Road Trip to Krabi, Thailand....(part 2)

The bus or tut tut which ever you may want to call it arrived on time at 8.30 am to pick us up to the jetty. It was a short ride to the place...when we arrived there, many people were waiting to board their boats for the island hopping trip...mostly Europeans...

When I saw at the boat taking us on the trip, I was rather happy...a wooden boat. As a diver, I prefer to ride on the wooden boat rather than on the fibre boat. Wooden boat is a lot tougher...Another thing is, the boats in Krabi do not use the usual boat engines...I think these boats are using modified car engines....

However my elderly mother (72 years old) was a bit apprehensive about how to board the boat... it was not so difficult after all...but what actually worry her most was during the boat ride....it is normal for the boat to sway a bit to the left and right when people are boarding and immediately after it started to move...I can see her reciting prayers non stop during the boat journey...she was worried because all her family was in one boat...if anything were to happen..the whole family would have perished...but I told her not to worry about anything...all of us wore life jackets...and there were many boats around..to help if anything were to happen... 

When we arrived at the first island, my heart sank...the water was murky...not crystal clear like in many dive sites that I have been to...but to the rest of the people there, they were really enjoying the place...my whole family was happy playing in the water...[what to say...they have not seen the best yet, I suppose...] On the second island where we did snorkelling, my youngest son, Luqman was the happiest...so did I...hihi...prompting a sharp remarks from my wife...anak dengan bapak sama...bila kena air masin baru hidup (in my mind...betoi tu..hihi)....however the water was not clear and not much corals and fishes to see....[In my mind at that time was should I continue with the diving plan on the next day...if this is how it look, nothing much to see underwater]. We went on to the third island to have lunch and continued with playing in the water...all of them really enjoyed the beach, sun and sea...We arrived back at around 4 pm and everyone was tired and burnt...hihi...

The next day, I continued with my plan to dive at the Krabi local islands...my wife in her usual "supportive" mood planned to go to the spa with the two girls.... at my expense!!!...haha...no free lunch maa!!!...I left early that day. The pick up from Kontiki arrived at 7.30 am and I arrived at the meeting point 10 minutes later after picking up 2 German guys at another hotel. There was another girl from Finland doing her OWD as well. I only found out that I will be diving with the dive master...Max, a young chap from Finland. The others will dive with other dive master or instructor.

As expected, nothing much to see...not much corals nor fishes...the visibility was not good, around 5 meters and the water was sort of greenish...aiks...but since I was really in the mood for diving...we continued to dive at 3 different spots...not having my usual buddies

around and with bad viz, I didn't really took the time to look for things down there...however I came across some razor fishes dancing and that reminded me of the sunset dive at Mataking...I took some video but by the time I raised my head, Max was no longer around...mesti hilang punya...the last time this happened was when I dived in Tioman...ini sebab buddy tak paham perangai saya ler...but this time around I wasn't panicking or anything...I just swam looking for bubbles or anything shining...soon I saw Max again...On the boat I chatted with the guys...Max was quite happy with my buoyancy....(betul ler!!!...buoyancy dah okay dah...hihi)...however the rest of the guys were a bit reserve thinking that I was some sort of "otai" diver...biasa ler...mat saleh nie susah sikit nak kawan...We arrived back to the mainland at around 4 pm...


One month before we went for the trip, I told my brother and brother in law that custom made clothes are cheap in Krabi. Just like in Sukhumvit area in Bangkok, there are many custom made tailors in Krabi. I have made several suits or pants in Bangkok whenever I went there...actually for the price that I am paying, it really worth every penny I paid...the quality is not bad but the service is excellent...where on earth you can get a nice suit in less than 12 hours at a very cheap price???...In fact the tailor delivers the suit to your hotel. In KL, normally it will cost me not less than RM2000 for a nice wool suit but in Bangkok you  will surely get one for around RM500-600...Just walk in any tailor shops and talk to them...normally they will test you if you know about the materials and will offer you something cheap around B3000 for a full suit...But if you know what you are looking for, just tell the tailor and he will show you all the nice materials...of course the price will double up to B5000-6000 but if you compare anywhere else...I am sure you can't get at that price...and the service is excellent!!!...Try for yourself if you don't believe me...

I advised my brothers to bring one pair of their best trousers so that the tailor can see how to measure them....My brother cut a suit each for him and his two boys, my brother in law cut a suit and two shirts ....and for myself, I cut three pairs of wool/cashmere pants...I don't need any more suits since I have many in the wardrobe...but I bought 4 pieces of cotton cloth for the shirts...I prefer Malaysian tailor to sew my shirts...I paid about RM140 each for the wool/cashmere pants which in KL would cost me around RM300 each...and for the shirt cloth, it cost me around RM60 a piece which normally would cost me RM120 in KL. Tailoring in KL would normally cost me another RM90 a shirt.

On the last day, we decided to buy breakfast from one of the gerai by the road side...(I had enough of hotel food...makan roti dengan telur saja)...I was surprised when I saw the food they sold...in fact the food is the same that I am eating in KL...I even found ketupat palas there...and the way it is wrapped is exactly the same if I were to wrap it...(wei..I can wrap ketupat palas you know) ...by now I realised that we are the same people except we live in different country... 


Halal food in fact is not a problem at all in Krabi....the village near Aonang is mostly populated by Muslim...when we drove around the village, we saw a big mosque in  the town area...Many of village people sell street food near Aonang beach...quite tasty though and the prices are reasonable...This is one of the place where food is not a problem when on holiday overseas...

Krabi is very popular with tourist mostly from Europe and Scandinavia. When I was there, t

he Scandinavian really filled up the place....may be because back home in Finland or Norway the temperature is something like -10^oC...at this time of the year...how lucky am I to live here... warm all year round...I found that people from Scandinavia usually takes long holiday...the guy I was talking to in Gili Air earlier this year told me that he and his family were on holiday for almost 2 months...travelling to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia...I am sure they can do that because their money worth a lot more here and the food is definitely moretastier here...orang putih sekarang pun dah mula makan nasi dan kari... for me...I cannot go on without my nasik kandaq and teh tarik for more than 3 days...mesti lapar dan dahaga...hihi... 

I would recommend Krabi for family holidays but for the honeymooners, the hubby kena pandai jaga mata ler...mermaids in two piece suit are everywhere on the island hopping trip...hihi...hotels are nice, halal food is not a problem and it does not cost a bomb to go there...and the service is always good...psst...and don't forget to try foot massage...tapi bini kena ikut ler...

One of the big plus point about Thai tourism is their service. I have traveled to many places but nowhere can matched Thai's level of service...theirs' is excellent...

Finally, not much to write about driving back home except it took us about 12 hours to reach Bukit Mertajam. We drove leisurely and stopped to buy some pineapple by the roadside...(mothers' wish...she kept reminding us about the pineapple on the way back)....I was quite surprised that the R&R in Trang actually serves for Muslim. There are big suraus for male and female and they serve halal food there. One of the vendor I spoke to came from Patani.... Crossing the border in Danok was easy since there was not many people left at 9 pm...Overall the trip was enjoyable and Alhamdulillah everything was according to the plan... 

May be one day I will drive again to South Thailand... but this time I will go to Koh Lanta...


Bye for now... 

[p/s - I drove there in my 8.5 year old Nissan Serena...that will be the last trip we went together in that car. The family has grown up and we don't need an MPV any more...the car was so good to us...]