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Adventures in Thailand: Krabi

Travel

April 17, 2018

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Krabi was the last leg of our trip! After the city life in Bangkok and the trekking in Chiang Mai, we were ready for a more relaxed portion of our vacation. Although we were hoping for a smooth, easy last few days of our busy travels, things didn’t quite go as easily as we wanted. We got into the city late, and were ready to CRASH in our beds for a good night’s sleep that night….but the second we walked into our hotel room, we smelled something sharp and strong: black mold. I don’t mind a bit of mold when I know I’m staying in a humid environment (I get it, I’ll deal with it), but this mold was all over our headboard, our curtains, on the ceiling, in the shower, and along the sink. And honestly, I probably still could have dealt with it if it wasn’t for the stench. It was so bad it stung our nostrils, and we knew at that point it just wasn’t healthy. So we walked down the street and I found this sweet little old lady who was super eager to help us out 😉 She had a cozy room for us (with bunkbeds for the kids, even!) and her kindness and warmth was appreciated after our run-in with the last hotel manager. It was far from a 5-star hotel, and had a bit of mold itself, but it smelled much better and overall just made us feel far more comfortable.

We were hoping for a better start the next morning, but after Emily and I decided to go for a leisure walk to find out when we could rent our boat for the day, we found out we had to hurry up and make it happen RIGHT then, so Emily ran the mile back to our hotel (uphill) to wake up Adam and Rhenner and pack all our stuff while I took the rest of the kids and bought food for the day. We were definitely rushed and a bit stressed, but we made it to our private boat and hopped aboard!

We had our long-tail boat rented for the full day. Our driver took us to our first island, Chicken Island, where we had it all to ourselves for the first little bit. When we were ready to explore again, we just hopped back on the boat and our driver would take us to a new island! We next went to Poda Island, and ended at Phra Nga Cave.

The last island we went to had an awesome cave for us to explore and walk through. On the other side of the cave was a small cove for the kids to swim in, and it was shaded. By this point, we were all fried and needed to get out of the sun a bit! At one point Axton was swimming and then all of a sudden I noticed that everyone was coming out of the water. I ran down there and saw what everyone was gawking at: a HUGE jellyfish. Adam was talking to a woman who told him that she had saved Axton from getting too close to the jellyfish. She said that a jellyfish that big stinging a boy as small as Axton could possibly have killed him! I had one of those terrified mom moments (and also Bad Mom moments because “I should have been watching him closer!”), but mostly I was just so grateful an earthside angel had been watching out for my boy that day!

 

The next thing that went a little wrong/not as smooth as we wanted was that I no longer had any cash on me! Since we had had to change hotel rooms, I had to pay for our new room with cash, leaving me pretty much on empty. Unfortunately, the credit card that I had on me was not working for cash withdrawal and every option we were trying was not working for us! Emily was running out of cash as well, and we were starting to panic a bit! Thankfully, we were able to find restaurants that accepted cards but we knew if we were going to make it the rest of the trip, we were going to need more cash. Finally, Adam was able to make a phone call to his credit card company and after going into an actual bank (not just an atm) we were finally able to withdraw some cash. It was a weird feeling, being completely helpless without cash on hand.

We were able to rent motorbikes from a small shop on the street we were staying on and after a quick breakfast (McDonald’s…..you do what you have to when your kids aren’t eating much else offered to them). We hopped on our bikes and were off! It had been a long time since I had driven a motorbike, and I definitely wasn’t super comfortable with my skills/balancing abilities but I was eager to try. It was a little nerve-wracking driving on the opposite side of the road and also having cars passing so close next to me and also have a child in front of me.

Our first stop was to the Monkey Trail – a short hiking trail that is famous for monkey sightings. However, after Emily had a bad run-in with a monkey a few months previously on that same trail, we were crossing our fingers that we would NOT see any monkeys! The trail led us to a little beachfront where we let the kids swim some more. Next up, we rode out to an outdoor aquatic research center that had awesome fish and turtles to look at. The kids loved running around and I was grateful that the walkways were covered so I didn’t get any more burnt than I already was!

