KRABI DEC 2006 TO 1ST JAN 2007

KRABI - A very beautiful place for R&R holiday. We stayed in Krabi for about 3 days, air tickets was about the same price to BKK and the place we stayed was about THB 500 per night. But as there were 2 beds hence 1 room is usually shared within 4 person. Mega budget! No aircon (but actually there is no need of that cos the weather during year end is really cooling), no HOT WATER haha.. well it was ok too. A very simple place run by the Thai Muslim family. They are really great and nice people.

PIX: Cashew Nut Bungalows. The little house where we stay. This place is located about 10 to 15mins away from the town so either you take a TUTU or rent a bike which I think is much better because the road in Krabi is really new. hehe ... not bad right, we even put our own mat outside to make it homely

PIX: 1st night in Krabi.. 5 of us went to Krabi to meet our friend from London but little did we expect that 2 more pals were coming down from Phangan, 5 more pals were on their way from singapore and so on.. wow thats a whole lot of people. Went to the nearest town and gather with pals at this hawker center look alike place to eat. The food was good and the price is the same as BKK. After that we went walking in the town, to be honest, there is nothing much there but our main purpose is to look for the place where they sell the GREENSPIRIT party tickets which cost about THB 1500 i think... can't really remember.. for 3 continuous night (psytrance). So first night was just a chill out night, just hangout outside our little house with pals we met and playing with cats.

One of the cat is blind.. poor thing.. but it still can find his way around the entire bungalow area :)

** The weird thing is.. in the morning, we rcv a "love" letter under our door from one of the neighbour.. complaining that we were too noisy last night and that his gf is in hospital now and blah blah blah...he is not in a good mood, can't sleep and all..

PIX: 2ND DAY - woke up in the morning, had breakfast with our friends and head out to buy the ferry ticket which will bring us to RAILAY beach. I think the ferry cost less than THB 300.

PIX: RAILAY BEACH. There are 2 beach area in RAILAY and the one at the back is a better one where all tourist will go. So inorder to go there, we have to walk about 30mins through the hotels, rocks etc... wow the hotels there look really nice, but to my understanding they cost alot. On our way there, we see people signing up for rock climbing, climbers trying to reach the top and some thai people trying to sell accessories and beach mat and all but it cost us about THB 400. ** remember 400.. COST later of the trip... we saw the same which cost THB 200!!!!!

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PIX: Finally!!!! We reached RAILAY beach. As you can see from below, the entire beach is really packed with tourist.. somehow we manage to find a spot where we can open up our THB 400 tie and dye cloth and chill out there for the rest of the day. Little boats selling fruits and snack.

PIX: The sun is setting and its time to go back to mainland. Check out the 1st picture, 3 of us swam there and i was about to freak out cos somehow i feel something is biting me all over my body... anyway it was just some micro thingy which was biting me and as per my pals, i should not scratch it, cos it will spread. When we reach that rock, we saw a vertical hole where climbers can climb up all the way to the top.. too bad am not a climber myself or i could have taken some nice pictures. Oh! btw, around RAILAY beach you can rent canoe and explore the area, shix, i should have done that too..

PIX: GREENSPIRIT 1ST NIGHT. This is my first time going to GREENSPIRIT and it is the last time as well cos surrounding villages was complaining that it is too noisy and hence this was the last GREENSPIRIT. Phew.. i am so damn lucky!!! Below are the arts and the entrance to the party place.

PIX: Pitching a tent in the night?? BAD IDEA! Trust me haha.. we were having so much problem pitching up the tent.. it took us about 30mins to complete it cos there were no lights at all and we have to walk around every other tents, which by the way smell alot like toilet LOL, and trying not to trip over all the strings and people's belongings.

PIX: Party till the morning. Met some really nice people at the party. Oh i had forget to mention that this party is actually in a rubber plantation. WOOHOO.. it was really a great experience for me. 1st night, there wasn't much people and not much locals were there.

PIX: 2nd NIGHT. SAY GOODBYE TO 2006!!! My 2 girlfriends finally reach Krabi and they came to our bungalow to look for us.. it is count down time!!! But as you can see, both my dear friends are still sleeping with their door wide open. This place is really peaceful cos my friends really did not close their door and it seems that nothing was missing. Ok time to wake up people... yea.. we miss the count down but well we manage to see the fire works from the outside of Cashew Nut Bungalow and our dear friend went out to get some wishing lantern back so that everyone can get to have a wish.

PIX: 1ST JAN 2007 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Below are the picture of the party and also a video of the thai guy playing with "fire". On the countdown day itself which is also Hari Raya Haji, there were alot of thai locals there as well. Fantastic night.. or should i say day :P

MORE VIDEOS: FIRE SHOW, FIRE SHOW2,

DAY TIME - saying bye bye to krabi and the awesome party.... packing up and going to KOH PHI PHI!!! am exhausted!

