Krabi: Birthday 31

“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.

Aug 19

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..