Krabi, Phuket
We did lots of stuff in Thailand other than ward off culture shock (and concern over military coups) using therapeutic travel games.
We also admired limestone karsts, climbed twelve hundred and sixty steps to a Buddhist temple with free wifi, swam in a natural spring, ate breakfast with a princess, risked zoonoses canoeing through bat caves, ran in the Laguna Phuket 2014 half-marathon/kids’ run, rode horses on the beach, and played in the surf.
Check, check, check, check, check, check and check.
It was enough to make us all glad we didn’t miss our train connection from KL to Hat Yai despite waiting on the wrong train platform until after they’d closed off boarding.
But that’s all too much to talk about tonight, especially since it’s not a school night for a couple more weeks. So let me start with a brief run down and we’ll take it from there.
Who Went? Mum, Dad, one 3yo, one 6yo.
Review: Nice little trip, if a bit light on the anticipated scorpions.
Just booked a room near Krabi with the following review: (plus) setting was beautiful (minus) scorpion in bathroom.
— Bronwyn Joy (@JOTFabulist) May 23, 2014
We ranged from mountainside in Krabi to beachside in Phuket, which gave us a variety of scenery and experiences. Could have stayed much longer.
Highlights: Solitaire and serenades at Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort; Tiger Cave Temple; Thung Teao Forest National Park with its Emerald Pool and Blue Lagoon; Laguna Phuket International Half Marathon; horse riding on Bang Tao beach; surf at Kata Beach; canoeing around Khao Phing Kan aka “James Bond Island”.
Challenges:
The long overland trip up was obviously a challenge, but the kids both did really well. We made use of the on-board entertainment system during the coach trip from Singapore to KL, after which we switched to those travel games I’ve been banging on about so much lately. There were toilets on both the bus and the train, thank goodness.
It also helped that the bus dropped us at KLCC which has a great play area for kids, and only for kids, and not for teens, tweens, or parents of infant children who want to sit said children on their laps in order to swing them, as the aggressively-peeping playground Whistle Nazi will tell you.
KLCC playground. Whistle Nazi not shown.
The ride that undid us was actually the one-hour minibus transfer back to the hotel after our visit from James Bond Island – about which, well, more later.
Otherwise, just mosquitoes. You could actually hear them buzzing with evil laughter as they forged straight through our natural repellent (I heard one of them comparing the smell of citronella in the morning to the smell of victory), and it was lucky the hotel at Krabi was able to lend us something stronger.
Touting seems fairly tame these days compared to our last visit to southern Thailand, or we just weren’t so worried about getting overcharged, or both.
Price Bracket: Moderate. So probably we should have hassled the touts a bit more.
Singapore to Phuket, June 2014.
Itinerary:
Day One
- Our house -> Harbourfront by public bus.
- 11am – board Aeroline bus to Kuala Lumpur (5-6hrs). Spend thirty minutes repeatedly advising the children that we don’t know anything about the onboard entertainment system.
- Border control proceedings. This bit would take a lot longer during peak times, but it wasn’t too bad on a Tuesday morning. There are two stops (Singaporean and Malaysian border control) and these are a short bus ride from each other. The Singapore side was a doddle. At the Malaysian side we had to offload and carry through our luggage, but it was still pretty straightforward.
- 11:45-12pm (ish) – clear Malaysian border, receive headphones, on-board entertainment system switched on.
Memorising the score of “Frozen”, which turns out to be important later on.
- Lunch on board coach (included in ticket price). I’d advise bringing lunch for fussy eaters, unless you think they’re prepared to live on rice alone.
- 4:30pm – arrive KLCC. Play in park, eat dinner at shopping mall food court – just like home, but with added Whistle Nazi.
- 8pm – make way by LRT to Sentral Station. Sit around on wrong platform blissfully eating ice creams and stocking up on snack foods until the train – on the only other platform – is nearly sent on its way. At the last possible moment, realise this mistake and dash across to the right platform. Beg to be allowed on.
