Welcome back !
Well, this is my second visit to Thailand, Land of Cats ! :), I know there are different places in the world that are called land of cats, if i'm not wrong some place in Japan as well.. But this time in my visit to Thailand, i saw many many cats almost every house/shop had a cat and i was surprised to see so many in number.. i hardly saw 1-2 dogs but around 50-60 cats in my 9 days of stay.. So i'm calling the part of Thai I visited as Land of Cats :)One more good thing that we (myself and poornima) did this time was tailoring our trip hour-on-hour and day-by-day ourselves. You heard right, everything that we did in our trip including and not limited to food/all days day-tour/hotel-stay/flight booking all we had booked ourselves and we were our own travel agents :D
Minimum quotation that i got from multiple 'tours and travels' in namma bengaluru for my itinerary was a whopping 3L rupees ! And you believe it or not, i opted the same 3 and 4 star hotels during my stay and i had packed all exclusive shows/tours in my travel and it did not even cost me 40% of the amount quoted by local tours and travels ! :)... Now I really wonder how much profit these guys would be making just by organizing tours !
This time we didn't have Bangkok/Pattaya in our list of places, but it is more of islands hopping ! I got to visit Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi. These 3 islands and especially some parts of Phuket/Phi Phi is no doubt one of world's best beach destinations ! I am happy that i finally did complete this journey :)
In short my idea was to spend 3 days in Phuket, 2 days in Phi Phi and 3 days in Krabi. I'd booked my journey starting from Phuket and ending with Krabi. I was indeed able to snap a day in Singapore during my return from Krabi. Got to visit my sweet sister's house ;)
Fine. So done with the backdrop. Let me jump into day-to-day details.
Day 1 : Phuket - City Tour
Well, started our journey from B'lore on 4th of October. We kind of planned this tour and booked the trip probably a month in advance and the day had finally come where we are going to do whatever we planned for last 1-2 months by now :).. It's kind of a nostalgic feeling ! :)
This time I'd planned and had taken two specialized cards with me which gave me and Poo a chance to check the lounges that we have in B'lore airport. Surprisingly our flight was delayed by 2 hours !.. So we managed to explore two different lounges that we have in B'lore and both looked better than decent... ! This in deed helped us spend 2 hours of wait time that we had in B'lore. Then finally the time came and we boarded our flight to Singapore !.
Since our flight was delayed in Bangalore, transit of 2 hours in Singapore was literally Zero hours and Zero minutes. We never knew that a surprise was awaiting us in Singapore !... Yep and the surprise was not a good one. As soon as we reached Singapore we checked about our next connecting flight, it said, FINAL CALL ! which was the same carrier in which we arrived in Singapore. We approached airport authority which was of no help ! He suggested us to rush towards Gate-D42 and at that moment, display read that it takes around 20 min walk to reach the gate !!!!! WOW !!.. Well, there was no second thought we ran holding our last breath and we made it in around 11-12 min. We were luckily able to knock on the last 2 flight attendants at almost CLOSED gate and made sure we got our flight to Phuket ! :).. Ufff... ! i thought to myself 'ReaLLy' !!!
Then we finally landed in Phuket at around 11 AM local time. We had pre-booked a cab for our hotel drop. Comfortably reached hotel and were eager to explore Phuket :). We had our MTR bisi bele bath and were on the road :)
Our plan for first day was 'City Tour'. We booked a Tuk-Tuk (Auto in Thai) for our local tour which included following destinations,
- Big Buddha
- Chalong Temple
Big Buddha: Phuket's Big Buddha is one of the island's most important and revered landmarks. It's a must visit. Its on a hill top and offers the panoramic view of the City. You would witness other small hill tops, lush green cliffs and a loooong beach front. On the way to Big Buddha we could see Elephant Training and Bathing Complex, Elephant Orphanage and other similar stuff.
Chalong Temple: Chalong Temple also known as Wat Chalong or Wat Chaiyathararam. 'Wat' in thai means Temple. This is one of the most important temple to visit in Phuket. It offers a mix of Thai and Chinese architecture and a feast to one's eyes !
Day 2 : Phuket - Jamesbond island tour by Speed boat
James bond island tour included below destinations.
