Krabi, Thailand. I got to go to Thailand, people!!!

Ok, this one is going to have to be big bc I have a ton of pictures. We had so much fun!!
For our last big vaca before moving back home we decided to go to Krabi, Thailand for spring break this year with our friends, Ben and Liz Lawler. After our super-awesome trip to Guilin (I'm being a bit sarcastic bc Coop was so hard) we were a bit nervous about another trip. However, being that this vacation was all about the water and being able to be in it, we were hopeful that this one would be different.
And, hallelujah, it was!! :)
Ok, where to begin...
The vacation did not start out on a good note. We had plugged the IPad in to get a bit of extra charge before the long day's journey. We were about 25 minutes into our car ride to the airport when something dawned on me. "Ben", I asked. "Did you grab the IPad from the charger before we left?" He looks at me. "Are you serious?" We looked at each other and seriously contemplated going back home and scrapping the trip. :) That little electronic device saved us in Guilin and the thought of being without it for 8 days was a bit daunting! But, we had our IPhones as backups, so we carried on.

We got to the airport with plenty of time and proceeded to check in. Suddenly Ben looks at me with a not-so-great expression on his face. "They have both kids on a totally separate flight", he says. Are you kidding me??? They had changed our flight times a few times but we had never put together that we were on completely different flights in the end. At first they said they couldn't fix it bc both flights were full. After Ben read them the riot act, things got figured out- for the ride there. The ride home was still messed up but since it had taken over an hour to fix this one and we just made the flight. We ended up having to buy me another ticket just to get home with the family. SO annoyed and no one would claim the mistake so we were out of luck. Trust me. Ben spent HOURS on the phone trying to fight the good fight but to no avail. :(

Ok, so, we made it! Home free! On vacation in a warm and tropical paradise. Bring it on!
The ride from the airport to the hotel was uneventful. At one point we were at a stop light and I looked over and saw this lovely store where one could buy an ice cream cone....

Not exactly Cone City (for my GR peeps), but I guess it would do if you're desperate? :)

We also saw many of these-

They seem to be a gas-powered scooter with a little 2-wheeled attachment that could carry about 4 other people. This one in particular was privately own by a family but we used these on several occasions as taxis.

Checking into the hotel- here is the lobby. Everything in this country is open air. The hotels, the restaurants, the stores. You can imagine how much devastation occurred to these places during the 2004 tsunami. This hotel was built after that occurred and we really didn't see any remnants of it throughout town.

 

 

Our room. It was HUGE!! A large room with bunk beds and a king bed and lots of living space. We were really impressed with this place until we realized that there was no tub in this room- only a standing shower! Seriously, it was called the family room and yet you have no way of cleaning said young babes?? Oy.

We very quickly discovered that we need to get Cooper some bean bags as he was in love! We would often find him lounging on them throughout the week when we were hanging out in the room to cool off. :)

As we arrived on the night before Easter, I had brought a few things along to make it a little fun. You'll see the Easter baskets on the left, a small banner and a few eggs hidden around. Soph was really excited when she woke up. Also, thanks to technology, we were able to go through the Easter story from the Bible on our Bible app on our phones. :)

That Easter day we headed to the local beach- Ao Nang Beach, to hangout and relax. The water was very warm but a bit cloudy. Reminded me of the Atlantic Ocean. It's called the Andaman Sea.

This is a great picture of how Cooper spent a large part of his vacation- floating happily in the water with his hat and life jacket. :) He was in his element. Behind him are Ben Lawler and 2 of his kiddos, Mia and Isaac.

The other Lawlers- Liz and Riley. Isn't he getting so big! 6 months old now. :)

Liz and I were put in charge of finding foods for lunch so off we went to explore. What did we come back with? Watermelon slices, mango slices, pineapple slices and fruit smoothies. :) When we get fresh fruit we go a little crazy!

These were one of the things that you could tell were new since the tsunami. They were everywhere! Eek...

We decided to hire a boat o bring us to another beach area- Railay Beach. Gorgeous! But still kinda cloudy water. Watch out for crabs pinching your toes!