- Once on board, remember you only booked three berths, because there were only top bunks left, you didn’t think T would be ok with a top bunk on her own, and children under four are allowed to share a berth free of charge. Draw straws to see who shares with The Night Thresher. Lose draw.
- Overnight on board train.
Day Two
- 8:30am – arrive at Thai-Malaysian border. Ask what should be brought off the train and get told “just the passports”. Clear two lots of customs and immigration and return to the platform to realise the train has been taken away with everything on it. Believe the first person who tells you, with an air of authority, that it will be back in one hour, even though he is totally making that up. Cue children saying they’re tired/hungry/thirsty/bored.
- Buy kaya buns and drinks at the cafe upstairs. Madly invent equipment-free games to keep the kids distracted. Repeatedly advise them you know as much about the train as you did about the on-board entertainment systems. Participate in a prolonged debate in which you seek to assure them that you are nevertheless very much in control and still need to be obeyed.
Lawn bowls, the red-tile-and-scrunched-up-shopping-docket version. Hat tip to Great-Granddad! Afterwards we played the red-tile-and-scrunched-up-shopping-docket version of darts, which has an entirely distinct points system.
- 11am – re-board train, reunite with luggage, books, food, water, etc. Participate in a prolonged debate in which you seek to assure the children that you told them so.
- 12:30pm – arrive Hat Yai, follow random minibus touts, negotiate fare to Krabi.
- Lunch at cafe near train station.
- Bus to Krabi (4hrs, one official stop plus one extra toilet stop ten freaking minutes after the official stop, as if you didn’t just go, T).
- Drop off directly at Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort.
- Overnight in two-bedroom wooden cabin overlooking stunning mountain scenery.
Day Three
- Awake to stunning mountain scenery
- Breakfast at resort
- Kick around
- Lunch
- Kick around some more
- Dinner
- Overnight Phanom
P now plays solitaire. It’s beautiful.
Day Four
- Breakfast at resort
- Full day private taxi tour to Tiger Cave Temple and Thung Teao Forest National Park with its Emerald Pool and Blue Lagoon
- Overnight Phanom
Day Five
- Breakfast at resort – with a princess!
T literally gasped when she fronted up for breakfast to find the owner’s son and future daughter-in-law doing their wedding shoot.
- Private taxi transfer to Kata Beach, Phuket, stopping off at Bang Tao beach to pick up runner’s kit
- Attempt to distract Æ from the realisation that Kata Beach is a fair bit further from Bang Tao Beach (1hr) than it looked on the map when I booked our accommodation. Hat tip And Three To Go (who recommended the area) and Where’s Sharon/our next door neighbour, who both recommended Kata Palm Resort and Spa. None of these people knew where the marathon was, either.
- Swim and dinner at resort.
- Overnight Kata Beach.
Day Six
- Æ awakes in “the absolute dead of night” in order to make it to Bang Tao beach for his half marathon.
- T, P and myself wake later, breakfast at the hotel, and join him as he’s finishing.
- Æ and T take up a position on the sideline, as P and myself line up for what has, since we registered, been renamed from “The Family Run” to “The Kids’ Run“. Awesome. By the way, your kid-sized T-shirt is too small for me.
- Bananas, rambutans and a light post-run lunch for all afterwards.
- P, T and myself take a one-hour horse ride along the beach while Æ relaxes with a drink in town.
- Lunch on Bang Tao beach
It was the only place open. We were compelled to go upmarket.
- Taxi back to Kata beach for a swim at the resort, followed by dinner and bed.
- Overnight Kata Beach
Day Seven
- Breakfast at resort
- Infamous James Bond Island Tour.
- Dinner and overnight at Kata Beach
Day Eight
- Breakfast at resort
- Swimming, boogie boarding and lunch at Kata Beach
- Change, taxi to aiport (1hr)
- Fly Phuket-> Singapore (2hrs)
T has a go at boogie boarding before we fly home.
