“400 Baht”
“No.. That’s
too much. Please reduce it?”
“Cannot. Cannot”
“Pleeeeease?
Make it 150?”
“Cannot. Cannot”
“Ok, 200?”
“Ok”
This had happened so often during the trip when Geet would get
a bargain for nearly half the price that was being quoted, and all the time it was the same
response - somehow the Thai would oblige and reduce the charges
for her.
The Thai are some amazing people though – here are
some fast facts:
1) They are
easily some of the most hospitable people in the world – probably one of the
underlying reasons (apart from the more common one that makes guys go there in
droves) why tourism thrives there.
2) The tourism
industry is run by women. The men only seem to do the background work, while it
is the women always at the front end.
3) The Thai
women just love Geet. There were so many of them who complimented her over her
looks. “Pretty lady. Pretty face”.
4) They love Indian
tourists on a whole, coz we are the fastest growing country of visitors in
Thailand and we spend $160 a day there, and an average 7.1 days whenever we
visit.
With that, let’s get on with the travelogue for this
trip.
Prologue
The trip was originally planned with the school gang,
but since the obvious happened one more time, we too decided to call it off, but
were just holding on to the tickets in case something turns around and we still
end up going. This impetuous for the trip came about exactly a week before we
departed, when the trip to Kerala to meet Steve and the Chennai gang got
cancelled. With that getting cancelled, a desperate need for a break, and with
all other flights to Indian destinations getting shit expensive given the
Independence Day long weekend, we just decided to make the trip to Krabi.
Aug 14
I spent the whole of this day planning for the trip, and
the plans were going quite well. I delegated all the work for the next few days,
collected Thai Baht, matrix SIM card and insurance, and was all set by around
4pm, when calamity struck at work – leaving a grim situation pretty much until
we took off. At the last moment, I had to fire fight 3 issues that
cropped up all at once. I had to be on the phone even at 1030, an hour before
the flight, trying to handle it, and was still left with one issue that
couldn't be closed and required me to get on a concall on Friday, during the
trip, to close. And in all that confusion, I forgot the matrix SIM cards at
home, and got so delayed leaving home, that we were actually the last 2 people boarding
the flight. There were people actually calling us on our phones asking us to
hurry up - something that's never happened in the past.
But once we took off, things were at peace, at least for
the moment. Coz there was good whiskey, and lots of movies to keep me company.
I had one drink that made the really sad Thai green curry served on board palatable,
and dozed off somewhere in between noticing Ewan McGregor actually had a role
in Jack the giant slayer, and before any of the slaying began to take place. I
didn't have a very peaceful sleep though, and Geet didn't sleep at all. Quite
an irony the "smooth as silk" A380 Thai Air flight turned out to be.
Aug 15
Once we landed at Bangkok, we checked at the concierge
and was asked to head over to immigration. I thought this was fine, coz I had
read that we could get our visas at Krabi. This was a mistake. You can get it
there, but only if you are flying to Krabi directly. If it’s a
stop over from Bangkok, you require visa in advance, or to be issued at Bangkok
itself. Now this put us in a bit of a mess, coz we had booked a flight that
only gave us 2.5 hours stop over at Bangkok, and the visa on arrival line at
the airport was inundated with Indians seeking visas given the Independence Day
holiday that all of them decided to cash out with a long weekend vacation.
It was a great deal of luck that we actually managed to
get the visa at Bangkok itself. One, I skipped the line and went ahead without
anyone noticing. Two, we already had passport photos and sufficient Thai
Baht which avoided 2 more long queues for us.
Once we got our visas and entered the bus to board the
flight, I noticed that there were just 2 non-Indians in the entire bus! I was
quite bummed that we Indians didn't even spare Krabi! And one thing
common to the typical Indian traveller is that we avoid each other like the
plague. Which totally makes sense of course..
Once we reached Krabi, Geet even ran into an old school
friend. What odds! They just exchanged pleasantries and soon we were on our
way to Ao Nang beach. The mini van we took from the airport stopped just in
front of Krabi Heritage Hotel where we were staying. We later
realized this is quite the norm in Krabi, because everything is so close, that
people will always drop you right in front of where you need to be dropped – no
bus stops and stuff in this town. We checked ourselves in and I had a
funny incident with the bell boy here. He brought our luggage in and then just stood staring at
me in the room. I asked him if there's anything else, and he just
blabbered something and continued to stand. I realised he was waiting for a
tip, but I only had Baht's in 100's. So I tried explaining that I will tip him
later. But he still wouldn't move. It took quite a while before he understood
that I will pay him later and he left the place. After that, he kept waving at
me and calling out to me every time I stepped out for something. Finally I got
some change after picking some things from the nearby 711 and tipped him 20
bucks to finally get the monkey (literally) off my back. What a character!