Who's in a tropical paradise? This girl is. :)

Some rock formations surrounding Railay Beach...

I found a coconut opened and abandoned on the beach and Sophie was beyond thrilled. She dragged this thing around all day, putting shells and water in it, stirring it around...

That evening we headed out for dinner to a local Thai restaurant. Here's Soph, Mia and Isaac posing on a walkway on the way there.

We literally walked by this place and were like, sure, let's try it. :) It was a great choice! Very authentic place and amazing Thai food!

My chicken pad thai with decorative radish and cucumber slices. This place had the best pad thai that we tried- and we tried a lot!

On the walk home we passed this lady making these pancake-looking things out of a cart. Gotta love street food! They were like crepes but then she put some chopped up mango inside and drizzled chocolate sauce and sweetened condensed milk on top. HEAVEN! I could've eaten 10 of them!! And they were about $1.50 each. Can't beat it!

Here's the lady and her cart. :)

On Monday morning we headed out for our first island-hopping trip. It was going to be a long day as the trip ended up with a sunset beachside dinner.
Here's Mia, Soph and Isaac super-safely tucked inside this open-air flatbed truck thing on our way to the boat. No seatbelts, no windows, not even a door. ;)

Oh I forgot 2 things that happened! That second night we had put the kids to bed and Ben was looking around for our passports to keep everything together. He found all but mine. He thought maybe the front desk had not returned them the day before- nope, they didn't have it. We tore apart the room to no avail. Ben started properly freaking out that we would have to find a way back to Bangkok, get to the Embassy there and get me a new visa and passport. I calmly reminded him that we'd find it. After hours of searching, we prayed. Ben then thought of looking behind the mini-fridge (thanks for the idea, God!), and there it was! Whew! Crisis averted!

So, the other thing that happened was on Monday morning we had to get the kids up and ready early bc the tour bus was picking us up at 9. At 9:30 Liz called the tour company and the lady says, oh no, it's always 10:30 for this trip that we pick you up. Huh?? This was after the lady had sent a confirmation email saying it would be 9 and then they had spoken Sat night confirming the same! We were not impressed but they sent someone as soon as they could and we were on our way around 10.

We met our English-speaking guide on the boat (her name was Guy) and off we went. The driver of the boat was a proper Bob Marley fan and all that entails (can you see the Jamaican flag strapped to the roof of the boat?). He had Bob Marley pants on, fantastic dreadlocks, you name it. I liked him. :)

I fear I only got a pic of our driver's legs (see the pants?) while I was trying to get a picture of the incredible engines they have built to move these boats. They were gas-powered, very powerful, but they could lift the whole thing up out of the water for when they went over shallow water or obstacles. They were very noisy as well but really incredible!

As we were motoring along towards our first destination, we passed the queen's summer home. Not too shabby...

After about 30 min in the boat we saw some islands ahead...

We sneaked our way through some amazing karst mountains to get to an amazing snorkeling place.

This worked wonders! Sophie really didn't want anything to do with snorkeling (there are fish down there, mom!!), so she hung out in the boat with Mia while Ben, Coop and I would go out. We'd put Coop in his life jacket and hat and he'd bob along while we snorkeled. We'd simply bring him around with us and he was so happy!

A second island we visited. Here's Liz heading towards an area to feed some fish.

My pretty girl and I

Isaac, Liz, Coop and Ben feeding the fish

Our guide made us lunch while we were playing with the fishies. We ate it on the boat while enjoying the sunshine. We had a super-tasty green curry, this salad thing that was fantastic, although quite spicy, rice, and these rice/coconut/sugary things wrapped in banana leaves. For the kids they had some fried chicken, omelets and fried rice. So yummy!!

Oh yes, and fruit. Tons of fruit!

Liz enjoying one of the rice/coconut/sugar things. :) Soph loved them, too!

