Thursday, 20 October, 2011
Day 1:
MRT to Changi Airport then transfer shuttle bus to budget terminal for Tiger Airway flight to Krabi. Upon reaching Krabi Airport, we were brought to their Tiger Cave Temple to look around. It is a cave where people believed that there is a tiger that lived in d cave & died there & the tiger spirit is still there. The temple is built into the cave itself.
Following on, we were bought to their 'restaurant' for duck noodle or fried rice. the guide said that we can eat fried rice anywhere & so most of us chose duck noodle. the taste of the soup actually reminded me of an instant duck noodle which I bought & eat before in Singapore. Anyway, though I had got 2 duck thighs with their noodle aka small kway teow, it is still not that filling. well, why I said 'restaurant' is because, actually it isn't d restaurant like what we have in Singapore. it's open concept & built of wood & in a ulu location.
We were then brought to a souvenior shop which I almost faint when I see 'Pearl' at the entrance (memories of Shanghai tour flash back). luckily the pearl shop is partition in side d souvenior shop and the souvenior shop is simply just a shop selling some foods like mee sua, shrimp paste, etc. I only bought a package of mee sua for my mum as there is nothing interesting to get.
The last iternary for the 1/2 day tour is to a marine breeding ground. It is not compulsory depending if all of us wanted to go but none rejected and so off we go. there were hugh ponds where there were small & larges fishes and even a huge stingray that swam up towards us, poping it's eyes beyond the water as if to see if we would feed it.
in the sheltered building, there were glass tanks with different fishes & even lionfish. further in, there were large concret tank where they breed marine fishes like seahorses, nemo aka clownfishes, etc. i'd seen baby seahorse before so nothing new to me but baby fishes & baby nemo are just so tiny. so small till we have to look carefully to notice that actually the tank is filled with fishes and not dirts debris. we were told that what they do is actually to collect the weaker fishes in the sea and then breed them. they will then sell 1/2 the population and return the other 1/2 back to the sea.
actually even till now, i still can't decide if it's a good or bad idea. at least they don't catch from the sea to sell, disrupting the eco-system but will those breeded fish be able to survive the harsh environment beyond their breeding tank?
anyway, after that tour, we were brought to our hotel aka resort. i'm super surprised at the tiny stoned path entrance and a recept counter in a small hut. but later that night, i realized the reason. It's because their actual main entrance and reception area is under renovation. though we can't get the pool access room, our room is still not that bad. a king sized bed in a relatively huge room with a balcony that can see the pool but i realized that their staircase is really narrow. Only 1 pax can pass at a time only.
Since it isn't that late, we decided to walk out. our hotel is quite near to a stretch of shops where we can shop and there are many restaurants around too. our purpose then is to search for massage but actually i also bought 2 dresses. that was because we were told that there is snorkeling activities and I never bought enough clothes for such activities as it wasn't in the stated iternary. i'd packed swim wear as i know there is swimming pool in the hotel so i'm still lucky enough.
after strolling through a stretch of shops, we stopped for a massage & by the time we were done, there were heavy downpour. it's really raining cats & dogs. totally out of expectation as the sky seemed alright when we entered the shop for massage.
Though we had umbrella, it's still not enough & so we just stopped over a restaurant for our dinner with their tom yam soup, pineapple rice, fried prawn but we were still not full after that & so we ordered another hawaiian pizza. by then the rain almost stopped. actually, during our dinner, the rain stopped & just when shop owners outside started to reopen their shops & the restaurant staffs opened up the sheltered, it downpour again. it's really an unpredictable weather.
Day 2:
after breakfast at the hotel, we set off for our 4 island hopping tour. there isn't many people around, the water is super clear, the sand is thin & soft, the beach 'backdrop' r d rocky hills covered with trees. it's just paradise.
for the 2nd island, actually, we never landed on any island but we went off for snorkeling. my 1st ever snorkeling. i always wanted to try but never got the chance to & i'm so glad that it's actually included in the package if not i wonder if i would still get to try after this but i know if my parents were around, I'm sure i would never get to try it because to them, i don't know how to swim. To some extend, true because i self-mastered just frog style & seldom swim so my stamina aren't strong but i still strongly believed with life vest, i should be fine. anyway, from the longtail boat, i can see that there were many of 1 type of fish which I think is called sergeant fish or similar to what I had just google out.
well, of course, before going down the water, i would worry if the water will get into the mouth pieces for breathing from the top if i got too deep in the water. I would worry how deep is the water & if i would be able to hop & touch the bottom which would make me feel safer. & when i heard that the water seem quite deep, it make me more nervous. inside the water, when i'm able to float, i felt better but i simply just keep sucking in salt water instead of breathing in air when i use the mouthpiece. i took a while to get season to how to breath through the mouthpiece but there is another problem. i'm not sure if i didn't tighten the goggle properly that water seep in or because of my incorrect breathing & thus, making my goggle even more blur & thus irritated my eyes till it tears. but after a while, after tightening my goggle and wetting it, i seemed to be able to see better. The next problem come, it's not as easy to move wherever I wanted to or to stay still especially with people cluttered around as I keep kicking whoever in my path as I didn't know how to control & at time, i'm being swept to float chest up or side way till i gotta try to position myself back. & with all these positioning, my google became blur again so i always can't really see clearly in the water till I wondered if my contact lens had dropped off from the tearing. dear had pointed to me to other position & yet i really couldn't see anything except blury rocks. it's only after dear told me to wet the goggle again then I managed to see another type of fish which is the moorish idol, the one which is in Finding Nemo cartoon. it's so much bigger than i expected. it's so exciting. if not because the life vest had caused painful abrasion on my right arm, i would wish to stay in the water longer, to get more used to snorkeling & to see better & hopefully more fishes too. if i got a 2nd chance, i would wear a tee over my swim wear so as to minimize d abrasion from the life vest.
