Even before we decided to go to Krabi, I knew I wanted to stay at Holiday Inn Resort Krabi if we ever jejak sana!!!!! 

I read about it on Ezdi's entry in 2013 and dah simpan niat since then ok. I showed pictures of their pool access room to Saliheen, who fell so hard in love with it too! The pool access room was no longer available on Agoda when we wanted to book it so we booked directly via Holiday Inn Resort Krabi's official website. Nak pool access room punya pasal haha.

Journey from airport to resort via Krabi Shuttle took about 40 minutes.

Check-in was quick, and we were given the first pool access room in the Couple Wing, nearest to the lobby, which we loved! I think some people might not like it due to lack of privacy because ada orang lalu lalang from the lobby but we didn't mind it at all. As it is, pool access memang tak private la kan haha. Yang penting, we didn't have to walk so much whenever we wanted to go to the lobby or keluar masuk the resort #pemalasharam

No pictures of the room itself since you can see them here (360 degrees views here, just click on the different tabs to see different areas) but I do want to post a few pictures of my new friend and I in the pool from over three days:

Cute right my unicorn float!!!!!!! Tak cute is when my badak body accidentally rolls off and splashes into the pool hahahahahaha. Anyway, I bought it from this Carousell account for S$90.00. You can find many sellers offering this type of cute pool floats la, this seller just happens to live 10 minutes away from me. Also, if you plan to beli floats yang besar gedabak macam the unicorn or the swan, I highly recommend you beli electric pump jugak. Kalau tak, if you try to blow up the float pakai mulut, it will makan 7 hari 7 malam and your mulut will be the one yang kembang macam boya lolol

Nothing else to say except I love everything we did at the resort!!!!! Which was: eat, swim, sleep, repeat. Oh, and two rounds of spa and massages! Hehe. I also love both the early morning dips in the pool and the late night floating sessions while staring into the starry sky with Saliheen... very peaceful and therapeutic ♥

A few other things that I love about the resort: (1) There is a cluster of food stalls and retail shops (including a 24-hour Family Mart) next to the resort (2) You can access the beach, which is directly opposite the resort (not the best views but it will do just fine if you only intend to tan or read a book by the beach) (3) Hotel staff was friendly and always obliging.

Definitely a resort that we will return to if we make another trip to Krabi for a chill-out holiday - especially if we ever had children someday! We saw tons of families with children, since the resort markets itself as a family-friendly accommodation (as it should, since they have tons of stuff meant for children's comfort and entertainment). It's not as lively or happening as Phuket or Bali in terms of shopping, partying and late night activities, but that's the whole damn point of us having a holiday in Krabi - to makan lots of nice Thai food, get massages and chill out all day everyday. Shiok!

Weekend in Krabi - All Around Krabi Town

Went to Krabi Town on our last night in Krabi!

Krabi Town is about 30 to 40 minutes away from the main Ao Nang Beach (where our accommdations were) so we booked Krabi Shuttle again because we wanted a fast and reliable private transport. 1200 baht (S$47.20) for round-trip!

If you don't want to spend money on private transport, then there's always the local public "buses" called songthaew (read more here and here). It's not really a bus in the conventional sense ah - more like open-air van with two rows of seats facing each other. It's cheaper at 50 baht (S$2.00) per person per trip, but take note the songthaew won't move off until they fill the whole vehicle ok. So kalau you first person to naik then you kena tunggu la sampai cukup quota.

Oh, here's a tip: If you ever need an air-conditioned space and clean toilet while in Krabi Town, exit from the bazaar and turn towards your left (where 7-Eleven is, see picture below) and walk down straight until you see a cafe attached to a hotel. The hotel name is Snoozz Hotel and the cafe name is Cafe Amazon. Saliheen and I discovered it by chance so we took the opportunity to cool down and take toilet breaks in the cafe after making a purchase hehe. Pictures of the cafe here.

The chicken noodle soup and the mini quail eggs are my favourites from the night!!!!! And so damn cheap wtf, 50 baht (S$2.00) for a steaming hot bowl of chicken noodles with soup, 20 baht (S$0.80) to 30 baht (S$1.20) for most of the street food. Lantak sampai perut macam nak meletup, y'all.

Tapi tau tak siapa yang betul betul perut nak meletup malam tu????? Laki aku hahahaha. 