BALI 06

BALI I had went for only 3 short days and to be honest I would not recommend you to go bali just for the weekend. Coz it is too short and you can't do much in just 3 days. Everyone who visit bali should at least be there for a week or more.

PIX: We stayed at BOUNTY HOTEL which cost about EST SGD 50+. It was alright as the rooms are clean and most of all the pool is open 24 hours :) This hotel was near Kuta beach area, so lucky for us we can just walk out of the hotel, within 5 mins and we are at the street of pubs and bars. Too bad that night was pretty quiet and the pubs there are pretty much empty so we headed back to the hotel and had an early night.

PIX: Had our breakfast in the morning and decided to sign up with the hotel to go water rafting. (est cost USD 25 per person) On our way to the place by bus, we took some snap shots of the locals living up the hill. Pretty interesting..
PIX: The guy below is our instructor and 3 of us were in one boat. He is a funny guy hehe... the water was not as strong as I thought it would be but for a beginner/ first timer like me, it was pretty exciting and fun. Especially at the last part of the river, we came down from this 4m high waterfall.
PIX: Once we reach the end of the river, all of us have to climb this long long steps of stairs up the hill to have our lunch. Hmm.. i didn't really eat the food cos it was not that yummy looking to me. But the most amazing thing which I came across was that, while rafting, there is this woman taking a shower naked by the river and our instructor just say "hi" like not even noticing that she is naked. 1st thing that came to my mind was, if this happen in a city, MY GOD! all the guys will stop and just stare at her for at least a good 5 mins. Then it makes me wonder, how i wish everyone in this world will be as innocent as these villages in bali and there will be no crime, rape or robbery....
PIX: We went to Seminyak to look for a shop which will be selling the party entrance tickets for year end party at Krabi.. but they told us that we have to wait for a week... damn wat luck! As we do not really know what is around Seminyak hence we just walk around aimlessly and checking out all the stores which are selling accessories, psychedelic artwork and etc.... We came by this so call SPA and went for a massage instead hehe.....
PIX: It was about 9pm when we finish our massage and din't know where to head. Again, without a clue or a map, both of us just wander around the dark streets trying to explore the place. It was pretty scary as most of the shops have close and there are no sight of any tourist around there. Luckily, we came across this street and saw some restaurants. The picture below is a restruant open by a japanese. the ambiance there is really good and the food are ok.

After that, for the balance 2 pictures below, that is double6. It only opens after 2pm till morning with a entry fee. (can't remember how much was it but it was affordable) this club they spins dance music, abit of a trance and house. But the crowd looks either too young in their teens or some of them are like too old about 40s. Anyway we enjoyed the night and met HOLLI who is a Malaysian working in Bali and occasionally Batam doing batik artwork. cool guy and helpful but too bad his English is not that fantastic hehe...

PIX: this is HOLLI picture which i ripped off from his facebook profile hehe..

PIX: last day.. HOLLY met up with us and we went to walk around Kuta, did abit of shopping, tried to look for A&W but CLOSED DOWN! Due to the limited time that we have, we couldn't go to the beach and suntan but did take a few pics of the beach at Kuta.

PIX: Had dinner at BOUNTY HOTEL and took a cab to the airport.

LESSON LEARN in this trip: Be careful of the zeros you see on the dollar note cos we gave an extra big fat ZERO to the taxi driver.. Luckily for us, we had the exact money left for the tax at the airport or we will be in deep trouble.

KOH PHANGAN 06

Just a rough summary of what you could find at KOH PHANGAN.

(*to know how to get to koh phangan, pls check on posting BANGKOK 06 & KOH SAMUI 08)

Koh phangan is a little island 1 hour away from Koh Samui and 5 hours from BKK. Price is about THB 250 and THB 800 respectively.

PIX: this is the hotel that we stayed (booked online) which cost us a bomb (EST. THB 2400)

Nice place but too expensive. Lesson learned: Go to phangan and look for lodging instead, don't book online. Unless you are really looking for a classy resorty place to stay and just chill for the rest of your trip.

PIX: 1ST night at haadrin. So excited to see the entire stretch of beach are all pubs and people are dancing everywhere. The pail that we are holding is alcohol mix with redbull.

PIX: party people who we met at haadrin & my pal is getting her back done. The guy in the middle got his art work done as a "dick" lol.. Little thai boy working, selling flower necklace. Look innocent but when one of the "falang" din wanna buy from him, he used his think long straw and poke him in the ass. **falang = western people in thai

PIX: Psychedelic art work at ZOOM. The look alike mosquito thingy is hanging from a ceiling, when you lay down and look up, it looks really trippy. (it was at some shisha place)
PIX: This is my friends' place. They had book this place to stay about 10mins away from haadrin which only cost THB 500. Beautiful view but the thing is... if you are drunk at night, u won't feel like coming back here and sleep because u gotta take along stairway up the hill inorder to reach this Heaven.
PIX: Night before full moon party. The picture in the middle is mellow bar, great place to chill out. ZOOM at haadrin.
PIX: We paid THB 500 each to go on a tour around the island. The tour meeting place is at haadrin town. Traveling by boat, 1st place is to this waterfall place where everyone can swim and chill out there.
PIX: 2nd place is somewhere around the island. They will tie 2 boats together, give you the mask and give u about 1hour to snorkel.
PIX: last place, they will bring you to this beach, (i can't remember the name) and everyone can grab some food there. On our way back, it was raining and it was really really cold. But the best part was that we get to see the RAINBOW. Oh that guy in the picture is the tour guide. He can really make u laugh thru out the entire trip.

