Krabi trip - 24 Apr 07

I woke up @ 7am today cos i wanna watch sunrise. I've made a mental note b4 tt i wanna watch sunrise @ every beach tt i went to. There were very few people on the beach, cos it's only 6am @ Krabi n everyone must be sleeping soundly. Too bad can't c the sun rising, mayb must go Nam Mao beach n c... otherwise Nam Mao beach wouldn't be famous for sunrise rite?

Ao nang beach @ 7am Someone jogging on the beach

After staying alone @ the beach for around 1/2hr, went back to the resort to wake them up cos we r gg to check out later on. Had our breakfast @ Wanna's Place. I ordered pancake 2day, hmmm... the portion seems a bit small.

My breakfast

After having our breakfast, we packed our bag n check out. Although our flight is 2.45pm (Krabi time), we r gg to Wat Tham Sua (Tiger cave temple) 1st b4 gg straight to the airport. We booked a taxi from 'For Friends' agency as it offer the best price. A trip from Ao nang beach to Wat Tham Sua n from Wat Tham Sua to airport cost 800baht ~ S$40. N the taxi driver would wait for us @ Wat Tham Sua. The resort quoted us 1,000baht which was much more expensive.

The journey from Ao nang beach to Wat Tham Sua takes abt 20min n we reach there at around 10am. Hmm.... got 3 hrs here b4 we leave for the airport @ 1pm, time should be sufficient.

Guan Ying Statue

The main tourist attraction in the Wat Tham Sua is the 1,272 step climb to see the 'footprint of the Buddha'.

1,237 steps to go Everyone climbing up the stairs The stairs r so steep

Still a long way to go

We met a Canadian lady on our way up, she volunteer to take the above photo for us. Wow... she superb, climb so fast. Didn't c her when we started at the foot of the hill. After taking the photo, HY decided to give up cos the stairs extremely steep, so hard to climb, sometimes must hold onto railing to climb. So CH, FD n I continue climbing.... After climbing for a few flight of steps, CH seems like not feeling well, so we took a rest. After resting for abt 10min, I continue without them.

View taken while climbling midway

OMG, when am i gonna reach the top?

I've been climbing for abt 45min n yet i've not reached the top yet. Have been resting on n off everytime after climbing abt 1-2 steps of flight. Didn't c CH & FD coming up, guess they must have given up. There shld have some indications like how many steps to go otherwise where on earth am i gg to reach the top. I got thought of giving it up, but i oso dunno where am i now. Who noes, i may b only a few flight reaching the top? So in the end, i continues the journey. I tell myself tt i must have the determination n persevarance! Few people overtook me - a Thai couple & two caucasian guys. Oso saw ppl coming down but they r Thais so can't communicate wif them, otherwise can ask them still got how far to go.

While resting at the steps, i met a group of Thais. I think at tt time, i was crouching my head on my knees so they thought wat happen to me. Although we may have communication barrier but they r extremely helpful. They offer me water but i show them my water bottle. They oso offer something but i dunno how to desribe it, something for u to sniff tt make u feel better, tt's wat i guess lah. Then there is one guy who demonstrate the action of taking photo, so i guess he wanna ask me whether i got camera or not. So i took out my camera n took some photos wif them. Everyone seems to enjoy taking photo wif me. One guy even took out his hp n took a photo wif me.

Friendly Thais

After enough of photo taking, we continue our way up. One of the guys must be quite impressed wif me, haha... cos he keep giving me the thumb up sign. More or less, their encouragement make me want to continue climbing.

Finally i reach the top @ around 11.20am, after abt 1.5 hr of climbing.... I was so so so happy tt i reach the top. 那种满足感是无法形容的！I ask the Thais to stand together n took a photo of them. Saw how wet the trouser of the guy @ the left? It's was so hot climbing up! I keep perspiring, almost finish using a packet of tissues.

The group of Thais tt i metI've reach the topBreathtaking view @ the top
@ top of the mountain

Saw FD after I've finished visiting all the shrine. He must have climbed at a much faster pace, cos he accompanied CH back to the ground b4 climbing up again. After he had taken the photos, we went down together. The journey down only took abt 15min compared to 1.5hr climbing up the steps.

My face so red

Remember the Canadian lady tt i mentioned just now? She's from Ontario, so independent, took a plane alone all the way from Canada to Thailand for 23hrs. She was quite impressed wif us tt we spoke quite good english. Haha... i think she dunno tt English is our lingua franca cos she ask whether all our subjects r taught in English. Hmmm.... when will i have the courage to travel alone?

We & the Canadian lady

After resting for abt 15min, we left the temple n proceed to the airport. The journey to the airport tooks abt 20min n we reach the airport @ around 12.45pm. None of the counter is open so we went to the level above to have our lunch.

None of the counters r open Departure hallSouvenier stall @ airport

I only bought a packet of BBQ flavour banana craker as i'm afraid tt if i buy too much, then nobody would finish the food. Cos the last time i went to Macau, bought a lot of almond cookies n took few mths to finish it. After tt, we went to the cafe to have our lunch. I ordered pineapple fried rice n the taste is not bad. The price is ok, 150 baht ~ S$7.50.

Cafe

Pineapple fried riceWaiting for our flight

Oh, there is aerobridge @ Krabi airport. I thought those airport tt Tiger airways flew to dun have aerobridges cos S'pore n Macau dun have aerobridge servicing Tiger airways' passenger. It's 2.45pm n time to board the plane.

Aerobridge

The plane tt we took is only abt 50% full n there r lots of empty seats @ the back. After the plane has taken off, I left my seat n went to occupy a row of 3 seats @ the back. I was thinking of lying down to sleep, noe how to make full use rite? Haha...

Soon, i fall asleep n was awake by the captain instruction tt we r landing soon. Saw the plane nearer to the gound, thought was going to land but the plane make a u-turn, dunno y must u-turn leh? Got other flights landing so can't land @ the same time?

U-turning @ Indonesia

Plane landed @ budget terminal @ 5.40pm

By the time, we clear the immigration n bought our duty free stuff @ the liquor shop, it's already 6.15pm. HY's sis picking them up n they gg for dinner later on. I took a cab home alone cos mom has cooked my dinner n i'm v tired so wanna go home asap.

>>Epilogue