Krabi, Thailand – Day 1

My trip to Thailand was a good one. I enjoyed myself immensely, courtesy of See Tho from See Tho Holidays. See Tho is one of the most progressive men (extremely knowledgeable & Internet savvy) I’ve ever met and with a wonderful down-to-earth disposition to boot. Despite being the owner of See Tho Holidays, which has offices in Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Hatyai, he personally attended to us and made sure that we had a great time. And indeed, we had a fabulous time. Many thanks to Nicole Tan, who hooked us up with See Tho.

The reason why I enjoyed this trip so much was because we were introduced to a side of Thailand that you’d hardly see in the tourist brochures. All the trip packages offered by See Tho Holidays are personally customised by See Tho himself. He does it by travelling all over Thailand, trying out and experiencing every spot including towns, shops, hotels, restaurants and many more. Then, he would decide on the best and put them on his itineraries.

Personally, I’ve never liked group tours as the pace is too fast and you could never stay long enough to take in the beauty of any place. But with See Tho, there was never a single moment during the trip where I felt rushed. You may think that I’m a bit of a hard selling here, but frankly, See Tho deserves it.

On the morning of 6th July, KY and I took a cab to LCCT for RM65. We reached there and found Kellster and Nigel at Mcdonalds. To be honest I was quite worried about how Nigel and Kellster would be like as travelling partners as I didn’t know both of them very well, but they turned out to be quite a riot :) Especially Nigel. I’ll probably talk more about Nigel in future entries as his funny moments during the trip were priceless!

Nicole and Andy, our official photographer arrived shortly after and before we knew it, we were boarding the plane.

Bound for Krabi.

Clouds.

The plane ride was a little bumpy and I had a bit of a trouble equalising the pressure in my ears so thank goodness we touched down after a quick 1 hour 20 minutes flight.

We met See Tho and Janine of Sheraton Krabi for the very first time and they welcomed us with beautiful necklaces made with real orchids. With the pleasant scent of orchid emanating from around my neck, it began to dawn on me that I was on holiday! :)

Camwhoring in Krabi Airport.

It was already noon and our bellies were calling out for food. See Tho took us to a restaurant which he called ‘Rain House’ (referring to the sprinklers installed at the restaurant to lower the temperature) to have the best duck noodle in Krabi. He really wasn’t kidding when he used the word “best”.

Rain House.

It was by far the most awesome duck noodle I’ve ever had. The broth was very flavourful – kind of like bak kut teh soup but with more kick to it. The silky flat noodles went really well with the soup and you could add more chilli to jack up the spiciness. Each bowl of soup came with a meaty duck drumstick, already braised to perfection.

Yes, I was really happy. PICTURE BY KY.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the beauty of the duck noodle here as I gobbled it down before taking any picture. I only remembered to snap a picture half way through eating.

Half eaten bowl of duck noodle.

Thailand’s unofficial official drink – the Fanta Green.

More detailed information about the duck noodle is available at KY’s.

After lunch, we continued our trip to Klong Thom Hot Springs. I really, really loved these hot springs. All the ones I’d been to had been restructured with man-made pools. But Klong Thom Hot Springs were completely natural. And the best thing was, they’re located right underneath big and lush trees that shaded us from the unforgiving sun. According to this website, the entrance fee to Klong Thom Hot Springs is 90 baht per person.

Klong Thom Hot Springs

Yes, a lot of fluoride but don’t rinse your mouth with it!

Testing. PICTURE TAKEN BY KELLSTER.

Nigel, Kim, KY and Andy cooking in the pool. PICTURE TAKEN BY KELLSTER.

Caption this. PICTURE TAKEN BY KELLSTER.

After soaking for about 20 minutes, we jumped into the cool river right next to the springs. Okay, we didn’t exactly jump but Nigel did make a splash by sliding all the way down the slippery rocks into the river.

Cooling down. PICTURE TAKEN BY KELLSTER.

Took a quick shower at one of the bathrooms available (clean!) and made our way to the town. On the way, we saw a couple of durian traders by the roadside, so of course we had to stop for some durians!

Buy! Buy!

King of Fruits.

The durians we had were different from the ones that get exported to Malaysia (which are fleshy but bland). They were much more fragrant and not unlike our local durians. Sweet with a tinge of bitterness…hmmm.

Sheer pleasure. PICTURE TAKEN BY KY.

We continued our journey and reached town in about 30 minutes. The highlight of the town was definitely the market. There were so many stalls selling mostly food and raw cooking ingredients. Very colourful and definitely got my mouth salivating to the max.

Krabi Town.

Lady grilling a lot of fish, innards and all.

Assortment of BBQ stuff.

Boiled corns.

Stumbled upon this stall that sold at least one dozen types of belacan. The smell in the air was pungent and all I could think about was a bowl of piping hot rice. It did not materialise :(

Belacan heaven.

T-shirts.

Delicious looking chicken wings.

Wonder why Thai girls are so slim?

Loob chook.

Krabi town is also home to some rather interesting traffic lights. They were held up in the air by paleolithic men! According to See Tho, the statues were made to commemorate the earliest settlers of Krabi.

Caveman and his traffic lights.

Before leaving town, we tried to take a bite out of a giant sundae.

Dessert, anyone? PICTURE TAKEN BY ANDY.

And then it was dinner time. See Tho brought us to Ruenmai Thai Restaurant. The restaurant was really beautiful, it was like dining in a garden. The food was excellent too.

Ruenmai Thai Restaurant

I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the food as it was getting dark. But here are some that I managed to capture…

Excellent mango salad.

Authentic clear tom yam soup.

Definitely my favourite of the evening – assorted vegetables and belacan dip.

To find out more about this restaurant, hope over to KY’s as usual :)

What a fine day it was. See Tho arranged everything perfectly. From food to the places of interest to the pace of the tour. We made our way to Sheraton Krabi, checked into our lovely rooms and found more desserts waiting for us.

Sigh :)

Now this is hospitality.

Plush bed, hot shower, TV and more.

Stay tuned for Day 2.