Hello from Malaysia! We are currently in KL – we arrived Thursday late afternoon. Sadly, we fly home Wednesday, arriving into Tulla about 0630. Read on for our adventures in Krabi.

Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th (by Rod)

It’s a very relaxing Saturday morning, so I decide the time is right to jog down the road, in the opposite direction from the village, to both exercise and see what I can see. There’s not a lot to see, but it all looks green and interesting. No possible restaurants or activities. But it is a pleasant jog and the heat does not bother me too much, when I know a quick dip in the pool awaits on my return.

We then continue the process of trying to hire a car. We have made enquires via our host/local entrepreneur/finger in every pie man Mr. Keng. He said he will ask, but has not gotten back to us. Another online enquiry leads nowhere, so Belinda and I book a Grab and head to a local agent, or so we thought. The agency looks more like a hotel reception, with nobody at the desk. There is an office off to the side where a lady at a desk calls us in. We explain our needs and she makes a call. We are not sure if it is Mr. Keng we are talking to, but he seems to think he has already explained the lie of the land. To cut a long story relatively short, we cannot get a car.

We find an Irish pub and enjoy a couple of beers and some snacks whilst watching some sport on TV. Then we head out to get a ride back to our villa. Immediately, a local operator asks if we want a taxi. For once, we say yes and proceed to haggle:

Destination: Green Hill Villas. 300 baht. No way, it only cost 110 to get here! Okay, 200. Alright.

It turns out to be a tuk tuk – our first for the trip. We hop in the back and wander along the esplanade into Ao Nang. We had no idea this was so developed and busy! Shop after restaurant after weed outlet after shop; it goes on and on across the road from the lovely and fairly quiet beach. It feels a bit like Phuket again, but much more modern and orderly in appearance. Still, we are keen to return later to look more thoroughly. It feels like we are heading in the wrong direction and getting nowhere slowly. This feeling turns out to be validated when the tuk tuk comes to a halt at Green View, nowhere near our destination (Green Hill) and in the middle of mostly stationary traffic. We now have one angry driver and two angry passengers. We want to just get out and walk/find alternative transport, but the driver insists on retracing part of the journey, to be sure he drops us off in the busiest, most inconvenient position in Ao Nang. Job done, we pay him 200 baht and weigh up our options.

We start walking back in the direction of the pub (which is now about 2 km away), largely to try and get out of this traffic snarl. We stop about half way and try calling a Grab. Eventually we secure a driver who messages us about waiting at the 7-11, due to the traffic, of course. We keep walking, only to realise we have walked past the vehicle. By now my bladder is asking me some serious questions. Finally we hop in the vehicle, and roll our eyes as he heads straight back the way we have been walking, again through all the traffic. My bladder can’t look.

Another very long story truncated; we arrive back at the villa more than two hours after getting in the tuk tuk, paying 500 baht for a journey that cost 110 and took 12 minutes on the way in!

Monday 13th

Thai Cooking School (by Belinda)

Over the weekend we planned and booked some activities, with the aim of a good balance of relaxation and sightseeing. Monday saw us split with the boys going to the Elephant Sanctuary and me going to a Thai Cooking School.

I’d kind of been looking at a few cooking classes during the course of our trip, but they can be very expensive. The class I found in Krabi (Thai Charm Cooking School) was very reasonably priced, 1300 baht (that’s about $60 for the 3-4 hour class). I paid an additional 700 baht for transport, as I was out of the free shuttle area. The class was made up of an Australian family of 4, a Swiss couple and a German and Belgian who were friends from a previous trip. Our teacher Penny was great – fun and funny!

We were able to choose a curry paste to make from scratch, then a curry to make with that paste, a soup, a salad and a stir fry. We also had a master class in rice cooking, as well as helping to prepare 2 x desserts: banana in coconut milk and mango sticky rice.

I chose: Tom Kha Gai (which is a coconut based soup) – Pad Thai – Cucumber Salad – Penang Curry Paste – Penang Curry with Chicken. It was fast paced and lots of fun. I was cooking next to the young man from Belgium who was easily distracted, so often we were like: “What did she say to do next?” We used mortar and pestle to make our curry paste and the best knife (it’s actually a cleaver) I have ever used! As we made each dish, we put them on our table and covered them up. We sat down in a group to eat our meal and they were incredible! I couldn’t believe I had made those dishes – they tasted so authentic (in my opinion of course…). We were able to pack up what was leftover to take home, which Rod and Hamish were very excited about.

