Aloha! Krabi trip was certainly one of the best trips which I’ve had! Although the duration of the trip was short (technically 3 days as we departed in the morning on the last day) , we had an experience-rich trip! Maybe not needing to plan and coordinate too much for this trip is one of the reasons why this trip is more enjoyable to me haha. Thanks Jon for doing most of the decision making this time round and also for the rest who are awesome company.
Day 1, 261213: Arrived at Krabi, booked itinerary , explore Ao Nang street
Arrive to Krabi on a budget airline(AirAsia) but that’s alight. The comfort of the seats may not be comparable to the more prestigious airlines but it doesn’t really matter as we can use this chance to recharge ourselves for the trip. Krabi international airport is much smaller airport compared to Singapore’s Changi Airport and has only a few shops (P.S no duty free liquor if you’re expecting any). We booked a van which cost us 1000 baht which is able to fit the 9 of use nicely. Being touristy, the driver brought us to a package agent which provides various activity packages for tourist. We booked the Hong Island tour package which includes snorkelling and kayaking (~ 1300 baht, might be slightly more expensive than the other tour packages which can be found at Ao Nang Street).
Arrived at Malabee Bay Resort and was greeted warmly by the hotel stuffs. Here’s some personal review for the resort.
(+)
1) Spacious
2) Nice friendly staffs
3) Peaceful
4) Breakfast isn’t that bad although it lacks variety, should try their pad Thai!
(-)
1) Inaccessible ( Approx 15-20mins walk from the walk-in entrance at Ao Nang street)
2) The safe doesn’t have an instructional manual and it’s not user friendly
3) No phones in the rooms which make it troublesome to approach the staffs for help
4) Wifi reception is weak in rooms further away
To fix the inaccessible problem, the resort do provide free shutter service to Ao Nang street at certain timings. ( The timings are not really ideal for meal times and there is a fee of 100 baht per trip, not person, if there is a request for the shutter service not during the time of service ).
As adventurous individuals, we walked to Ao Nang Street from our resort so as to get a good sensing of the surroundings. We had our dinner and explored Ao Nang Street to do some shopping. The prices are generally “hiked” up as Ao Nang being a tourist destination. We bought singlet for 150 baht which was initially 250 and stuffs there are generally similar throughout the street. Beers here are cheap! A large bottle of beer cost about 80 baht in SOME minimarts. The more expensive Minimarts charge at 100-120 Baht. * Minimarts tend to be more expensive than 7-11 *. Magnum ice cream cost 40 Baht in 7-11 and some Minimart price it at 55-60 Baht. So I’ll recommend topping up of suppliers in 7-11 rather than the Minimarts! We also tried one of their local special which are “pancakes” with assorted flavour. It’s basically Roti Prata wrapped with fillings.
Day 2, 271213: Tour Package ( Hong Island : Island hopping, snorkelling , kayaking) , Seafood Dinner )
Woke up kind of early as the tour pick up time was at 0830. Travelled on a mini-bus (tut-tut like) with other like-minded tourist from different hotels/resorts. We travelled to 3 different islands for this tour and the boat rides are usually 30-60mins long. Snorkelling was good experience for me as the last time I snorkelled was ages ago. The waters are clear but not to the quality that we have in Adventure Cove Singapore. The water level looks shallow from the boat and I jumped in without my life vest. Haha totally forgot about the refractive abilities of water, needless to compare to sea water. Me being me, I got back up to the boat to put on my life vest before transcending down for snorkelling again. Safety precaution: Sea urchins are quite common at the area we snorkel. Fishes are in abundance so there is no need to worry about not seeing any fishes.
Take note of Krabi’s King Holiday home when you’re on the way to the island! It’s located on one of the mountains and it’s pretty obvious. The islands prove to be a favourite place for the Caucasians as we can see many of them sunbathing and stuffs. Nevertheless, we had our own cam-whore sessions and had fun too!
I paired up with Chang for our kayaking expedition. He’s pretty lousy though. The few memories from this expedition is
1) Yew Heng, Lew and Yi Wei kayak come “langa” ours and the instructor thought that it was our fault
2) The capsizing of the YLY (Yew Heng, Lew and Yi Wei) kayak .
Anyway the kayaking expedition was something new to me as it brought us to undiscovered “lagoons” as well as the real Lagoon. (Please don’t mind me using the term Lagoon loosely as I don’t know what those places are called). The view at the main lagoon that we’ve gone was simply breath taking and it’s filled with the bliss of nature as well! The whole lagoon is filled with jelly fishes (non-poisonous), star fishes and miniature wildlife.
^ The white stuffs are jelly fishes ^
We managed to relax at Hong Island beach for a few and off we departed back to shore. We went back our resort to change before departing back to the beach which we came earlier for a sumptuous seafood dinner!
Hong Island :
Seafood Dinner :
Once we’ve filled our stomach, we headed back to Ao Nang street where we continue shopping part (II), Thai Massage ( Price ranges from 200-250 baht) followed by a drinking cum supper at one of the nearby bars.
Day 3, 281213 : KrabiKart, Paintball, Krabi Town
The most fun filled activity we’ve done so far would surely be the Go-Kart. Managed to get a package that cost 1700 baht for 15mins of Go-Kart and 80 pallets of paintball.
Go-Kart was seriously epic! Almost got into some serious shit with Jon. He tried to do a “Mario-Kart” drift which somehow failed and his kart was spinning (Like in Mario kart when a kart go over a banana skin) and was facing me head to head. As I was at max speed, I couldn’t control my steering wheel properly and thus decided to “sacrifice” and did a right turn and I collided straight into the tire barricade which collapses after I crashed into it. Luckily, I only flew out of my seat by a few inches and none of us sustained any injuries. It’s surely our defining moment in Krabi haha.
After the wholesome day of activities, we went back to the resort. Some rest while the adventurous us ( Yikai, Yiwei, Chang and I) went to explore Ao Nang beach. How can we not visit Ao Nang beach when we stay in Ao Nang right?! We had lunch at the street hawker nearby and proceeded to the beach. The beach isn’t comparable to Hong Island and it’s pretty hot so we didn’t really spend much time there. Had Customized magnum on the way back which cost 50 baht. Cheap cheap compared to Singapore.
We met up with the rest and went over to Krabi Town! Krabi Town is a small town and we visited the night market there. It’s not very big and I would recommend spending 2 hours there. The food is surely cheaper than Ao Nang while the goods are well, only slightly cheaper. Wouldn’t recommend the “shopping centre” beside Krabi night market as the stuffs there are not friendly to the wallet.
We went back afterwards and visited a nearby bar. Once done, we went to get some snacks and drinks and spend our remaining time in the resort. Sadly, I had fever and couldn’t stay up till late with the rest.
Day 4, 291213 : Last Day
Nothing eventful happened other than the fact that Deb and Daphne’s room need to do payment for a chipped toilet glass. Oh and Yi Kai was having drunk symptoms after waking up as he visited the night bars with Lew after the drinking session with us. What a heart of a champion haha.
Overall, it was indeed a fun filled trip. It would be better if the duration was longer. I would recommend 5d4n if you’re planning for a similar trip as mine. Alright adios!