Disclosure/disclaimer: any links are just FYI (for your information) and also FMFR (for my future reference).
Last time I did this, you told me what you wanted to hear more about, and I delivered (plus or minus some flying dolphins). So tell me which bits you want me to expand upon this time! Otherwise it’s pretty much you listening to me whine about the James Bond Island trip and maybe a travel hack involving mosquitoes.
Related:
The steps to Wat Tham Suea, Krabi
Read more about our time (and mosquito hacks) in Krabi in The Spy Who Loved Krabi.
Everything we learned about running with kids in Just Like The Wind.
Less-than-stellar travel moments in The Failed Bus Journey From James Bond Island.
The post Krabi, Phuket appeared first at Journeys of the Fabulist.
Wow! Seems like you had a really great time! We’ve never set foot in any place outside the Philippines. But if the opportunity comes, Krabi, Thailand comes to mind. We’d love to experience the rock-climbing-by-the-beach scene there!
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Well, with the whole of the Philippines you don’t need to! We’re thinking of making a trip there but every time I try and think where to get started I’m just overwhelmed.
I think you’d like Krabi, though.
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I am totally marvel at your brave decision to take a full two days bus and train ride with your family. Did they complain at all? Oh my!I
Oh my!
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They were very good on the way up. We had to work at it a bit (moreso towards the end) but they really did well. This was definitely their longest trip yet so we were very pleased!
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You must have done a very good job in parenting them!
I was looking for KTM train to head back home after your sharing. Twice we attempted, they all fully booked! Not sure will I try again;)…
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We had to book several weeks ahead. We only just snuck on this trip, and even then we had to change our dates and take three top bunks (I shared with T) instead of the two up/two down we were aiming for. When P and I went to KL a couple of months back we booked an extra week or two in advance and it made all the difference. Also – any public holidays etc and it gets waaaay more competitive very quickly!
Good luck with your booking. It would be great if you could get a place!
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This is an insane itinerary – right up my alley. Did you already post about the mountains? I will have to look. How did you manage to teach P solitaire? Perhaps I need to try with my oldest.
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I think you’ve just caught up with the mountain bit (and the wet sucking mud) so I’ll leave that.
Solitaire. Yes, try it. We just basically sat beside him and told him the rules. He played a few “supervised” games then he was off (plus or minus the odd question here and there). I won’t say he stuck to the rules 100% under all circumstances but he was happy, so.
I would advise bringing a book for that period where occasional support is needed. (Helps if other children are being occupied by someone else, of course 🙂 )
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Sounds good, I’ll have to give it a go. Do you do 1 or 3 card draw? 🙂
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I tried to teach the 3-card draw but it was a bit of a handful. He played for a while turning three cards over on the table one by one then looking at the top card, then A came along and said just do the one card draw, and he ended up doing that. That made it much more doable.
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I am so late in commenting about this!
Oh man, if I had known that the marathon was in Bang Tao I would have suggested somewhere closer, Haha. I guess on the bright side, you had the chance to see a lot more of the island.
I am still bummed that I wasn’t here to say hello, but am so glad that you made it and had a great time. Also, I am forever in awe of the way that you handle things so calmly (such as the train situation!). 🙂
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Yeah, I regretted not mentioning that bit to you. I figured it would have been a no-brainer from your perspective! But anyway, it was just one day and we were there three nights in total.
Bear in mind some things are handled calmly and other things are just reported calmly with the benefit of hindsight 🙂 . The train thing I was ok with, though. Seemed like one of those par-for-the-course travelling experiences. Everyone else from our train was in the same boat (station – mixing my transport metaphors there) so we figured they’d sort it out eventually.
Next time we’ll definitely have to meet up. A was saying he’d go back to Krabi, not so sure about Phuket, but then I said what if we could meet up with you guys next time and he said that would be worth it, so there you go. 🙂 Have to see how long you end up staying, though!
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That sounds wonderful! We can always drive down to Krabi to see you if you visit there as well. 🙂 We will definitely be here until March… hopefully longer though.
