Road trip to Krabi, Thailand....(part 1)

I decided to do things differently this time...going on family holiday by car....just to get different experience this time round....

I have taken my family for holidays to many places. Normally for local destinations, we go by car or fly but we fly when we go overseas... We have been to Beijing, Jakarta/Bandung, Singapore and the last one was to Turkey (I will blog something on Turkey later). We have been to Padang Besar/Hat Yai by train though but we have never drove to overseas destination. Well, this time we just want to try driving to Krabi, Thailand.

I convinced my sisters and brother to tag along on this trip and they all agreed. We quickly divide the job. My eldest sister, Suhana plans for the route, me...to look for the accommodation and my brother, Shahril... to look for activities in Krabi. None of us have been to Krabi before and we only have the internet to rely upon. The blogs by those who have been there before really helped us a lot. Some of the blogs gave explicit explanations of what to expect and; step by step guide for those who want to drive to Krabi. A lot of advice and tips are given by them. The knowledge boost our confidence and this make our planning easier.

In total there were 21 pax in our entourage. My mother, 7 siblings + spouses, my cousin and the anak-anak totalling 11 pax. We finally decided it is going to be a 4D/3N holiday, island hopping and some inland activities. Since we have saved on the transportation cost, we decided to pamper ourselves with good accommodation.  From the online photos, the hotels look beautiful and the activities look interesting for the children. I quickly booked 10 rooms at Apasari Hotel, Aonang, a 4 star hotel. [note: 2 weeks later, we found out the hotel is fully booked during that period, ...sigh... lucky... Krabi must be popular]

We decided to go for the trip from 30 Nov - 3 Dec. Just a few days before the holiday I told my friend Shaharuddin about the trip and he quickly looked at the google map.... and told me the road distance from Bukit Mertajam to Krabi is about 500 km. What???...500km...then only I learnt it is going to be a 10 hour drive or more from Bukit Mertajam to Krabi...it is almost like 900km from Kuala Lumpur to Krabi....OMG!!!...I have never drove that far before in one go....better not let my family know about this...just let them "feel" it...

My brother decided to fly to Krabi since he has office annual dinner on Friday night and will not have enough time to drive back to my mother's house in Bukit Mertajam. My eldest sister and her family together with mine drove back to Bukit Mertajam on Friday night to my my mother's place. My two younger sisters Mimi and Oya, my cousin Ridzuan and my mother will move out together by the next morning. Shahril and his family will join us in Krabi in the afternoon.

We set out early on morning 30th Nov. After a quick briefing and a short prayer, we moved out in 2 MPVs and 1 car. My brother in law, Wan Izni led the convoy. We stopped for a quick breakfast at the Gurun R&R and the next stop was in Changlun shortly before we passed the Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration Complex. There were quite a few things that we have to sort out in Changlun. Firstly we have to buy insurance for the vehicles to enter into Thailand and secondly we have to convert some money. We also topped up petrol for the cars. The insurance cost us RM25/- for the MPV and RM18/- for the car. The clerks at the counter also helped us out to fill in the embarkation card for a fee of RM1/- each for every passport. This saved us time at the border.

We arrived at the Immigration Complex at around 11 am. By then, there were thousands of people already there. It looked a bit messy on the Thai side since the signage was not very clear and the people
are queuing everywhere.  However the system is not complex but because of the flow is not properly arranged, coupled with the large number of people making the place look very crowded and unmanaged. It took us about one hour to sort out the paperwork and finally we entered Thailand. Since Thai's time is one hour late...the local time was still 11 am.

We stopped at the nearby shoplot immediately after the border to buy the phone prepaid card. B50/- for the prepaid, B50/- for top up and B200/- for the unlimited data. I think it is a good deal because for RM30 we can get all the communication services needed. We continued driving...I just followed my brother in law who has been tasked to lead the convoy... tailing him from behind...sort of blindly...mana paham pun signboard tulisan Thai...hehe...




Since we spotted a mosque earlier near Hat Yai where the restaurant next to it serves halal food, we continued looking for a similar landmark. After about 2 hours of driving and all of us were getting hungry, we saw a mosque and spotted a restaurant by the roadside in Mae Khari district. True enough, the restaurant serves halal tomyam food. What amaze us, the people there can speak Malay...sort of Patani Malay....



We had a good lunch...tomyam, rice, chicken, etc...very similar food when you order in local tomyam restaurant...after lunch I ordered my usual Teh Tarik... pun ada...happy... My wife spotted a nice pisang goreng stall and decided to try the pisang goreng...the husband and wife who sell the pisang goreng can also speak Malay. The wife was studying Quran in Satun (actually, my grandfather roots originated from Satun) where people over there still converse in Malay but Malay is not widely spoken by the younger generations anymore...

Actually, we drove along the main trunk road called Phetkasem Road, route 4. The main town/city that we passed through were Hat Yai and Phatthalung before reaching Krabi. The road is in good condition and there was not much traffic like in Malaysia. At some point, the road has to pass through several towns and this slows down the speed. The only difference, we spotted there were many long trailers on the road, used for carrying farms supplies and produce. Thailand is still very much an agricultural country.

At about 6 pm, we finally arrived in Krabi...like almost 12 hours on the road...by then I have to switch on the phone road map to look for Aonang...the phone and GPS work amazingly...it really guides us to the the destination...Aonang is not a big town but since we were new there, nothing look familiar...but it was not difficult at all to look for the hotel...after a few turns...there it was...since we booked online earlier bestnyer...I took one room and the other is for my eldest sister....
and for 10 rooms, the reception staff has kindly upgraded two rooms...on the ground floor in front of the swimming pool.....

After freshened up, we went for a simple dinner...I found out there are many street vendors selling Muslim food...normal food that we eat back home...nasi goreng, koay teaw goreng, tomyam etc...and the prices are reasonable..ranging between B50-100...just like RM5-10...there were many mat sallehs also ate the food...amazing...mat sallehs eating street food...

After dinner, my brother and I went out looking for the island hopping trip for the next day activity...We decided to book one whole boat for ourselves...big family kan!!!...Finally we got a boat for B14,000...3 local islands including lunch and snorkelling...Pickup from hotel was at 8.30 am...(continue in part 2)