So, after a long wait, I finally got to go on my much-awaited trip, it is better to be more specific just not a trip but our honeymoon, to the beautiful Krabi and Phuket! It was quite a long and detailed trip, and it was one of my favorites to date.

When talking about beautiful beaches in Thailand, everyone seems to just talk about Phuket, the most mesmerizing place with the white sand beach stretching under the shade of coconut trees. However, in recent years Krabi has risen as a new choice. Krabi is as beautiful as Phuket, quieter and perhaps even more charming in its own way.

When you travel to different places, you take beautiful memories from there and add it to your life. I am quite thankful to my husband and the Prabhat Travels for adding a new experience and giving me some new exciting memories into my life.

The region of Krabi offers countless islands. Krabi is the place where everything is so raw and real. It is still not easy for me to get over those alluring white sand beaches and deep blue sea. I loved being there, it felt like I am in my natural habitat. You know, when you visit someplace for the first time you see that with a touristy eye but apparently, I never felt like I’m a tourist there.

Day 1

Our first destination was Krabi, For the first four days, We stayed at the Krabi Resort. Let me tell you how amazing that place was, with the private beach on top of that the superb service and friendly staff made it even better.

We chose to stay in the Krabi Resort because we wanted to relax and chill before we explore the whole of Krabi. We decided to explore our resort at first, we started our day chilling at the private beach with late lunch and later in the evening, we toured the market near our resort.

Day 2

The very next day we visited the hot stream, Tiger cave temple, and Emerald pool. Our first destination for the day was The Krabi Hot Stream.

The Krabi Hot Streams are ‘hot tubs’ crafted into smooth rock channeling water from deep-rooted thermal springs which is soothing and therapeutic. The waters average 35-40 degree Celsius and are brimming with natural mineral salts which are claimed to cure all manner of health complaints. The sensation is extremely relaxing and the environment is certainly unique.

After spending almost an hour at Hot Stream we headed towards our next destination to the Emerald pool. The pool is so called, not surprisingly, because of its color. It really is a quite remarkable sight and does live up to its name. The Emerald Pool is set in lush rainforest jungle with towering trees.

We walked the jungle along very well maintained paths. The richness of the jungle, the million shades of green, the smells of exotic flowers; gave us the most amazing experience as it was our first experience in tropics.

So after taking a plunge into the pool, we changed and went to a nearby restaurant which was included in our package, to fill our bellies. The last destination for the day was the Tiger Cave Temple.

Finally, we reached the Tiger Cave which was truly impressive. The actual Tiger Cave is just one of a complex of natural caves set into the limestone cliff in which the monks live and meditate. There are many stories of how the Tiger Cave got its name but I am not sure about any!

Somehow we managed to climb up the 1237 steps with quite an effort to the temple at the top which gave us one of the most amazing 360-degree views we have ever seen. There is a very large Buddha at the very top, high above the Tiger Cave Temple and it was worth climbing these thousands of steps.

After the most tiring visit to Tiger Cave Temple, we rushed to our resort chilled into the pool then went for the Thai massage. Which was definitely needed after climbing thousands of steps.

Day 3

On the third day, we headed towards Thailand’s island-superstar, Phi Phi island which has been in many movies. Phi Phi island’s beauty is a large chunk of the scenic beauty which no one could get over ever.

The only way to travel Phi Phi island was a speedboat. I went crazy by the absolute beauty all around, the cliffs tower overhead, then give way to beach-fronted jungle. It was a love at first sight for me.

Another reason why we loved this place is its stance: few places on the planet are this laid-back. Of the two islands located near Phuket and Krabi, one is completely free of human inhabitants (Phi Phi Leh), and the other is without roads (Phi Phi Don). There’s no schedule, no hustle-and-bustle, no reason to be in a hurry.

Day 4

The last day of our trip to Krabi we went for a 4 island tour or simply I can say we did island hopping.

We hopped straight onto a long tail boat to our first stop for the day, the Poda Island. Again, it looked pretty nice crystal clear water and wide, white deserted sandy beaches. As I am not much a water baby but I still could not stop myself getting into the sea and clicked loads of pictures.

We walked down the beach, crystal clear turquoise water was not letting me go out of it. More surprisingly I couldn’t believe that the island didn’t have hotels or resorts on it, there was just a tiny hut selling cold drinks and snacks near the boat landing, there was no restaurant.

Our next island was the Tup island. It is much smaller than the Poda island, the shallow waters at Tup make for a safe haven, it was deep enough on either side of the sandbar to relax and cool down. We had 20 minutes halt there, on low tide you can walk across the sandbar from Chicken Island to Koh Mor on the left or Tup on the right but unluckily we didn’t get that chance because of high tide and rainy weather.

