Vietnam & Thailand Day 3: Sawadee Ka Krabi

So this was the first time I’ve travelled with my sister and her husband internationally. Kelvin and I have done many trips abroad, and the typical pace for our trips is generally a bit crazy. In hindsight, I probably should have chilled out a bit, considering Jeff was recovering from a cold and they’ve never flown this much at all. But sadly, hindsight is 20/20, and everything was already booked, so we had to power on. Day 3 of our trip was a lot chillier, but it did start at 3:30 am. We had to be up super early to catch our 7:00 am flight to Krabi, a city in southern Thailand.

So no time for breakfast, we grabbed food instead at the airport. Poor Jeff was definitely super tired at this point. We literally have been on the go since 1 am when we landed in Saigon 2 days ago. So for this portion of our trip, we met up with April, a good friend of mine from undergrad who is working as a teacher at an international school in Bangkok, and her partner, Laur. We arrived early at the airport, and I was a bit concerned that I hadn’t seen April yet. However, she and Laur made the flight fine.

Funny enough, two of April’s friends were flying to Krabi as well, so we were able to book an 8-seater Grab van to Krabi since the airport we land in was about an hour drive from the actual city. Once we arrived at the hotel, we dropped off our stuff, but our rooms weren’t ready until 2pm. Everyone was pretty hungry though, so we decided to walk from the hotel into town to find some food.

We had lunch at a place called The Coffee Club. The food was good, but you could tell that it was made for the tourist palate, and not truly “authentic”. This was also the beginning of us fighting over the bill, cause April sneakily grabbed the bill for lunch. She’s really too sweet.

After that, the walk to the beach was not too far, and the weather was beautiful. I bought a pair of potentially knock-off Nike shorts from a local store to swim in because I forgot to bring my swimsuit. The weather was perfect and we spent a few hours there soaking in the sun. It was actually Buddha day, but typically, it’s totally okay to drink a beer on the beach. We had to hide our supply.

Afterwards, we grabbed some snacks and headed back to the hotel to relax. Most of us took a nap, and the plan was to grab dinner in the evening. Jeff decided to skip this meal since he just needed to sleep. We also almost lost my sister cause she thought we all wanted to meet at the restaurant instead of walking there together from the hotel. And in typically Christine fashion, she had no international phone plan, so we couldn’t get a hold of her at all. Cue about 1 hour of me freaking out, thinking my sister got kidnapped in Thailand. Good thing she asked for wifi at the restaurant and sent us a text later that she was there and waiting for a table.

Sigh… everything worked out, and we had the most amazing meal at this place called Kodam Kitchen. If you’re ever in Krabi, we absolutely recommend.

After a filling dinner, we decided to end the night with everyone getting a Thai massage. It was my first ever Thai massage, and it was only 330 Baht (~$15 CAD), which is crazy cheap! The massage therapist spent an hour giving me a full body massage, and she worked so hard. As for a Thai massage, it’s a bit different; no oil is used, and they stretch and pull you in addition to giving you a massage. It was a bit weird and painful at times, especially in parts of my back. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it and it was fairly relaxing. Definitely worth it, especially considering the price. All the girls got the full Thai massage, but the boys got a neck and shoulder massage. Kelvin was able to get a wrist and neck massage despite his psoriasis, which is a win.

Honestly, a full and relaxing day, except for the short freak-out from losing my sister. The next day is our Phi Phi island tour, so stay tuned for that!