It was pulling out of the intersection from the aquarium that I got into my accident. No, I didn’t get hit by a car and I didn’t run into anything else. I was just trying to pull out in front of a car and make that turn too quickly. I hit a patch of gravel and spun out. I remember thinking, as I went down, “This is going to hurt with my sunburn,” not really thinking that a sunburn doesn’t matter when the whole top layer of skin gets ripped off. My next thought went to Rhenner. I was glad to be wearing a helmet, as my head hit the ground first. I am not sure how I slid because it was the inside of my leg and the outside of my left shoulder that got shredded the most, but I was able to stand and run over to Rhenner as soon as I had stopped sliding. I saw the bike on him and prayed that he was okay. We are so grateful that Rhenner only shredded his fingers on the gravel, and a small bump on his forehead with a few scrapes on his head. He was mostly just terrified.

Adam hopped onto his motorbike to drive back into town for some wrapping supplies. Luckily for us, we crashed right in front of a roadside stand, and behind it, was the family’s home. The family came out and immediately began helping me. They rinsed me off with water bottles and laid a pillow under my head. While Adam was gone, two men came out of nowhere and began doctoring me up. They check Rhenner’s eyes to make sure he hadn’t suffered a concussion, and check all my wounds to make sure I wouldn’t need stitches. They cleaned my wounds, and after they were sure I didn’t need to go to the hospital (I told them no, I didn’t want to), they left. They were gone before Adam came back. I have no idea where they came from or how they knew to come with supplies, but again – earthside angels.

After Emily got me all doctored up, and my hands had stopped shaking and tingling and I could move them again, we hopped back on our bikes and drove back to the hotel. Adam rode with one kid in front and one kid in back and I rode by myself because I was too shaken up to trust myself with a kid on the bike with me again. I stayed with the kids at the hotel, popped some ibuprofen, and Adam and Emily went to go get food. Instead of exploring more of Krabi like we had wanted to, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel room resting and staying still. I was feeling ready and wanting to explore again by that evening. This time all FOUR of us were on one motorbike, with Adam driving, Axton in front, Rhenner behind, and me on the back. I’m sure we looked ridiculous but it actually worked out great. We followed the ocean to a more remote beach. The tide was so far out, we had to walk about a third of a mile before we hit the water.

We ended our evening with coconut ice cream – one of our favorite treats from the trip! I ate SO much mango while we were in Thailand. I had never enjoyed mango as much as I did when we were there. It was the theme of my eating while we were there! We woke up early the next morning to catch our flight back to Bangkok. I was a slow hobbler getting around the airport, and I could tell as soon as my ibuprofen was starting to wear off, but we made it back! Our last two days in Thailand were spent a bit more low-key in Bangkok.

Emily and I went and got pedicures done. They were very confused and concerned about my leg wrap and seemed a little leery of massaging me, and it kind of made me laugh. We also took the kids down to the pool at their apartment building, and mostly just spent time together. We had to leave for the airport around 3:30 in the morning on Monday morning. The layovers on the way home were a bit of a mess! Once we landed back in America (but still had another flight to go), we had to grab our suitcases and check them back in and go all the way through security again, not to mention go through customs. Our kids had fallen asleep and now thought it was the middle of the night and were just complete messes. We were dragging limp bodies of screaming noise around the airport, but somehow we still (barely) made our last flight home.

We loved our trip to Thailand and again, are so grateful for our friend’s help in planning and booking everything, not to mention helping us get around everywhere once we were there! We would have felt a lot more lost without their help. However, now that we have been there we would be confident in navigating our way around by ourselves next time!

Before Thailand, I never had much of an interest in visiting Asia. I mostly thought I would spend my time and money traveling in Europe. But after exploring Thailand, I would definitely go back to Asia! Next time I would love to go to Korea and Japan and maybe one day the Great Wall of China 🙂

See more of our trip here:
Bangkok, Day One
Bangkok, Day Two
Trekking in Chiang Mai

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I'm Meghan and I'm so glad you're here! My blog is where you'll find advice on planning your wedding, tips on what to wear to a session, and of course, my beautiful clients!

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