Kicking Back In Krabi (3/3)

DAY FOUR

Our fourth day was spent hopping from island to island, baking under the sun and snorkelling. Aahh ... now that's what I call a beach holiday!!

Hanging around, no responsibilities, no pesky calls from the office, no deadlines, no internet connection ... I could seriously get used to this!

Later that afternoon, we decided to go snorkelling. We hopped into one of the many water taxis lined up along the shore and off we went to a few recommended snorkelling spots.

The water was warm, wonderfully clear and all but there were way too many corals at this spot. You look down and all you see is an explosion of corals and gigantic ones at that! Huge bulbous globs of corals in every shape and colour imaginable ... they were really beautiful and yet, kinda freaked me out a little. They were so huge that you had to swim very carefully so that you don't crash into them. So yeah, it wasn't all that fun. At one point, Andrew's eyes bulged out of his sockets when he saw that I was about to whack into a sea urchin butt-first. Holy cow!

We went to several sites ... after a whole afternoon of boating around and snorkelling, we were spent.

The ride back to shore was so picturesque: the sun was turning a brilliant orange, its rays warming our skin and casting a glow on everything it touched. Aahhhh ...

That was when I realised my leg was starting to hurt. I looked at it and it was red and swollen. The first thought that came to my mind was JELLYFISH! Oh god, was I doomed??!! Turned out, it was some itsy bitsy little jellyfish that bit me - at least that was what the guide told me. I didn't feel like going to the hospital, so I believed him. And he was right (many days later, I would realise that I was still alive).

Later that night, we were lucky enough to witness a street parade during dinner. Apparently, it was the Loi Krathong festival, a festival in worship of the goddess of water and one of Thailand's biggest annual events. There was a marching band, a stream of floats and of course, hundreds of tourists running alongside the parade with cameras swinging from their necks.

There were also performances on the street ...

... I especially loved it when the fireworks started going off!

Ao Nang beach had officially turned into Party Central!

Local customers at the restaurant where we were dining were lighting large paper lanterns and letting them loose into the dark night sky. You're supposed to make a wish before letting go. Soon, the sky was filled with floating lanterns. What a sight!

It was late by the time we got back to our hotel. It was our last night in Buri Tara and in Krabi ... sigh ... I so didn't want to go home!!!

The two pics above are (1) the entrance of Buri Tara resort and (2) a view of the rooms and their reflection in the swimming pool. So nice hor? It had been such a great four days in Krabi and I really missed it after we left. I don't usually say this about places I've visited, but with Krabi, I must say that I'd definitely want to come back again!

Kicking Back In Krabi (2/3)

DAY THREE

Woke up again at 7am to get ready for our white-water rafting trip. It was a long 1.5hr drive deep into the jungle to the rafting site.

Once there, I was pretty impressed by the lodge that seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere in the middle of the jungle. It was huge and very well-maintained.

We went for a quick tutorial (which basically consisted of three points: get in, stay in and try not to fall out of the raft - and if you do, for heaven's sake, don't panic!!). Apparently, if we fell out of the raft, we were supposed to just float and go with the water current and stay calm. Don't worry. One of the guys will paddle over to you and grab you by your lifesaver and pull you back into the raft. Oh, I see. Just go with the flow ah? Then no need to worry lor - are you people crazy??!!

So there we were: dragging our raft down to the River of Death. The damn raft was heavy ok.

And there we were: pushing ourselves away from the bank of the River of Death.

And there we were: RAFTING! I paddled really hard and it took me about two minutes to realise that it didn't matter whether I paddled or not because the raft was being expertly manoeuvred by the two guides who were positioned at the front and back of the um, mode of transportation. Those guys were remarkably strong and handled the raft really well as we sped through the rapids, which left me plenty of time to scream my head off and freak out like some crazy person.

The good news - I never fell out of the raft into the raging rapids even when the guides were playing the fool and steering our raft right into the rocks to topple us over ($#@%!@#$!@#). All in all, it was lots of fun ... and I would never ever do it again. Once was enough thank-you-very-much.

We had lunch after our leisurely cruise down the River of Death, then departed to trek up a hill to a waterfall and end our day with a visit to the Monkey Temple.

The trek up to the waterfall was easy enough but man, it was crowded up there!! Plus, the water was soooo cold ... too cold to do any swimming. We trekked back down after a while.

As for the temple, I confess I'm not exactly a big fan of temples and even less so of banana-chugging monkeys. So this particular stop held little fascination for me. I realise that this makes me sound like an Ignorant Tourist, but all I saw were monkeys, monkeys and more monkeys. And why not? There were 1,400 of them all over the place!!!

