Jan 17 2014

Thailand Day 6: Elephant Hills and the elephant experience

We woke up and gathered our things for our trip to Elephant Hills luxury tented camp in Khao Sok National Park. The minivan arrived to pick us up around 08:30, and the drive was supposed to be about 2.5 hours. However, we ended up getting there in about 1 hour 45 minutes. These four German people in the minivan with us were freaking out about how fast the driver was going, and how he was weaving in and out of traffic. We didn’t mind, as his driving seemed quite tame by comparison to taxis in Bangkok.

Upon our arrival, they led us to our tent (which was number 20), and we put away all of our things. We met back up at the reception area for lunch, which consisted of some typical Thai curries (Mussaman—one of my favourites), some sweet and sour chicken, and some vegetable dishes. We had fresh pineapple and watermelon for dessert.


Our luxury tent at Elephant Hills in Khao Sok
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STUNNING view from Elephant Hills in Khao Sok National Park
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After lunch, we departed for the elephant experience, which is essentially the highlight of the excursion… after all, it is called Elephant Hills for a reason. 😉 We got to meet a bunch of the Mahouts (which are elephant trainers), some of the elephants (both younger and older ones), and prepared some food for them. After watching the Mahouts take the elephants for a swim, we had to wash them off–they got quite muddy in the little ponds. After bathing them, we cut up some food (pineapples, sugar cane, and some green bananas) to feed to them. It was really interesting that certain elephants didn’t like some of the food, and would refuse it by throwing it down on the ground.


One of the Mahouts catching a lift on his elephant – Elephant Hills
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Close up of one of the elephants – He says hello
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Elephant swimming and really enjoying the mud
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After feeding them, we went over to see the newest addition to the elephant herd–almost two-year-old Ha-Ha. Deb sat her purse down on the ground a bit too close to the fence, and Ha Ha put the “Ha Ha” on her by taking it and swinging it around. Ultimately, only her sunglasses got broken, but everything else seemed to be fine.


Two-year-old (in early 2014) baby elephant Ha-Ha – Elephant Hills
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Baby elephant Ha-Ha playing
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I went over and planted some banana leaves in the ground, and our tour guide (whose name was Rain [ฝน in Thai, pronounced “Fo-uhn”) told me that basically, we just needed to water those stems, and they would grow without any other interventions. In just about three or four months, they would be ready for the elephants to eat.

We headed back to Elephant Hills for a few evening activities, which consisted of a short documentary about elephants (their biology, their important cultural roles throughout history, et cetera), watching some local school girls perform four traditional Thai dances, and a brief lesson on making yellow curry. Thereafter, we had dinner, which was pretty good, but not as tasty as lunch, in my opinion.


Local school girls performing traditional Thai dance
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We headed back to the tent so that we could get some rest before our activities tomorrow morning.

Jan 16 2014

Thailand Day 5: Beach relaxation and massages

Welcome to the first full day in Ao Nang! I couldn’t take it any longer, so I woke up early and decided to go for a short run. I ran 10km, and it felt good to work off a little excess energy. Hopefully it will help with the crazy amounts of food that I’ve been eating lately too!

After going for a run and taking a quick shower, we packed up our things and headed for the beach. The hotel (the Mercure Krabi Deevana)provided a basket with beach towels for us, which was really a nice touch! With sun cream in hand, we walked down to Ao Nang beach. It felt REALLY nice to just lie in the sun for a couple hours, and then cool off by swimming out in the Andaman Sea (really the Andaman Cove, since we were in the body of water that separates Phuket and Krabi). Before heading back to the hotel briefly, we walked up and down the entire beach. It was really interesting to see how different each end was. The end away from the main Ao Nang strip has powdery sand and very few people, whilst the other end (near the strip) has more shells and a LOT more people.


The beautiful coastline of Ao Nang Beach (really Nopparattara Beach)
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Some long boats out in the Andaman Sea near Ao Nang Beach
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We quickly showered, and headed back to the Ao Nang strip. I was a bit hungry, but didn’t want to ruin dinner, so we decided to just grab a quick snack. Since Ao Nang Boat Noodle was so good last night, we went back there and ordered a couple appetisers. I decided to try the other Thai beer (Singha), since I had already tried Chang when we were at Siam Niramit. I didn’t like Singha nearly as much, and truthfully, beer isn’t my thing at all. However, I did want to try them during our trip.

