought us to this air conditioned restaurant in a shoplot, rather inexpensive if you don't mind the rather small portions. The restaurant was called Ko-Tung, with very clean toilets, and although the food was again, nothing to shout about, the coconut was to die for.

After lunch, we took advantage of the still-good weather and went to the Fish Farm. I wasn't expecting much, having not read anything about this place and only learnt about it from my sister-in-law. On the way there, William fell asleep in the car.

Entrance to the Fish Farm is free for all, but there is a donation box which is on a voluntary basis.  We were fortunate to be there at the right time, which we later learnt not all visitors get a "guided tour and show", as a worker was feeding the huge stingray in one pond. Later he showed us and another Thai family how he fed the sea turtle and allowed Vic to shake hands with the turtle! 

Then he brought us to yet another pond, where he showed us star fishes, clown fishes (Nemo and his family) and sea cucumbers. For the first time in my life, I touched a star fish! By this time, we decided to wake William up as he will surely love this. Heck the afternoon nap!

The kids also got to touch the star fishes, watch the uncle worker squart water out of the sea cucumber, and then, he led us to another pond where, lo and behold, there were many many of Vic's favourite fish... the "loong tan" (do you call this the dragon garoupa?) We just ate this dish at Unique Seafood for her graduation dinner, and it cost us RM250/kg, and according to the worker, each adult "loong tan" swimming in this pond averages around 200kg! Multiply that with RM250/kg, we are looking at RM50000 on each head! But of course, these fishes are bred not for the kitchen, but to breed baby fishes for sale to local fisherman, who will then sell them to the Hong Kong (not Malaysia) market. : (

Hello, Mr Turtle!

Touching the star fish

Looking out at the "loong tan" pond

Smile for the big Nemo, boy boy!

Evil eyes of the giant sting ray!

Surprisingly Vic didn't find holding the slippery dead little fishes gross or slimey.  She used this to feed the "loong tan"

The murray eel.  Finally we get to meet, after reading about it in the Little Mermaid. 

The giant "loong tan"... oh how I wish I have part of you in my freezer!

It started to rain after the fish farm visit, thus we were unable to do any shopping as planned, except visit their Vogue departmental store, which reminds me of Fajar in Sitiawan, maybe smaller even, then their popular Tesco Lotus. It's not really shopping, it's more like refuge from the rain.

For dinner, we ate at this restaurant called Wang Sai, near our resort along Ao Nang beach.  It is big, seems like a popular place filled with many patrons but service was really poor.  We ordered the broccoli with shrimps...

... clear soup vegetable with minced pork soup...

Curry blue crab, but I found it too much work for so little flesh.  Hubs finished this whole dish. 

And I finish this whole dish... the something something prawns.  It was average.  I was hoping for really big shrimps, though.  Looks like have to wait for Sandakan trip next year ; )

And this!  We waited for so long for this dish to arrive.  Just when this dish arrived, William wanted to deposit his big business profits and I spent almost 15 minutes waiting for him in a smelly toilet.  Part 2 of my dinner was nothing to look forward to, except to finish off my dinner, but our shock and horror when we discovered thick newspaper stuck to the bottom of the steam mackerel we ordered, and unfortunately only towards the end of the dish!

Hubs gave a piece of his mind to the staff there, and even though we were finally not charged for this dish, I had an uncomfortable feeling having known that the fish may not have been cleaned prior to cooking at all, and came direct from the fishmonger's newspaper.  Yucks and double yucks!  Thank God no purging though, but this was the worse dish I eaten for a long time now, and that's not even because of the newspaper.  NEVER ORDER STEAM MACKEREL.

Pre and Krabi Holiday Day 1

Saturday, 19.11.2011

The Saturday after Vic's last day of school, I attended Vic's last parent-teacher-meeting at her kindy in the morning, kinda sad for me. Academically Vic did just as well in her final semester, ace-ing every subject but her class teacher and I believe that examination results is not the be-all-end-all. We ended up talking about the education quality in this country, and why the national language is not perceived as important as English or even our mother tongue, resulting in many children opting for Chinese schools or home learning centres. Of all the parent friends that I have, I only know one child (non-chinese) who is going to a kebangsaan school, the rest are mostly headed to Chinese or private or home learning.

In the evening, I braved through the Midvalley crawl into the shopping centre, looked frantically and prayed for parking, and finally joined some cars parked illegally without obstructing traffic or putting my white baby at risk of being scratched. Vic attended her music classmate Brandon's 7th birthday party at Megakidz, then I chauffeured her back to PJ where we met up with Daddy and William.

That night, we started our parking for Krabi the next day!


Sunday, 20.11.2011

We took flight AK804 out of the country at 1:30pm, arriving Krabi nearing 2pm local time. The weather was a little wet and drizzling when we arrived, but it did not dampen our spirits and excitement for the start of our holiday. Patty, the lady whom we booked our airport transfer and day tour with, was already waiting at the arriving lounge for us, and shortly after, her minivan drove us to our hotel, Krabi La Playa which is about 30 minutes drive away, located strategically along Ao Nang beach.

In the flight.  Vic didn't sleep, but William napped less than 1hour.  We had a simple lunch at the Plaza Premium Lounge before the flight, but the food was nothing great and there were flies around.

Our hotel, Krabi La Playa

While waiting for Daddy to check us in.  We paid THB900 per night for extra bed and breakfast for 3rd person.  William is not charged. 

Mummy busied herself with photo taking.

Our room.  Very clean and spacious. We added a single bed on the side, which Daddy slept on (no choice la)

And our view from our balcony. 

1 hour after checked in, I went for my oil massage at the hotel (THB450) which hubby booked for me whilst he brought the two kids for a dip at the pool, just beside the massage house.  The kids were famished immediately after their swim.  Going out in a tuk tuk in search for dinner.  Cost us THB50 for the short yet pleasurable 5 minutes ride.  

This is our dinner venue.  We just picked one off the street but it was a nice cozy place serving authentic Thai food for a reasonable price. 

At night after shopping, we took this "motorbike-carriage" back (I don't know what it is called). Cost us slightly more at THB60 but the kids love this most!  Vic even put one leg up like "beca girl" with the wind blowing in her hair.