Day 4 Krabi

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Lucky for me, because I'm tired, but unfortunately for you, because it's boring, day 4 was largely uneventful. It was Saturday and we needed to fly from Bangkok to Krabi. Krabi and Phuket are the two cities you can fly into to visit the southern islands. They are about 12-14 hours by bus and clearly we did not have extra time on our hands this trip. So we flew 😊

We took a taxi from Khaosan to the Bangkok airport early Saturday morning. We passed the large place where the King lives. Our taxi driver pointed it out and added how much he, and all the people of Thailand, love and respect their King. We heard that a lot while we were there. At the airport there was a huge shrine to him.

The flight to Krabi was 1 hour and packed full of tourists. There were hardly any Thai people on the flight. I was shocked at how many families with small children were there. Quite adventurous families, I'd say!

We arrived in Krabi around noon and got an over priced taxi to our hotel to drop off our stuff. I had a bad feeling about this hotel from the start because the price was so cheap and the picture was outdated. Basically it was a massive, creepy, vacant resort. It was huge and isolated from everything. It had a large pool, a large lagoon, and streams and bridges running through both of those. It was empty, we saw less than 10 other people the whole time we were there. Workers were standing behind the desk with nothing to do. It was the strangest thing I've ever experienced at a hotel! The place looked like it may have been nice and possibly thriving during the 80's. No one even attempted to keep up the rooms. They were large but totally old school and very harsh, not inviting. The general feeling at the place was bizarre and cold.

We were nowhere near town and again, we didn't what to do or where to go. Finally, we asked them to get us a taxi and just told them to take us to town. We were starving at this point and were dropped off in the middle of a tiny town with seemingly nothing to do. Then of course, it started to rain. We walked into a random place without an English menu or any foreigners and sat down. The guy came and asked if we wanted chicken and noodles or rice. We were like, "sure, great." The food was okay but after leaving we found a couple of other restaurants that were more what we had been looking for. It was just one of those days 😊 We found a tourist shop and went inside and asked them what the heck we could do in this place. They said there was a truck that came around the corner every 20 minutes and it would take you to Ao Nang, a beach town. After talking to them and learning that Krabi didn't really have anything but a night market, we caught the truck to Ao Nang.

We sat in the back of a pick-up truck with a type of roof over our heads. There were mostly locals and 1 or 2 foreigners. We drove for about 20 minutes to Ao Nang and it was quite the drive. Suddenly we were passing through massive rock cliffs. I'm not even sure what to call them?! Mountains? But straight up and circular. They were incredible and so beautiful. The drive was awesome. We arrived in Ao Nang which is a long strip of shops and restaurants along the beach. It was our first time seeing the beach! That was pretty much why we went to Thailand so that was exciting!

We walked around, found lots of Italian, and other kinds of foods. Ao Nang even has a Starbucks and a McDonalds! The greatest discovery though, was MAGNUM bars! These are the ice cream bars that sparked one of Jake and I's first conversations in South Africa. We love them! And ate them multiple times a day. Lacey shared our love for them while she was in Australia and New Zealand. America is REALLY missing out! We also found TIMTAMS which are another favorite.

We ended up buying really cheap swimsuits in a shop so we could jump in the ocean briefly. Jake was dying to body surf and check out the water. He got to do that for a few minutes before it started raining really bad. Everyone cleared the beach and took shelter in the restaurants. We ran into a restaurant soaking wet, wearing only our swimsuits! No shirt, no shoes, no service?

6pm was the last truck back to Krabi. We wished we could stay in Ao Nang for the night because it had much more happening but we had to get back to our hotel, and didn't want to pay an expensive cab fare. I should mention that the reason we ever decided to stay in that hotel was because we had a boat trip planned the next day and they only picked people up from "centrally located krabi hotels." I wrote them to ask them for a list of such hotels but they never responded. I figured this huge resort and spa had to be a centrally located krabi hotel. The address was in Krabi. So that's why we got it. Turns out, after they picked us up the next morning, they drove to Ao Nang to pick up the other boat tour people. Oh well 😊

We made it back to Krabi and got dropped off at the Krabi Night Market. This was a pretty big deal and was full of foreigners. I was shocked to see so many foreigners in this rather empty town and wondered what they were all doing there. Probably on their way to somewhere else like us.

The market was cool but we headed back to our hotel outside of town and reminded ourselves to warn everybody not to stay there! They weren't rude and it wasn't dirty but it was definitely not fun, cool, exciting, or full of any kind of positive vibes. The Maritime Park & Spa Resort was the name. I'm sure it's out of business by now.

Day 5 will be much more interesting, I promise! Stay tuned......

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Photos

BEACH!
first glance!

Pool
Maritime Park & Spa

Comments

[Jeanne]

I know I say this every time, but I continue to be amazed at your adventuresome and daring!! It all sounds so exciting and even the times that aren't as you wished or hoped are just part of the journey that I am so proud of you for taking!! Love you!!