** When reached haadrin, dinner is provided but it is just normal rice and curry but IT IS FREE (*included in the THB 500)
PIX: As the fullmoon party starts from about 9pm to about morning 8am so my friends were saying that we could just skip the night party and check it out in the morning sunrise set. They were right indeed, it was really nice to party by the beach and watch the sunrise.
PIX: Packing up and leaving our hotel
PIX: After party, which starts from 10am till about 3pm at BACKYARD PUB. Beautiful scenery from the pub.
PIX: We took a nap around 3pm and went to MUNCHIES for dinner and meet up with some other friends. MUNCHIES food are really yummy. After din din, we went to the AFTER PARTY but this time round, it is at BAAN SABAI.
PIX: Packing up and leaving Koh phangan... so sad.. how i wish i can just go there whenever i want..

BANGKOK 06

My actual travel journey started back in Aug 06 with my friends. Our first trip was to BKK (Bangkok) for a day and leave for Koh Phangan the next morning.

PIXS - nice bed of ours, lovely locals,crazy crowd in the train and Khao San Road

ACTIONS - Rush to Khao San to buy bus and ferry ticket to go Koh Phangan. Cost was about THB 800.00 one way. While waiting for our food, my dear friend was getting her hair pleated by these 3 lovely ladies. Really love taking pictures of local people smiling. Language is a barrel but i guess smiles across all country is a international language.

PIXS - Ferry Wheel @ Suan Lum Night Market, Hollywood club *some liveband thingy which operates till 2am only but anyway we did not went in, Siam Paragon, Secret pix of our TUTUT guy.

ACTIONS - Went Siam Paragon but found that city shopping was not to our liking becos in singapore we see shopping malls everyday. So we decided to visit the SUAN LUM night market where you can find clothes, shoes and all sorts of ornarments. Shopping at Suan Lum is like walking in between lines within SQUARES.. u will not be lost there but somehow the entire place will take you hours and hours of walking!

Awww am hungry and legs are aching........ finally we surrendered and had our dinner nearby.

One night in BKK...Hmmm.. heard that BKK have great places to party!... Sad to say we did not do our research well and ended going weird places that the TUTUT driver was bringing us.

***WARNINGS - This taxi driver was telling us that he know clubs that are still open at 2am but somehow he only made 2 traffic turns into a small dark lane & stopped his car right infront of a very dark doorless entry with 2 30nish guys standing at the entrance. 1st thing that came to my mind was that, how come there are no music or even lights??.. so we didn't want to get out of the taxi even thou the 2 guys were telling us:" its ok to go in to take a look, if you dun like it, you can come out".

Ya right! But am not taking any chances today. I told our driver that we want to get back to our hotel but he refuses (probably he didn't make any commission due to TOURIST like us did not fall into his trap :P) .... We were sO angry.. pass him the $$ and left quickly to somewhere where there are more people and with more street lamps. PHEWww.. safe!!

In the end, we went back to the hotel, watched FASHION TV till 430am, shower, packed our bags and left for Khao San road to take our Bus.

Way to Koh Phangan

PIX - morning scene at Khao San Road, Ferry terminal.

ACTIONS - Taking a bus from Khao San Road, they said you have to be there before 7am but in actual fact we only leave Khao San about 9plus.. that was really tiring especially we did not sleep last night.. But luckily the bus ride was about 5 hours or so and we get to grab a quick nap.

Sun was shining and the weather was great! Finally we reach the ferry terminal and the entire place was packed with backpackers. We waited there for about an hour for the ferry to come and it was another 5 hours of traveling by boat.

PIX - chilling out @ e deck, Koh Tao drop off point, scenery while on the way to Koh Phangan.

ACTIONS - As you can see from the pics, we were mostly chilling out at the deck on our way to Koh Phangan. At first we were sitting below trying to get some sleep but the weather was too good to be miss out hence we decided to chill at the deck and have our suntan. Bags were all dump infront where were sitting and getting our bags out was really terrible. But i can assure you that your bags are really save there unless you have a lap top inside, cos when you board the ferry, the staff will take your bag and throw on the floor. So do not put any lappy inside.

This ferry have a few drop off points - Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui

Drop off point at Koh Tao - A great place for people who love diving and snorkeling.