Beautiful Thailand: Krabi Day 3 - Kayaking and more swimming

Noticed posters advertising Kayaking while exploring the streets of Krabi during one of the window shopping sessions. The posters looked really interesting and the places looked exotic. Considering there was one more day to spend in Krabi, half a day kayaking trip was booked.

The plan was to leave early and be back by 12:30 pm. As always the start was late, 2 of my friends who had gone for a walk in the morning had lost their way and by the time they came back and got ready, the pick up van was already waiting for 45 mins.

The start point for Kayaking was about 30 Kms from the hotel. On arrival coffee was served and the group was asked to select a kayak and start off. It was surprising since there was no instruction given, no guidelines and no life jackets. The water in the beginning was shallow and the kayak got stuck in between. My friends later told me that it was a hilarious sight to watch me pull the kayak will the other 2 just sat on it. It took a while to master the art of rowing and in the meanwhile, the rest of the group had gone ahead. Finally caught up with the group just as they entered the Mangrove Forest, the silence there was calming but it was broken often with the Guide singing ‘No Monkey No Cry’.

Kayaking back was more challenging as it was upstream and by the end of the trip my shoulders were hurting really bad. Once on the shore coffee and fresh fruits were served. And after some photo sessions it was time to leave.

Once back in the resort, it was time to vacate and move to a different one. This one was in the outskirts and hence away from the hustle and bustle. While some of my friends slept, the rest of us took a dip in the pool and explore the neighbourhood. One of the discoveries was a tiny shack on the beach that played retro music and had rustic ambience. In this background I watched the sunset. It felt like a perfect ending to my stay in Krabi.

Beautiful Thailand: Krabi Day 2 - Scuba Diving

The Plan for day 2 in Krabi was Scuba Diving and chilling out.

Though the reporting time was 8:45 am , being girls we were late. The people from Diving camp “Scuba addicts” came looking and found us hogging a huge breakfast. After some more delay we were ready to discover the underwater world by 9:30. On the way to the Local Island our dive destination, the instructions and some basic hand signals were demonstrated by the instructors. And thus I was ready for my first dive. The scariest part of the experience was jumping of the boat into the sea. The instructions were to look right ahead and walk from the boat into the sea. For someone who has just started swim it took sometime to do. With that jump I was in the middle of the sea ready to discover a whole new world. As we approached the coral reefs there were schools of different fishes swimming so close I could almost touch them. Slowly the descent started and underwater world became more beautiful. After some meters my ears started to hurt due to pressure and nothing seemed to reduce the pain. Since this could be dangerous it was decided that I would go back to the surface.

Back on the boat they served homemade Thai food. It was simple but very tasty. The other irresistible dish on the boat was the fruit bowl. It was regular watermelon and pineapple but they were sweet and juicy, you could not stop at one.

The second dive was scheduled after lunch. After some convincing I decided to try again, 4 meters into the sea and my ears started to hurt again and unlike last time I was alone on the surface this time. The boat we travelled in was no where in sight and there I was in the open sea alone, no where to go if something happened. This was one of those times I wished I knew to swim well and had learnt some survival techniques. After what seemed like forever the divers and boat were back and finally I was out of the sea. The coverstaion on the way back to the mainland was centered around the sighting by the divers and I could not help bad about what I had missed.

Since 3 different hotels were booked for each day of our stay, when were back on the mainland we took our luggage and dragged it all the way to Ao nang Villa, the most expensive resort for the trip. One look at the rooms it was evident that money was well spent. It had a beautiful pool and the afternoon was spent in and around it. The evening was spent walking on the artist's street admiring paintings (some original, some replicas) and some more hogging in a resturant called Bernie's Place. The day ended with a customary Thai Massage