- Hong Island
- Panyee Island (Muslim Village)
- James bond Island
- Panak Island
- Naka Island
It's almost 45 min drive from Phuket. So don't miss to book a speed boat for this tour as with normal big boat or cruise tour you will be wasting more time in reaching destination and in island hoping. This 45 min drive through the mountain cliffs is a memorable one and its really a beautiful stretch to drive! Mark it. Its a Not-to-miss day tour :)
Hong Island: We first visited Hong island. It has a very very big and famous limestone rock cliff. This cliff is so huge that there is a big cave to explore at the bottom which goes till 20 to 30 meters high! Its a beautiful view through the cliff.
Koh Panyee Village (Muslim Village): A floating village where we had our lunch. Entire village is completely build over the sea. All buildings (including the restaurant) are built over concrete pillars, supported by wooden barracks and asbestos sheets. There is a huge mosque on the island, hence the name Muslim village. If you are a vegetarian, don't forget to tell your tour operator that you need vegetarian food during this trip.
James bond island: James bond island is originally known as Koh Khao Phing Kan. 'Koh or Ko' in thai means Island and 'Khao' in thai means Rice. So this island was originally called a 'Rice' island :), probably since the shape of monilithic limestock rock resembles a rice grain.
Panak Island: Great place canoeing into the deep bat cave. Water level would be such that the cave roof is around 15 to 20 meters from the sea level. This makes the place still better :) This is the next best place of the day after James bond island !
Naka Island: We enjoyed swimming, relaxing and collecting shells at the shore ;). You have an option to try some adventure games like parasailing and banana rides.
Day 3 : Phuket - Khai island tour by Speed boat
This tour includes visit to 3 small islands near by Phuket. It took us around 15 to 20 min to reach the first island.
- Khai Nui
- Khai Nai
- Khai Nok
Khai Nui: 'Khai' in thai means 'Egg' and 'Nui' means 'Small'. So this literally means 'Small Egg' island :).. Of course this island is very very small and no space for many boats to stop at the beach. This is a Snorkeling only spot. And YES i did my first deep water snorkeling :). Water was around 2 floors deep and i didn't know swimming ! I was really scared as i'd never done deep water snorkeling.. Well, but all my boat mates had already jumped into the ocean WITHOUT LIFE JACKET !!! This made me feel like OKAY so this should be easy... and i buckled up my life jacket, got my snorkel gear fitted and slowly skimmed into the water !!! WOWWW... It was hardly 2-3 min and that's it, some water went in my snorkel gear.. luckily one of the crew member saw me struggling, held both my hands and slowly guided me to the boat singing a shahrukh khan song ! and which was embarrassing ! :p.. but yes it was my first step and glad that i did go into the water :D....
Khai Nai: 'Nai' in thai means 'New', so 'Khai Nai' means 'New Egg' :)... Undoubtedly this is one of the pristine beaches that I got to visit, even though this island is very near to Phuket mainland !... One more reason i just loved this beach is that the water is crystal clear and water level is around 4 - 5 foot for around 500 m either side of the island. This makes one really forget fear and simply have fun.. Also as a topping over the ice cream, there are many colorful fishes that are not scared of people and they also swim with you :)... This is definitely a 'Not-to-miss' place. Right, just forgot to mention that this is the place where i took self paced snorkeling classes from my coach (Poo) and built my expertise =)..
Khai Nok: 'Nok' in thai means 'bird'.. So 'Khai Nok' means 'Bird Egg' :)... This island is more like Khai Nai and 4 to 5 times bigger. We (me and poo) continued our Snorkeling here as well.
Reached hotel @ around 5PM and we still had an evening to spare. So we rushed to Patong beach and spent some quality time :)...
We as well got to visit 'Bangla Street'. Most happening area in Phuket is Patong area and Phuket night life is defined by 'Bangla Street'. Don't miss visiting Bangla street especially post 10 PM ;)
This concluded our visit to Phuket. We have a ferry to catch to Phi Phi tomorrow morning.
