Krabi 2016

I nearly forgot to blog about the Krabi trip that I took last July. The main reason it slipped my mind is that I've been to Phuket and Krabi is very similar to Phuket. Beaches, sand, sun, Thai food, island hopping yadaa yadaa yadaaa. So, you get the gist. But it would not be fair to dismiss Krabi just because of that. Yes, it can be very similar to Phuket but Krabi do have its own attraction. 

This is the first real holiday that I took with the husband and his family. We planned the trip last year as couple but went as husband and wife. And I am 4 months pregnant during the trip. Amazing what can happen in a year time,eh?

The deep blue sea view never fails to amaze me.

If you're long time reader, you would know that I love love love beach holiday. I love the sea, I love the sand and I love the sun too! It just makes me happy. Actually I love travelling in general, so I love every holidays. Sorting through the photos makes me wanna book myself a ticket right now and flying off somewhere new for a change of routine. Too bad being heavily pregnant at almost 31 weeks, I'm confined here. But I already lined up some vacations for next year hehehe. If you think that having a baby will stop me from travelling, then you're so wrong.

We stayed at Oscar Villa in Aonang.

We had our own villa and had all the privacy that needed. The villa is equipped with kitchenette which really comes in handy when I need to make a simple breakfast or late supper. Since the husband and I are super chill, we often slept in while others are out exploring.So we prefer to settle our breakfast at the villa. Plus a hungry pregnant lady is not someone you want to mess it ;p

Instant noodles, fresh kiwi and yogurt drinks that we got from 7-11 are enough to fuel us up till lunch time.

Since our villa is located between Aonang and Krabi town and only accessible by car, it is a wise decision for us to rent a car for our 5 days stay. The car renting process was done online prior to our departure and we collected our car at the airport. With our tourist sim card that we got at the airport, we rely on the data to google for maps. 

A 4 wheel drive to accommodate 8 of us. 

One of the must go places that we slipped into our itinerary is to visit Krabi Night Market. Word has it that it only open on weekend, so we were mad rush from the airport and checked into Oscar Villa and then drive out to Krabi Town because that's the only weekend that we had.

But the next night we passed by the area, the night market still open -'-

The night market is no different from other night markets that I had been to. The abundance of food stalls, souvenirs stalls selling trinklets, phone casing, t-shirts, handmade crafts, clothes and so on lined the whole street. There are some local performance going on too where the local play musical instruments.

You can never go wrong with Thai food

This is an old coffee shop that we stopped at on our way to Emerald Pool

Not a hint of tourists are in sight and because we were hungry and their food looks delicious, we decided to just wing it and dine there. Language is the biggest barrier for us because they speak nil English. So, to order we basically just point and nod, they got some of our orders wrong but it's okay because it is delicious. This shop is specialise in innards of pork and beef paired with broth of your choice (pork/beef/chicken) and noddles of your choice too (rice vermicelli/yellow noodles etc)

Islands hopping day

My memory is hazy about the islands that we visited but we did stopped at a few spots for snorkelling. It was fun to see all the colourful fish underwater, too bad I have no waterproof camera. At our second snorkelling spot, we stopped quite far from the shore and the waves was quite strong. I was so into my snorkelling session, chasing fish with the husband and before we realised it, we  had swam away quite far from our boat.

Frankly, I was scared because we're in the middle of the sea and the waves was strong. Each waves coming in and swept us even further from the boat. Suddenly, the dark blue sea looked almost greenish black to me. When our guide signalling us to get back on the boat, I tried to swim back several times only to realise the waves sent me back to my original spot.

But luckily the husband is by my side. If I were alone, I think I would have spiralled into panic mode and cried on the spot. I gathered myself and continued swimming to the boat with the husband. It was the most tiring swim ever and I was 4 months pregnant. Every time I stroked harder, I could feel my stomach cramp a little.