after getting real wet, we went off to the 3rd island which is interlink of 2 different islands. the waves came from 2 different direction, hitting on the sandy pathway. & then we were off to the 4th island with our lunch. our lunch is fried rice in a much shallow styrofoam box s compared to d type used in singapore so not really tt filling again so we had an ice cream after our meal.
oh by the way, to go up the longtail boat for our 4 island tour, our legs would get wet because we gotta walk into the water before we could climb up and into our boat.
after a slight washup at the hotel, we went out again to see if we could catch another land activity before ending off the day. if so, then we could catch another water activity the following day which is suppose to be free and easy. otherwise, we would leave relatively early on the last day.
we managed to find, book & go for a land package on day 2 afternoon starting with a >30 min elephant ride which i don't enjoy very much after seeing a open wound of at least 50 cent coin big on d head of the elephant plus, there were a few other lacerated heeled up wounds on the top of its head.
we then had an ATV ride through the race course and into the 'wood' with path & along the way, the ground is muddy so i tried not to go too fast on that so as not to get splash too much. i guess because of that & the winding path, dear's ATV keep stalling as I think he keep using the break which I had been told not to touch. & while waiting for him, my engine also died a couple of times. after the ride, i then realized that actually his ATV & mine is different. his is to turn for speed like motor cycle while mine is to press using my right thumb. i pressed till my thumb hurts as it's pretty tight.
following ATV ride, we had our try on the Go-Kart. it's also something which I also had been wanting to try. But instead of trying on the race track, we were brought to the road. yes. we drive the Go-Kart on the road with cars, motors, vans, buses, etc passing by us. but we don't have side or rear mirrors so gotta turn back to look out. once again, the stirring wheel is bit tight & the break and accelerator is also tight to press behind the stirring wheel. but it's an experience. after the journey, i realized that actually it was stated on the Go-Kart not to go on public road. Oops... LOL... & we ended off the day with another massage before a free dinner at the hotel before turning off.
Day 3:
After breakfast, we went to another town for water rafting. It's also something which i wanted to try. Dear also wanted to try but hesitated because he had promised my mum to take care of me. so on day 1 when we were told that the ATV, Go-Kart & elephant ride would take 1 day while the water rafting would take another. with only 1 day free, dear actually chose ATV & Go-Kart as he said that might be more safe. i did try to talk him into more consideration as water rafting may not be as common as Go-Kart. If not because we could do the ATV and Go-Kart in the afternoon of Day 2, I am unsure if i would still get the chance for water rafting in my life.
in our boat, there was another couple from singapore. but they only have 2 extra peddle for the 2 guys in our group. dear didn't hold much to the rope even though it would get more bumpy & so i ended up slidin my hand through his life vest strip before grabbing on to the robe. well, of course if he will fall, i might be dragged down too but my strength is relative strong. that had been tested when d staff tried to but failed to tug me down to the water when we were at a peaceful area where some people went down to swim. the only proble is that i feel the pain on my sun burnt shoulders while he tugged me.
overall, it's really a fun experience. even if you don't get that wet from the bumping through the rapids, you will get splashed by either of the 2 staffs that follow you. otherwise, from other staffs from other boats or even other passengers like us who were holding on to the peddles. so we also had fun splashin other people.
my boat got stuck once & i'm quite amazed that the staffs simply just jumped down & dragged the boat before jumping back in. they were really profesional. & many times, they would purposely stirred the boat to bump to rocks, etc so as to make you fly off your sitting position.
the only thing i don't understand is why would ladies wanted to go for such activities, wearing make-up & worse is non-waterproof make-up like mascara. sitting opposit me is the lady of the other couple with us. initially, she was also laughing but there is once when we were splashed by the staff & her mascara melt, she lost her laughter & trying to wipe her eyes. i really don't understand why such people wanted adventure & yet wanted to be so 'ku niang'.
after the water rafting, is buffet lunch (provided) then we head on to a waterfall where people jumped in from a height even though there is a sign that said 'do not jump'. before my group could head in, i saw an ang-moh lady pointing to a really bruised last toe of her feet. looking at the sign, i really feel that sometimes, it really what these people were asking for. Anyway, because we had already bath & changed as the guide initially said the waterfall activities had been cancelled, thus, we never get into the water to get ourselves wet.
we then head to the 2nd camp where we had our fish spa, while others had other activities like elephant rides & ATV ride. since we had it the day before, we never signed up for those activities & thus, we had to wait for them before seeing the monkey & elephant shows.
our last destination is a fruit farm but we didn't go in. they displayed harvested fruits at a side while getting us seated in 2 huts with cuts fruits for us to eat. there is guava, red dragonfruit, pineapples, watermelon, chiku & also a fuit which i only know the term in dialect which is called 'leng kim'. there are 5 other people sitting with us. all of which are Singaporean & they didn't know there is red dragonfruits, they never know and tasted chiku & leng kim before which i'm quite surprise. there are many chiku plants just in my neighbourhood & also in my tiny garden outside. actually, i also had grow dragonfruit just that i'm not sure what colour they would be.
we ended our final evening with a seafood dinner consisting of fried fish in thai sauce, fried lala, bbq prawns, fried kang kong, rice & 2 coconut juice plus, watermelon & pineapple as free desert & the meals cost only 710 baht which cost less than SGD30 for 2 pax.
after all these activities, i thank dear for bring me & allowing me to continue & also pled him to never to leave me out if he wanted to go for more in future. i wanted to do & try while i'm still young, while i still can & not regret in future.
if you asked me to choose, i would choose adventure trip instead of shopping spree because one can never stay forever young and energetic for all the activities.
MeMoRieS
7:01 PM
