Krabi

Just came back from a 4 days 3 nights trip to Krabi. I think we spent just the right amount of time there. Weather was not fantastic though :

1st day: rained from the time we touched down till late night

2nd day: rained the whole morning

3rd day: amazing weather the whole day! :)

4th day: flew off in the morning

Well, one thing good with going to Krabi during the low season is that everything is cheaper! We stayed in a 5-star resort and it costs us only S$40 per night for a double room! We also booked ourselves on 2 day-trips and it was about 25% cheaper than high season! One pity is that we are unable to do fishing or trips to the different islands because of the monsoon.

Our lovely room

1st day:

Arrived at about noon. Paid 150 baht each (approximately S$6) to get a shuttle bus from Krabi Airport to our resort in Ao Nang. Takes about 45 minutes. The bus sends us straight to the resort so it was really convenient. After we checked into our room, we spent some time looking through the maps and pamphlets, trying to plan the rest of our trip. Lunch was 2 curries, 1 keema naan, pineapple rice, and 2 beers. It was about 900 baht (approximately S$35) which I thought was really expensive for Thailand. But well, we were not really on budget this trip. You can get a plate of fried rice or noodles for about 80-90 baht (S$3-S$4) if you are on budget! Beer is cheap at about 80-90 baht as well! Which is what matters most to us!

After lunch, we were walking around booking tours and looking for tailors (iain wanted to tailor 2 work shirts). We settled for 2 shirts and 1 trousers for 2500 baht (approximately S$100) which is still cheap considering that he pays about S$80 per shirt to buy off the rack in Singapore! We also picked 2 trips that we are interested in:
 

1. 45 minutes ATV, 15 minutes go-karting and 20 minutes shooting (1600baht or S$64 per person)
2. hot spring and 1 hour elephant ride (700 baht or S$28 per person)

Found an Irish bar to watch Formula One! Vettel won! :) Hamilton was out of the race! Well, Iain was pretty upset because he supports Hamilton and Button, but I do not really like Hamilton that much. I thought that he was a bit arrogant. 6 pints of beer, fried rice and fried chicken with garlic and pepper costs us about 900 baht (S$35) which I thought was really cheap considering how much beer we had.

We decide to leave the bar to have an early night, barely 20m away from the Irish Bar, we chanced upon this small stall by the road side selling beer. Well, unable to resist the temptation of cheap beer (only 50 baht per bottle at this small stall), we sat down for a couple of beers. We met an Australian guy, a French lady and a Finnish guy at the stall. Apparently, this is their regular hangout! It is a very friendly atmosphere whereby people are just sitting on stools on the pavement and drinking and chatting with each other. Reminds me of the hostel when we were doing that! :) Finally, went home at about midnight. (By the way, the small stall was called "Mr Cocks Bar")

2nd day:
Arranged for the pick up to be at 2:30pm from our hotel. Thus, we went out for lunch, went for the 1st fitting at the tailor then went back to the room to laze around. Today is the day of the ATV, go-kart and shooting trip! First time I tried ATV. It was quite fun, but a pity that we were going quite slowly because the path was very narrow and you had to navigate carefully. We went for a short practice round, and then a short trip into the jungle. I was murdered by mosquitoes! To those who know me well, I seem to attract tonnes of mosquitoes and they usually give me some form of allergic reaction. Horrible! Due to the rain in the morning, the ground was very muddy and I ruined my top! :(

me trying my best

iain navigating through a mini jungle

Go- karting was disappointing to me though. It was not a proper track whereby you can race on the track. Basically, it is riding on a go-kart to visit some rubber plantation. It was disappointing because I imagined a proper track where Iain and I could race!

we stopped at some swamp area for a break before turning back

Shooting was quite shabby too! Each of us had an air gun and there were many bottle hung up about 5-10 metres away from us. We were just shooting at the bottles from behind the table.