Liz took this picture for us. Me, Ben and Coop snorkeling. Yes, I had Sophia's floaty ring. Don't judge. :)

Approaching another island with amazing snorkeling, I saw this adorable red crab on the rocks. Isn't he cute?? :)

In this particular area of snorkeling, Soph actually was brave enough to get in! She snorkeled for a bit then yelped out that a crab pinched her. I told her that crabs were all at the bottom and there was NO way one pinched her. Then Liz yelped out that she'd been stung by a jellyfish on her wrist. Then Ben yelped that he got stung on his arm. We all got out and, once in the boat, I saw, sure enough, Sophia was stung by a jellyfish behind her knee! She had an angry-looking stripe on her leg for the rest of the day but was such a trooper about it.

Our last stop for the day. This beach was SO amazing bc we were almost completely alone on it! We swam, picked seashells, snorkeled and relaxed. The only bad thing about this place was that there were about a million cicadas and they were NOISY!!

Our crew. :)

Did I mention it was like paradise there???

:)

Soph and I looking for seashells.

A good view of our boat we had that day.

Family photo op!

Sophia, Ava and I worked on making a sandcastle for the crabs that were emerging as evening approached

Dinner on the beach as sunset approached. We had shrimp and chicken skewers, roasted corn, fruit, fried rice and more. So so good.

I liked this one of Riley and his momma, Liz. How they're shadowy with the sunset in the background...

A storm was approaching quickly as the sun set so we had to take a few quick pics, hop in the boat, and try to get back to the mainland before the storm hit. Still gorgeous!!

A cute one of Soph, Isaac and Mia as we packed up the boat. All three of them loved to sit on the front part of the boat whenever they could.

We did make it back before the storm. In fact, we had a lot of lightening that night but no thunder or rain. It was very very humid and very hot, however, so maybe it was just heat lightening. We got it for several nights in a row after that.

The next day, Tuesday, we decided to have a relaxing day at the hotel just swimming and hanging out. There are 3 main pools at the hotel, all varying in depth and shape. Soph and Coop would travel from one to the next having fun all day.
Sophie was dying to have a blue smoothie so for lunch that day she got herself a blue raspberry smoothie and loved it!

While Mommy enjoyed an adult mango one herself... ;)

Cooper's favorite area of the pool. On the far right side it was very shallow, then he'd run towards where it turns blue (where he couldn't touch) bob for a bit then swim back to where he could touch and repeat. :) Here's Ben bobbing with him. :)

A view of one of the pools and the restaurant where we ate breakfast everyday.

That night we went out to dinner with John, Robyn and Morgan Cusic. Ben and Ben work with John. They are from Arizona and have been expats and friends here in Shanghai for almost a year. They had arrived in Krabi the night before and we wanted to head out together.

I love this picture for so many reasons. :) It was SO hot in Thailand. It felt around 105-110 with the humidity and it only would cool down to about 90 at night.
We were trying to decide on a place to eat. John wanted American fare, Liz wanted a very traditional Thai place, so we were trying to find a good compromise. Morgan is 18, bless her. :) She was taken on this amazing holiday but then forced to hang out with her parents, their friends and their friend's little kids. And she was hot. Really hot. :) As people were discussing places to eat, I looked over and saw her sitting there, hot, hungry, bored. Bless her. :) I showed her this picture I took and she just laughed and was like, yup, that pretty much sums it up. :)

This is another great one. Same situation, only Robyn is holding Riley, who was hot, hungry and bored. And while Morgan was amazing and nice, Riley was MAD and telling everyone about it. :) It was so cute. :)

Anyway, dinner was great. We found the perfect fusion place and had a great time.

The next day (Wednesday) was our elephant-riding, jungle-adventure day. We were packing it in! And guess what happened? We had confirmed with the tour company that they would be picking us up at 8 am for our day. So we got everyone up really early, ate breakfast, packed up and there we sat, no bus. Hmmm...not again, right? We called the company and they say- Oh no! It's always 9am for this trip! WHAT??? We simply could not believe they had dropped the ball YET AGAIN, especially after confirming it with them on the phone on Monday!! So discouraging!! After about 40 minutes they got someone to come and get us going. We were less than thrilled with 5 bored and hot kids. Grrr... :/
Anyway, it was sosososososoo hot, but off we went to ride on some gigantic mammals that could kill us and our children. :) These are Asian elephants, so smaller than African ones. All females bc they have no tusks. The 2 big ones were both 41 yrs old.
Here's Soph, Coop and Ben trekking up the rickety structure so we could climb on to the animals. :)

Here is our guide and our super-safe seat on top of the multi-ton animal. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be brave in front of little people when you're freaking out inside???

