After breakfast at hotel, checkout at 9am and continue our journey to Phuket, about 300km from Trang.

During our last trip to Krabi, we stop by a very famous honey roasted pork coffee shop in Trang, we decided to drop by before  leaving for Phuket.

Unfortunately, the shop is not open because owner’s mother is sick ( see how women can dig out so much information in a short chat ). Luckily the stall selling the authentic teochew moon cake is open. It cost about RM4 per pc.

Always buy some food when you are traveling as you will never know when is your next stop for food.

We reached Krabi about 11am, since it is still early we decided by drop by Tiger Cave temple again.

Grandpa and grandma in front out God of Mercy- Kwan Yin.

The temple is still in construction since our last visit in 2009.

Continue our journey and having lunch at this Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant along the main road to Phuket.

The restaurant is directly facing the main road, the decor and environment is clean and comfortable.

Fried rice with Crab Meat in Star shape. The outlook is nice but not as good as the one we had yesterday at Trang.  I noticed we had this popular, cheap and delicious food almost every meal whenever we are in Thailand, I guess because it is fast and all kids like it. In Thai, it is call ” Khao Pat Poh “.

Finally, reach Phuket at 5pm. We stayed at Patong Resort Hotel costing about RM110.00 per night. Room is spacious and clean. Location is strategically located in the middle of Patong beach and walking distance to beach, shopping and the famous Bangla road.  You can book the hotel HERE.

Night time at Patong Beach.

Zheng Er enjoying her ice cream after dinner.

Drive To Phuket – Day 1

Drive To Phuket – Day 3

Drive To Phuket – Day 4

Drive To Phuket – Day 5

Drive To Phuket – Day 6

After breakfast, I had some time to walk around the area nearby Aonang Villa.  Surprisingly I discover a board showing 50% discount for massage from 10am to 2pm.  I guess business must be very slow in this low season period. In fact I had been offered 20% discount on massage previous day at Aonang beach front area.

Zheng Er enjoying breakfast before we head back to Hatyai at 10.00am

Group photo session.

We took the same way where we came from few days ago, highway 4.  But this time, we by passed Trang town and head over to Khao Pubpa for lunch.

Some poster at the restaurant telling the story about the development around the area long long time ago.

After lunch, continue our journey back to Hatyai via Phattalung.

Along the way, we stopped by some local stall along the highway selling these delicious pineapple, some call it crystal honey pineapple.

Car 3 finally decided to buy the antique coffee table, luckily it fit nicely to my truck.

We reached Hatyai about 4.30pm, check in to Asian hotel, the cost is below RM100. The location is located in the middle of the city where walking distance to all the hot spot. You may book the hotel HERE.

At night, we had our dinner at this popular duck noodle.  As usual the portion is rather small and you need at least 2 bowls to fill up your stomach.

The stall operates from 5.00pm to 4.00am morning.

The location of the stall is a bit off the main street, it is located at a dead end alley.  The land mark is look for Regency hotel, from the hotel entrance looking towards Lee Garden Plaza, there is a small lane on your left hand side ( next to Regency open car park ), the stall is located at the end of the walk way.

There are 2 stalls selling the same duck noodle, I cannot tell which one is better and original.  Maybe you can try both.

Besides duck noodle, there are a numbers of other choice as well.

After dinner, we moved on to the famous street in from of Lee Garden Plaza for some dessert.  To be honest, the price is rather expensive for road side dessert, 50Baht ( about RM5)  for Lin Chee Kang where you can get it at less then RM2 in Malaysia.

Drive to Krabi Day 1

Drive to Krabi Day 2

Drive to Krabi Day 3

Drive to Krabi Day 4

Drive To Krabi Day 6

Destination : Krabi – Island Hopping

Today is the highlight of our trip – island hopping.  The company will pick us up at 8.30am.

Wake up earlier and had our breakfast at the hotel.

Since I had a little time to spare, I decided to have a short walk at the beach right in front of the hotel.

This is the first time visit Aonang Beach since I arrived 2 days ago.

To be honest, the beach here is not attractive at all and I hope the Island will not disappointing us.

Far on the left hand side is lime stone hill facing the sea.

This is the traditional long tail boat.  There is a dedicated jetty for Island hopping, but I think there are some private boat offer you to hop on at Aonang beach.

Those are the island that we will visit today.