Day 1 : Phi Phi - City Tour
We had booked morning ferry from Phuket to Phi Phi which usually takes around 90 minutes. We started our journey from Phuket at around 09:30 AM and we managed to reach Phi Phi pier by 11 AM (Ferry guys even covered some of the famous spots to visit in Phi Phi, places like Maya bay, Loh sama bay and Viking Cave). This was our first ferry ride in a Cruise like ship :). Yes our ferry boat was a big one (there were 4 floors in our ship). This was a scenic and beautiful ferry ride :)
As a best practice, we always chose to have city tour during our first day of travel. Reason being; We loved to cover different places in the city on our own and visit couple of places based on the order of priority. So that less priority items can be skipped provided there is shortage of time OR you are tired and need some rest and this should be only day you can afford to skip touring to restore your energy levels (very important advise ;))
Well, by the time we reached our hotel in Phi Phi, it was around 12 Noon. One unique thing to note in Phi Phi ! U know what ? Well, there is NO ROAD TRANSPORT in phi phi !... Yep, you read it right :). Road in Phi Phi are way too small, may be around 10 to 15 foot max ! And the city municipal in Phi Phi has banned any kind of road transport including 2 wheelers. In my two day stay, i saw only one guy driving a two wheeler and it was a Police man :D.. I guess there is no escape to corruption and influence in any part of the world though :)
Based on our research, we found that there is an important place not to miss here and that is 'Phi Phi view point'. We had this covered in our tour :)
Places covered:
- Phi Phi view point
- Phi Phi night life - beach side
Phi Phi view point: There are two view points in this mountain trek !.. and this trek is to climb a hill which is having nearly thousands of steps and steep corridor to walk. Best times to visit is either during sunrise or sunset, preferably sunrise to get best possible view ! We were having a tight schedule during our next day tour so we decided not to take risk and cover this place on our first day. Once you reach the second view point, you would be able to see two beaches opposite to each other (resembling a dumble) with both beaches having different shades of blue :). Distance between two beaches is not more than 500 m. That is the reason the view is really wonderful and not to miss. To add to this hue difference the beaches are just under big cliff ranges and that makes this view even more beautiful :)
Phi Phi night life - beach side: After a tiring trek into the hill, we decided to have a sneak into the famous Phi Phi night life ! Night life in Phi Phi is way too different than what we see in Bangkok or Phuket. We saw many pubs that were open facing the beach and water level in the beach increased so much that water was literally touching our foot when we were seating on the pub chairs :)... There was fire works and fire stunts by experts which actually added so much energy to the night.
Pubs started limbo dance and whoever crosses a level will get a free shot (neat and no mix) and the quantity of shot increases for each level as the difficult increase. Well, limbo dance is "A horizontal bar, known as the limbo bar, is placed atop two vertical bars. All contestants must attempt to go under the bar with their backs facing the floor." :)... Its fun isn't it.. Yes :)
We had good time and were surprised to see how expert people were in doing Limbo.. it was quiet difficult though :).. We as well took our attempt, crossed some levels and won complimentary shots ;)
Day 2 : Phi Phi - Full day long tail boat tour
I never expected that this day is going to be the BEST day spent in the whole trip ! We started in the morning @ around 09:30AM and this day tour went till 8:15PM in the night. And all along we were in a long tail boat and were on the ocean bed :) I was kind of scared to be in the ocean and that too after dark ! Isn't is really scary !
We had a big list of places to be covered this day and i was wondering isn't it too long for a day tour of 10 to 11 hours ! But at the end of the day we were thinking, oh wasn't it too short to cover so many wonderful places :D
Places covered:
Snorkeling near long beach: We just thought the day had started. We knew that its going to be a day full of snorkeling and deep dive swimming (for people who know how to swim ;), not for me though). But didn't expect that we will start snorkeling so early in the day. Long beach is just across the pier and around 10-15 min boat ride. We reached the point and yet it was time for one more round of deep water (around 2-3 floor height) snorkeling. We (me and poo) were already expert in snorkeling and this time we started having fun; purrrrh i was still a fresher but better one ;).. This time i was kind of good in Snorkeling but only till i get some water into my snorkel :D.. I still didn't know how to clean the snorkel myself while floating and put it back ;).. Having said that Poo is a pro is Snorkeling, and the reason is she's good @ swimming :)
Bamboo Island: This island as well has a beautiful turquoise blue beach and a crystal white sand. Really scenic and as good as Khai islands. We were on our own in this beach for around 45 min. One can roam around this small island, bath in clear blue beach and as well do snorkel. Beach is around 4 to 5 foot deep for a distance of 500 m to 1 km and yes that's awesome isn't it :)
Monkey beach: This island has a lush green and huge cliff's all around. I didn't see anyone going over the island and roam around. There are couple of really small beaches where the boats can land and people can just walk a distance of 15 to 20 foots on the beach and then we will have a series of cliffs. As the name suggest this island is home for a particular breed of monkeys and its really monkey kingdom :D... You will see lot many monkeys around the beach. Feeding and taunting monkeys are prohibited.
