Krabi, day 3

On this day, we opted to head out for breakfast. We had no idea where to go, as most of the roadside stalls were not open so early in the morning. So as a safeguard against grumpiness-of-coffee-deficiency, we headed to coffee stop; before routing around to our familiar grounds near to the ex-Mecure hotel.

 

Forcing a pre-coffee smile

 

Coffee priorities

 

We ended up at the Swiss Chalet, which is a restaurant that we had visited many times on our previous visits. It offers services of convenience such as motorbike rentals, booking of day trips; besides its food offerings. We had a standard fare of english big breakfast.

 

It was a very, hot day! And that's my non-forced smile :)

The husband needed to do some work, so we headed back to the sanctuary of our room.I was deliberating (1) parking myself at the pool (2) using the tub (3) watching TV... in the end, I just stayed in the room because there was air-conditioning and I had a good book to read.
It was during this time period that I received live updates of what the kids were up to at nainai's house (yay to free hotel wifi).

After an hour+ where I figured my food had digested, I unwillingly dragged myself to the gym.

Accompanied by a bottle of water, my phone for pics and time-reading,
and my workout buddy - the BBG guide.

After a quick workout and shower, the husband and I headed for lunch.

For no reason at all, here's shasring my pedicured toes.
Yellow for sunshine happiness on holiday!

 

Roadside grub FTW! (I had a chicken wing version of the super-salty-tasty
fried cihcken)

Grilled chicken

 

Sticky rice with mango

After our lunch, we headed to the beach. We parked ourselves at the same spot, and pretty much lazed in the same way as the past 2 days. Being day 3, we were becoming experts.

The grilled-corn man was making his rounds and we had a dose of
salty-buttery warmly-grilled corn. Yum.

JUMP!

So, the jump shots were taken on our last day at the Krabi Ao Nang Beach. For all the days I'd been in Krabi, I did not - did not - touch any bit of pool or sea water. I saw no reason to (no sun for me, thanks) and honestly, I really preferred to nua. So, though I did do some physical activity (running/ gym) I really stayed out of the waters.

On this last sunset at Krabi, the husband and I parked ourselves at a different beach nearer to our favourite dinner restaurant and watched the skies change hues of colours. I spent the time thinking back on our holiday, the past few days of amazing relaxation. We had planned that we may have gone canoeing or rock-climbing, but we did not. It was beautiful and I remember feeling so blessed to have this time to ourselves, on holiday and to witness such glorious beauty.

Shades of sunset. All within half hour.

Our very hearty dinner of fried rice, basil chicken, grilled prawns, tomyum
soup, chilli powder crab, coconut curry veg + prawns.

For the third night in a row, I was stuffed. I think we also amused the staff by ordering this much and  being able to finish off all the food! Amazing stuff. Such amazingly yummy food!
Because it was our last night in Krabi, we decided to treat ourselves to more food. Yup, even after that meal where we stuffed ourselves to the tip of our toes, we still managed to head to 'town' and had ice-cream.

That night, we watched Jurassic Park in the comfort of our hotel room. The luxury of having quiet time to watch a movie in peace and quiet while we could have beer and snack with no care in the world - priceless.

I went to bed filled with food and love and thanks, for the holiday. It was a great end to our last day in Krabi.

Krabi, day 2

View from my bed. See the tub in the balcony?

 

After dozing off and leaving the husband to watch a bad movie on his own the night before, we awoke leisurely when the body awoke. No alarm clock, no noises, just awakening on our own accord. It was 830am, which translates into 930am SG time which is amazing for me! Such bliss.

 

I felt so rested. I drew open the curtains and laid in bed (and snapped that picture above to show our tub in the balcony) and just waited for my body engine to start. After some somewhat coherant mumbling with the husband (yes, we were feeling that lazy we barely wanted to speak clearly), we got up and made our way to the hotel restaurant where the buffet breakfast is served.  

Mini play area

 

Pathway between our room and restaurant... where we had breakfast

The spread was pretty normal, slightly lesser than what a bigger hotel may offer but sufficient nonetheless. There's only that much oily big breakfast we can have, or fruits in yoghurt, or juice choices (which we don't consume anyway cos the juices are always slightly... queer).. though for the record, this man can eat a lot of eggs.

How many eggs did the husband have?

 

We headed to the pool to chill and the husband did some laps. Me? I laid on the deck chair under the umbrella and read my magazine. The husband had heaps to say about the water quality (or lack thereof) in the pool and we never headed back there again. It wasn't a peak period for Krabi and so there was no crowd, but this probably also made the water in the pool questionable. We never went back to the pool again.

