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Saturday, August 6, 2011

Krabi in 24 Hours - Part I

After saying bye to Ha, I headed out to Krabi. Choosing convenience and safety over cost, I coughed up quite a bit of baht to have the JW Marriott driver shuttle me door to door to Krabi Sheraton. I have to admit, I was a little sore about the cost ... but as soon as we began driving, it started pouring rain and I realized God knew what he was doing.


And then course, when I arrived at the Sheraton it was sunshine and rainbows again haha.


I'm not trying to be bias, but seriously ... this resort has got NOTHING on Khao Lak's JW Marriott. Hands down.


My status at Sheraton still got me one of the better rooms, but it still didn't even come CLOSE! :)


But the beaches, oh the beaches. Crystal waters and sandy white beaches.


As soon as I arrived, I realized I would only have 24 hours to do all that I came to do! And contrary to what I read and was told, Krabi was fully functioning even during the off season! Boats were running, scuba trips were happening - I had to plan and I had to act fast!

So, I jumped on the first long-tail boat I could find and sped off with Ya to go see some islands and snorkel with some fish!


Our first stop was Poda Island. I couldn't take a clear picture from far away, but at first all you can see on the horizon is the first lump of rock. And then slowly, the actual island comes into view ... and it is beautiful!


Poda was quiet and relatively secluded since there were only a handful of other boats docked on the shore with us. But unfortunately, there was plenty of trash left behind on the beach from visitors that came before us. So sad! I wanted to scoop it all up and clean up the beautiful beach.


Before I left Krabi I was told that there would be a small restaurant at Poda to eat something for lunch. Unfortunately, by 3pm they had packed up for the day. But lucky me!! I found this guy grilling my most favorite yellow thing in the world (besides my family, friends, and Mark) - CORN!


Oh yeahhhhhh!


With a side of water melonnnnnnn :)


I ate one ear and saved the other for later. But who knew it would actually turn out to be the best feed for the snorkeling part of my trip! I couldn't take pictures under water, but the fish were SWARMING for my corn. I couldn't even see through them because they were so thick around me! At one point it was even a little scary haha. These yellow and black fish were the most demanding, so I had to swim away from them and found all sorts of crazy fish in the sea. Rainbow fish, striped fish, long fish, short fish, fat fish, skinny fish, even clear fish with long noses! That was the craziest school! I actually didn't even see them at first because they were clear! And then I realized there was a whole school of them, swimming kind of in a circle around me. They were so cool!


I had paid 1,800 baht to also be taken to Chicken Island, Tub Island, and Phenang Cave ... but the driver said the waters were going to be too choppy if we stuck around. We did go to another nearby beach, but honestly, I have no idea whether we went to any of those places we were supposed to go to haha. But that's ok. I couldn't argue even if I wanted to - and by this point in my trip, I just couldn't be bothered to haggle with a local about it. So, back to shore we went.


As soon as I showered and changed, I headed out to Ao Nang. Everyone had raved about Ao Nang and its beaches... but it turned out to be way too touristy for my tastes. The streets were lined with the same old souvenir shops and swarming with tourists. I had 3 hours to kill before the next hotel shuttle bus, so I walked around to entertain my stomach.


Best beef kabob in Thailand so far.


And found some funny tshirts. Bert - This one made me think of you haha :) remember?


Brandon - Check out what they're selling on the street! Geez... How are international tourists getting these through security and customs?


Thailand is the land of fruit. My gosh it's wonderful.


I have to say that I was cautious in what I ate off the street, but I still tried everything I wanted. Maybe I was lucky, maybe I was smart, maybe a little bit of both - but I never once got sick :)


Pad Thai and Mango/Pineapple/Papaya juice for dinner.


And then a mani/pedi from a transvestite to burn some more time. He/she was very nice and did a great job!


All this in 8 hours! Pretty good, huh? :) They call it, efficient.


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