Back to Krabi for Some Water Adventures
By Lauren Gerzina & Justin Hayes
Gorgeous Sunrise, Big Buddha, and A Delicious Salad
We awoke to a gorgeous sunrise over the lake for our final morning in Khao Sok National Park. We decided to skip the 6:30am boat ride and sleep in a bit since neither of us had slept very well on the hard beds.
We went to the dining area for one last buffet breakfast. Then we headed back to our room to pack up to get ready to head back to shore.
Our longtail boat left Panvaree at 9:30am, and we arrived at the dock around 10:15am or so. We had scheduled a taxi to pick us up to take us back to Krabi at 11am, so we grabbed some drinks and sat around while we waited for our driver. Someone at the dock helped us locate the driver by calling the cab company to see where he was.
We finally found our driver and hopped into his large passenger van. We were expecting a car like our trip to Khao Sok, but we guess this was all they had available in the area. It was nice though having so much space; we each sat in our own rows and spread out a bit for the ride home.
The ride back took about two and a half hours with some stops. The driver asked if we wanted to stop at a large Buddha temple on the way. Justin said, “that’s okay” as in “we can keep going” but our driver interpreted it as “stopping here is okay.” Whoops.
It was a quick stop at a huge temple with a large buddha statue to take some pictures. It was extremely hot and you had to pay an entrance fee to go in, so we just took a few pictures outside and then headed back to the van.
We got back to Krabi closer to 1pm, and we were both starving. We checked (back) into our hotel, grabbed the luggage we left behind, and headed up to our room to drop everything off. We checked out our personal pool on our balcony that we paid for before we left, and then we called a Grab to take us to a restaurant with GF/vegan options called Buzz Organic Food & Drink.
The food at Buzz was really good. Justin got a falafel sandwich on gluten-free bread and Lauren got a fruit salad with smoked salmon. She was obsessed. We also got some kombuchas and a GF/vegan brownie for dessert that was incredible.
After lunch, we wanted to go to a dive shop to figure out if there was any good diving/snorkeling trips we could do while we were there. So we called a Grab to Kon-Tiki Dive Shop, but Grab didn’t quite know where they were located. They ended up taking us in the opposite direction back to the main strip in Ao Nang. Apparently Kon-Tiki used to have a shop right on the main strip, but it became too expensive so they moved further out a bit.
So after struggling to get a driver on the main strip (apparently there is a feud going on with taxi/tuk-tuk drivers and Grab), we finally routed to a store that was near Kon-Tiki’s actual location. We were greeted by a Swedish man named Svenze who took us to his office. We eventually settled on doing a trip to the Phi Phis on Saturday since he said the diving and visibility were much better there. Justin has been having some sinus issues so decided not to risk going too deep, so we scheduled one diver and one snorkeler.
We paid, got fitted for our gear, and then called a Grab back to the hotel to grab our laundry and take it to a self-service spot called Otteri (we went to one in Pai) nearby. The laundry took about an hour, and we were able to go to 7/11 and work on the blog/postcards.
Finally, the errands and chores were done. It was time to relax a bit in our personal pool. We enjoyed cooling off from the hot weather, and decided to order some Indian food on Grab from a place nearby. After eat