I was on the biggest elephant with Sophia and Mia. Ben, Liz, Riley and Isaac were on the medium female, and Ben and Cooper were on the smallest.
Here's the loading process...

With umbrella in hand, off we went! Eeek!!!

Did I mention poor Ben and Cooper didn't get an umbrella? I cannot imagine how unbearable the heat must have been on top of that elephant, no breeze, 110 degrees, super humid... :(

 

 

Me, Soph (on the left) and Mia (with the pink hat) on top of an elephant. On an elephant. Riding it. Afraid of death and dismemberment but doing it anyway. Can't even tell I'm deathly scared, can you?

Poor hot Ben and Coop. On an elephant. One fling and my child is plummeting to the ground to be trampled by this gentle, but gigantic, creature. Breathing, breathing...

Liz, however, was loving this WAY too much! Not a worry from that woman. Like, ever. Impressive!

Climbing up a hill. Almost thrown off the lovely creature, but, everyone made it. :)

Our powerful 41-yr-old lady decided to stop and have a snack of palm trees. Yup, you go right ahead and have a snack. As much as you want. For however long you need. I support you. Please don't trample me...

Oh, you want to go off road and seriously rip an entire branch off a tree with your trunk with one swoop? Yup, ok, I'll laugh and take a pic of the rest of our gang.... :)

 

Into a pond! Ok! I fell onto the elephant's head trying to hold the girls on the seat. But it's ok. We made it. She decided to take a drink of water with her trunk and spray us. I was wearing a white tank top. My fault. Should've known better. It's ok. We're still alive! :)

Ben's "baby" elephant almost drowned, I swear. A youngin' at only 26 yrs old. But she held her breath and made it out. :)

We made it! Here is my beautiful lady that did not trample me, bless her. :)

Soph and I got to hose her down to help cool her off and give her a clean drink.

See, you point the water into her trunk and then she sprays herself where she's hot. She would spray her underbelly and both sides repeatedly.

After giving her a bath we got to feed her some bananas. She LOVED bananas! You would hold out your hand with 2 or 3 of them and she'd scoop them up with her trunk and plop all of it in her mouth.

Soph was not sure about this at all!

While Ben and Coop cooled off in the air-conditioned van, we got to play a bit more with the big girl.

The Lawlers got to have with their elephant, too.

Isaac, however, wanted nothing at all to do with the elephant washing and feeding. Wouldn't even get close for the picture. Adorable little man. :)

After elephants we headed to some natural hot springs. Remember from the Guilin post how I was saying that we've been trying to have Coop walk more? Yeah, that wasn't working out so well when he was hot...

So, these natural hot springs. So weird! It was a river and waterfall of water that was a proper 104 degrees F. It felt like a hot tub! The place was packed full of visitors that were as enamored by our kids as they were by the springs. :)

Can you tell Coop loved it? ;)

 

I can't remember why Coop was so upset. Oh, I think he was too hot. So we took a quick pic and then headed down the waterfall part to the river to cool off.

We scaled down this waterfall and got into the nice cool river below. It was so weird to have hot water running down your back while having cool water on your legs!

 



SO much work having fun! We left the hot springs and headed to this natural emerald pool. But first, some lunch! Well, maybe a nap first....

Yup, nap first. Bless him. :)

We found a great local place and enjoyed some fried rice and pad thai.

On the walk towards the emerald pool there were many booths selling all sorts of snacks and drinks.
Anyone want a coconut for $1.50?

Various meats on a stick...

Daddy likes coconut water/milk. Coop did not.

Signs at the entrance to the pool.

It was quite a walk to the pools. We walked about 25 minutes until we got there.

Still walking. Soph and Mia. :)

A traditional Isaac pose, crack and all. ;)

Finally, we made it there! Random elephant sculptures just outside the pool area.

Walkway to the pool through the forest

Area just outside the pool. Kinda weird. It was a forested area then suddenly this green pool.

