Weekend Escape - Krabi Island, Thailand

After consideration, I've decided to spent some money for my parent and bring them to travel overseas (all expenses paid for them) for the first time in my 27th year of living. They have sacrifice a lot for me, my studies and my whole life, is time to pay back and treat them for something. Without them, I will never experience the joy and freedom of travel.

A paid of gift for them as a Mother & Father day gift and off we go for KRABI ISLAND, THAILAND (4 days 3 nights)

FLIGHTS:
Flew them with AIRASIA from Kuching - Kuala Lumpur - Krabi (round trip) cost a total of SGD233 (For 2 people). Where as mine cost SGD123 (Round trip) AIRASIA SIN - KRABI.

TRANSPORTATION (AIRPORT TRANSFER)
I booked a private taxi to pick us up from the airport which cost 599 BAHT (approximate SGD25) per car to Ao Nang. Different locations, different prices. You can book and check for the price for the private taxi at HERE. You reserve your reservation online and you may choose to pay to the drive upon arrival (this is what I did).

Flights from Singapore to Krabi took around 1.30 Hours (which is not that bad) and the time zone is 1 hour behind Singapore.

MERS is the latest and dangerous sickness which is all over the news that has been claimed to live in South Korea. Thailand has been recently being affected with the killer. This was actually my first time experienced, being scan like those you seen in the Zombie Movies (exactly like the photo above) at the airport. They did good, to protect their city and trying to reduce the infection.

Journey from Krabi Airport towards Ao Nang was approximate 45 mins by car, 1 hour by airport shuttle bus (Cost 150BAHT one way).

ACCOMODATION:

View outside the Hotel

View outside the Hotel

Booked my stay of total 3 nights, with including an extra single bed with Booking.com at The Verandah Hotel

Price : Total of SGD220 for total of 3 nights, including breakfast.

Location: Is perfectly situated in the heart of Ao Nang. 3 mins to be around Restaurant, Bar, shops, Pharmacy, Starbucks, Subway, Mcdonalds, etc. WIthin 5 mins walk to the nearest beach at Ao Nang.

To city: Ao Nang to Krabi Town is approximately 30 mins (by Tuk-tuk). If you try to get Tuk-Tuk at the street area, it cost around 800BAHT per Tuk-tuk (Round trip). They pick you up from Ao Nang straight to Krabi Town, and will wait for you on your desire time to leave Krabi Town. Payment are only settled after you reach Ao Nang safely.

KRABI TOWN - NIGHT MARKET
We went to krabi town night market on our first night (by tuk tuk). Is open Friday, Saturday & Sunday from 6PM - 9.30M (Local time). CLICK HERE if you would like to know more about the night market.

Old School Barber

Mini Ice-cream

One of the young kid basking at Krabi Town night market

THINGS TO DO AT KRABI
The  best activities to do in Krabi is Island Hopping. There are several options for you to choose. You do not have to book in advance through internet. You can just buy your day trip tour from any shops at Ao Nang town and there are plenty of them (cheaper than online). I get mine through the hotel, which are slightly expensive than those selling at the town, but is not that bad.

I choose a day tour (830AM - 4PM) to Phi Phi Island. Costing 1,300BAHT (approximate 55SGD per person)

Price include:
Two way transfer from hotel to boat terminal
Two way speed boat transfer
1 buffet lunch
Drinks
Snookering gear
Touring to Bamboo Island, Maya Bay beach, Viking Island, Monkey beach, Phi Phi Don, Loh Samah Bay (Snookering).

Price not included:
Entrance park fee which cost 400 BAHT each person.

Bamboo Island

Viking Island

Viking Island use to open to public to have a look inside the cave. But due to businessman have rent down the whole cave for Bird Nest business, it is no longer open to public (which i think is kinda wasted).

Railay Beach

Maya Beach is the famous beach, it is so pack. It was well-known for the movie of ‘The Beach’ featuring Leonardo Di Caprio, 15 years ago (2000). 

Maya Bay beach is quite pretty because of the cliffs. But the time we reach Maya Bay is around noon. It was so bloody hot, that I do not wish to go under the sun. HAHA. We were at the beach for about 40 mins and be were off to our main stop - PHI PHI DON.

