Perspective

I'm sitting in front of my MacBook on a Saturday afternoon, burnt to a toast, wanting to be lazy but telling myself that if I don't do this now - or soon - I'll never get down to it. Of course, 'this' would refer to my post on the just-concluded 3 day, 3 night getaway to Krabi. Any written account is certain to fall short of the actual experience, but perhaps words and pictures - which will be up soon, I tried uploading them a moment ago but for some reason that was unsuccessful - may present a more comprehensive outlook and preserve the experience, or at least the more memorable and enjoyable aspects of it.

Having arrived in Krabi airport in the evening, there was not much to do except stroll down Ao Nang, a stretch of tourist kitsch not dissimilar to Phuket's Patong, consisting of a road set back from the unremarkable beach and lined with restaurants and convenience stores (including the 7-11 where we procured cheap alcohol) on one side and tall, swaying palm trees demarcating the boundary with the beach on the other. Dinner was at a nondescript Thai restaurant serving relatively overpriced and mostly unremarkable cuisine, bar what I'd like to call the eviscerated catfish dish and the MSG-laden vegetable concoction.

Day 2 and we headed on a speedboat to Phi Phi Island and surrounds, taking in Bamboo Island, Phi Phi Leh (where The Beach was shot at Maya Bay, which we visited), and stopping at numerous sites for snorkeling. The water was so clear it hurt, especially at Maya Bay where it was mesmerizing turquoise. We stopped at Phi Phi Don for lunch and saw two HOT HOT HOT Asians, who must have been models, one of whom had a ridiculously sculpted body, I couldn't resist a triple take. When you're in a sea of Caucasians, some cute, some old and flabby, a hunky Asian man is the proverbial needle in the haystack. After lunch we stopped for more snorkeling, and I relished swimming in the heart of a school of fishes, especially when they congregated to wherever bread was thrown, although Jerrine seemed to be a prime target for this. It wasn't exactly a life-changing experience, but will certainly be one of the distinct memories emblazoned in my mind.

The other would have to be the monkeys on Monkey Island! Yes, there I go with my monkey fetish again. While I suspect that they are selfish, greedy, and in fact, evil, I couldn't help but feel delighted when I got close to them, and when one turned to look at me, then looked at another monkey as if to say something to it, and have both proceed to charge at me. I should have brought bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

We were pretty beat by the time we got back and dinner was at an Italian restaurant where we had mediocre pizza and the most delicious coconuts I have ever encountered in my 21 years.

Another defining moment was the white-water rafting expedition we took on our third day. After what seemed like an eternity (and after witnessing some sort of cultural parade), we arrived at the starting point. Meng and I seemed to be the only boys in swimming trunks and the girls say - and I do remember hearing this - that someone exclaimed when he saw me. I don't know if this was in admiration or in disgust, but you can't say that we didn't make some sort of an impression. The actual rafting was immensely enjoyable, although it really didn't require much effort and certainly wasn't a courageous, atypical feat when you consider that there were professionals at the front and the back who did most of the work - steering. We just paddled on cue, and at times didn't paddle at all. Nevertheless, it was certainly worth the price and the long journey, and we amused ourselves (and must have annoyed the driver and guide somewhat) with incessant singing on the return journey.

After a short rest, we headed out to Ao Nang beach for conventional R&R. Lying on beach towels under the sun, coconut in hand, watching the waves lap in...it was basically the beach holiday stripped down to its essence, although Ao Nang beach itself was really run-of-the-mill.

The girls were approached by this massage lady desperate to have us patronise her establishment, to the point where she was handing out free pineapples and insisted on herding us from where we were down the stretch of Ao Nang, refusing to let us leave the beach in order to dispose of the coconut husks. Rachel was worried that they would harvest our organs, which I found to be a strangely amusing thought.

The Thai massage was alright. Unremarkable, and I was worried that he would crack my fingers. But we left with organs intact.

We ditched the plan to go to Krabi town and settled on a nearby restaurant, Tanta's, where Rachel and Jerrine swear they had the best prawns ever. We wanted to find a place for drinks and walked to the other end of Ao Nang, but were driven back to the main strip after we chanced upon a seedy side-road with menacing-looking transvestites. Had ice-cream with apple tart at Dolce Vita which was DIVINE. So divine that just before we left the next day, I had to drop by for a second go.

Speaking of food, we had plenty of the traditional Krabi pancakes, of the sort Lena had been raving about before we left. We patronised the two stalls so many times the vendors would smile every time we walked past.

So it was the last night and it was decided that we would buy cheap alcohol from 7-11 and go back to the hotel room (you can get a Barcadi breezer for 55 baht, which works out to under $3). We had done so the previous night and the girls decided to have 2 bottles instead of 1. I - perhaps wisely - opted to have only one bottle of some white wine-sparkling mineral water concoction. Having returned from our room with my phone - which I felt had a wider variety of party music than Meng's, although it wasn't long before we were repeating songs - I was shocked to find Victoria Beckham at the door, decked out in sunglasses, a scarf, and carrying a small purse. This repertoire of accessories later expanded to include, in no particular order, a sun hat, a black handbag, and a pair of red sandals. What started out as a night of laughter and benign debauchery ended up resembling a club by the middle of the night, when girls who had too much to drink started to pass out/vomit.

Which is why I was glad to be absolutely sober, and have Jerrine to be relatively sober as she had to take care of the other two. Victoria seemed to be in a world of her own. I do hope to see her again in the near future.

And that was it, our last night in Krabi, but the holiday wasn't quite over yet. It ain't over, as Christine says, till the plane lands in Singapore and you have to walk through what resembles the cinema exit of a heartland mall - complete with lack of air-conditioning - to immigration and baggage claim.

Ao Nang failed to satisfy our appetite for a gorgeous beach and so we headed on a long-tail boat to Ao Phra Nang, which is set between towering cliffs and has a karst formation sitting a distance from the coastline for good measure. It was like being in a postcard! The water was pristine, you could see the sand patterns on the seabed, the sand was soft and powdery. After a day under the sun, we were roasted to crispy perfection, although I suspect I shall be paying the price for being lazy and not applying sunblock. We lay around in the sand/water for most of the day, and the girls gave Meng big boobs that apparently were attracting stares from everyone else on the beach. Check out facebook for the pictures.

And that's about it really. We were talking almost non-stop on the short ride home and I am glad to have had this opportunity to get to know everyone better. We may never ever travel in this exact combination again (although I think it was a great group, but with everyone headed to different places and different paths in life, who knows?), but we shared a moment - however fleeting - together that we can all collectively look back on for the rest of our lives, perhaps worth a mention in any future biographies.

I've traveled with friends to KL, Hong Kong, and on a cruise before, and I can safely say this experience has been well worth the money and time, although part of me wishes the circumstances were different.