 

It was at this point (after the bad pool experience) that the husband had a eureka moment and suggested that we change hotels. We were tempted to go back to our regular hood or another; one that had a better normal pool. So, off we went on a physical check-out of some hotels.

 

 

Duo-purpose run: clocking some clicks while on a hotel hunt

 

We checked out three options, and got prices whilst checking out the hotel facilities. We then finished off our run on the beach. It wasn't a long run, probably about 30mins+ in all, though the hot sun (it was noon!) was beating down and it was more hot than tiring.

I did enjoy running on the beach though, and if I was not so bothered by getting a tan (ugh) I'd have enjoyed it more. (Yes, I no longer wish to get dark. It's called, getting old!)

We headed back to the hotel to cool down, and explored options if we really wanted to switch hotels. After some deliberation, we decided not to. Afterall, we could just do with the decent room - where we got a free upgrade - and never go to the awful poool again. So we stayed.

We washed up and got ready to get lunch and the beach (again!)

Friend drumstick from the road-side - so yum

Glamourous lunch venue

 

Noodle soup, tomyum soup, corn and friend chicken, we had.

 

Off we go!

Afternoon coffee

 

Things you need at the beach - hat, book, coffee, sunblock, fruit. Perfect.

I opted for a pedicure

 

We could get used to this!

As the sun was setting, we made our way to the town. Now, town is a bit of a poofy word as it really is just a stretch of shops; but given the developments that Krabi is undergoing, I do think that more shops and more fancy stuff will appear in time to come.

We wanted to visit our local artiste friend whom we have visited each time in Krabi (and even gotten some pictures done for in our home), but horror! Yet another startling change. His studio was no longer, instead overtaken by a tailor. The tailor now brokers his paintings and time and all we had was a short reminiscent visit to the old studio.

Once upon a studio time

 

After this disappointing discovery, we headed for dinner. Again, the ride on the bike in the setting sun... amazing and made me feel so damn happy.

 

 

Life is beautiful

The resturant welcomed us and the husband unleashed his glut-side. We sat at the same table and filled it up in the same (overcrowded way).

Nom nom nom - seafood theme for the night.

On this second night, we had steamed fish, clams, pineapple rice, tomyum soup, chilli powder crab (dry gravy style - very tasty but the chilli powder smell lingerssss on your fingers after!), grilled prawns and coconut water. Again, we rolled out of the restaurant. It was extremely fulfilling and I felt so lucky and totally over-indulgent!

This second night in the hotel room, we were better prepared. The husband and started to download a movie and we spent the night watching a movie... then we dozed off...

It was a good day.

Krabi - our first 1/2 day (9 Oct)

After spending a morning having breakfast at Changi Airport, we arrived quite uneventfully and safely at Krabi at 1130am (local time, Thailand is one-hour behind than Singapore). The place, the smell, the sights were all so familiar and it struck me how long it's been since we had been there. Yet, all so familiar.

 

The husband and I did a pitstop at the shops for water/beer, then got picked up in a cab and headed straight to our hotel. We have been to Krabi many times and every single trip in the past, we had stayed at the same hotel. This time round, we attempted a different hotel and it was different but I think some parts of us still yearned for the familiar resort - the key reason being that the feel is a little older than what we had before (though the resort is currently undergoing renovations) and after some trials and thick-skinned (blatant) asking, we got an upgrade to their room in the new wing. HOORAY.

Heading out in search for food!

 

Our usual mode of transport on Krabi island is via motorbike for two. It always reminds me of days when the motorbike was the husband's main mode of transport; our early dating days when we will scoot around on his two-wheeler. The feeling of riding on a bike is different from a car; the best way I can describe it is the way a dog will hang his head out of the car window, to enjoy the full blast of the winds blowing by. It's carefree and if not for the fact that I'm averse to being in the sun, it really is an amazing feeling to bask under the sunshine and feel the winds on your face.

 

So, as always, we trotted to a nearby (any) rental shop and the husband picked his ride.

 

Pink is definitely his colour

To be honest, the husband only picked this based on absolutely practical reasons. The tank was full (hello free fuel!) but truly, it really cracked me up seeing him ride the little pink bike. Love it.

I was wanting coffee more than food, so we headed to the local Starbucks (the husband is against me trying local coffee cos of the water concern, so atas was the way to go) and we then took a chance with a random restaurant near Starbucks to have lunch. Turned out to be a not-so-great option - bleah.