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Well we’ll keep an eye on opportunities! I spoke to my parents about heading up that way during their visit later this year but I think we’ve all decided somewhere closer (e.g. southern tip peninsular Malaysia) would be more suitable. But we’ll see!
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Great post. You make me envious and want to return myself! I loved Krabi! http://backpackerlee.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/seclusion-at-railay-beach/
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We have to go back as well! Definitely a highlight. Next time we’ll try to visit Railay Beach like you did.
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Wonderful post! Right down my alley and I love your travel style. Don’t’ change a thing, reads great and I get hear your voice. You crack me up.
By the way 1 hour mini bus ride transfer. Torture!
Parts I love: Combination of itinerary and fun glimpses into your family i.e. frozen, lawn bowls (great idea) and prolonged debates. xo
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The lawn bowls was one of those flashes you sometimes get just when everything’s about to fall apart. (The prolonged debates seem to happen as a matter of course 🙂 .) Definitely I’ll have to remember to bring old shopping dockets with me wherever I go from now on (they seem to accumulate, so seems like a reachable goal).
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I admire anyone that travels with small children, daughter included! Your adventures are surely stepping stones to that future Mars odyssey!
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I’m still a little nervous about the whole Mars thing, truth be told… but I guess we’ll see what happens!
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Innovative recycling idea for shopping dockets too!
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We were there for a little over two hours and had very little to work with! You know what they say about the mother of invention.
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Great photos – what a beautiful place. T looks delighted with her Princess and all looking relaxed on the pony ride. Thanks for the one of the happy band of runners with their medals. P is a picture of concentration at solitaire. Pity about the mosquitoes!! Zoonoses?
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James (I think it was James, not Terri) from Gallivance.net recommended the book “Spillover”. It’s about disease transfer from animals to humans, especially nasty outbreaks like Ebola, Hendra, AIDS, etc. Bats came up a lot in the book so when we canoed through the bat caves straight underneath them all hanging there it wasn’t the best feeling. So far nobody showing signs of mysterious illness…
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It’s amazing you did all these with 2 young kids! What an adventure! 🙂
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It was quite a little adventure! The kids held up really well. I guess they’re getting into the swing of travel more these days, too.
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Really wonderful trip Bronwyn. Altough I’m sure it was challenging with the kids – it will be a rich memory for them that will last a life time. definitely worth while. Your kids are precious and your daughter looks like a princess.
There was no scale in your map so I looked it up – it’s a long trip – 1,350 kms. It sounds like the travel went as well as can be expected -and you took the set backs very calmly. The scenery and beaches and mountains look spectacular.
Great post Bronwyn. thank you for sharing your trip with us.
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1350km? I thought it seemed a long way towards the end. Thanks for looking it up – I never got around to calculating it.
Definitely some spectacular scenery. I’ll see if I can share some more pictures next week.
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You are so organised when you travel…I need more of that skill. Sounds like a fab family getaway AND your very own princess!! Oh and I am all for on flight/bus/train entertainment, it got me back to Oz in one piece with the kids
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How did I give you the impression I was organised? Was it the way we nearly missed the train from KL, the way we got stuck at the Thai/Malaysia border for over two hours with only a small amount of cash, a shopper docket, and our passports, the way we didn’t have the right insect repellant at Krabi, or the way we stuffed up our day tour booking to James Bond Island? 🙂
Definitely glad to hear you got back to Oz in one piece with the kids. It was just you and them on that very long haul flight, unless I’m mistaken? And with jet lag, too!
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Wow! Sounds like you packed a lot in. Which parts were your favorite? Or which would you recommend?
Looking forward to hearing about James Bond Island, even if it’s all bad. I know there’s a story there.
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It was all good, but the place I’d go back to is Krabi. I feel like we really missed a lot there that we would have enjoyed. And of course just north is Khao Sok National Park so clearly we were just scratching the surface!