Geet and I chilled out with some Changs and Singha beer I
picked at the 711, and had it with fried shrimps and Thai green curry we
ordered through room service. The food was really good and even Geet, who is so
finicky about the stuff she eats, was enjoying it. Her favourite cuisine after
Indian is Thai, so the holiday here was likely to be much better than her just
having croissants when we were in Europe.
We then slept for a while, and towards the evening,
headed out to the beach that was barely 5 mins by walk. On the way we stopped
at a travel agents office where we met Li, the friendly neighbourhood travel agent,
who helped organize all our trips over the next few days here. We booked a speed
boat for the next day to Phi Phi islands from her and headed towards the beach
where we
noticed that the famous Ao Nang mountain that covers one
side of the beach, was actually the view we were getting from our room.
We walked towards the mountain range, the beach waters
kissing our feet, and finally plonked at the end of the strip, sitting and
observing the incredible view. There were small single rock formation islands
all across the beach. It was quite an amazing view, and the inspiration for the
floating mountains in the movie Avatar as well. After soaking in the view, we
went behind and sat on some chairs and ordered more beers. The waitress asked
if we wanted a leg massage while we enjoyed the beer and the sunset, and Geet just
couldn't refuse. She was completely enjoying the massage, while I was having my
own share of fun watching a beautiful view of the sun disappearing behind the floating mountains
of the
sea.
While leaving the place, we asked the waitress which is a
really good place for Thai food. She suggested a restaurant called Wang Sai. We went
looking for it, and didn't find it anywhere, and instead stopped at another
restaurant calling Anning, rated just 34 in Tripadvisor, but totally
worth the money. Well, Tripadvisor had 3 Indian restaurants named in its top 10
restaurants of Krabi, so I didn't really want to rely on it too much. We
ordered glass noodles, prawns and oysters. And except for the oysters, the rest
of the food which we had with Chang draught and wine was really good. The
oysters came with a really neat presentation; they were with shells and on a
plate of ice. It was my first time with it, and definitely going to be my last as well.
After dinner, we walked along the strip back to the
hotel, doing a bit of shopping on the way, and crashed for the night.
Aug 16
We woke up by 7am to be on time for the boat trip that
was to begin at 830. And since it was just 530 in IST, it was quite a pain to
wake up.
There was a minivan that came to the hotel to pick us up,
and this was the order of things here. Everything is pick and drop from the
hotel, and extremely well organised. Krabi completely had tourism covered.
We entered the speed boat and headed straight to the sun
deck where we were accompanied by 1 German, 1 Spanish and 1 American family,
and 2 other guys who were there just so that they could smoke peacefully. But
not only did they not smoke as there were just families around, but were also
providing the rest of us with a lot of entertainment along the way.
We first reached Bamboo island, and this was probably the
best beach we saw over the entire trip. Clear blue waters, clean white sand,
speed boats parked, and people snorkelling at a section ear marked for them. I tried
out snorkelling here, and did enjoy it, although I thought Andaman was better.
Then I tried giving Geet some tips on swimming, but it was always going to be
difficult in beach waters.
In 40 minutes, we headed back to the boat, coz the lady
organiser warned that they would leave us behind if we didn't turn up on time.
She was another one providing entertainment on the way.
Our next stop was Pileh Bay where we didn't get off, but
just took photos of what was a really picturesque lagoon, and then moved on
to Maya Bay, which our lady organiser said was really sad right now. I was just
glad I got to do "The Beach" scene there and take a panoramic shot
from my i5. With that, we moved on to Phi Phi Don, where we halted for lunch.
After stuffing ourselves with fairly bland food, given our hunger post the swimming
and travelling we had done, we took a walk down the streets of Phi Phi and were
welcomed with sights of divers, diving stores and diving gear all over the
place. We just strolled around and stopped at a shop that displayed an array of
delicious looking fruit, and since we couldn't decide on which fruit juice to
order, took a mixed fruit juice and checked our social networks on the free
wifi as we sipped the drink.
Soon after, we headed back to our boat, as we had to meet
our deadline again, and then sailed to a spot in the middle of the sea, where
the lady said we could snorkel. People just began jumping into the water with
their snorkelling gear, but I was a little terrified of doing that in the middle
of the ocean. So I strapped on a life jacket and jumped in, and this time, the
sights under water was the best I had seen. It was like being in an
aquarium, and I was spotting pretty much all the characters of Finding Nemo. At one time, I noticed a really long sword fish, and began following it,
until I realized I was quite far from the boat when I came up for some fresh
air. That's when I was really thankful I had the life jacket on. After spending
some more time there, we got back on the boat and headed to Monkey Bay, where
we didn't get off, but just saw a bunch of monkeys on the beach, and the
firangs super excitedly feeding them. We moved on and reached a place called
Hin Klang, our final stop and final chance to snorkel. One of the 2 guys who
were on the sun deck with us, threw his snorkel kit first into the water and
then jumped in. But his gear drowned before he could reach for it and this was
10ft deep water so the lady organiser was shouting at him coz she couldn't dive
10ft waters. It was funny to see them both argue. Finally there was a guy on
the boat who seemed experienced enough, and he jumped in and found the snorkel.