We arranged the package at an agent ( many of them along Aonang beach commercial area ) after visited a few and comparing prices. Package is more of less the same where you can go for half day 4 island hopping ( Chicken Island, Tub Island, Poda Island and Phranang Island ) half day Hong island or full day Phi Phi Island. Off course there are some others package such as kayaking.

Since we have a quite a numbers of children, we took the half day 4 island hopping.  The trip start from 9.00am to 2.oopm.  The 4 island trip is just 15 minutes away from Aonang beach, basically you can see the island from the Aonang beach front.  Phi Phi island is about 45 minutes boat ride from Aonang beach.

Please take note that there are 2 types of boat, speed boat and the traditional long tail boat.  Besides the price and speed, I guess it is more on safety reason before you make your decision.

During low season, you are bargain hard especially if you have the numbers, we paid 650Baht for adult and 450Baht for children inclusive hotel to jetty transfer, drinks ( mineral water and can drinks) and lunch pack supply.

Everyone waiting for the transport.  Sitting from left, LonelyPlanet, Jia Yiin, Zheng Ni, Jia Chi, Zheng Hao and Zheng Yuan on the floor.

This is our transport to the jetty.

Arrived at jetty about 15 minutes later.

Boarding the speed boat.

Long tail boat.

9am sharp, we are on our way to our first destination, Tub Island.

The speed boat power by 2 x 225hp engine.

Passing some of the limestone hill along the way.

Here we are arriving at the first island, Tub Island. Basically Tub island is just next to Chicken island where you can walk across the shallow sea at adult waist height.

Crystal clear water.

The background is Chicken island, you can people are walking towards it.

We spend about an hour here enjoying the beach then we move on to our snorkeling spot.  Passing by Chicken island and now you know why they call it Chicken island because there is one hill on the island sticking out just like chicken head.

5 minutes later, we arrived at our snorkeling area.  All the gears are included in the tour package.

For those who are first timer, it is really excited.  You can hear the kids shouting and screaming while chasing the fish.  Some are not use to the snorkeling kits and it took them a while to get use to the breathing technique.

For those who had been snorkeling trip to Tioman, Redang and Perhentian, this place is nothing compare to our island in Malaysia.  Later I found out from Car 8 that snorkeling in Phi Phi land is much more excited.

So for those of you looking for snorkeling fun, please take the Phi Phi island full day tour.

We spend about 45 minutes snorkeling ( rather short ), we head to Poda island for lunch.

The island had a white sandy beach and crystal clear water.

This island was badly hit by Tsunami in 2004. It has since been rebuilt with clear signboard indication the safe zone of the island.

After lunch, relax at the beach.  There are quite a numbers of wooden hut where you can sit down and relax at the island.

We spend about an hour at Poda island and head to another destination, Phra Nang Island.

According to the tour guide, long long time ago, there is a princess from Indian travel to this island and settle down here.  She has some black magic that can make your dreams come true. Once your dream fulfill, you must come back to reward her by presenting her either flower  or the wooden craft penis.  Why flower or penis ? The answer from the tour guide is – she is a lady. I let your own imagination to interpret it.

Right beside the Phra Nang Cave, a beach where you can relax and enjoy the wave.

45 minutes later, we are left this place and head back to Aonang. Thats conclude our island hopping trip.

Back to hotel at about 3pm, the pool is the best place to cool us down after a few hours under the hot sun.

At night, I baby sit the kits to Burger King at Aonang Beach.  This is the most expensive burger king that I had visited.  The Whooper burger set here cost 225Baht, almost double the price in Malaysia.  Anyway, everyone enjoy the food especially some non-halal pork burger.

After dinner, continue shopping and massage.

Tomorrow, we will be back to HatYai.

Drive to Krabi Day 1

Drive to Krabi Day 2

Drive to Krabi Day 3

Drive to Krabi Day 5

Drive To Krabi Day 6

After breakfast, we drove to Wat Tham Suea or Tiger cave temple about 15KMs from Aonang Beach.

According to our travel information, the cave was discovered by a monk who wanted to meditate and noticed tigers roaming around the cave, so he named the cave – Tiger Cave.

This is the entrance to the temple.  I was quite surprised when I have glance  at the wording, this is a God of Mercy Temple ( Guan Yin in Mandarin ).  Follow the road for about 100Meters will bring you to the temple where it house the Guan Yin Statue.

At the end of the walk way, you will this pagoda housing a huge Guan Yin Statue.

A very important reminder here, there are a lot of monkeys around the area, please take good care of your belonging or it will be hijacked by the monkey – like Zheng Er’s bottle, disappear in a glimpse of an eye. Put everything into your carrying beg, try to avoid holding a plastic bag.

