Ok well I didn't actually spend the whole week in Krabi, but it was Songkran break, aka Thai New Year so I had a whole week off and decided to take the time to explore Krabi and Surat Thani area of Thailand with my friends Abby and Julie! Side note these girls have been such an answer to my prayers, not only are they great friends they are fantastic travel buddies and it made for a very fun week getting to know each other even deeper! I am seriously so blown away at the Lord's goodness and faithfulness this past year and this week was a testament to that!

It was a dream. As you may have recalled I went to Australia last Songkran so i never actually got to experience what it was like here during Songkran until this week and it was hilarious and crazy. 3 days of water fights and bright Hawaiian colored shirts and powder paint! I did not participate or take pictures to keep my camera safe, sorry friends, but you should know the country wide water fight is something to see in your lifetime. Make it happen!

So this is a run down of all the week held. If you are not a detail person and just want to see the pics then skip all the tips but if you want to know how to see Krabi then read on! :)

Day 1: Arrive in Ao Nam Mao

We stayed at a deserted resort in Ao Nam Mao. It was called Diamond Beach Resort, I would not recommend it but the good thing was it had free transportation anywhere we wanted to go except for the evening we did have to pay to go get dinner because the restaurant on their resort was closed. They had a really nice pool and really friendly staff but Im pretty sure we were the only ones who stayed there and possibly the only people ever...it was an eerie place. We definitely saved some major moolah by staying in Ao Nam mao but there is really nothing around.

Day 2: Railey Beach

If you end up in Krabi, you must to take a boat to Railey and once you are there you can see the beauty of why people come to Krabi. We stayed all day and did not drink enough water or put on enough sunscreen, though I literally used my whole bottle in one day...it was not enough. The Thai sun in April is not something you want to mess around with...i will stock up on SPF 10000 for the next time! So we left burnt and dehydrated but Railey is not something you want to miss!

Day 3: Krabi Town & Ao Nang

After too much sun the day before we took it easy this day with coffee, light shopping in the streets of Ao Nang and then ventured out to Krabi Town to see the white temple Wat Kaew. We ended our day with a little photo shoot of my friends Steff and Josh and then ate dinner at The Beach, a must go restaurant for sure!

Yeah this is embarrassing but I fell down a curb and busted up my knee...oh the mems!

Day 4: Road Trip to Khao Sok

This day was probably a crowd favorite. We rented a car the day before and they delivered it to our hotel. I felt like I did on my 16th birthday when my parents gave me a new car. I was excited to drive but so scared i was going to mess it up. Luckily, driving is like riding a bike and if you change the side of the car you are one it really only affects your blinker and windshield wipers! :) haha

Anyway for 1200 baht a day you can rent a car, we probably paid a little more because we booked it so last minute...like day of rental I would probably not recommend. We drove up to Khao Sok through the amazing limestone cliffs and arrived at the Cheiw Lan Lake, Ratchaprapha Dam. Once we got there we totally parked at the wrong place but it turned out to be ok. We walked down the hill to the pier picked a boat tour not really sure which one would be best we settled on the one that said "tour" (2,200 THB for a 3 hour tour) and the national park fee (300 THB per person). We got into a boat with just us and then journeyed into the lake on a signature long-tail boat through a little piece of paradise. It was seriously breath-taking, the huge towering limestone cliffs and the crystal clear water were something out of a painting!

After we explored the Lake we got back into the car and drove to the Khao Sok Boutique camps where we would spend the night "Glamping". Im talking air-con tents, big comfy beds and bamboo showers not to mention a killer view of the forest. We fell asleep to thunderstorms, stayed dry and then woke up to some major fog! It was a dream yall!

Day 5: Khao Sok National Park & Songkran drive back

We woke up in our tents to some amazing fog hovering over the forest and then ate breakfast at the resort and then jumped into the car to explore the national park side of Khao Sok. This day was probably the low of the trip. We did a little research and agreed to take the trail of the Sib Et Chan Waterfall and the lookout because it was a short hike and was one that a blog we found recommended. We started the hike up and spotted our first leech....now if you know anything about me you know hiking and leeches are not things that you would ever put on my vacations but since it seems to be other peoples desires to be outdoorsy, i will sacrifice my comfort for others because I love them not because I want to. Leeches are just a mental game and it is definitely one I lost, I was terrified of the bugs that suck my blood and you cant kill or take off and the amount of stairs on this hike should be noted. It was not an easy hike and im a little ashamed that my friend abby and I quit and let our other friend Julie go on without us, which I would never recommend leaving a friend alone on a trail, but we were done. Crazy thing is Julie never made it to the top either because the trail was closed due to a collapsed bridge...so in the end the whole thing was not worth it. So we jumped in the car and started our drive back to Krabi.

Driving to Krabi on the first day of Songkran was amazing. It was a little bit like a thai version of mario kart. Kids would run out to your car and splash it with water, some kids would throw colored water and others would make you stop in the middle of the street. It was so fun to see the little families doing it all along the way home. Then we reached Krabi and it was CRAZY! So much songkran, so many people, so much water. It was crazy and very stressful to drive through. When we reached our new hotel, The Bluesotel, it was not camping or creepy it was amazing. We chilled at the pool and ordered room service and lived the high life the rest of the day!

Day 6: 7 Island Sunset Tour

We had to be around in the morning to have our rental car picked up so we missed all the morning island tours so we ventured out around lunch to see if we could find an afternoon tour. And we did for a pretty decent price we were able to book a 7 island sunset tour with dinner for (600 THB per person + 400 (national park fee)). We chilled at Starbucks then got subway to go to get on your boat by 1pm. We then ventured to islands like Tub and Poda but I forget the rest of their names. Poda was probably my favorite place and if I am back in Krabi, I would totally spend more time there because the beach is huge, and there is a lot of shade so you don't get fried! We made friends with a thai family who was having a family reunion of sorts and 2 girls from Henry County, GA one teaches here in thailand and the other was visiting her. It was really cool to run into people from home and spend the day with them!

I'm tired just reading this but getting to see more of Thailand with my friends was a treat this week. Now its back to school Tuesday to finish out a great semester, the end is almost near, I can almost taste the sweet tea!