On Thursday night, I got pretty nervous as the weather reports called for bad weather all weekend, including "torrential rain." I guess this is to be expected as it is apparently rainy season there at the moment (yeah, I hadn't looked that up before booking the trip).
So as Friday rolls around, I'm fully expecting a miserable weather weekend in what's supposed to be a gorgeous place. Luckily, when we got there on Friday, it was cloudy, but not really raining. I was amazed when we got to the hotel. For the amount we paid, there is NO way we could have stayed somewhere like that in the US.
We scampered out of the hotel and into a tuk tuk (motorbike taxis where the passenger seating is next to the bike and driver). To walk to the town is about fifteen minutes, by tuk tuk, it's two minutes and a dollar per person - so, well worth it.
The Ao Nang beach town is relatively small, but perfect for what we wanted. Lots of restaurants, easy access to look at the water and plenty of tour companies to help out. After a nice late lunch of pineapple fried rice and spring rolls, we set out to book a trip for the next day. After talking to our fifth tour company, we picked our Saturday activity - a full day boat trip to the Phi Phi Islands! I had heard how beautiful they were and the tour package made a lot of sense. The only thing to worry about was of course the weather.
Friday night, we had an awesome dinner at this place called Jeanette's. We had a pad thai (have to in Thailand right?) and chicken wrapped in banana leaves.
The food was so goooood! Plus, it was white meat chicken-this may not seem like too much of a big deal, but the majority of chicken served in Singapore is all dark meat. So, this was a really pleasant surprise. The whole restaurant was great, beautiful atmosphere, nice staff and it was really inexpensive. So, we woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to go on our day trip. The clouds were out, but I held out hope. As we start heading out toward the first island (about 40 minutes away), our tour guide tells us 28 passengers that it's high tide and the water would be very choppy. Boy was it! We were bouncing up and down, water splashing into the boat. I thought for sure Miss Amanda wouldn't be able to handle it, but she did really well. As we head further from Krabi, the weather got better and better. By the time we were at Bamboo island, it was all sunshine! The first island was pretty nice, but nothing spectacular, still the water was very nice.
The second stop was more of just something to see - the Viking Cave. I wasn't really paying attention to what the tour guide was saying, but it was still cool to look at.
The third stop was breathtaking and easily my favorite. After passing beautiful rock formations, the boat stops in the middle of a lagoon, surrounded by these gorgeous rocks.
The water was as teal as it could possibly be. I took my birthday leap into the lagoon and the water was simply perfect. It was really paradise. The Lagoon was probably the highlight of the trip for me - it's just so beautiful and to be there with Amanda was exactly what I wanted for my birthday. We tried to make it over to Maya Bay, the site where Leo Dicaprio's "The Beach" was filmed, but the water was waaaaaaaay to choppy. To be very honest, I was a little nervous the boat would tip over. After abandoning that plan, we headed for Phi Phi Don. The main tourist island of the Phi Phi Islands. There the tour group had lunch over looking the water. After, we explored the town a bit. Lots of shops, food stands, etc. After not really knowing what to do, we made it to the main beach. It really was very pretty, but really busy. It's hard to imagine what it would be like in the peak season.
The tour made one more stop to go snorkeling. The water was really clear and pretty. Saw a little bit of coral and some yellow and blue fish. That wrapped up a lovely tour day and then it was back to the hotel.
Saturday night, Amanda and I shared a pizza for dinner.
The coolest part was that we were sat at table number 23 - how perfect was that? We didn't even realize it until halfway through the meal. For dessert we got fried banana with ice cream, not quite as good, but still nice. Sunday was a bit tough to plan for. With a flight at four and not sure what it would be like at the airport, we decided not to do any more tours. We did have a very nice lunch in food heaven though. I mean seriously, all the food was so good, service was great and we never spent more than $15 US for any meal for the both of us.
To close out the trip, we went to this massage place where you put your feet into the water with a bunch of small fish. They bite at your feet to clean them off. It tickled so bad! I just could not stop laughing for about two minutes. After that though, it was kind of like having bubbles around your feet.
So, that's my Krabi weekend in paradise. I had a blast and can't wait to go back to Thailand soon!
Michael
What a great birthday story. So, how smooth were your feet after the fish pedicure?
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