The Guan Yin temple is located at the foot hill, there are 2 places that you can venture to from here : the tiger cave and the view point on top of the hill.  Please take note that there are 2 different routes to both destination.  We choose to explore the cave.  In the beginning of  of the trail, it clearly stated that this is not the trail to the hill top to avoid confusion.  You wouldn’t want to waste your energy as the trail to the top of the view point is about 1200 steps, about 4.5 times of Batu cave, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Zheng Hao, Zheng Ni, Jia Chi, Zheng Yuan and Jia Yiin posting before the tiger cave trail adventure.

We do not hire a tour guide so basically we do not not what to expect and where exactly is the tiger cave, we are hopping that there are sign board lead us to the tiger cave.  This is the first sight after we descending downhill.

I believe these huts are staying by the monk who meditate here.There are a lot of cave as we walk along the trail, but unfortunately no clear sign of telling us which one is tiger cave.  Anyway, we just enjoy the company of the natural environment.

Big tree is very common in the jungle trail.  We walk for about 30 minutes, passing several caves and still not clear sign of tiger cave, we decided to turn back, may be we just missed it or the cave was not properly tag with sign board.

One of my favorite, Laughing Buddha statue in the temple.

After we return to the Guan Yin temple at the foot hill,  Car 6 and car 8 decide to challenge the hill top. As I mentioned it is about 1200 steps, so I decided not to take up the challenge.  Wai Chee decided to give it a try with the kids, they return after completed about 200 plus steps. It took Car 6 and 8 more than an hour to complete the trail.

If you are physically fit, you should give it a try and the view on top of the hill is just superb.

Even the kids did not make it, they are all rewarded with ice cream.

From the ground, you can see the viewing deck on top of the hill.

Its about 1.30pm, we are hunting for food at Krabi town about 5Km away.  Krabi is small town and quiet during our visit.  However, you may visit the night market here where you can find a lot of local foods.  Since we stay at Aonang beach, about 30Kms from Krabi town, decided not to visit the night market.

We parked our car and roaming around the town and discover this coffee shop, since it is 2pm, not may choice available.

We ordered some rice and noodle with roasted pork and chicken. Do you notice that they put sugar in the food ?

After lunch, we decided to visit a natural tourist destination call ” Emerald Pool”. It is a last minute decision so some team member did not bring additional clothing to enjoy the fun at Emerald Pool.

By listening to the name, you will know it is a pool with emerald like colour water.  The water is originates from a warm stream in the low land forest of Khao Nor Juji. The colour of the pool water change from time to time according to the weather and time of the day.

About 50 KM from Krabi, Emerald pool is located at Khlong Thom town along highway 4.  Turn at Khlong Thom town junction to road 4038 towards Lam Thap.  About 100 meters from the junction, you will notice a white signboard on the right leading you to Emerald Pool, Hot Spring and a wild life sanctuary.  Please take note that the sign board indicate Crystal Pond instead of Emerald pool.

About 15KM from road 4038 junction, we arrived at the Emerald Pool or crystal pond.  You need to pay about 50Baht for each car parking.

At the entrance, you need to purchase ticket before you can enter the area, it cost only 20Baht for local but 200Baht for foreigner.

Wai Yee and parents at the entrance of the park.

Even at the entrance of the park, you can see the beauty of the stream with emerald like colour.

After purchase the ticket, you need to walk about 1.5Km to the actual Emerald pool via this gravel road.  The road is well under shade by a lot of trees.

Finally we arrived at the Emerald Pool.

Interestingly, it is indeed an Emerald pool, first in my life.

Be very very careful when you walk around the area, it is very very slippery.

Zheng Yuan can’t wait to jump to the pool.

Jia Chi enjoying the natural slide to the pool.

We spend about an hour at Emerald pool and reached Aonang beach about 6.30pm. Again too late to enjoy the sun set. I hope I can make it tomorrow as we only plan for Island hopping trip tomorrow.

No more seafood tonight as we decided to try out some local food.  We found this small food stall selling noodle not far from our hotel. ( It is at a small lane opposite McDonald ).

I strongly recommend you try this stall, it cost about 35Baht per bowl, but you need 2 to 3 bowls to fill your stomach as the portion is very small, a few meat ball and 3 – 4 mouth full of noodle, that is.

After dinner, shopping and massage again.