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Sounds awesome. I vote for more on the kids run and the island trip. And all the funny little incidents that makes the travelling worth 🙂
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Alright, I’ll work on it. Definitely the Island trip – whether you want it or not! I need some advice on that one.
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I hope you enjoyed Kata! I’d love to know more about Krabi so I can work out if it’s worth a visit 🙂
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We were out of town a bit and we loved it. We would go back there. I’m not sure what you’d think, though – it’s one of those travel personality questions (Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast? etc) – but I can try and give you an accurate impression so you can see if you’d like it. Bearing in mind there are plenty of other places to stay in the local area which cater to other kinds of tourist as well.
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I pick Sunshine coast over Gold Coast, so I assume that is like picking Krabi over Phuket?! I need to have everything I need very centrally though, like some restaurants and something to do. I’m not a total get away from it all type of person. I do need a bit of action. I am not a beach person either since I have bright white skin and hate sand, but I do like beach destinations for some reason.
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You are ranging around my old stomping ground, South-East Asia is so interesting. Areas of tranquillity and bustling metros. Deep jungle villages only accessible by walking, motorcycle, river, or small plane, with modern cities not that far removed in kilometres. Each place has a memory for me.
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Any suggestions? We’re always thinking about the next trip. I have a few competing ideas lined up but would love to have some more options in the mix.
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The summer palace in Thailand if you have not already seen that. The Princesses very fancy tourist complex in that area, of course you would not want to miss the Bridge of the River Kwi. They will show you a fake bridge but it was dismantled by the Japanese and reassembled in that area. North of there is the historical site with an Australian memorial worth seeing.
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Good suggestions. A and I visited the bridge over the River Kwai on one of our first trips. We should definitely remember to take the kids there next time we visit Thailand. It’s actually not that hard to get to from Bangkok, either, if I recall correctly – so logistics work out well, too.
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What a great adventure, and I truly admire your ability to occupy your children. One word on mosquitoes, having spent years in all sort of insect biting places (Alaska, Africa, Maine, Sierra Nevada Mountains, etc., etc.): Deet. 🙂 –Curt
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Deet! Yes. That’s exactly the stuff that worked. We were a bit reluctant to use it on the youngest, especially (we ended up using a bottle with a big warning sticker saying NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS OLD on a three year old – but she was being eaten alive).
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It is potent stuff. I use it very sparingly. And it has killed a couple of my compasses, i.e. melted them. But when the bugs are really, really bad… 🙂
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We dressed her in long sleeves and trousers and tried to keep it to the fabric. We still used the citronella stuff on the bare skin – I give the credit to the deet haze for the subsequent lack of bites, though.
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On my recent travels with my 9 month old and 3 1/2 year old to Cambodia I used: A mosquito protection clip to hang off their clothes. http://www.opticaaccessories.com.au
Burt’s Bee’s Herbal Insect Repellant Spray.
http://au.evitamins.com/herbal-insect-repellent-burts-bees-11842#.U0ouSl4xElI
It worked really well and know one got bit. They have mammoth mozzies like the star wars crusader planes.
I was shocked they worked. I also bought a mosquito noise clip that deterred them too 😉
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I’ve seen those bands in the shop. I have to admit I haven’t tried them, having been disappointed with other wrist/ankle bands for mosquitoes, but perhaps these are worth a go.
That said, these mosquitoes were a lot more vicious than anything we encountered in Cambodia (where the natural repellant worked just fine). Mind you, we visited Cambodia during the the low-mosquito season. Where/when did you go?
And where did you get your noise clip? I’ve been looking for one for ages!
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I had the same response from those other mosquito bracelets. This one is different:)
This is the link to the mosquito clip I had: http://www.biome.com.au/natural-repellent/144-ultrasonic-mosquito-repeller-9335607000230.html
It even worked in Sri Lanka.
I went to Cambodia at the start of the wet season in Siem Reap.
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Golden! Thankyou. Will definitely try the noise thing, and now just have to remember where I saw those bracelets. I imagine the mozzies in Cambodia were a lot worse at the start of the wet season than when we saw them.