Coffee and our first horrible lunch.

Our afternoon

It was sweet to see the beach we were so familiar with. However, before we arrived, we had a tiny shock because there's been so much changes! The old-fashioned beach we were used to was no longer. Instead, there was construction going on the beach as the whole strip of beach was undergoing management changes. It was devastating! But we had no choice, but roll with the changes and still picked a comfortable spot to will our time away.

He asleep, me reading.

 

Another scary discovery we made was that our most favourite Thai restaurant in Krabi was gone. It was not standing in its usual shabby shack. It was a flat ground where it was meant to be! Shocking! Thankfully, because we were persistent in wanting to know where this restaurant is, we asked around and then hunted it down. It was all worth it because our dinners were one key highlight each day and we were never hungry, practically rolling out of the restaurant (in its new location) every single night.

 

Dinner for two

Our spread (for two!) on the first night included, two coconut juice, grilled giant prawns, grilled beef, grilled BBQ chicken, tomyum soup, basil chicken, pineapply rice, chicken noodle soup and friend green vegetables.

I really, did roll from the restaurant. But it was so worth it because every morsel was so tasty and amazing!

We ended the night soaking in the tub (yes, we got a tub in our balcony!) then watching lousy HBO on TV.

It was a nice end to the start of our transition from Singapore to Krabi.

Leaving on a jet plane

9 October, 2015. The husband and I sneak off on a couple holiday,
our first for this year! Feeling so thankful that we have
this chance to rejuvenute and spend time with each other.

Pretty Woman

I found myself flicking channels last night, and caught the teaser that the movie, Pretty Woman, was going to start in 6 minutes. It was already close to 11pm, and a workday but the pull to re-watch this movie was strong and... I did.

Not only did I watch it, I completed the entire movie! I remember the plot clearly, but I was fascinated to watch it over again. The details, the depth of understanding the move, it's all much clearer now and it was fun. I totally enjoyed myself. I think this reminds me that I am a romantic at heart, and it's so easy to get caught in the daily humdrum of life and forget that there is love in this world.

Of course, I'm not disillusioned in expecting fairy tales to come true, but to watch a feel-good movie and actually laugh at parts of the movie - it felt so great. I really think that as we grow up and take on responsibilities in life, and go about chasing money and ambitions, it's easy to forget the little things in life.

Last night, I opted to watch a movie I wanted to despite it being really late (I ended up sleeping at 1am!) but sometimes, it's all worth it because I felt happy and the movie feel-good made me feel happy and though I'm tired right now, it's nothing more caffeine cannot fix.

I enjoyed the characters bantering, the love story, the soundtrack so old school but so familiar. I'd forgotten how handsome Richard Gere looks and am so envious of Julia Roberts and her unique beauty (and that amazing body!)

It was nice. It was a nice mid-week treat.

Sundate

We woke up and headed to the gym. The husband has been working on his swimming strokes in preparation of his big event for 2016, and I went ahead with my own gym session. Usually, we clock about 60-90 minutes at the gym and these pockets of workout times mean the world to me. Not only do I feel on top of the world post the endorphins kick, I also savour the time spent with the husband.

 

On this lovely Sunday, we were meant to try a brunch cafe but because it was rather crowded, we ended up at My Little Spanish Place a few doors down and it turned out to be a full-blown 3-course lunch with a drink. Yum.

 

 

A recommended appetiser of seared pork well-marinated, seated
on top of some chips and tomato bits.

 

We shared a main of seafood paella, which was not bad but slightly salty for my liking (didn't stop me from devouring the whole pan though!). And lastly, the dessert which sounded and looked promising but sadly, didn't finish off the win for the meal.

Chocolate tart

Turns out the husband and I had been out on the weekend, doing what we do best - eating to our hearts' content - a few times the past month here and here; and truth is, we do enjoy each other's company while savouring good meals and it's been such a privilege to have this time to ourselves to do so. To hear him say that he enjoys our time together during these sessions too brings immense joy to me.

To more healthy workouts and common enjoyment of good food!

Countdown - 64 days

After a break of a year in 2014 where the kids got to run in the Standard Chartered Kids Dash, the husband and I are doing it again. It'd be his 3rd marathon, and my 3rd half. The routes have just been announced and it'd be similar to the run I did before; and according to the timer countdown, we have 64 days left to race day!

 



64 more days



 

Honestly, I have not considered joining another long-distance run for a while but since an opportunity arose for us, we decided, why not?

 

Surprise gift of motivation