One accident happened all of a sudden: Somehow one of my friend on the day tour got a baby monkey walking up to her. She thought it's good to greet and as soon as she shook her hand with the baby monkey a bunch of other small and big monkeys came onto her and all of them were sitting on her head, shoulders and back. As soon as the monkeys realized that she didn't had anything to offer they went violent and started scratching and biting her. Just in 15-20 seconds she had couple of scratches all over the body and 2 to 3 monkey bites ! Yes, it was scary and all of a sudden everyone on the beach were alert ! As expected next bunch of boats came and they all started to play around, feed and taunt the monkeys. Well, then i thought it was probably a usual event that would happen on this island !
Maya bay: This is one of the much talked about and said to be THE BEST place to visit around the island. Leonardo DiCaprio movie 'The Beach' is shot on this island. This is no doubt one of the most scenic, clear and clean beaches around. Maya Bay is a stunningly beautiful bay that's sheltered by 100-metre high cliffs on all three sides and Yes that's the definition of a bay :). We definitely loved this beach and we got opportunity to snorkel around this island. This beach is rich in sea life and beautiful corals all around. quality time is spent here :)
Loh sama bay: Loh sama bay resides just across Maya bay and takes around 10 min boat ride to reach. This beach/bay as well possess abundant amount of sea life, colorful shells and corals. This is really really beautiful and my favorite spot of all places this tour and of course i like this place more than Maya bay :).. This is really wonderful, colorful and a brilliant bay with loads of sea life to see as though you are watching Discovery channel :). Though it was colorful its naturally dangerous to swim/snorkel because of sharp edges of rocks and corals. I saw 3 to 4 people getting hurt and bleeding while they were trying to swim to the beach and how would i miss ;).. I too had a cut on my foot and it was bleeding :p.. Ufff... U know bcoz of sea water the wound was actually clean and there was not question of infection ! And now we were two wounded people on our boat :) I had a beautiful company ;)
Pileh Lagoon: This is one of the most beautiful lagoon in and around this island. Our bad luck that we couldn't enter the lagoon because of shallow waters. A lagoon is typically shallow water separated from a larger body of water (ocean in this case) by barrier islands or reefs (series of lush green cliffs in this case). This is the picture of Pileh Lagoon when there is good amount of water to get around. Its really wonderful isn't it !
Below image shows the lagoon entry upon shallow waters !
Viking Cave: There is no beach to visit here. This is probably a naturally formed cave in one of the rocky cliffs. They say there are still some people staying in those caves, well, i'm not sure of it. But we definitely could make out that there were activities around the cave, like some boats lined up and some smoke as though some one was cooking and stuff !
Sunset Point: Sunset point is just across Glowing Plankton zone. We were literally in the glowing plankton area and waited for around 20 to 30 minutes for sunset. Finally there it was, we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets we ever saw !!! It was really marvelous and wonderful to see a sunset on a floating boat and when it was getting dark !... This was really a wonderful evening ! Just loved it :)
Glowing Plankton: Well, even after the sunset we had to wait to get completely dark ! We waited for around 30 minutes in the dark and @ around 7:30 PM we were told to swim/snorkel !. I was wondering WHY and only then i understood that Plankton's can only be seen when there is some disturbance in the water. And when we swim/snorkel, we literally disturb the plankton's and the plankton's glow (only for a moment). Well, i was already hurt and I was ready to snorkel again ;).. We (myself and poo) did snorkel and were mesmerized to see such a beautiful wonder :)... We couldn't capture any pics of glowing plankton's as it needed to do underwater photography and we were not equipped to do that ;).
