Southern Thailand - Krabi and the Andaman Sea

The last major leg of our trip was south to Thailand's famous beaches on the Andaman Sea.  Instead of the uber-touristy city of Phuket, we went across the bay to the city of Krabi.  The beaches here are breathtaking and beautiful, this is very near the location where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. 

Our original plan had been to drive to Krabi.  It is about a 10 hour drive from Bangkok and we would have done it over the course of two days in a passenger van with three of my dad' sisters, Aunt Acharee and my two Aunt Eats.  However, on the day we were supposed to leave Ashley got sick and started throwing up, so we felt like a road trip would not be a good idea.  Instead, my dad and his sisters drove down without us and we bought tickets to fly down and meet them once Ashley was feeling better.  In the end, Ashley ended up being okay, but later on, I was the one who got sick.  I must have picked up some kind of bacteria that I had been fighting off the last few days in Bangkok.  By the time we got to Krabi it had gotten worse so on day two I couldn't eat much and was up all night vomiting.  I ended up having to go to a medical clinic/hospital and get some antibiotics.  Fortunately, they did the trick and I started feeling better by the next day.  Unfortunately, because the photographer (me) was a not feeling too well during this leg of the trip and we were in the water a lot, so we didn't get as many pictures as usual.

Anyways, when we arrived in Krabi, the owner of the resort we were staying in and a friend of the family came to pick us up at the airport.  We then went to the FV Garden Resort, which has been open for less than a year and is absolutely beautiful.  This particular resort is not near the beach but it was still very nice and the owners were so kind and helpful.  The owners had a daughter who had just returned from a year in the USA as a high school exchange student.  She came along with us, translated, and was a good friend to the girls.  We also had some really good food here.  The owner's wife did all the cooking and she was amazing.  One memorable experience is that when we arrived at the resort, we were asked if we would like a fresh coconut drink.  We said sure and were told that the owner had gone to get them for us.  This was a little more literal than we realized because not a few minutes later, the owner came walking up, machete in hand with branch of a coconut tree that he had just cut down in hand.  He then proceeded to pull the coconuts from the tree, slice them open using his machete, splashing juice everywhere.  They then stuck straws in the coconuts and handed them to us to drink.  Now that is fresh.

Here are the two rooms we stayed in while at the FV Garden Resort.  The first night we stayed in the biggest bungalow available.  It was really cool but it was like camping in a fancy log cabin.  We were all scared of the gecko hiding in our shower and even though I was up sick, the BIG UNKNOWN CRITTER that clambered across our roof in the middle of the night was just too scary for me (and Dave.) 

The next night, we moved to the modern bungalows and were as happy as could be.

View from modern bungalow

Girls playing mancala in the outdoor lobby

On our first day, we visited the Emerald Pool, a natural fresh water pool in the nearby forest.  We had to hike a about 1km to the pool and then jumped into the beautiful, warm green water.  The biggest challenge of this adventure was getting out of the pool as it is all-natural without any man-made improvements.  It also has no bank to ease you into the water, you basically just jump into five feet of water and have to claw your way up VERY slippery rocks to get out.  I was worried that maybe we wouldn't all be able to get out safely, but it worked out and was a fun way to cool off.  After our swim, on the way back down, we took a scenic trail and basically ended up on a very primitive hike through a jungle.  There were a couple of times I wasn't sure we were going to make it out, but since we all survived, I can now look back fondly. 

After the Emerald Pool, we met up with the my dad and aunts at the Salty Hot Springs.  There is only one other spring like this in the world and it is in Angola.  Pretty sure that our only salty hot springs experience is going to be in Thailand!

The next day, after securing my antibiotics, we drove to Ao Nang beach.  From there we rented a long-tail boat and went island hopping in one of the most scenic places I have ever been.  We rode the boat from island to island getting out at each one to swim and snorkel.  The water was warm and emerald green and the white-sand was velvety soft.  The girls loved playing in the ocean waves and didn't even mind all the beautiful fish surrounding them as they snorkeled.  In fact, Ashley didn't complain too much when she got stung by a jelly fish and Paige didn't complain about the horrible sunburn she got on her backside (I applied and re-applied sunblock, but we all still got burned, must of been bad block or super strong rays.) 

Later that night we returned to our resort to a big blue crab dinner.  There must have been at least 50 crabs on the table.  It was yummy, but unfortunately, I still had to go easy on my stomach.  I wish I had remembered to take a picture.

Road trip Thai Style---11 passenger van, 13 people, bags and bags of souvenirs, and 4 live trees.

The next day we drove to the city of Trang for a dim sum breakfast and to vist the Khaokab Cave.  This is hands down the scariest thing we did in Thailand.  You enter the cave by boat but in many places the clearance is so low that you and the guide have to lay flat as the rock ceiling passes inches above your face.  I took a couple of pictures in the beginning but had to put the camera down as there eventually wasn't enough room to have my hands up. 

My dad with the dim sum bamboo steamers-he loves dim sum!

Once inside the cave you can get out and walk through some portions.  The clearance is pretty low and I had to crouch most of the time.  Thank goodness Dave decided he was too big to go in, he would have had to crawl as he was pretty much the tallest person in Thailand.  Oh, did I mention there were bats flying around the cave?

After this, we drove back to Krabi and checked into the beachside resort called Krabi Resort. Aunt Acharee made arrangments for us to stay in the luxury family villa.  It was so nice, I loved the bathroom and the English language television was also a big hit.

The next morning we ate breakfast and lunch beachside.  The resort wasn't that busy so it's private beach literally became "The Smith Family Private Beach."  We had the whole place to ourselves and we spent the whole morning playing in the surf.  We even took a swim in the resort pool to wash away the salty ocean water, had lunch and the girls and I got pedicures.  If only we had more days to spend laying on the beach...