Phi Phi Don Island, which is a very small town and it has school, pharmacies, hotels, restaurant, shops and so on. Tsunami used to strike Phi Phi Don before, so everything now are still under constructions.

 On the last day, I did the day tour to Emerald Pool, Hot Spring & tiger cave. For this tour, I booked online HERE.
Cost around 1,000 BAHT per person which include:

Two way air-conditioned bus transferred
All entrance fees
Lunch

From my opinion, I personally do not recommend Tiger Cave. To me is not that interesting, or if you love to climb, you may try to climb the 1,237 Stair Case. I did not did it as it rained heavily on the day we arrive at tiger cave.

My main purpose for the tour is to visit the Blue Pool which is quite amazing. We walked about 2KM (One way) to this amazing crystal clear pool. It is not open for swimming due to safety. From the signboard it did mentioned, if you clap your hand, you will be able to see bubble floating in the blue pool, and it really did. =D

Blue Pool

 Other than blue pool, the only place you can enjoy swimming is the Emerald Pool.

Emerald pool

We also went to the hot spring which is located in the middle of the jungle.  The temperature of the water is about 40 celsius.

 There are still a lot of different tours for option other than those I went. You may figure it all out and make decision on the day you arrive. (No worries of booking them online).

Before ending my blog post for now, I find this actually cute & interesting. The "ZEBRA" crossing

Tokyo Disneyland

The Entrance

March 11th, the day I turned 27. I bought myself a gift, a ticket to Tokyo, and a Entrance Ticket into the Dream Land aka TDL aka Tokyo Disneyland.

Bought my tickets online (Click Here for online purchase ticket) for TDL. Noted that, there is NO fast lane tickets for these parks. It did not say why, but from my logically thinking, probably due to the large volume of people going to TDL daily and even if there will be selling Fast Lane Tickets, it probably will not make any differences comparing to the normal lane. 

Anyway, good thing about TDL is that, they provide some parks for fast lane. All you have to do is to scan your tickets bar code to the machine (for the ride you want to) and it will print you a ticket of the certain time for your turn to use the fast lane.

For example, it says, 3PM to 4PM. It means, during this period of time, you have to be at the ride you requested and you can use your fast lane tickets for  it. Bare in mind, is only usable for once, so if you missed it, you are unable to request a new one.

It is my 2nd time to experience Tokyo Disneyland. My first one was at Paris Disneyland which is about 5 years ago. I probably have just chose DisneySea instead, but nevermind. =D

Tokyo Disneyland is known as the Dream Land. Everything inside are so unreal, and eventually, it flash back a lot of childhood memory (I watch a lot of Disney Cartoons when I was young ^^).

I did not manage to play all the rides, (TOO MANY PEOPLE). So I spend a lot of time using my Camera to randomly shot what I saw.

Something interesting me and my friend, IKUO saw during our time in TDL. Saw lots of both females & males (majority female) are wearing their school uniforms even tho it was Japan's school holiday during my visit, add on, these people are young adults / university / college students.

Did some reading on google.com for this blog, found out this article:

“Wearing old school uniforms means going back to what they were. They feel that they are allowed to do so in Disneyland, a dream land,” Professor Nanba says. Perhaps, old school uniforms remind young people of the fact that they are still very young and bring back their pleasant memories of high school days. They can timetravel by wearing their old uniforms. “Uniforms are also a symbol of the glorified memories,” Professor Nanba says. (Full link click here)

Hmm, is interesting tho. It was also my first time seeing all these scene. Is something new to me and I do find it quite interesting and a new experience to me.

Coming back to my topic of TDL = Unreal aka Dream land. Photos prove everything. =)

Another jumping shot of the Must Take Spot in TDL

Having meals in TDL is expensive. But I still tried once. Well, because its photo interested me to buy it. Way too cute. 

We did not stay up late night in TDL for the fireworks, (fireworks are always being canceled, thats what we being told previously). Is too cold, and also is my last day at Tokyo, I eventually agreed with my friend that I will give up watching fire works (which is a bit wasted, but is ok) and went for some RAMEN instead and some last minute shopping and touring around.


Probably, TDL will be last Disneyland I will be exploring to.  Looking forward to other theme park in the future instead.



- Peace out -