The reason why tak banyak gambar from the night is because Saliheen came down with food poisoning wtf. He broke out in cold sweat half an hour after our massage session and just seconds before we boarded our private shuttle to Krabi Town seh. Nasib baik it didn't come during our massage and scrub session, and nasib baik we were in a private enclosed shuttle seh. Might have been more nauseating for him if we were in a open-air public transport with other people! 

We don't really know for sure what caused his food poisoning but we suspect it might be the soya bean milk he had during breakfast? We shared the same food for every meal; that soya bean milk was the only thing I didn't consume but he did.

But then again, I've always had a stronger tummy than him so it is entirely possible that I consumed the same contaminated food and not be affected la hahaha. There is a reason why my mum calls it my perut besi even though it's lembik and droopy, which are not properties of besi haha! Saliheen also keeps telling everyone I have a filtration system in my perut, which is why my perut has two layers EH JANGAN DENGKI AH

Weekend in Krabi - Halal Food

I think one of the reasons why my sisters brought my parents to Krabi is because it is easy to find halal food.

And it's true - there is really no need for recommendations for halal food in Krabi because they are everywhere! Which is something you'd come to expect when the population of the area is predominantly Muslim la haha. I still like to talk about food though (is that even a surprise...) so here are the things we ate in Krabi during our recent weekend trip:

First restaurant we went to after arriving in Krabi - Rakan Seafood. We wanted to eat before going to a tailor and it was the first halal restaurant we stumbled across (it is in between Holiday Inn Resort and the tailor shop we were headed to)

We spent 600 baht (S$23.60) for 2 plates of fried rice, a bowl of tomyam soup, a plate of mango salad and two drinks. Enjoyed the fried rice and mango salad, tomyam soup was ok but not the best. Staff was welcoming though, and can speak Malay! (I first encountered a Malay-speaking Thai in Phuket in 2009 so this wasn't surprising)

Another place where we bought food (a few times) was this long row of street stalls opposite the tailor shop we went to (Andy the Tailor, which I will blog about in another entry).

We had the classic nutella banana pancakes, but the ones we really came back for were the meat on sticks - my favourite is the stick of beef meatballs doused in thai chilli sauce! Now that I think about it, maybe I should host a Thai street food themed makan party eh?! IDEA EH?! 

We also had lunch at one of the street stalls selling dishes, noodles and rice sets, I can't remember the name but there was a halal sign and about four Thai makciks in hijab fussing over stoves. Food looked good and there were two empty seats left so we plopped ourselves down for an authentic Thai street food experience.

Saliheen had fried rice whereas I had white rice with coconut milk seafood soup, which was yummers! Also shared a plate of mango salad (this became our staple dish at every meal hehe). Only paid 200 baht (S$7.80) for the whole meal, which is dirt cheap and 1/3 of the price we paid at Rakan (which, to be fair, is a restaurant albeit an old-fashioned one). Thank you God for giving me this burning love and heavy-duty stomach built for cheap and good street food!!!!!

Later that day, we had dinner with my family! We wanted to try May & Zin, which comes highly recommended on TripAdvisor, and only a minute's walk away from our accommodation at Holiday Inn Resort. Unfortunately, the stall was closed when we arrived! Tak tau kenapa, there was no explanation sign, and this was on a weekend night seh.

So we settled for dinner from another stall which is a unit away, Arbadi Restaurant.

Food was okay la, nothing special, and we found out the next day why May & Zin is more popular than them haha. Total cost was super cheap, though! Can't remember the exact price but I think we paid around 1000 ke 1200 baht (S$40++) for 2 plates of steamed fish, 1 plate of grilled squid, 1 plate of vegetables with prawns, 1 plate of mango salad, 1 plate of chicken, 6 plates of white rice and 6 drinks. Kalau kat Singapore tak dapat ah harga gitu. 

Short hair sisters sharing rolled ice cream misrepresented as fried ice cream after dinner haha.

May & Zin

Saliheen and I decided to have lunch at May & Zin the next day since it is only a minute's walk away from our accommodation and we didn't feel like going anywhere farther on this day (we lazed it away with swimming and massages!)

A+++++++++ for presentation, please!!!!!!! Tasted way better than Arbadi too.