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I just saw on the internet that you can download the sound for free on your phone! google it 😉
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Ooh! Like! That would be handy! Thanks!
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I guess it’s the same thing…? Tell me if it works. My next trip will be to a place without mozzies.
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Wow – I am so impressed not only by the scope of this trip but also the details you have captured – feel like I am along for the ride!
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Hopefully you feel that in a good way, not in an oh-fantastic-the-second-hour-of-inventing-games-from-scrunched-up-shopping-dockets kind of way.
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Not sure what your plan is but if you swing by Bangkok by any chance, do check out its award-winning safari zoo. Awesome packs and herds of animals instead of the usual one (or if you are lucky) / two skinny four-legged creatures you see in most Asian zoos. Love that place, perfect for the kids. Enjoy your trip!
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We were going to go through Bangkok originally (our original plan actually looked almost entirely different) but we ended up with just the stops in the south. Thanks for the recommendation, though – we’d love to take the kids to Bangkok and further north at some point, too.
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Thanks for sharing all your adventures in a nutshell, loved reading it!
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Thanks! Hope so. I like starting with a brief overview so good to hear it worked out for you as well.
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What a great sense of adventure you have to get there! My parents would never have done that with us back when we were younger…and there are 4 of us kids! Haha…
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I won’t promise you I’d do it with four whole kids.
(Even four dismembered kids, which is probably how they’d end up.)
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Haha, yes, which is why I don’t recall long trips like this when I was younger…but still, kudos for you trying with two…:)
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Two is definitely still a handful at times!
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Sounds amazing! I’d love to hear more about your time at the beach (but I always love the beach).
Funny, my son saw a wedding picture of me and my husband recently and asked when was it that I was a princess. Him asked his sister are very into princesses these days. 🙂
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To be fair, I can see how it happens. The bride=princess thing, not the being into princesses, necessarily. What was that quote? “My daughter said she wanted to be treated like a princess for a day, so I married her off to an unlikeable stranger to gain strategic advantage over a neighbouring country.”
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I always enjoy the format of your blog Bronwyn! Great planning and trip with small children is no small accomplishment !
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I’m glad someone still sees it as good planning. Not sure everyone saw it that way at all times!
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They must be blind??? : ) ~
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As you might surmise your post has my travel envy symptoms flaring up. Ahhh Thailand. I would like expansion on the mosquitoes, the almost missing the train and the races and I don’t even know what James Bond island is so add that. Basically I want to hear it all and I will take sedatives to keep the travel envy disease from driving me mad.
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Ok. I will put “all of it” on my list. Meanwhile, this is James Bond Island:
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Can’t wait to hear about the gunfight. 🙂
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Ha! Yes, well, it was a little different to what you see in the movie. More tourists buying sarongs and hair thingies. Fewer sinister guys in top hats.
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Disappointing but safer for the kids. I will look forward to the full report. 🙂
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Definitely safer.Those top hats and three-piece suits can cause serious heat stroke if you’re not careful.
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We actually wouldn’t know about that in Canada so I look forward to the educational post on heat stroke.
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I’m sure I remember a recent post of yours where I learned about Canadian heat stroke? No top hats though, if I remember correctly, so you’ve got me there.
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Are you sure I was in Canada? Maybe there was that one day….
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Well, you’re the expert there. I’ll defer to your greater knowledge. 🙂
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you made it! great stuff!
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Yes! And you know, sometimes that really is the sum total of our aspirations. 🙂
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I’ve given up on having a family holiday (again) this year in favour of a roof that doesn’t leak and widows that aren’t solely held in place by dirt. I could cry seeing how fabulous your trip looks. Sod the roof – I want to ride ponies on a beach of white sand!
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Ooh… yes I can see how basic structural integrity is a plus in a dwelling and might trump a holiday. You should definitely tune in any time I mention mosquitoes or unpleasant bus trips and maybe just turn away the other times…
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