Then we started our journey back to island. This will definitely be one day which we will remember through out our life !
Day 1 : Krabi - City tour
As planned we started our journey from Phi Phi Pier and were on our way to Ao Nang, Krabi. We reached Krabi at around 12:30 PM. By the time we checked into our hotel and relax it was already 3PM :)..
We hurried up, packed our baggage and were on the way for our planned city tour. This time we had plans to cover Railay beach.
Places covered:
Railay beach: Railay beach is part of Krabi island but one can't reach Railay beach over the road since its covered all around with lush green cliffs. Only means of reaching is by a long tail boat ride from Ao Nang beach. It takes hardly 15-20 min boat ride to reach. There's definitely much hype about Railay beach as this is as well said to have one of the clear beaches very near to Ao Nang, Krabi area. Well, we visited Railay beach and were totally surprised to see muddy beaches around Railay area. Then we realized that there are 3 beaches around Railey area, which are Railay East, Railay West and Phranang cave beach. By the time we walked around and explored Railay East and Railay west we came to know that Phranang beach can be visited either by another boat or we needed to hike around a cliff and it would take around 15-30 min hiking to reach Phranang beach area. We didn't had much time to explore the hiking as were late. Last boat from Railay beach is around 6PM and we had another 15 min only to spare. So we decided to hang around the beach area. But then Phranang cave beach is already in our Itinerary in one of the day tours in Krabi :)
I never expected that this day is going to be the BEST day spent in the whole trip ! We started in the morning @ around 09:30AM and this day tour went till 8:15PM in the night. And all along we were in a long tail boat and were on the ocean bed :) I was kind of scared to be in the ocean and that too after dark ! Isn't is really scary !
We had a big list of places to be covered this day and i was wondering isn't it too long for a day tour of 10 to 11 hours ! But at the end of the day we were thinking, oh wasn't it too short to cover so many wonderful places :D
Places covered:
- Snorkeling near long beach
- Bamboo Island
- Monkey beach
- Maya bay
- Loh sama bay
- Pileh Lagoon
- Viking Cave
- Sunset Point
- Glowing Plankton
Snorkeling near long beach: We just thought the day had started. We knew that its going to be a day full of snorkeling and deep dive swimming (for people who know how to swim ;), not for me though). But didn't expect that we will start snorkeling so early in the day. Long beach is just across the pier and around 10-15 min boat ride. We reached the point and yet it was time for one more round of deep water (around 2-3 floor height) snorkeling. We (me and poo) were already expert in snorkeling and this time we started having fun; purrrrh i was still a fresher but better one ;).. This time i was kind of good in Snorkeling but only till i get some water into my snorkel :D.. I still didn't know how to clean the snorkel myself while floating and put it back ;).. Having said that Poo is a pro is Snorkeling, and the reason is she's good @ swimming :)
Bamboo Island: This island as well has a beautiful turquoise blue beach and a crystal white sand. Really scenic and as good as Khai islands. We were on our own in this beach for around 45 min. One can roam around this small island, bath in clear blue beach and as well do snorkel. Beach is around 4 to 5 foot deep for a distance of 500 m to 1 km and yes that's awesome isn't it :)
Monkey beach: This island has a lush green and huge cliff's all around. I didn't see anyone going over the island and roam around. There are couple of really small beaches where the boats can land and people can just walk a distance of 15 to 20 foots on the beach and then we will have a series of cliffs. As the name suggest this island is home for a particular breed of monkeys and its really monkey kingdom :D... You will see lot many monkeys around the beach. Feeding and taunting monkeys are prohibited.
One accident happened all of a sudden: Somehow one of my friend on the day tour got a baby monkey walking up to her. She thought it's good to greet and as soon as she shook her hand with the baby monkey a bunch of other small and big monkeys came onto her and all of them were sitting on her head, shoulders and back. As soon as the monkeys realized that she didn't had anything to offer they went violent and started scratching and biting her. Just in 15-20 seconds she had couple of scratches all over the body and 2 to 3 monkey bites ! Yes, it was scary and all of a sudden everyone on the beach were alert ! As expected next bunch of boats came and they all started to play around, feed and taunt the monkeys. Well, then i thought it was probably a usual event that would happen on this island !
