A Loveletter to Krabi (Sara)

Dear Krabi,
It wasn't any one thing about you that stole our hearts, but more the collection of sites, sounds and circumstance that etched a deep impression on us. We were all our best selves there, appreciating different things in the same moments, weaving a fabric of memories that we will hold close. The landscape was like nothing we've ever seen - the breathtaking rock outcroppings dotting the horizon and the color of the water intensely blue or green or crystal clear, depending where you looked. We even loved your weird amusement park and our playful nightly dinner guests. We'll be back one day.

We dig you, Krabi.
Love,
The Derens

Where we stayed:
Banburi Villa - I found it on VRBO, and agonized over this choice for many hours. I wanted to have a non-hotel experience, but I couldn't tell how far it was from the town and beaches, if the pictures were really as good as they looked, and if the house even existed at all after reading about travelers being scammed by fake listings. Fortunately, it all worked out just fine.

The villa (or "house" as we call it in America) was perfectly imperfect. It looked just like the pictures, but a little more worn. The carved teak details gave it character, along with small gaps in the window frames that let in slivers of sunlight and humidity. The washing machine's hose had to be aimed out the back door when in use to let the water out. The pillows were rock hard and the air conditioning was maybe 75% effective.

Each night we would sit on the back deck and watch lizards dart around the walls as we ate dinner. The kids from next door would come over to play in the pool or share video game strategies. Roosters could be heard in the next yard while the kids played. Our hosts, Chris and Bee, shared with us the perfect beaches, showed us the best down-a-dirt-road restaurant, and helped arrange activities and transportation around the area. It felt like Thailand. For each of the minor discomforts, there were way more sensory impressions that will stay with us longer than any hotel or resort would have.

Where we ate
On the first day there, I took a trip to the Makro, Thailand's much smaller equivalent of a Costco. A shopping trip that should have taken me 10 minutes took about 40, thanks to the unusual foods and local shopping norms. Fruit and produce were weighed at a counter in the middle of the store, which of course I didn't know. Meat was scooped by hand out of an open refrigerator using a plastic bag. "International" foods, like pasta and tortillas, could be found amongst frozen fish parts and a thousand varieties of rice noodles. I had to watch what others were doing to figure it all out since I couldn't ask anyone. Fortunately, everything was labeled in Thai and English, so I was able to confirm that the round fruit that looked like a pear was, in fact, a pear. It's amazing how disorienting even the most mundane things can be as a foreigner.

With groceries in hand (literally...I found out once I got to the register that they don't provide bags), we had a well-stocked kitchen to get us through a lot of our meals during the week. We'd eat breakfast at home, usually lunch out, and then order takeout from our favorite restaurant, Hello Blue Monkey, for dinner when everyone was too zonked from the day to venture back out.

We ate a lot of mangos. I drank a lot of coconut smoothies. Jon ate cashew chicken for dinner almost every night.

What we did
Our list of activities reads like a pretty typical tourist itinerary. And of course, that's what we were, but there's such a mix of people in Krabi, that it felt more like we were a part of a culture of travelers. On every beach, we'd see scraggly backpackers, loads of full-figured, middle-aged Russians, all wearing very skimpy bathing suits, and plenty of Thai locals playing with their kids.

Here were some of the highlights:

• Island Hopping - We hired a captain and a longtail boat for half a day to visit a couple of the islands off the coast (2000 THB/~63 USD) . The island were lovely, but it was something about the ride and the sand and the sun and the SCENERY (OMG the scenery) that created this perfect blend of happiness. At the last island stop, we got corn on the cob from a little hut and it was the BEST corn on the cob we've ever had. Except it probably wasn't. It was just that kind of day where everything was the best ever. Also, we went snorkeling and that was awesome, too.

• Seventh Heaven - It was like we had a dream about an amusement park and there was a tinny soundtrack of carnival music playing in the background and there were rides and a pool with slides and giant windmills on a hill and NOBODY ELSE WAS THERE. Except it wasn't a dream. I will call it Bizzare-o-Land. The kids rode a small roller-coaster that the attendant actually had to push up parts of the track because it didn't have enough power to make it around. I'm sure it was very safe. Just like the chicken skewer that Jon bought from the concession stand for 10 THB (32 cents).

• Aa Namao Beach Club - This place just had a certain feel to it. There was a gorgeous beach with limestone karts in the background. There were twisty shady trees with hammocks and rope swings. There was a restaurant that served delicious Thai food AND spaghetti bolognese (yay for Max), and there was a separate pavilion for massages (yay for me and Jon). Oh, and there were a bunch of stray dogs that only attempted to eat Max that one time. Tyler named them all. One was called Smith Sniff. I feel that's important to mention. We really loved this place.

• Railay Beach - If I had an extra few days to spend in this area, it would have been at Railay Beach. It's right next to the slightly seedy section of beach, Ao Nang, but you can only access it by boat because of the steep cliffs that separate the two areas. Once you water-taxi over there, you feel like you're in a different world. There are quaint little alley ways from one beach to another, more beautiful views, and a general sense of seclusion even though there are plenty of people and hotels around. We rented kayaks to explore the area and found our way through a couple of caves. At any point, we could hop out of the kayaks and snorkel. We drank some more fruit smoothies (50 THB/1.60 USD) and ate Roti (Thai pancakes). So good, all around.

Overall Impressions

Maybe it was because it was our first time feeling like we were settling in to this journey. Maybe it was the scenery or the mangos or the rooster or the fish that swarmed us when we swam and made us shriek into our snorkel tubes, or maybe it was all of the things together. It was blissful but not polished. It was relaxed but not indulgent. It was just right in so many ways.