Well, we got back to shore after this, headed towards
our Hotel,
making bookings for a long tail boat trip to Hong island for the next
day
on our way, and then headed to the beach to catch the sunset.
This time I couldn't refuse a massage myself, and after downing our beers while
the sun downed itself, we headed to one of the massage parlours on the
boulevard and got a Thai massage there. This is an oil free massage done with
your clothes on, by fairly older women who do all sorts acrobatics around you,
stretching your body to its limits. There was a live band singing popular English
songs in Thai style next door, and it made the whole experience relaxing and
worthwhile. The best part was, the entire massage for a whole hour cost just
300 Baht each. 
Post this, we went back to Anning coz Geet really liked the
food there, and this time the dinner we ordered was by far some of the best
Thai food we've had. It was crab is red curry paste and spicy Thai chicken
noodle. Both of them tasted so good, that with the 50 Baht per glass Chang
draught, and wine that Geet was having, it was the best value for money meal we
may have ever had – all of it costing under 700 Baht.
Satiated with dinner, we ambled back to our rooms and
called it night number 2.
Aug 17
Woke up early again to catch the long tail boat and were
picked up as usual by a minivan at the hotel. We reached the shore where we met
Ifraq, the guide for the day, who was really sweet with his limited English and
the tour he gave us for the day.
This boat had 18 people, a small number compared to at
least a 100 that the speed boat had the previous day, and took us to Daeng
island, which was just a big red coloured rock, one that you could only
snorkel around and not really step on to. So that's what we did, but I found
the underwater fauna mediocre compared to what we experienced the previous day at Phi
Phi. So I used the opportunity to take off the life jacket this time and
try some deep sea diving. Geet also entered the water this time, after a
Malaysian guy on the boat egged her to enter coz he didn't know swimming either,
but was still trying his hand out at snorkelling. She didn't let go of the
ladder that people were using to climb in and out of the boat, but it was quite
a big step for her to even try and get off the boat the way she did.
After Daeng island, we headed to Laeding island where we
stopped for lunch. The view here was really amazing and I took a bunch of photos
here. This place was almost an hours boat journey from Daeng, and I was sitting
on the sun deck without my shirt during this time. This was the first
mistake I had done during the day. The second one was the lunch we had at
Laeding. Both of them completely screwed me up for the next few days, coz I got
badly burnt under the sun with my shoulders literally going red, and ended up
with food poisoning from the lunch.
Anyway, for the moment, we had made friends with one
Spanish couple, and 3 Malaysians and were having a good time chatting with them
and taking pictures of each other at this island.
We then headed to Hong island, the main attraction of
this trip, a place very similar to Maya Bay, but a little less crowded. There
was a Hindi movie being filmed here, and they barely shot a 10 second dance clip
during the entire hour we were there. I tried spotting the actors, but really
couldn't figure out who they were.
There was one killer moment on this beach when people
started running towards shore from the beach and when we tried seeing what was
going on; what looked like a big snake was making its way from the water
towards shore. I rushed to get my camera, and captured some photos of an iguana
that peacefully scared the shit out of everyone there and made its way into the
forest. That was some sight!
We then headed on to Hong lagoon, a spot between 2
floating mountains that looked incredible. It was like one of those virgin
lagoons with mountains on all sides except for the entrance and a little
stretches of white sand in between the water. Some more photos later, we headed
back to shore.
As soon as we reached home, the sickness hit me, and I
threw up everything I had for lunch. We slept for some time and then went to a
pharmacy to pick up some anti-bacterial tablets, along with electoral, and headed to the beach for more sunset, beer and massage minus the beer given
my state, and an Aloe Vera massage this time to cool the burns
on my body. Geet too got the same massage done and we both felt really cooled
down and relaxed after this. We headed back to the room and skipped dinner this
day coz I couldn't really even be around food given my state. Just had some
juice on the way and Geet ate some chips and cream buns. After
popping my pills, it was night night 3.
Aug 18
My stomach was still ill, and I forced a croissant down
just to have the tablets, and then started towards Phuket at 10am. It was a
long journey and we were hoping I don’t feel ill over the journey. Thankfully
it was uneventful, and we reached Hotel Pier42 at Chalong, Phuket by
3pm.
This was a boutique resort and spa, and really looked
amazing. I had actually booked it for us to avail the spa facilities, but given
that the rates here were nearly thrice as much as what we were paying at Krabi,
we decided to skip this part, and instead use the limited time to explore
Phuket.