Maya bay: This is one of the much talked about and said to be THE BEST place to visit around the island. Leonardo DiCaprio movie 'The Beach' is shot on this island. This is no doubt one of the most scenic, clear and clean beaches around. Maya Bay is a stunningly beautiful bay that's sheltered by 100-metre high cliffs on all three sides and Yes that's the definition of a bay :). We definitely loved this beach and we got opportunity to snorkel around this island. This beach is rich in sea life and beautiful corals all around. quality time is spent here :)
Pileh Lagoon: This is one of the most beautiful lagoon in and around this island. Our bad luck that we couldn't enter the lagoon because of shallow waters. A lagoon is typically shallow water separated from a larger body of water (ocean in this case) by barrier islands or reefs (series of lush green cliffs in this case). This is the picture of Pileh Lagoon when there is good amount of water to get around. Its really wonderful isn't it !
Below image shows the lagoon entry upon shallow waters !
Viking Cave: There is no beach to visit here. This is probably a naturally formed cave in one of the rocky cliffs. They say there are still some people staying in those caves, well, i'm not sure of it. But we definitely could make out that there were activities around the cave, like some boats lined up and some smoke as though some one was cooking and stuff !
Sunset Point: Sunset point is just across Glowing Plankton zone. We were literally in the glowing plankton area and waited for around 20 to 30 minutes for sunset. Finally there it was, we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets we ever saw !!! It was really marvelous and wonderful to see a sunset on a floating boat and when it was getting dark !... This was really a wonderful evening ! Just loved it :)
Glowing Plankton: Well, even after the sunset we had to wait to get completely dark ! We waited for around 30 minutes in the dark and @ around 7:30 PM we were told to swim/snorkel !. I was wondering WHY and only then i understood that Plankton's can only be seen when there is some disturbance in the water. And when we swim/snorkel, we literally disturb the plankton's and the plankton's glow (only for a moment). Well, i was already hurt and I was ready to snorkel again ;).. We (myself and poo) did snorkel and were mesmerized to see such a beautiful wonder :)... We couldn't capture any pics of glowing plankton's as it needed to do underwater photography and we were not equipped to do that ;).
Then we started our journey back to island. This will definitely be one day which we will remember through out our life !
Day 1 : Krabi - City tour
As planned we started our journey from Phi Phi Pier and were on our way to Ao Nang, Krabi. We reached Krabi at around 12:30 PM. By the time we checked into our hotel and relax it was already 3PM :)..
We hurried up, packed our baggage and were on the way for our planned city tour. This time we had plans to cover Railay beach.
Places covered:
- Railay beach tour
Railay beach: Railay beach is part of Krabi island but one can't reach Railay beach over the road since its covered all around with lush green cliffs. Only means of reaching is by a long tail boat ride from Ao Nang beach. It takes hardly 15-20 min boat ride to reach. There's definitely much hype about Railay beach as this is as well said to have one of the clear beaches very near to Ao Nang, Krabi area. Well, we visited Railay beach and were totally surprised to see muddy beaches around Railay area. Then we realized that there are 3 beaches around Railey area, which are Railay East, Railay West and Phranang cave beach. By the time we walked around and explored Railay East and Railay west we came to know that Phranang beach can be visited either by another boat or we needed to hike around a cliff and it would take around 15-30 min hiking to reach Phranang beach area. We didn't had much time to explore the hiking as were late. Last boat from Railay beach is around 6PM and we had another 15 min only to spare. So we decided to hang around the beach area. But then Phranang cave beach is already in our Itinerary in one of the day tours in Krabi :)
Day 2 : Krabi - Emerald pool, Tiger cave temple and Hot water springs
Well, this is again one of the most awaited day tour for us as we had never been to any hot water springs :).. We were waiting eagerly to explore.