It is actually quite fun

Dinner was the best part of the day! We went to a seafood restaurant by the seafront. Ordered mussels, prawns, seafood fried rice and chicken fried in chilli and sweet basil. Iain had 2 Jack Daniels that night and I had 2 bottles of beer. Considering that it was a nice setup and really good food, we thought that the 1200 (S$48) that we paid was a bargain!

Had an early night because we were really lethargic from our activities that day.

3rd day:

Planned a half day trip to the hot spring and elephant ride. Unfortunately, it was Ramadan and many of the elephant handlers got to go to the mosque in the morning. In addition, our guide was a bit confused, so we had to follow the rest of the group on their full day trip.

First, we went to Tiger Cave Temple. It was horrible! Well, there was nothing much to do or see, and we spent 2 hours there. The 2 hours was probably for those who decided to climb about 1300 steps up the the top of a cliff to visit the temple there, but we were too lazy and thus we just had icecream, walked around and played 'angry birds' in the 2 hours.

small statues under a tree

Next, we went to the Hot Spring. The ride there was about an hour from the Cave. The water were just lukewarm, but nevertheless, it was quite interesting and comfortable to just sit in the hot spring to relax and chill out. We had about an hour there, including a 200m walk into the jungle. 

The next attraction was horrible! It was called 'Emerald Pool'. Basically, we were dropped off by the dirt road, and we had to walk 800m into the jungle to this natural swimming pool. Wasnt huge, tonnes of people, and wasnt very clean either. Iain and I just sat by the pool and soak our feet in the water. The guide decides to give us 2 hours for that pool as well! Our tour consist of 8 people, and only 1 guy went into the pool. I am sure the rest of the people are bored as hell as well! Lunch was provided but it was only 3 small dishes for 4 people. We could not even order additional food because the kitchen ran out of food! Not satisfying. 

Finally, we went to the elephant ride. This is the coolest part of the day! It was not a smooth ride though. At one point, our handler got off the elephant to take pictures for us. He just need to make certain noise and the elephant will go on auto-pilot. Pretty cool! After the ride, we bought bananas for 50 baht (S$2) to feed the elephant. 

We got back to the resort at about 7:30pm. Wanted to have an early day so we can walk around the shops, but unfortunately not everything worked out as planned. Still a good day though. Went to another seafood restaurant to have dinner at approximately the same price and went for a few drinks at a random pub.

4th day:

Left early in the morning.

Well, we spent about S$1250 in total including air tickets, hotels, tailor, which I think is reasonable considering that we were not very budget conscious when we were on holiday. Overall, I think it is a good trip, a better weather will make the trip more enjoyable though! :)

Clarification

Dear all,

I realised that there are a few misconceptions for many guests who decide to stay in a hostel. Guests will stay in a backpacker hostel for many reasons:

1. Hotels in Singapore is too expensive (Singapore is the 10th most expensive city in the world)
2. They are lonely and just want to stay in a place where they will not be alone (a dormitory is a good idea in this case)
3. They will like to make like-minded people who share the same idea, or 'frequency' as we say in Singapore

Well, either options are fine, as long as you stay in my hostel. However, especially for people who stay in hostels because of option 1, I will need to clarify certain things, mostly revolving around how our hostel is a HOSTEL and not a hotel:

1. We do not have ensuite bathroom
There are so many people who come to the hostel and after that complained about how we do not have ensuite bathroom in the room. Well, for a start, when the guests booked it from the different platforms that we are on, it is clearly stated 'shared bathroom'. So, please do not write a review and complain about it when it is your own mistake that you did not look at the description properly when you book!

2. We do not have Television in the room
Some people think that there will be television in the room. Thus, I think there is a need to clarify once again that we are a hostel and we do not have television in the room. We do not even have a television in the hostel with local channels. We do have 1 that you can connect to the computer or DVD player. This is because I have called the different operators in Singapore and apparently the cable line does not run to my hostel's location.

