Bruce and Laurel arrive! (Papa and Lolo)

The next day, I took a taxi to the Krabi International Airport to greet Papa and Lolo as they arrived. It has only been a few short months since our adventure began but we were all so excited to have company! We spent the first day after they arrived just hanging out in Krabi town, having a swim, showing them our favourite restaurants, and visiting the night market.

Another family arrived at the DHR (Diamond Home Resort), Neils and Ellen with their 2 daughters (Emme and Renee) the same age as ours. We decided that because there were now 10 of us, it would make sense to adventure together. This way we could split private tours instead of joining the masses. We hired a driver for the day who took us to the west coast near the Hong Islands, then rented a private boat to explore. So much better than the tours where you buy single tickets, then are herded around from place to place. This way if we wanted to stay a while at a spot we could, or if we wanted to simply point to an island off in the distance, we could go!

The Hong islands were magical, we snorkelled, visited beaches, and found one island with an opening in the Karst exterior which we navigated into to find a lagoon in the middle of the island. The four girls did not speak the same language, but that did not seam to bother them, they had a great time swimming, building sand castles and laughing all day long!

When we arrived back to the pier we were greeted by a huge family of monkeys! There must have been 20-30 monkeys big and small all hiding out in the trees. A few of the monkeys decided to venture towards us (probably looking for food). Based on our experience with monkeys, we quickly move indoors! One monkey came right up to the window and seemed to just wait for us there. This was our first time we have seen monkeys since the incident in Cambodia. The girls loved looking through the window making faces at the monkey. We snuck out the back door and headed to our van when it arrived!

Our our way back to the Diamond Home Resort we discovered our driver was headed to Koh Lanta for a pick up in the morning and said he would give us a deal if we wanted to go that way as well. Our new friends from Belgium were already planning to go to Koh Lanta (island) so we all decided to share the private van. Off we went the next morning, where we would stay a few days…

It was a 2-3 hour drive to Koh Lanta, which included a ferry ride to the island. We drove onto the ferry and were able to relax a little bit and enjoy the beautiful views! We found the Nakara Resort, a beautiful beachfront resort on Long Beach with a large pool, and a children’s pool (pool #’s 12 and 13 on the trip). We spent a few days here enjoying “resort life”…Sitting by the pool, building sand castles, and eating local cuisine…Someone has to do it 🙂

Songkran, the Thai New Year, was fast approaching and our 30 day Visa’s were running low, so we planned to be back in Bangkok for the 12th of April, the day before the celebrations started. It was time for us to start making our way from Koh Lanta.

We called our same driver (this time without our new friends from Belgium), and started the day going from Koh Lanta back to Krabi. We discovered our driver did not have any other plans that day, so we asked him to make a little detour to “The Emerald Pool”. The emerald pool was awesome…at least it would be without all the tourists. We walked through a forest about 1KM with meandering streams all around. The water in the streams were so clear that you could see every pebble underneath. The pool itself was, well, as you might have guessed, emerald green. Soo many tourists though! I can only imagine what it would have been like before it was “discovered”, amazing. We went for a dip, then headed another KM into the forrest to see the “Crystal Pool”. It was spectacular to look at, but no swimming allowed. Apparently the bottom, which looked like silky mud, was actually quick sand.

After the pools, we convinced our driver to take us all the way to Kao Lok, saving us a long bus ride! Here we stumbled across “The Mohintara Resort”, and pool # 14. Kao Lok is a resort town with hotel after hotel lining the beautiful beaches. Our hotel was a little bit off the beach but it was great, plus we had a shuttle to the sister hotel that was directly on the beach. The next morning we headed to the beach, and a nice couple directed us to the best part of the beach about a 10 minute walk away. Here we had a great game of “Tag” in the ocean, then had a wonderful lunch and swam in a nearby resorts pool (#15). We felt a few rain drops, but I guess didn’t move quick enough as we got stuck on our way back to the shuttle bus in the pouring rain! Luckily we were already wet! Once the rain cleared some decent waves started, and we all played in them until it was time to leave, the girls had a blast!

Only a few days left to get to Bangkok before the celebrations begin, so after our second night at Mohintara, we caught a bus all the way back to Chumphon. The bus ride was interesting because it straddled the Myanmar (Burmese) border. The drive was stunning! We even passed by a waterfall that fell right next to the road.

This time in Chumphon, we elected to stay right in town, instead of going back to Thunwalaen Beach which we enjoyed so much only a few short weeks prior. We stayed at the “Retro Box Hotel”, another of these “Pop-Up” hotels with the rooms constructed inside shipping containers. We enjoyed the pool (#16), the wonderful and friendly staff, and the included breakfast. But… the rooms did take a little getting used to. The four of us stayed in a TINY room, probably only about 50 sqft. It had bunk beds on one side, a small fridge, then the bathroom with a large shower on the other side of the room. We put all our backpacks in the shower, lol. Even though our room was small this hotel does actually have some pretty awesome, bigger and even loft style rooms. Some even have fun themes (rock and roll, princess, etc.) and are decorated to match. We spent two nights here and enjoyed swimming, touring the city and eating lots of interesting street food!

On the morning of the 12th, after breakfast at the Retro Box, we caught an “Express Bus” to Bangkok where we had arranged a 2 bedroom airbnb apartment for us to stay while we celebrated the Songkran, the water festival. Lisa and I anticipated a 12 hour day on the bus, even though it said it was a 6 hour express bus, but to our surprise it was actually on time, and when we stopped for lunch we were directed into the VIP room where we enjoyed a buffet lunch all included! This has got to be our best bus experience to date.

We were all pretty excited for Songkran, and had very high expectations. Excitement and expectations aside, we could never have imagined what would happen next…