After our small snack, we went for our massages at Ao Nang Haven. Interestingly, the beds are on the floor, and not elevated like Swedish massages in the United States. My massage was okay, but not fantastic. However, that wasn’t the fault of the masseuse. Rather, I chose poorly; the Adventurer’s Massage was more of a trigger-point massage. As such, it wasn’t really relaxing, but it did help my muscles feel better. Deb said that she really enjoyed her massage, and that it really took it out of her.


Ao Nang Haven – best massages in Ao Nang
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We left Ao Nang Haven, and decided to see just how far the next hotel was from the strip. We walked up to Aonang Phu Petra, and it really wasn’t all that bad of a walk (but there were a few substantial hills). I chose that particular hotel because of its distance away from the strip—away from the hustle and bustle, but still close enough to walk. Also, it was known because of the luxury bungalows that it offered guests.

We left there and decided to go to the Russian restaurant in town, Nasha (written Наша in Cyrillics). The waitress seemed a bit surprised when I thanked her in Russian, and ordered various menu items in Russian. The food was very good, and I especially loved the Pelmeni, which are little dumplings filled with pork and sautéed in butter. Overall, it’s a must-try restaurant when you’re in Ao Nang.


Excellent Russian food in Ao Nang – Nasha Russia (Наша Россия)
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After dinner, when we were on our way back to the hotel, we stopped at this street vendor making pancakes. I had one with sweetened condensed milk and raisins, and Deb got one with–what else–chocolate. :p They were both delicious, and certainly worth the 80 baht for both!

Back at the hotel, we decided to try the Starlight Bar again, but alas, were disappointed. The bar tenders were just not very good at making drinks. Fortunately, they were cheap, so it wasn’t all that bad.

Tomorrow we’re off for a three-day excursion about two-and-a-half hours away at the Elephant Hills luxury tented camp in Khao Sok National Park!

Jan 15 2014

Thailand Day 4: Heading to Krabi & Ao Nang

We woke up early again this morning, and packed up the last of our things to get ready to depart for Krabi. We headed down for the breakfast buffet, looked at the pool one last time, and then hailed a taxi for the airport. At the hotel’s recommendation, we paid the taxi a flat-fare instead of using the meter. It was 400 baht, and only took us about 25 minutes to get there.

We were a bit worried that our luggage was over the allotment for Bangkok Airways (which was only 20kg [44 lbs], as opposed to the international flights which were 50 lbs). Luckily, though, the representative didn’t charge us for the extra weight, and just let us board the flight with the carry-ons as well! Though the flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, it went very smoothly, and we landed at Krabi Airport. We took this shuttle to the terminal building, but it seemed silly since it was only about one minute away from the aeroplane. We gathered our bags, and paid the 600 baht for the taxi to Ao Nang.

We checked in to the Mercure Krabi Deevana hotel, and it was fairly nice. I don’t know that it is really a five-star hotel, but it was great nonetheless. The only problem that I saw was that our room was fairly far from the rest of the hotel. The rooms are in separate buildings, and we were in the farthest one from the lobby. The pools, however, were beautiful, and wrapped around all of the buildings.


The room at the Mercure Krabi Deevana hotel
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Beautiful cliff view from our room at the Mercure Krabi Deevana in Ao Nang
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We decided to just go see the surrounding areas, and walk to the main Ao Nang strip (with all the shops and restaurants, et cetera). The walk was quick, and enjoyable, especially with the nice breeze that was blowing most of the time. We stopped in at Ao Nang Haven in order to schedule our massages for the next day. I booked the Adventurer’s massage, and she booked the After-Beach massage.


The main strip of shops in Ao Nang
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With that task out of the way, we were both getting a bit hungry, so we went just up the road to Ao Nang Boat Noodle restaurant. I had heard good things about this little, unassuming eatery, and thought that it would be a good place to have our first meal in Krabi. We started with some spring rolls and fried tofu, which were both excellent. The fried tofu was especially good, as it was prepared differently than I had had before. This batter was really light and almost fluffy. For dinner, I ordered spicy basil with chicken (medium heat), and she got mixed vegetables with chicken in a medium brown sauce. Both of the meals were great, and we finished off with some interesting ice cream. I chose the Rua Mit flavour, which I had never even heard of before. It was basically a sweet cream ice cream with some candied fruits and vegetables in it.


AMAZING dinner of spicy basil chicken, some fried tofu, and spring rolls at Ao Nang Boat Noodle restaurant
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After dinner, we walked along the beach back to the hotel. We started off in the Kingfisher Restaurant by ordering a couple drinks. After realising that they were just going upstairs to the bar to get the drinks, we cut out the middle man and went up there ourselves. They had half-priced drinks for happy hour, so we ordered some of them. They weren’t very good at all, but it was the nice end to the evening.