3. You will have to make your own breakfast
Well, some people think that like a hotel, one of us will stand behind the counter to serve the guests whatever they want to order. Well, there is kind of a reason why the prices are so cheap. Because, we are a basic accommodation. You make your own breakfast of toasts, coffee and tea. One of the guests I checked in was quite funny. Maybe he is a bit ignorant, I brought him to the dormitory and he actually asked me what if he wants water? Does he ask me and I serve it to him? Sigh...hearing this kind of questions makes me think that certain people are just a little ignorant.

4. Some of our toilets and showers are combined
I know in most Western culture, toilets and showers are always separate. Thus, the floor in the toilet is always dry. However, in many Asian countries, it is common to have combined toilet and shower. Even a squatting toilet! Thus, do not be amazed to see that in the hostel! We are going to change our squatting toilet to a sitting one, but we are still having a few combined cubicles. A guest actually wrote in a review that 'The shower was most interesting. Actually there were two toilets, with a shower in it". I think that by saying that only makes the guest sounds ignorant in public.

5. You need to turn on the heater for the shower
I understand that everyone has a different common sense. Maybe guests come from different culture, and thus certain way of life is different. Just imagine, if you go for shower and there is not hot water, what will you do? You see a heater box in the shower. For most people (I hope), will check that the heater in the shower is not turned off, and there is a red light. If there is no red light, usually people will check that there is a red button outside the shower for the main switch of the heater. After running the hostel for almost 2 years, I realised that this is something that requires a step-by-step instruction. I have received quite a few reviews that says that we should write instructions on how to turn on the heater. It makes me wonder, where should the line stop? What do I need to write an instructions and what do I not need to? If I have too many instructions for the guests, will they feel that the hostel requires them to read too many things? Sigh..dilemma! :(

These are currently the top 5 clarifications that I think I should let any potential guests know about. Because I believe that both parties should be happy staying in the hostel: the guests and us. We will want you to have an amazing stay in Singapore as well, and accommodation plays a big part. Thus, take a few minutes to look through and if certain things are what you cannot accept (eg. you definitely need someone to serve you breakfast and water) then maybe this is not the place for you.

Thanks for reading!

New Blog

Dear all!

I have decided to change the blog of Drop Inn. It is definitely 'NOT' because I have lost the ID of the previous blog and thus am unable to post/edit anything.

For those who have not been to the previous blog or been to Drop Inn before, I shall give a brief introduction.

This hostel was set up in November 2009 by an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore. She did not really enjoy working as an auditor and decided that life is too short to work for something that she is not interested in. Initially, the idea was to open a cafe, but the cafe industry in Singapore is too competitive. Thus, opening a hostel, since she love traveling so much, seems like the perfect idea.

Firstly, let me introduce the founder:

Basically, this is me. Another reason why I started a hostel is because, I absolutely love drinking! And, the best part about starting the hostel is that my job involve drinking (which is also my hobby). Thus, perfect again.

Well, too many things have happened since November 2009, and thus I will not be able to mention everyone. I will just have a short caption with each of the picture that I will be putting up.

How Drop Inn looks like from outside

Communal Area

Well, I feel I had to put up these 2 publicity pictures before I post pictures of my interesting/weird guests!

2 british guests who seems very interested in my IKEA toy snake which is now missing. Came in Jan 2010.

My second month anniversary! Not sure what happened to the first! :)

'Lou Hei' during Chinese New Year in Feb 2010. Apparently, it is supposed to be for good luck in the coming year! 

An amazing group of friends whereby we do so many things together! drinks after work (although I have already been drinking during work), pool, Orchard Towers aka Four Floors of Whores, and Sentosa. Amazing!! :)

I love you guys! Thanks for making St Patrick's Day 2010 so memorable!

This period is around May 2010. Amazing times with everyone! This is the clubbing and drinking phase! So many good times! We are partying almost every weekend!

Another great group! This time, we did not club that much, but we go to Sentosa pretty often! Wavehouse remember? With our buy 1 get 1 free deal for anything with vodka. Halloween 2010!

First year anniversary in Nov 2010. Hostel then Sentosa Wavehouse! Such a great night!

Dave, we all miss you!!! Apr 2011. Things are not the same after you left! :(

I think the hostel has given me many good memories. :)