Our day tour started as early as 08:30 AM in the morning. We already knew that its around 45 min to 1 hour drive to reach our first tour spot !
Places covered:
- Hot water springs
- Emerald Pool
- Tiger cave temple
- Thai Massage - Foot and Upper body
- Ao Nang beach and local market
Hot water springs: After around 1 hour drive we reached our first place - Hot water springs. One needs to walk for around a km to reach the actual spot. We reached, got ready and jumped into the hot springs and YES the feeling is awesome ! Water temperate is PERFECT.. Not too hot nor cold... It was a natural tub bath. Yes, the place where we jumped into hot water springs are like series of many naturally formed tubs lined to each other ! We jumped across all the tubs and had a wonderful time bathing in natural hot waters :) This is definitely a MUST visit !
Emerald Pool: Another 8 to 10 kms from Hot water springs we have Emerald crystal pool. It took us around 10 minutes to reach Emerald pool park. Well, to reach Emerald pool one needs to walk through the woods for around 1 km or either 2 kms. Yes there are two ways to reach the same pool. 1 km stretch is like a 15 feet mud road where as 2 km stretch was walking bridge around the woods. 2 kms stretch is said to be the BEST but we couldn't afford to take 2 kms walk as i was hurt ! :(.. Well, we finally reached the pool and surprised to see crystal blue and fresh water pool. The pool is called emerald pool as the color is blue and also because of this water is very rich in minerals. Water in this pool is collected from the water that is flowing from the mountain covered with forest. Because of the nature of mud/rocks in this mountain, the water is rich in minerals and crystal blue in color. This water is said to have good healing power as this is rich in minerals. We jumped into the emerald pool and were surprised to see that its toooo way slippery at the shore. We played around the emerald pool for around 30 to 45 minutes and it was time to leave !
Tiger cave temple: Our next spot in this day tour was 'Tiger cave temple'. As per history, it was said that the cave under the mountain where we have Buddha temple now was home for a bunch of Tigers. Hence the name ! We have a Buddha temple to visit here, couple of newly built temples, one water fall (i felt it was artificial, man made one) and walk to the top of the mountain ! One can reach the top of the mountain in around 30 - 45 minutes based on their ability ;) Walk to the top of the mountains is through steps (very steep though) and roughly has around 1280 steps :) and of course the trek is definitely worth the view =)
We reached back to our hotel by around 5 PM. This was probably our last evening in Krabi to spent some time in the evening. So decided to experience Thai Massage :) Post rejuvenating Thai massage, we headed to Ao nang beach and to do some shopping in the local market. Again a day well spent :)
Day 3 : Krabi - THE FAMOUS 'Four island tour'
This was our last day in Thailand ! We already started to have feeling of missing Thailand ;). This was our one more island hopping tours but this was a short one. Our tour started at around 09:30 AM from the pier and we were ought to be back on the island by 3PM.
Places covered:
- Phranang cave and beach
- Chicken Island snorkeling
- Tup and Mor Island
- Poda Island
Phranang cave and beach: This was the place that we couldn't cover during our first day tour. Well, that was OK as we had it covered here. As opposed to East and West Railay beaches which were muddy this beach was really good. Now, we started to think that people were hinting at and saying Railay beach is a NOT TO MISS and wonderful beach was probably having Phranang beach in mind :)... There is a beautiful Lagoon on this beach (yes, there is a lagoon here as well again with many many monkeys :)..) and a small cave. This lagoon is more of a nature walk into the forest area. We did our usual snorkeling in this clear beach as well :)
Chicken Island: Name of this island is because of a chicken head shaped standing rock at the corner of this island. Shape of the standing rock seemed more like a camel though :) Again there is no beach on this island but this is more of a diving and snorkeling spot around the island. We didn't miss snorkeling here as well, as this was our last deep water snorkeling during this tour of Thailand :)... We played around and every time we did snorkeling we were wondering that we were floating so far distance that many time it happened so that we climbed into some other boat :p... Only this time we realized that while we were doing deep water snorkeling even the boat was moving around the water so much, that the boat literally floated around a distance of 20 to 30 foot on the water :).. Well, finally we realized that the reason we missed our boats so man times is because both us and boat were floating some distance ;)...
