On 13th June, the eight of us, coming from all around Malaysia, met up at LCCT before our flight to Krabi, Thailand. It was not that uneventful for a short flight to Krabi, we had quite some frightening moments when Kent made it to the airport only several minutes before boarding due to delay of KLIA transit from KL Sentral. Then, some of our stuffs got confiscated as a result of Airasia's policy which do not allow fluid of more than 150 ml to be brought in hand luggage into the cabin. But after all the troubles, we manage to get ourselves into the departure hall and our flight to Krabi. The time is 12.35 pm.
It was raining when our flight touched down at Krabi Airport, I remembered me tuning my watch to the local time, which is one hour later than Malaysian time. Everyone was filled with anticipation despite the less-than-ideal weather.
First group photo in Krabi Airport, first thing to do upon arrival =D
Busy filling up the immigration form to be submitted to the immigration counter before we left the Arrival Hall.
We need to take a photo with the digital camera provided at the immigration counter and produce our passport with the filled immigration form before we are allowed to pass.
Once we were out of the arrival hall, we looked for transport to our hotel near Ao Nang Beach. There was a row of counters providing a variety of transportation, from taxis to car rentals and vans, destinations include Krabi Town and the beach areas. We settled for a van to Ananta Burin Resort at a price of 1050 Baht. The van was very spacious and comfortable, able to carry around 10 passengers in a single trip.
Halfway through the journey the van will stop for some records at local travel agencies, and this is the chance the travel agencies use to promote their package to various tourist spots. However, if you are not in a hurry, it is better for you to wait until you have asked about prices for similar package around the area of your hotels, because most probably the prices provided there will be cheaper.
After quite some time spent on the van, we finally made it to our hotel.
Ananta Burin Resort. It's kind of catchy when it is pronounced in Thai. We get this hotel at a very good price, one room only costed us RM 100. It certainly is anything but a let down, friendly and helpful staffs, well-furnished lobby with wi-fi, spacious room with everything we need, and they serve apple tea when we arrived, so add another point for hospitality. The only downside may be the tap water which tasted salty. =)
It was around 3.30 pm when all of us had settled down in our rooms. We headed out in search for lunch on the streets around the hotel. There you go song-tam fans, we got our hands on some the very first moment we saw it sold on the streets. Song-tam, also known as papaya salad, contain green papaya as the main ingredient, which is mixed with crunchy peanuts, dried shrimps, bean sprouts and lemon, blended to perfection by the sauce. It is rich in flavour yet not oily at all, you will not get tired of eating this.
It was our first meal and everyone was eager to try out some traditional Thai cuisines. Some of the delicacies we ordered include pad thai and pineapple fried rice.
Well, the fact that they serve the fried rice in a real pineapple impressed me quite a lot, but wait till you experience the taste of fruits and spicy rice all mixed nicely in your mouth, your taste buds will scream for more =)
For those from around Malaysia and Singapore, pad thai would not tastes that unfamiliar as it is almost the same as fried kueh tiao, with corn, bean curds, chicken, fish cakes and prawns being some of the common ingredients used.
After treating our stomach to a wholesome feast of Thai food, we moved on to our next objectives, searching for some tour package for the coming days in Krabi. There are 2 things I learnt from the hunt for tour packages:
1. Ask around before settle down on one travel agencies. Wait, do not jump into one travel agency so fast! There are so many companies offering almost exactly the same tours to the same destinations. Therefore, the key determinant to our decisions will be the price, so make sure you had surveyed for several companies and had an ideal price in mind before you commit to one travel agency.
2. Bargain. You might be surprised by the price difference before and after bargaining. Some might find themselves too shy to bargain but the truth is, you might just be one question away from a way cheaper price, so at least ask the seller whether the price can be lowered. Go in a big group because it is more likely to get a cheaper price when many people book the tour package together. And thanks to our friend Wann Chiing with her good bargaining skill, we manage to get very good packages for our next 3 days in Krabi.
We then went to a sundry store to shop for some groceries. The yogurt drink is extremely sweet and the beer is cheap in Thailand. After that, we went back to the hotel for a short break before dinner.
After a short briefing by Yan Ming on what to do and what to bring tomorrow, we went to bed for a good rest. Looking forward to tomorrow. =)
Photos coutesy of Yan Ming and Wann Chiing =D
No comments:
Post a Comment