Thailand: arrival and island hopping

Last week we got to go on an amazing vacation to Krabi, Thailand. We took hundreds of pictures so be prepared. :) Also, I will probably provide an annoying amount of detail. Not really because I need to remember these minute details, but because I know some people might read this who are thinking of doing a similar vacation and I want them to have as much information as possible. I know I always appreciate that when I'm trying to plan a trip! That being said, if you want more info than I provide feel free to comment and ask!

Our flight left on Wednesday afternoon. Thanks to Brennan's obsession with punctuality we were at the gate long before our departure time. :) But it gave the kids plenty of time to burn off some excess energy. Which they did by running around like crazy people.

And playing on the moving walkways. I find this video ridiculously hilarious.

Our flight was about an hour and a half, super empty and it all went well. We made it through the passport checkpoint after someone finally tore the worker away from the game on his tablet. Yeah, that was 20 minutes of my life I will never get back, thank you very much. There were lots of people waiting with signs saying which hotel they were from and who they were picking up. One of those people was supposed to be for us but none of the signs had our name. So we exchanged some money and looked around some other areas before we came back and looked more closely at the signs. Luckily this time around Brennan noticed that our hotel was on a sign with someone else's name. Apparently they forgot about us. So it was fortunate that someone else on our flight was staying at the same place and even more fortunate that we noticed otherwise we would have been waiting for an over an hour while he took them to the hotel and then came back for us. So whew, dodged that bullet.

Our hotel was pretty good. It's always hard to know what to expect. We got a pretty good Groupon for it, they had a pretty decent buffet breakfast, and there was a bed/couch thing for Tatum and they provided a crib for Declan, all free of charge. The pool was nice and the staff were all really kind. There were two separate buildings. The one in back and higher up the hill was clearly newer and nicer. We didn't get a room there but we were still pretty pleased with what we got. They also had a private beach club, but more on that later.

The view from our balcony.

We hit the pool first thing Wednesday evening. Then walked around the street we were staying on, got a quick dinner and hit the sack.

For Thursday we had booked an island hopping tour (also through Groupon). We chose the four islands tour. I read that it was the best option for kids and the shortest time spent on the boat. Unfortunately, Tatum barfed all over the floor by our table in the breakfast room that morning. I was afraid we would have to cancel our tour. But she didn't have a fever, was back to herself in no time and heck, we were in Thailand! We had to just go for it! They picked us up at our hotel and we rode in the back of this truck down to the beach.

They dropped us off in this wooded area, where there were tons of people. It seemed pretty chaotic but there was apparently an order to the chaos that I just couldn't see. Eventually we got on our longtail boat ready for a fun day! (And only feeling slightly nauseous. Something about seeing someone else vomit really has a way of making me feel ill.)

Declan zonked out before we even made it to the first island. Might have something to do with the fact that he was up at the crack of dawn.

These two young boys were working on another longtail boat that we met up with to get two extra passengers from Railay.

Our first island was Tub island. Declan's face tells you how he was feeling about those Chinese men in skimpy swimsuits. :)

Haha check out the posing in the background. Sorry, I just had to.

Another random picture. I'm just a little confused about why you would book an island tour if you really didn't want the sun to see you at all?

Our next stop was snorkeling near Chicken Island. I stayed on the boat with this rascal. Everyone on the boat felt it was their duty to feed my kids snacks constantly, so he was perfectly content to stay on the boat.

Brennan and Tatum went out for some snorkeling. There were multiple times on this trip where Tatum just seemed so grown up to me. Doing things I would have previously thought she would refuse to do. This is just one small one, letting this stranger lower her down over the side of a boat into the ocean.

Checking out the fish, if you look closely you can see them in the lower left of the picture.

Chicken Island.

Next stop was Poda Island, our lunch stop. It was a little like waiting in a lunch line at school, and the food wasn't much better. But it was edible.

While we were eating lunch the photo requests started coming. This one group took a million pictures with our kids. This was only the start. I'm telling you if I would have remembered to hang signs on my kids ("Yes, you can take my picture. It will only cost 25 baht. (1 dollar)") I'm pretty sure we could have paid for our entire trip with the money we would have made off of them. ;) It was also another indication of Tatum growing up. She really hates it when people want to take a picture of her or with her. We have had lots of talks with her of when it's okay to talk to strangers and when it's not, etc. And this trip she almost always complied and occasionally even smiled for people. :)

"No dumping of any type"?

Just so beautiful!

I just love his two little teeth.

Breathtaking beauty everywhere you looked!

A bit of a storm blew in, causing us to leave Poda Island a little early. The ride from there to Phra Nang beach was very cold and very wet. Phra Nang isn't really an island but it is only accessible by boat. It was crowded (all the islands were but this one seemed especially so). We also "parked" as far away as possible so it was a bit of a trek to the princess cave.

I just can't get enough of these shots. Perhaps that's why we ended up with so many pictures.

Declan was feeling pretty pooped by the time we were done here.

I'm not sure Declan was the only one.  Brennan is looking pretty happy here. :)

On our way back. I had to blow up this picture because I know Brennan hates what his hair is doing.

Tatum was cold and completely zoned out on the last stretch. Declan just slept.

So after we booked this island tour we heard about booking private longtail boats. I was definitely regretting not paying the extra money for a private boat before we went on the tour. But I think it all turned out. Yes, the beaches were pretty crowded but not too crowded to enjoy. It was nice to have the snorkeling gear and lunch provided as well as the transport to and from our hotel. I do wish I would have realized just how quickly the time on each beach would go, I would have packed and acted a little differently. Overall, it was a great first day in Thailand! Brennan says it was his favorite day of the trip.