So we rented a bike from a store just outside the
Hotel, where they took my passport in exchange for the bike, and rode to a
place called Patong. The lady giving us the bike told us that the route to
Patong is long and dangerous, and another lady we asked on the way also warned
us to be careful on the curves. These people have clearly not seen Indian roads
and Indian traffic, coz for a guy who was riding a bike (this a scooter to top
it) after at least 3 years, found the journey one of the easiest ever. The
roads were super smooth, super wide, and the traffic was just super polite. The
20km stretch from Chalong to Patong hardly felt that long, and we soon parked
the bike and walked along Patong beach.
This place was really lively. There was a group of
guys BBoying outside a mall, a bunch of people wearing Thai costumes and
promoting a show they were performing, lady boys and strippers wearing super
skimpy clothes, bars with rock bands performing inside them, bars with stripper
poles that were empty for the moment as were still too early, a Walking Street
that could rival Pattaya.. the list was endless, and entertainment at its best.
We were tired from the journey, and my stomach had
still not healed from the food poisoning, so we just strolled around the place,
had dinner at a restaurant called Tropica that had killer ambience but really
sad food, and then rode back to our Hotel.
We had our minivan picking us up from nearby the
Phuket Hotel and dropping us all the way right outside Maladee Bay Resort where
we were staying in Krabi, which was 4 hours away, but point to point transfers
once again. And had to check out from Hotel Pier42 early to catch the ride. We
entered the cafe for breakfast around 730 and had some of the best English
breakfast ever. They served freshly baked bread, with homemade butter and jam,
which we had with omelettes and all of it tasted heavenly. The staff at Hotel
Pier were supremely friendly. They even packed some watermelon for us which we didn’t
have time to eat at the cafe itself.
On the minivan, we started chatting with an American
from San Antonio called Josh. He spoke so much, enlightening us about the
American economy, his job in Riyadh, the culture of the people in Saudi.. so
many topics, that it was really entertaining chatting, or rather listening to
him. He bought us all a juice once we reached Krabi and wished us well as we
headed off to Maladee Bay.
This was pretty much the last Hotel on the Ao Nang
strip, but had bikes being rented within the Hotel itself, which saved us a lot
of trouble.
We took a bike, bought some Burger King Burgers, and
had that for lunch, before crashing out for a while. After waking up, we
entered the swimming pool, which had a Jacuzzi section at one end, sufficiently
making up for the Jacuzzi that we missed at Hotel Pier as we had to leave early
on this day, and taught Geet some more swimming, before we headed out to the
beach for one last look at the Sunset.
Some more beer, another awesome massage later, we
found a guy selling candle balloons on the beach. He said it was too windy and
we may not be able to send one out, but suggested that we pay only if it
actually takes off and doesn’t just crash into the trees nearby. We decided to
take one, given it was the last night here, and also the eve of my birthday. We
lit it, made a wish and let it off into the sky and in spite of a windy
weather, it seemed to take off in the direction of the Full Moon that was there on this
night. The next 20 seconds of watching the candle balloon drift higher as it
was literally on its path to the moon, in a clear night sky of Krabi, with
the beach on one side, and Geet taking photos on the other, it was just the
perfect birthday eve setting ever. 
After this, we went to a restaurant called Lae Ley
Grill, which Li recommended as one of the best in Krabi, which was located on
top of a hill from where we could see a good night view of the city. We ordered
grilled fish here and had it with a drink. I ordered a Thai whiskey called
Mekhong, and totally loved it. We were trying to decide between ordering main
course here or paying one last visit to Anning, and decided on the latter.
It was a good choice once again, as the pineapple rice
(rice with crab meat serviced inside a pineapple chunk) didn’t disappoint. The
Chivas I had here did though, which as usual did nothing for me, and I was
really missing the Mekhong from Lae Ley.
After a nice peaceful dinner, we headed back to our room
and called it final night of the trip.
Aug 20
It was Birthday 31, and the day hardly felt like a
birthday, coz we were just rushing the entire day. We had to leave early once
again to catch the flight, so gobbled a quick breakfast at the Hotel. The car
that came to pick us was a super comfortable Civic and dropped us with enough
time to even have a beer at the airport before taking off to Bangkok. Once at
Bangkok, we rushed straight to MBK and had exactly 3 hours here to shop. We
bought everything we wanted in record time, and scooted back to the airport
just in time to buy stuff from the DFS there and board our flight.
All we ate during the day was one burger we grabbed
from the Burger King at MBK, and the next meal was dinner at Thai Air, which
once again sucked. This time they didn’t even have non-veg to serve me, and had
to make do with just veg. Thankfully there was enough whiskey to not make me
regret this too much, and 2 movies later (Mud and The Big Wedding), we reached
Bombay.
Got home just in time to cut a cake mom baked, and
celebrate the last one hour of the birthday in the peace and quiet of our home with Geet, staring out at our own mountain view..