But I'm not the one that will give up, so yeah, we reached the boat and our guide was grinning at breathless us. ='=

Our guide brought us to an island, sorry ah I forgot the name and gave us a an hour to chill there. Unlike most of the islands that I've visited, this one has not much activities going on. Even the kayaks are quite deserted. I guess it is a lazy day for beach goers as everyone opted to make full use of the sun and sunbathing. 

The only centre of attraction is the boat that sells food. They really made an awesome BBQ chicken which left us wanting for more but the waiting time.....

Me seeking refugee under the tree while waiting for my BBQ chicken

A visit to the Tiger Cave Temple is totally impromptu because my MIL is not fond of temples. But we all are eager to have a look around, so the majority won. I mean it doesn't hurt to appreciate other religions prayer places. I love to learn and explore about the local traditions and stories behind these temples. 

The local name of the temple is Wat Tham Suea and the entrance is free. But it has a strict dress code for visitors. Shorts and revealing outfits are big no no as it shown no respect to the holy ground. We came unprepared since it is not in the plan. 

Because of that we didn't go up the hill and actually got told off by the guard. But the ground area is very interesting to explore as well. Some of the monuments are still under construction.

By the way, if you're coming here to look for tiger due to its name, you will be disappointed because there are no tiger around but they do have monkeys I heard. But the temple is filled with tiger statues and I heard the view of the top of the hill is amazing.

One of the things that I'm excited about during this trip is the visit to Emerald Pool. I've never been to any emerald pool before. The emerald pool is the blueish green pond that filled with clear warm water from nearby stream. The entrance fee is 200THB for adult. 

Spamming our photos at the entrance because halfway through our hike into the forest, it rained. 

We need to walk through a trail for almost a kilometre before reaching the emerald pool. Walking through the trail with some of the trees are tagged reminded me so much of my field trip days. Halfway through the trail, it poured heavily. 

We had no choice but to seek shelter at the nearby abandon building along with other visitors. There were no guide in sight, not sure if they even have any guides there because the trail is pretty straight forward. 

Since we're going to get wet swimming anyway, we decided to just wing it and walked under the rain. Quite a genius decision because the rain didn't stop at all. I was shivering but it was refreshing. 

Before the rainfall

The emerald pool, nah I'm kidding. This is just the surrounding area

I have no photos of the emerald pool because it was drizzling and I put away my camera. It was quite packed with people. We swam for awhile before taking a break. Too bad the facility nearby is not quite well. There is only one hut for the visitors to rest or put away their stuff or in our case, to put our stuff from being drenched in rain. 

I also dropped my camera here and broke my lens here :(

We also took tour for elephant ride + ATV and rafting. I did not fancy the elephant ride because we did it before in Phuket and it breaks my heart to see those elephants being forced to work. I even see it with my own eyes that the elephant is hit by the trainer if they refused to walk.

Our first stop during the car ride to the trekking place, again I forgot which tour company that we signed up with.

It was a full day trip that included pick up from our villa, buffet lunch and activities such as elephant trekking, ATV, rafting and a visit to the fruit orchard. I think July is the wettest month in Krabi because it rains almost every day for the whole week we're there.

So, this is my OOTD for the tour.

Monkey and elephant shows are available too but for merely less than 5 minutes. Very disappointing and there is no interaction between the host and the audience too.

We did get on the elephant ride but cut it short because the downpour was getting heavier. Our track is muddy and some are even blocked by landslide. Even the ATV activity was cancelled too. 

And this is the activity that I'm so bummed to miss. Rafting!

I've never go rafting before and it is so much fun, according to the husband that he even extended their rafting journey. ='= I wanna try it too but maybe next time after I deliver our baby. I also missed out on flying fox for safety sake but also it is rather boring. 

When I heard that we're going to get fruit tasting, I thought we're going to a real fruit orchard.

Turned out this is the fruit orchard that they're referring to.

Fail to the max la, I was expecting the real trekking into the orchard and picking up fruits ourselves. Instead we're served with fruit platter consisted of guava, watermelon, jack fruit, honeydew and pomelo. Nothing special but you can buy other fruits that available there. We came back empty handed tho.