Weird, right? A natural, sand bottom pool in the middle of this forest. Clean, clear warm water.

Again, very busy with tourists but still fun to swim in for a while!

The Lawlers

The locals lovin' on Riley :)

Me, Soph, Coop and Riley

Just behind the tree was a waterfall that we would slide down and into the water. What amazing natural fun!

We followed the waterfall area up and found this natural carved-out stream in the water. The kids all thought they'd take it for a slide. :)

The next day (Thursday) was another pool day at the hotel. Very relaxing and fun. As it was John, Robyn and Morgan's last night in Thailand, Morgan was incredibly kind and offered to babysit ALL 5 KIDS (all age 5 and under) so us adults could go out for an evening. Who rocks? Morgan rocks!


So here us 6 adults pack into one of the van jeep thingys and head out! Freedom!!!

A better view of our ride while John paid the guy.

We started out by shopping at this touristy place. We got some bags and shirts, trinkets for people at home, dresses for us girls and more. However, as we were heading out of the store, we got a call from Morgan that Riley had been screaming bloody murder since we'd left. :( He had been pretty unsettled most of the trip- wanting only to be held by Liz. Even daddy wouldn't do! So we had a feeling this might happen. And, sure enough, when we walked through the door to get him, he stopped immediately upon seeing her and we never heard another peep from him the whole night. Little stinker. ;)

We ended up at this restaurant that was right on the beach and got to watch yet another beautiful sunset.

Our crew (minus Ben bc he was taking the picture :). John, Robyn, Ben L, me and Liz with Riley.

A fun night and we were still home by 930 bc John and them had to take off for the airport still that evening! Nice to be able to go out and still get to bed on time. :)

Friday was our last full day. We were using the tour company again but were very very anxious about doing so. However, this time they actually were on time and the co-owner came to be our guide. Making up for past mistakes, I suppose...
For this last day we did another island-hopping boat tour. It was still really hot out but cloudy today- a nice break from the intense sun we'd been having. Unfortunately, bc it was somewhat stormy, Ben and Liz were getting seasick. :( I was oddly ok, though, which is weird bc I usually get car sick, air sick and sea sick like it's my job....

After over an hour we finally spotted land. Here's Sophie, honest to goodness, yelling out "Land ahoy!!" It was awesome. :)

A view of the inside of this boat. We liked it better bc it was more open and there was a door that could keep out the super loud engine noise.

Sophie and I taking in the amazing rock formations

This was a weird cave that the Chinese were breeding some rare bird in that they believe gives them super strength. Seriously.

Ooo! Here comes some more amazing snorkeling, I can tell!!

Ok, so this place wasn't amazing for snorkeling but it was really cool anyway. It was like an open-air cave, big enough for many many boats. I think Ben counted something like 34 in there at once. We all took turns jumping in- even Soph!

Liz and I finding our inner child...

Some of the big-boy boats that tagged along. They were mostly full of vacationing Chinese and they found us as interesting as the scenery. :)

Where was this one? Oh yeah- The Beach! This is Liz and I on the beach where The Beach was filmed. Our guide was telling us that the film makers had palm trees flown in and planted to make it look more tropical. :)

Gorgeous, right? Another popular destination with vacationers, however.

We were walking back to our boat when we noticed our guide hanging out with Riley. :) He had been sleeping but tended to wake up as soon as Liz was off the boat!

A view of the beach from the water as we left. Pretty pretty pretty...

One last stop at another beach to play, snorkel and relax.

Soph opted to snooze on the bow. :) My sleeping beauty...

Coop and I layed in the sand and relaxed. Such a nice view!

The next morning, the Lawlers had left early in the morning and we had an awful red-eye flight that night so we hung out at the pool for the day.

 

We flew out of Krabi at 7pm and then had to wait in Bangkok until after midnight for our 4 hr flight home. Sophie did sleep most of it but Coop was only able to sleep for about an hour in the airport and didn't sleep at all on the flight. It would have helped if they had turned the lights out and not fed us 2 separate meals! He was amazingly calm for most of it, however, thank God!