Drive to Krabi Day 1

Drive to Krabi Day 2

Drive to Krabi Day 4

Drive to Krabi Day 5

Drive To Krabi Day 6

After breakfast, we drove to Krabi via Trang. We took highway 43 to Phatthalung exit left to Trang and finally Krabi.

Driving from Hatyai to Phatthalung using Highway 43 is smooth and easy, just like Malaysia North South Highway, it is a dual carriage highway. Please take note that this is toll free highway and be expect car making U-turn and pedestrian crossing along the way.

We stopped by a handicraft shop recommended by Car 6, there are several handicraft shops along the way and the price is reasonable. Car 3 falls in love with an antique coffee table and consider buying it when we are back from Krabi.

From Phatthalung to Trang, continue with Highway 4 ( turn left at Phatthalung interchange ) will bring you to hilly terrain (  similar to scenery around Ipoh ) where you will see a lot of limestone hilly terrain.  The road on the hilly section is single carriage similar our trunk road here in Malaysia.

There is one restaurant on top of this hilly road call “Khao Pubpa” that you must stop for meal, it is located at the highest point of the road, and the environment is very cooling and excellent for a break.  We had our earlier lunch here about 12.00pm.  The restaurant is  built by wooden structure and used only wooden furniture still in its natural and original shape. It makes it blend in really well with the natural environment surrounded the restaurant.

The food is tasty and price reasonable, it cost about 800Baht for a family 4 adult and 4 children.  Everyone enjoy the food and decided to visit Khao Pubpa again when we are on our return journey from Krabi.

Zheng Yuan and GrandPa.

After lunch we proceed our journey to Krabi passing by a town call  Trang.  We decided to drive through Trang town to see what they have to offer instead of taking the “Trang ByPass” highway.

In Trang town, we noticed a lot of Chinese residing here. We saw a lot of Chinese wording banner especially at school, temple and shops.

With the assistance of LonelyPlanet in Car 8, we managed to visit one of the popular kopitiam in Trang. This restaurant operates by Thai Teo Chew Chinese who still speak fluent mandarin.  Car 3 generously bought us a round of the famous honey roast pig while Car 6 being a Teo Chew Nang as well bought every table the authentic Teo Chew biscuit.

A very run down shop outside, but excellent food inside.

Best honey roast pig in Trang.Traditional Teo Chew Moon Cake and biscuit.

There is a small hiccup when we left Trang as I accidentally droped my GPS causing it haywired showing a wrong direction.  Luckily Car 8 come to rescue bring us back to the right track. Resetting the GPS bring us back to the right track and we continue our journey via trunk road 4158 connecting to 4159 and finally back to Highway 4.

If you do not wish to visit Trang town, I will strongly suggest you to take the Trang By pass and continue with Highway 4 passing Huai Yot town to Krabi. ( Map is provided free by Thailand Tourism Board Malaysia located at Level 22, Menara CitiBank Kuala Lumpur, Tel: (603) 2162 3480 http://www.thaitourism.com.my/).

Finally we reached Aonang beach/Krabi about 4.30pm.  Just like Koh Samui, the hotel entrance is rather small sandwiched in between all the shops and signboard.  Checked in to the hotel and relax at the pool.  The hotel Aonang Villa Resort is strategically located by the beach and walking distance to all the food and shopping area next to Aonang beach.  Next to the hotel is a limestone mountain, the view is  similar to Batu Cave back in Malaysia.

The hotel cost about 2500Baht per night inclusive breakfast and tea time for 2 during low season, room is very spacious.  There are 2 pools in the hotel, surprisingly the pool closed rather early at 7pm.

At night, we have a slow walk around the beach front Aonang shopping/dining area. The area is very well organized after the Tsunami hit.  There are a numbers of restaurant by the seaside at the end of the shopping area.  The price of the food is all set in the menu and written in both Thai and English language.  For a family of 2 adults and 4 children, it cost us about 800Baht for a seafood dinner.

If you want to catch the sunset whiles having dinner, this will be the best place, be there about 6pm so that you can have more choice of table location. The sunset about 6.30pm, unfortunately I do not have the opportunity to take any photo, according to Car 8’s LonelyPlanet, it is very beautiful. ( Try google Aonang Sunset for photo ).

After dinner, all the ladies continue shopping and massage, some of us enjoying beer at the hotel lobby.

Aonang Beach at night.

Drive to Krabi Day 1

Drive to Krabi Day 3

Drive to Krabi Day 4

Drive to Krabi Day 5

Drive To Krabi Day 6