Cruise to Thailand – Day 3 – Island Hopping in Krabi

On our 3rd day of the cruise, we woke up very early as we were scheduled to arrive in Krabi at about 9.30am. After breakfast, we explored the ship further as we waited for the ship to reach the port in Krabi.

After going around the ship for a while, we realised that the ship had stopped sailing but we were still in the middle of nowhere, well, sort of. *grin*

We saw many small boats coming in and out of the ship, and it was that time that my hubby realised that in order to get to Krabi, we would have to take one of these small boats that would take us to Krabi. Duh!

So, we made our way to the Star Dust Lounge where we took our queue number and waited for our turn to get on the boat. Things were very systematic and before long, we were on our way to Krabi.

When we got to Krabi, our first intention was to go to town to see the town and to get some souvenirs. I also wanted to get a local sim card for my Tab so that I may be able to go online while on the ship.

It never crossed our mind to go island hopping because the day before, in Phuket, Charlie, our taxi driver, had said that we would not have the time to go island hopping as time would be too short. We arrived in Krabi at almost 12.00 noon and we had to get back to the jetty by 5.30pm when the last boat that will take us back to the ship leaves.

We were never prepared to go island hopping. I wasn’t dressed to go island hopping (I even brought along a leather handbag which definitely wasn’t suitable for island hopping! LOL!), and we did not bring any change of clothes like shorts and towels, what more sun tan lotion.

However, as we were contemplating to go to town or not, one of the boatman, Ibrahim, introduced us to a Malaysian couple who was looking for someone to share a boat with them to go island hopping. They too were not exactly prepared to go island hopping but thought that island hopping would be a better option than going to town, since we had already visited the town of Phuket the day before. It seems that the 2 towns aren’t that much different.

But, how do you go island hopping when you come unprepared? Well, no problem. The jetty had everything provided for those who came unprepared like us! LOL!

We bought 2 pair of shorts for my hubby and son and a big straw hat for me. The boatman helped us to get the snorkelling gear, and we were all set and ready to go.

See the leather bag I brought? Definitely we were not prepared to go island hopping! LOL!

We took the package to go to 4 islands, and as we headed on to our first island, we were greeted with many scenes of beautiful small islands, and the sea was so clear, clean and blue.

I just love the shape of this island.

Initially, when we wanted to buy the shorts, Aiman was adamant that he did not want to go island hopping and that he isn’t going to do any swimming. He was in one of those sulking mood again. He sulks every time things don’t go his way, as he wanted to go to town again so that he can go to the Go-Kart and the shooting range again, just like what we did in Phuket. But, we reasoned with him that we should do something different today. But, he was adamant at being stubborn and pulled a long face. So, when my hubby asked him if he should buy the shorts for him, he kept insisting that he wasn’t going to go swimming.

My hubby bought the shorts anyways and told the boatman to get us two snorkelling gears.

I am glad that we did not listen to him and went ahead to buy the shorts and the snorkelling gear, because, as soon as we arrived at the first island, Aiman was already very eager to go swimming. Gone was the sulking mood he was in earlier. LOL!

We spent 40 minutes at the first island.

As hubby and Aiman went swimming, I managed to go online on my HTC phone using the DiGi automatic international roaming service just to check my Facebook and get connected with my crafting friends at NNC.

As I waited for them to come back from swimming, I got hungry. Luckily I grabbed this pre-packed breakfast of glutinous rice and honey chicken at the stall where we took the boat to go island hopping.

It looked simple, but it was really yummy! Wish I had bought more!

At the next island, the main activity was snorkelling. Aiman had never snorkelled before and was initially quite apprehensive.

But, after a while, he got excited to the extent that it was hard trying to get him to come back to the boat! LOL!


Seen here is hubby giving him instructions on how to breathe under water.

When he first got into the water, he held on tight to the ladder....

After a while, when he was more confident, he slowly ventured further and further from the boat.

There goes father and son.....

Sights on our way to the 3rd island...

  

At the next island, Tup Island, it was another round of snorkelling.

By now, Aiman was more confident of going snorkelling without much assistance from hubby.

More scenes on our way to the 4th island....

By the time we left the 3rd island, everyone was already hungry. Fortunately, our 4th and last island had something unique to offer in terms of lunch, and a late lunch at that, since it was already close to 3.00pm by then.

At this island, we were greeted by this unique boat selling food,

.....and not just a simple food that is pre-packed. Rather, it was like a real kitchen equipped with stoves, blenders etc.

We were able to order burgers, friend chicken and Pad Thai.

They even had ice bended drinks!

We made our orders....

......and headed on to the boat to have our lunch.

After lunch, everyone was tired and all we wanted to do was head on back to the jetty to catch a boat back to our ship.

Seen here is me with Mrs Looi, the couple who shared the boat with us.

Waiting for our  turn to board the ship....

After a good shower and a good rest, we headed on to Mariner’s Buffet for our last dinner on the ship.

To me, it was the best dinner since we started on the cruise when there were lots of seafood offered and plenty of vegetable dishes that did not include meat inside the dish. Even the pizza was vegetarian.

I ate to my heart’s content.

After dinner, we proceeded to the Star Dust Lounge to catch the last performance for the night, a magic show by Charles Bach.

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed during the show. It was a great show, none the less.

After the show, hubby wanted to go to the gym. So, I decided to take Aiman with me for a wash and haircut at the beauty salon at Deck 4. After all the island hopping, I think our hair really needed shampooing. LOL! *grin*

Yeah! I know, I am just making excuses to go to the beauty salon. *grin*

Oh, did I tell you that I also went for a manicure and pedicure at the beauty salon the first day we were on the cruise? *grin*

After the trip to the beauty salon, we went back to the cabin for a short nap as hubby and Aiman wanted to catch a midnight movie, “Battleship”.

We got up at about 11.30pm and tried to wake Aiman up but he was simple too tired and sleepy, so we let him sleep while we went for supper.

Just by luck, the crew was having a performance and they were dancing to Gangnam Style!

I am definitely not a fan of the Gangnam Style song, but I took a video of the show for Aiman as he kept humming this song all day that day.

I wanted to upload the video here, but it was taking ages to upload. :(

After a quick supper, we went back to the cabin to wake up Aiman for the movie.

While hubby and Aiman went for the movie, I spent the last night on the ship packing up our things as we needed to have our luggage out by 9.30am the next day to be picked up by the crew as our luggage was considered oversized.

I slept at 2.00am that night but woke up as hubby and Aiman came back from the movie at 2.45pm.

End of Day 3