Tup and Mor Island: Tup and Mor island is a beautiful strip of two island which are separated by around 500 m by the sea. There is a path between these two islands which can be crossed by walking into the shallow water (but again depending on the water and tide levels). Again, needless to mention this island is having a crystal clear and a wonderful beach. Since the beach is between two islands the current of sea water is too much that the one who is swimming/snorkeling in this water will definitely miss his line and would swim across to deep waters ! Well sounds scary right ! especially for someone like me, who doesn't know swimming :D
Poda Island: Koh Poda island is again one more paradise with white sand and turquoise colored water. Very beautiful and scenic as there is a monolithic cliff standing just around 50 m from the beach. One would find colorful fishes across the shore line and ideal for people who don't know swimming to play around. Well, we were really sad that our trip was about to finish in Thailand. This will no doubt be a beautiful trip to remember for a life time :)
We had our night flight @ 10:30PM from Krabi to Singapore which was supposed to arrive singapore @ 1:30 AM :) We checked out from our Hotel in Krabi and arrived at Krabi International Airport @ around 7 PM expecting to check out some lounges in the airport. We never expected that there was one more surprise we were about to uncover :).. Yes, this is regarding Krabi International Airport. Krabi airport comes to absolute stand still exactly @ 08 PM and there are no restaurants nor lounges in the airport ! There is absolutely no convenience for a fellow traveler who is having flight post 8PM. One has to better finish dinner and stuff before arriving @ airport. We had to wait for the flight crew to arrive for the check-in formalities. We finished check-in by 7:30. For our surprise we were not allowed to go to the gate till 08:30 PM :O and we were stuck in the flight check-in area for another hour or so. For our luck we came to know that there are no restaurants even near the gate and we had a quick bite of veg burger in one of the about to close Bake n Cake shop :).. Please note that arriving in Krabi Airport before 2 hours of international flight is @ your risk ;) We boarded our flight at around 10:45PM and we were towards meeting my Sissie in Singapore :)
Day 1 : Singapore - Gardens by the bay
We arrived in Singapore Airport @ around 01:30 AM. My BIL picked us up from the Airport @ those odd hours and we managed to reach my sister's home by 2 AM. As usual we had chit chat for quiet long that night and went to bed @ around 3:30 AM :)
Well, to be frank I'd not planned any activities in Singapore and my sister had taken complete responsibility of our day ! Of course she does wonderful planning =)
Places covered:
- Gardens by the bay
We had a choice of places to visit; Either Sea aquarium or Gardens by the bay. So based on popularity and my sister's suggestion we headed to Gardens by the bay.
Gardens by the bay: Gardens by the bay is just by the side of Marina bay waters.
There are two futuristic ultra modern domes called 'Cloud Forest' and 'Flower Dome'. Both of them are temperature controlled conservatories and world’s largest column less greenhouse. Its worth a visit.
Flower Dome replicates the cool and dry climate and boasts more than 32,000 plants comprising some 160 species, cultivars and varieties.
Cloud forest on the other hand spans over 35-meter tall and is termed as “Cloud Mountain” covered in orchids, ferns, varieties of pitcher plants and contains the world’s largest indoor waterfall. You can't as well miss out noticing the super trees as you are wandering around the Gardens. It was a day well spent with kins :) Thank you Sissie for everything :D
This itinerary should definitely be in everyone's bucket list. If not, then don't miss to add this into your list.
And finally never miss to drop me a comment. If you would need more details on day tours, costings and you are planning your trip then drop your query in the comments section and I'll be happy to help :D
Bye for now :)
Cloud forest on the other hand spans over 35-meter tall and is termed as “Cloud Mountain” covered in orchids, ferns, varieties of pitcher plants and contains the world’s largest indoor waterfall. You can't as well miss out noticing the super trees as you are wandering around the Gardens. It was a day well spent with kins :) Thank you Sissie for everything :D
This itinerary should definitely be in everyone's bucket list. If not, then don't miss to add this into your list.
And finally never miss to drop me a comment. If you would need more details on day tours, costings and you are planning your trip then drop your query in the comments section and I'll be happy to help :D
Bye for now :)
