Krabi - Land of crabs? No lah...

My long-awaited vacation has finally come! At 4.30am on 30th April, Jennifer and I took a cab and made our way to the Budget Terminal to catch our 6.45am flight to Krabi! It's rather early, but we're not complaining as we made our way outta Singapore. The flight was short, about 1hr 40min, thank God for that as the seats were pretty cramped for my long legs(ahem!).

Upon arrival at the Krabi airport, we had to take a 30min ride by van to Ao Nang, where our hotel was. Ao Nang is also the main beach where most of the resorts in Krabi are located.

Krabi is very much like the rural areas of Malaysia. Lots of coconut trees, palm trees, rubber plantations, occasional ox and goats strolling along the streets. But what is unique to this area of Thailand is the hundreds of limestone hills all over, with probably thousands of caves good for exploring.

Day 1: We managed to book a 2-hour elephant ride tour that afternoon. It was kinda scary when we got started as the elephant was huuumongous! We managed to scramble up to the seat tied onto its back. It was a bumpy ride but very exhilarating.

Nervous...but managed to smile for the camera.haha!

Our elephant's name was Peet. He's 19yrs old and very sweet. He's the only male elephant here in this farm. There are 4 other female elephants who work here. They work about 4 hours each day, ferrying tourists on this trail and consume about 200kg of bananas and fruits each day!! (good life!) Not to mention the amount of poop they produce.

Ours did his business as we went along and it sounded like bombs falling from the sky! I'm not kidding. Goodness gracious!

Our guide, Dee, also 19yrs old, told us that Peet is a good elephant. But sometimes he is lazy and wants to run (i think so that he can finish his work earlier) ...Jenn and I looked and each other, tightening our grip on the seat. "Er... so is Peet lazy today? Please tell him not to run ok?" , I told Dee. It'll be disastrous if Peet decides to go running. Freaky!

You can also ride the elephant on its neck, like what Detlef (left) was doing for a couple minutes. But there's nothing to hold on to...only the elephant's head! We decided to pass.

Detlef and Sandra Krause were a really friendly couple we met on this tour. They're from Germany. They bought us ice-cream in the evening when we bumped into one another again. Nice people!

Dee, our guide.

Day 2: Kayaking at Bor Thor

We went kayaking among the salt-water mangroves at Bor Thor, in the Ao Luk province, 40min north of Ao Nang.

We were taken to a the jetty, kelong-styled. It also had 2 or 3 restuarants on it for guests to have their breaks and meals.

Children playing in the waters by the jetty.

It was pretty exciting to be able to explore the caves, tunnels and hidden lagoons of the limestone hills. The stalactites and stalagmites were amazing. But unfortunately, many are already dead, thanks to inconsiderate tourists each year who helped themselves to the rock formations, breaking them to take home as souveniors. Once touched, the stalactites die due to chemical reaction.

We had to kayak through tunnels in order to enter hidden lagoons within the walls of the limestone hills. One of the tunnel was pitch dark. It was a little creepy, but very exciting.

It was very serene and quiet inside these lagoons. Except for the mosquitoes trying to have a buffet out of our limbs, it was pretty nice just to float in our kayaks and enjoy the stillness.

During high tide, we were told that you need to lie flat on your back (in the kayak) if you want to go through the tunnel without getting hit by the stalactites hanging down from the roof of the caves.

According to our guide, Sam, the movie Tomb Raiders was filmed in one of these caves. Cool sia!

The right pillar of the above cave forms the shape of a mermaid (look closer below). Legend has it that there were sightings of mermaids in this area.

We also went up to explore a cave, called the Skull cave. Skulls and bones of ancient people were found here, probably belonging to sea gypsies. The bones found were said to be unusually large, indicating that the people who lived here were about 2meters tall. The cave is called Skull because there is an opening on one side that resembles the eye sockets of a skull.

There are also many prehistoric paintings on the walls of this cave. These paintings give valuable clues to what took place in the lives of the ancient people. But unfortunately, due to insufficient funding, Sam said that there aren't anymore ongoing research.

From the 'eye sockets' of the cave, you can get a great view of the area. It was awesome!

Day 3: Four Island Tour

We took a boat to 4 nearby islands - Tup, Poda, Chicken and Ko Si. Weird names but very beeauttifulll. The waters at Ao Nang, where our hotel was, was quite disappointing. But the waters beyond Ao Nang, around those islands and other nearby bays were great!

However, corals around these islands were pretty much destroyed by the Tsunami. Only KohPi Pi still has quite good coral reefs around.

Tup Island

Chicken Island (no need to explain why its called that right?)

The marine life and variety weren't terrific.

Well, that's because the corals were scarce.

But we spotted quite a few jelly fishes about the size of basketballs. There were also a great no. of sea urchins! I wished I had a net and my diving knife with me. They would make yummy Uni sashimi!! Also saw a puffer fish and a lone angel fish.

From the Beach of a Poda Island.

This looks like some ruins on Poda...but it's just natural rock formations...very cool.

Poda monkeys...very rleaxed. But u still need to be careful cos they might just make away with your stuff.

This is Him, our guide. He was a pretty cool guy with Israeli-Thai heritage. He was born and raised in Ao Nang. He has a close resemblence in Arthur Hollands, an evangelist in Japan. Since our names kinda rhymed, I told him(no puns intended) we could be cousins. I think was so amused he gave me this random shell and wrote his name and drew a heart on it (but it has since smudged).

Our final stop was at Phra Nang Cave. It was georgous!

This is Gaby Sautter, a fellow tourist we met on this tour. She's also German! Lotsa nice folks from Germany eh!

FOOD in Krabi is really, really good!

But food was not as cheap as we expected. Even at the night food markets in Krabi Town, the meals cost slightly less than the hawker fare in Singapore. But they were really, really, good. So we weren't complaining.

Our favourite restuarant at Ao Nang was Sala Thai. It was yummy and not as expensive as other restuarants. But it's more simple and the furnishings weren't as fanciful. But who cares? The sunset view was superb! It's a really nice way to end the evening. Just tucking in great Thai food, sipping fresh mango juice and watch the sun set. But please remember your mosquito repellent as the mosquitoes are merciless.

Ao Nang has the best sunsets I've ever seen. I think it's better than sunsets at Wakiki.