So just the last few days I traveled to Thailand but more specifically Aonang beach in Krabi, Thailand. Although it was much advertised that Krabi is nice and all that with pictures of beaches and stuff, the actual beauty and happenings are all in Aonang beach. Thus I feel that those travel logs are rather misleading because Krabi town really don't have much except for the mangrove forests and river tour which sounds quite nice but it was not in our plan so we did not try the river tour which costs 500 baht (RM50) for two. Well, I am not too sure about the pricing because there were only two of us then, not sure if it was for two or per trip/boat. We didn't ask much.
It was quite an interesting experience, being in another country speaking a totally different language and some things are really, really different. It was not that expensive to go there although going there via bus can be really boring as the journey is pretty long overnight and bumping in a bus trying to sleep is not really pleasant. But for now, let a part of the story be told through the pictures taken!
Traveled from KL and the first stop is to Hatyai. It's mainly towns and it seems like 90% of them are Thai Chinese. The above picture was to capture that tremendously large electric port seen everyone 100 meters in Hatyai town which was quite astounding to me as it is really low and really close to the buildings.
So there are a lot of Chinese food and pork around. Could understand what food they were selling because they have the Chinese version stated there. Amongst the food I saw was wantan mee, bak kut teh, pork leg rice and so on.
And in this picture, there're the cutest public transport I have ever seen, the Hatyai tuktuk. I believe that it is called tuktuk because they use the cute honk quite frequently announcing their presence for anyone who wants a ride in it. I call it the Hatyai tuktuk because the other tuktuks in Krabi and Aonang are different.
Oh and my favourite shop that I've found is the 7 eleven. Haha. I was particularly fascinated with the cheap drinks, cheap small shampoos (50% cheaper than in Malaysia), different kind of drinks and snacks and buns and all kinds of nick knacks. Besides, 7 eleven was almost everywhere there and the weather was hot and we were always craving for cool drinks. But I was fascinated with the cheap stuff there. Haha.
My cute tuktuk! I hope someday I can own one!
Okay my photos are not really in order but just bear with me. This is the first island we went to for our island hopping. This is Koh Poda which means Poda island. This beach looks the nicest but not really big and not that much area for swimming as lots of boats (long tail boats and express ones) come in and out, not leaving as much areas for us to enjoy. The water here is clearest with sandy beaches and not much stones and corals so it is the nicest to swim in.
Oh and we fed fishes which can be clearly seen in the really clear water.
This is the nice cave-like rock formation that we passed by while travelling to islands. It's like the pirates passing by with old ropes dangling off some places but this one doesn't have skulls on it. I wonder who put the ropes on and what were they for before.
We went snorkeling as well. I quite liked it although it was rather scary and unpleasant to not be able to see much while snorkeling because I could not wear my glasses. Scary because at one point I got a bit lost because le blur friend went on board and was not on a lookout for me and I went from boat to boat wondering which boat is mine and also while snorkeling whenever there is a cloudy part in the water I don't dare to venture further in case there's any sting ray or dangerous big fishes that might threaten my life :(
I shall invest in powered snorkeling goggles one day!
I shall invest in powered snorkeling goggles one day!
Oh and the tour guide picked a sea urchin for us to see. There were plenty of them under there as I snorkeled. Yes, it is on my hands in this picture and yes it is poisonous. The trick is to stay really still to let the sea urchin believe it is standing on a rock. But the sea urchin was pretty clever, poking me, sometimes real hard just to test if I am a rock or not but I stayed really still so nothing happened to me :)
We stopped at what some called beach island where at low tide that stretch of beach appears connecting two islands as seen in the picture. We had lunch there, included in the package. Quite nice and sufficient. I had two rounds because I was hungry from the swim :P
At the East side of Railay Beach where our last stop is there were also longtail boats selling snacks, food and drinks. I had a coconut shake (ice blended coconut) which was really nice as they are really generous in the coconut meat. They have other food like fried rice and noodles, barbequed corn and chicken meat.
This is also on Railay beach. And there was that caucasian lady who just lay there for some time, not moving. We didn't check on her after that but I think later she wasn't there anymore because we didn't notice her after that. But she looks funny lying there like being washed from the sea.
Tom yum #1 that I have eaten there. Really nice although not that cheap. 80 Baht. This was mixed which means it has chicken chunks, prawns and squids. We found out later at another stall that tom yum kung is actually prawn tom yum. It wasn't "king tomyum" as we assumed earlier. Haha.
I had watermelon shake with it which was really refreshing although I was too full to finish the shake after the tom yum but I took it with me :)
I miss the watermelon shake even as I am tying now ><
This is the faraway view of Chicken island where we snorkeled. Can you spot the chicken/turkey like formation? =)
Here's a zoomed in shot. Turkey with a gigantic back. That's why it is called the Chicken island. Maybe in Thai there's no word for "turkey" so they could only name it as chicken.
These are the souvenir shops at Aonang beach. It just makes me feel like a tourist. *happy!* I can proudly say that I can bargain after buying stuff there!
There are other expensive shops there as well and also tailors (but we were warned in travel logs that the tailors there aren't that good. Haha. But who goes there to make dresses???)
Selling lots of stuff from bags, to waterproof bags and beach wears and lots of varieties of things.
This is the other end of Aonang beach where little crabbies live. The other side doesn't seem to have these little crabs.
In Aonang we stayed at that hotel - VIP hotel. Air-conditioned, free wifi although a little far away from the beach and happening areas but it is just a mere 10-15 minutes walk away. The walk was good as we managed to just explore and look at the scenery and shops and life along the way to the happening area.
Shops at the happening area.
This is the Aonang tuktuk which comprises of a motorbike and the other part attached to it. Sorry because it is small.. The ones in Krabi were quite scary because they are just basically motorbikes ONLY and all that we saw were male drivers so we never traveled in them. The ones in Aonang, we did used their services especially when we are rather tired (I got serious blisters from all the massive walking). 20-30 baht per trip, depending on the distance.
View from the back of the tuktuk, heading to Krabi for one night after two nights in Aonang. Love the touristy area, being a tourist and the sea and the colours.
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