It was the 1st of May. Labor Day aka public holiday. And it also happened to be Friday. The perfect timing for family vacation? Yes and no.
Yes, because it's a free holiday of 3 days straight. No, because it's gonna be a hell of a traffic jam all around Malaysia.
But we took it as a yes, as I'm obviously writing this post. We embraced the traffic in all positivity. Little that we know it's gonna be, a disaster!
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| Yes! |
We started the day early after breakfast at home. It's gonna be a very long two-cars convoy road trip. To start early was a clever decision as we've predicted that there will be many cars on the road. We stopped for lunch at the RnR, and continued heading up north. Before we reach the border, we stopped again at Changlun to exchange Ringgit Malaysia to Thai Baht, fill-up immigration forms (using the service available, very convenient) and changed Ringgit to a few RM1 notes. These are like a necessary check-list before you enter the Thailand border, by car. Oh, don't forget to fill-up your fuel tank too, as our price is cheaper. We then got going to Bukit Kayu Hitam, all excited. And we were so ready to cross the border now. But the worse had yet to come...
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| Sneaky! |
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| A jungle of broccolis. |
At a point of 4km away from the border, all cars just stopped. Completely stand still. I didn't understand the situation at first (still keeping positive vibe in mind). But then, we realized that we were actually queuing....
3 hours passed by. That was the exact time we were queuing in line to get to the immigration. 3 longest hour in a car moving as slow as a snail (maybe slower), in 4 kilometer strecth! With kids. Screaming. Because they're hungry and very tired of sitting. We just break our car queueing record.
Immigration at Thai border was a culture shock to me. It's the worst immigration process, ever! First, we have to park our car a distance away in a designated, improper parking space. Then everyone had to walk back to the immigration counter, and queue. It was weekend so imagine the crowd. Then there were also queue cutters (unbelievable!). We also been offered for cut-the-queue service by paying the agent some amount of money (can't remember how much), and they'll do everything for you in 3 minutes! But we passed (because he didn't come earlier, and we were almost there). And the most unbelievable thing of all, for every passport we must slip in RM2 (remember the RM1 notes changed earlier at Changlun?) before we hand it over (the act is supposed to be in discreet, but it actually doesn't matter), and that RM2 directly went into the pocket of the immigration officer. Just like that. Smooth..
After going through all that absurdity, we got back on track to get to the target location. No more traffic jam. However, Krabi was still like 300km+ away (jaw dropped!). That's 4 hours of driving. And it's already late at night. At this point of time, I just wished good luck to all drivers. All the best!
Being a good co-pilot though, I didn't sleep and tried my best to keep the driver awake. Although, most of the time, me myself was only half awake. We stopped at a 7-eleven cum RnR to have express dinner, and let the driver to power nap a little. As usual, convenient store outside Malaysia will always be interesting. I had fun browsing through their stuff and wondering what it says (all written in Thai btw). And whenever I found halal logo, I will stomp in joy.
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| My instant tomyam noodle. |
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| Surprisingly, the toilet was clean. And I never had seen anything like this before, hence the photo. |
We continued our journey to north and reached Krabi 5 am in the morning. It feels like we had won an amazing race! So glad that we're all safe and we all slept soundly the rest of the night (or should I say, morning).
Although the previous night was rough, we woke up quite early. Don't want to miss all the good bits. No need to shower, as we're heading to the beach! We went to Ao Nang beach, which is just minutes away from our hotel. The road along Ao Nang is so happening! With plenty of stalls selling many kind of street food and stuff. And the beach, oh I love beach! I just love the feeling of my feet sinking in the sandy white sand. It's playtime!
After spending some time at the beach, we then went in search for lunch. Saw this famous pink colored stall of Yaminlah pancake, I certainly wanna try that pancake and taste what the hype is all about. Standing right in front of the stall, we were spoiled for so many choices. They have nutella, milo, milk, banana and the list goes on from top to bottom that by reading just half way through, I already had like 5 types of pancake to order in mind. So we ordered a few (and by few I mean 8 of them), and OMG, it taste soooooooo good! Nutella is the best of all! It's crispy and fluffy and buttery and sweet and chocolatey. I can eat it all day long.
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| The legendary pancake. So legendary that we didn't take any picture of the pancake itself. |
We spent the afternoon relaxing and pampering ourselves with some foot massage. I don't really like the idea of people touching my feet because that's the most ticklish part of my body. But I tried it anyway, and actually it wasn't that bad. In fact, I kinda like it. The massaging oil smells nice too.
That night, we had seafood dinner at a floating restaurant. We got there by small boat. Since it was at night, nothing much to see except for total darkness. The restaurant is pretty hazardous for kids, since it's very open. I watched over the kids like, all the time, to make sure they won't fall into the river. We enjoyed the scrumptious seafood, nevertheless.
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| First of all, that's not a thumb-down. Second of all, I just noticed that "Amazing Race" sign in this picture! |
We went to the night market in Krabi town for some shopping. But it was so crowded and humidly hot! To get moving within the crowd of people was already hard enough, that shopping while pushing the stroller seemed almost impossible. So we ditched night market and headed back to the hotel. We left our kids at the hotel with their grandmother so we could take a night walk just the two of us. There were many stalls at the roadside that sell many kind of souvenirs. Since we didn't buy anything from the night market, we bought most of the souvenirs here. The price was not that much different, in fact some was cheaper. So we got our souvenir, and one peaceful shopping experience.
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| I know, it's cute right? |
To be continued..
Next post >> Krabi-Hatyai Road Trip: Sawadikap, Hatyai! (TH15 Part 2)
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