We had a plate of phad thai each and shared a plate of mango salad (told you) and a plate of soft shell crab with yellow curry. Yummeh. We weren't planning on the soft shell crab dish but I remembered online recommendations and it looked good on the plate in front of the dude sitting next to us so we added that in at the last minute. Service was good too! I really wouldn't have minded eating here everyday. hari hari dapat makanan lawa and berbunga. Selera, girl.

Weekend in Krabi - Flight and Transport

Saliheen has been wanting to go to Thailand over a weekend to tailor more shirts for work so after we came back from Tokyo, that's exactly what we did: Made plans for a weekend in Thailand! He actually wanted to fly over to Bangkok but my family told me they were going to Krabi during the same period so I asked Saliheen if we could go to Krabi and spend some time with them instead. It'll be fun, I said, we get to surprise my dad (who didn't know our plans), we get to go to a beach destination, and oh look, there are tailors in Krabi too!

Whiiiiiiiich explains how we ended up spending the leap year weekend in Krabi. Hehe.

The Flight

My sisters already chose the dates and flights before we decided to tag along so we had to choose the same flight via AirAsia. I wasn't happy with the booking process because the website kept crashing on me wtf but after 2387034 tries, it finally went through! If I ever meet Tony Fernandes, I am giving him a piece of mind about my lousy booking experience >:(

But whatever. It didn't take away the excitement that Saliheen and I felt because my dad didn't know we were tagging along to Krabi, and we had to pretend to send the family off at the departure gates haha! Going through security and boarding was a tricky and heart-thumping affair (kita dah macam penyangak siak, trying to hide our faces all) but we managed well enough for my dad to be genuinely surprised on the flight haha his expression was priceless, you guys!!!!!

If you follow me on Snapchat (I am active there now) you'd have seen how it went down snap by snap, hehe. Although I guess I could also upload a video which my sister recorded from her point of view..............

Check out our pathetic bobbing heads, trying to avoid being spotted by my dad HAHAHAHA

Nice little discovery I made on this flight: me having another similarity with my dad in the form of our love for flight take-off and landing! I saw him peering intensely out of the window during take-off and landing and realized he wears the same fascinated expression as me during the same moments. Ke mana tumpah lauk kalau tak ke nasi (atau meja... atau baju).

Anyway, my thoughts about our AirAsia flights: Seats were ok for a short-haul flight, flight had several short bursts of turbulence, but generally more pleasant than the time I took TigerAir to Jakarta (there was turbulence and taik idong on the window). I might or might not take AirAsia again, depending on whether their website decides to be a bitch next time.

Airport Transfer

I don't know whether it was just the timing that we arrived (2.10pm) but the airport counters were crazy packed by the time we got in line for customs clearance!!! I think it's because of the cramped layout for the arrival counters la. The crowd cleared after awhile and we were out of customs clearance after an hour of waiting.

Booked airport transfer with Krabi Shuttle (as suggested by my sister Farahin) because we wanted the convenience of having transport immediately after we arrived in Krabi. Highly recommended! They were fast and responsive via emails, their vans were decent and their drivers were polite and always on time (We used Krabi Shuttle to go to Krabi Town too). You can pay via credit card online or pay cash on the spot (which we opted for because it gave us a peace of mind)

It cost us 1500 baht (S$58.00) for a round-trip airport transfer on a standard minibus that can accommodate 8 pax. You can use their online booking form here (easy to use) to see their quote for various routes and vehicle types! Oh, I think it took about 40 to 45 minutes to arrive at our accommodation in Ao Nang area from the airport? Definitely less than an hour ah.

Ending this entry with a travel video which my sister shot and edited! We appear sporadically in the video because Saliheen and I stayed in different accommodation from my family and we didn't join them for the water and island-hopping activities during the day (We've done them before when we were in Phuket and didn't want to do them again). But we met for dinners and Krabi Town + I still wanted to post this video because 1) my sister did a lovely video of her birthday trip/our family vacation and it deserves to be watched 2) this is to make up for the lack of pictures in this boring ass entry hahahaha.

Birthday Trip 2016 - Krabi from fazmals on Vimeo.

If you're wondering why Saliheen looks like he is done with the world at 04:43, it's because he came down with food poisoning on our second last day in Krabi HAHAHAHAHA ya ya now kelakar la, can laugh about it all, but at that time, he really looked like he was going through a world crisis k (Shall blog about food in Krabi next)