Of course there weren't only monkeys, there was a big statue of Buddha and a cave. There were quite a few dogs roaming around freely too, and they'd sometimes chase the monkeys. The dogs scared me, so we went back to the hotel.

For Day Four, click here.

Kicking Back In Krabi (1/3)

DAY ONE

It was a Saturday when we landed in Krabi International Airport. Was impressed - newly refurbished and swankier than I'd expected. Got out of the airport (it was absolutely scorching; so hot it wasn't funny) and checked into Buri Tara, this compact boutique resort on Ao Nang beach. The room was not very big but it was well-furnished; I particularly liked the 'his' and 'hers' bathroom sinks. Every hotel should have these.

We stepped out of Buri Tara and ventured out to Ao Nang beach, which is essentially a street lined on one side by scores of little shops (think tourist with capital 'T') and restaurants specialising in all sorts of cuisines from every corner of the globe. It was packed with tourists, mostly angmohs and a handful of Asians. The strip had a very sanitised, family feel to it ... even at night. Of course there were bars (tucked discreetly inside little lanes) where you'll see the typical angmoh canoodling with a Thai girl who comes up to his belly button but there really weren't that many. Having said that, Krabi is relatively up-and-coming (when compared to say, Phuket), so I guess we'll have to give it a few years!

We decided to have lunch and plan our itinerary for the next three days ... we had good Thai noodle soup and um, pizza. What a combo huh?

... looking at the load of brochures we'd taken from the numerous tour operators lining the strip, I was a little overwhelmed. There were so many things I wanted to do!! Elephant rides ... cooking classes ... trekking ... national parks ... rock-climbing ... hot springs ... Unfortunately, time wasn't on our side. For one thing, most trips are full-day excursions, so you can comfortably do only one thing a day. With only three full days before our departure, we had to be selective. So in the end, it was kayaking, white-water rafting and some serious island-hopping.

It rained that evening, which sucked. We ducked into Gecko, this Thai massage spa centre, where Andrew got himself a massage. One of those where the masseuse elbow, knee and step all over you until your bones crack. Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of massage. But Andrew was thrilled - he paid only 200B for a whole hour. How can you beat that la??

That night, we ventured into this little lorong which - to our surprise - wasn't a lorong at all. It was kinda like an indoor makan strip with plenty of restaurants inside. I loved it! There were so many choices and this being our first night, obviously we wanted to stuff ourselves silly with cheap seafood ...

... and we did. As you can see from the pic, we ordered about 73 dishes ... and ate them all.

DAY TWO

Woke up at 7am, had breakfast and got ready to go kayaking at Ko Hong (considered to be among the most beautiful islands in the Krabi province- and rightly so!). I was excited! We went on a longtail boat ride to the island. It took 45 minutes, most of which was spent on the top deck being roasted by the sun.

The service was real good on board - we were constantly being served coffee, tea, fresh fruit and pineapple cookies. I had about a dozen of them, I swear, but the heat of the sun burns calories, you know, so it was fine.

The moment Hong Island came into view, you could hear the oohs and aahs ... I mean, look at those pics. Are they gorgeous or are they gorgeous? Crystal clear water glinting in the sunlight ... the smooth sandy strip of beach ... you just want to jump right into the water and never come out. Wait. That's drowning. I meant, jump in and swim around for hours and not have to go home when the tour operator tells you to.

We were quickly briefed and off we went into our kayaks. The plan was to kayak around the island and we'd get to kayak into the famous Hong Lagoon too!

And there we were, at the entrance of Hong Lagoon. We were flanked by two massive, forbidding walls of limestone ... entering a sacred room in the middle of the sea. Once inside, it's a round room of clear blue (surprisingly shallow!) water surrounded by a circular stone wall rising from the sea. It was so peaceful in there.

There were lots of sea stars in there too. Which obviously meant that everybody was plucking them out from the water and putting the stars on their arms and taking pictures. Like this one.

After a few hours, we finally returned from paddling around Ko Hong. Ah, now was the perfect time to do some swimming and snorkelling. We had lunch after that ... then I saw this sign. It was not a comforting thought. We quickly swallowed the last bits of pineapple, hopped back onto the boat and continued baking under the sun all the way back to the hotel.

Later that night, we went back to that little seafood strip for dinner. This time, we tried another restaurant. As you can see from this pic, we ordered 74 dishes and ate them all. Yum!

For Day Three, click here.