During the lunch, we had time to talk to each other about travels and Thailand and life and I really enjoyed this aspect of the day, as well as the cooking. Each of us were given a recipe book and I can’t wait to try and recreated these meals when we get home.

Elephant Sanctuary (by Rod)

The transport arrives on time to collect Hamish and I for our elephant experience. We have chosen this place because it features “rescue” elephants, who now carry no passengers and do no chores. The tour’s motto is “love elephants.” And it does not disappoint. It’s also about 500 metres from our accommodation, but the route is circuitous.

After an informal briefing/chat about elephants in the common area (with heaps of snacks and water laid on) we are loaded into a kind of troopie, where we all stand in the open back and hang on. It’s only a short, slow drive to our meeting point in the rainforest. Our guides actually call the elephants by their names (Boo-boo and Mama) and they duly appear, casually tramping their way through the undergrowth. They certainly look relaxed and happy as we take turns feeding them bananas.

A slow walk back to the common area ensues, as we keep feeding our big new friends. They wade through a narrow, shallow creek, then give themselves a dust bath before we get back. They are then stationed (no tether; just happy to wait in the shade and hope for some more food) whilst we prepare some treats: a mixture of squished bananas, bran and vitamin powder. They are called over and we give them their latest food (they eat about 300 kg a day).

After this they take a shower, followed by a mud bath (because why not) with a cleansing shower again. Then it’s off to the “pool” for a swim and a scrub. They are clearly enjoying this, as are we!

When it’s all done, they calmly head back to the shelter, where they keep getting tidbits, including any leftovers from our next snack of fruits.

We are so glad we chose this tour. The elephants are clearly well treated and the whole program appears to be designed for them to have fun and eat continuously. A quick shower and change of clothes for us and we are returned to our villa.

Tuesday 13th – Nong Thale Kayaking

In our area of Krabi, there are a couple of freshwater lakes where you can pay to go kayaking. Without a car, we were at the mercy of tour operators. Sounds easy enough to book a kayaking trip, but there are so many tour providers, all offering basically the same thing, it took us way too long to decide on ‘the one’. Once we had decided, the booking wouldn’t go through and after 3 attempts I cracked the shits and shut my iPad.

The next morning we revisited the kayaking tour, chose a different operator and the booking went through. We were picked up at 1pm in a fairly typical transportation vehicle: ute with canopy, bench seats and grab rails. Two kiwis were already in the ute. It was a quickish drive through rubber and pineapple plantations to the Nong Thale Lake. We were given waterproof tie down sacks for anything we wanted to take with us on the kayak and the briefest briefing: “You go that way, 30 minutes, then swim. Then you go this way, then you come back and finish.” I mean, I guess there wasn’t much else to tell!

Hamish and I went in a 2 person kayak and Rod was the solo occupant of a 2 person kayak. We had a 13 year old ‘guide’ – the Kiwi couple had their own guide. The lake had many submerged fossilised tree trunks, that Hamish and I manage to hit. We also found ourselves stuck on these rocky obstacles a few times, where try as I may to reverse paddle and push off with the paddle, the child guide had to come and help. The swimming spot was beautiful, but freezing. We stayed there for some time, then headed back downstream where Hamish and the Kiwi couple swam, whilst the child guide had a relaxing ciggie, whilst Rod and I chatted.

After getting Hamish back on board, we paddled back to the base, inelegantly extracted ourselves from the kayak and were given fresh pineapple and bottled water in a treehouse viewing platform. What a lovely way to spend a few hours! We were transported back to our accommodation where we had a swim and play in the pool, before retiring to our villa for a bit of downtime.

That afternoon we ventured into the busy Aonang to get dinner and do a bit of last minute gift buying.

Our driver on the way home, as it turns out, is a local man from Nong Thale – he even pointed out his house on the trip home. He said he knew Pat and Pat’s mother was his teacher! (Pat is the on site host at the villas).

The following day, we walked into the village to purchase a Thai lounge as a thank you to Pat, who has been the kindest host. The ‘lobby’ at the villas is an open air hut, where Pat has a store of moto helmets and other bits and bobs. He often has a nap there in the afternoon, just on the bare bamboo floor, so we thought a floor lounge might be appreciated. He shyly took our gift, without saying much and we weren’t sure if he liked it or not. But later that afternoon, we saw him sitting on it, so we think it was a good gift after all.

The rest of the day was spent packing and preparing for our flight to KL. We ate meals from the 7-11 (they have a great range of ready to heat and eat meals for $2.50!) and just generally relaxing. It rained a bit, so that was nice in the evening sitting on our little deck listening to this and having a Changs (although this Chang was enjoyed from the shower).