Our third destination was the Chicken island, it’s actual name is Koh Kai and it took its name from the chicken-shaped rock forming its southern tip. We basically stopped there for snorkeling as the waters surrounding the island hosts superb coral reefs. As you all got to know by now, I am not much into the water but my hubby is. He enjoyed snorkeling at the core and don’t worry you can get the snorkeling kit from the boat itself.

Our last and the fourth destination was the Pranang Beach, it had soft sand, clear shallow water and it was super safe for swimming especially for a person like me. It has a coral reef, caves, and all the ingredients of a perfect beach.

Walking a few steps ahead there was a Princess Cave or Tham Phra Nang Nok, which is dedicated to an ancient fertility goddess, the cave contains a strange combination of lingams, garlands, and offerings in the hope of increased potency and prosperity. It was kind of a weird sight for some of us, but something different!

As we knew we will be leaving from Krabi to Phuket the very next day, being a shopaholic we shopped a lot from the local market. Bought souvenirs and gifts for our family and friends.

Day 5

On the fifth day, we had to check out we enjoyed our late breakfast and clicked lots of pictures. It was really hard for me to bid bye to Krabi, I am still missing being close to nature, those beautiful islands and everything about it. We had to transfer to Phuket from Krabi, the cab and everything were already included in our package by Prabhat Travellers as we got this best deal at the Travel Triangle.

Finally, we reached Sea Sun Sand Resort and Spa at Phuket our home for the next two days. It took 3 hours for us to reach Phuket from Krabi, the road trip was amazingly amazing with beautiful scenery all around. The best part of this resort was the view from our room, it was mesmerizing we could literally see the beautiful sea from our bedroom balcony.

We didn’t waste much time, we got out of our resort and started exploring the nearby area and went to chill at Patong beach which was at a walkable distance from our resort. While walking on the beach my husband realized that it was a Sunday and we can go to the famous weekend market of Phuket. Instant plans are the best, like always! We took a tuk-tuk to the weekend market and to our surprise the tuk-tuk driver played amazing Bollywood songs. It took almost 40 minutes from our Resort to reach there, I just loved that all lighten up stalls of varieties of products it was heaven for a person like me.

Day 6

As I am an over excited person, I could not hold my excitement for the day as we were supposed to go to the James Bond island my most awaited destination. Our first destination for the day was Wat Suwan Kuha (Cave Temple), there we were welcomed by loads of monkeys. Inside the cave, there was 15 m long golden statue of reclining Buddha and there were many other large statues of standing Buddha. Then we headed towards the staircase at the end of the cave and there was the forest to the one side and small caves to the other side.

The second destination for the day was Koh Panyi, a nearby Muslim fishing village where we had our lunch which was again included in our package. Kon Panyi is a floating village, nearly all of the village sits atop a vast network of stilts that clings to the edge of the island’s coastline and then stretches out over the sea in a maze of raised walkways and platforms.

After having our lunch we explored Kon Panyi, then we took our long tail boat and headed towards the most awaited island; The James Bond Island. I was always a huge fan of this island as it was featured in the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun”, one of my favorite movie. Frankly speaking, I didn’t waste much time on exploring other caves on the island I got super busy clicking the picture or getting clicked or admiring the needle formed limestone rock in the middle of the sea.

Our last destination for the day was canoeing, through a network of brilliant crystalline limestone caves. Somehow I gathered all my guts and decided to not to miss it! I finally got into the boat with my husband which was paddled by the professional guide. My Gosh! It was an amazing experience and the view was just wow. We enjoyed a lot exploring the sea cave and clicked hell lot of pictures. My best experience in life ever.

Day 7

Finally, the day came when I had to leave this amazing place and we were not done yet. We had our flight to Bangkok at 5 P.M. and our cab driver was supposed to come to pick up us at 2 P.M. as my husband is the most impatient guy in the world, he could not stay at the hotel and waste his time, So he booked our tickets for the Tiger Kingdom (this was not included in our package). The best part about this place was, it gives you the opportunity to get up close and personal with several Indochinese tigers of varying ages and sizes which has been raised by hand in captivity since birth.

There was a procedure for meeting the Big Cats, at the reception we had to choose the size of the Tiger out of Big, Medium and Small. We chose the medium tigers as they were not that huge and bought the tickets to visit the tigers inside the cage, which actually allows petting the tigers we also took a professional photographer accompanying us in the cage as we wanted lots of pictures of us being close to the Tigers. There were the strict procedures to follow at the Tiger Kingdom: before entering an enclosure we were asked to leave our belongings outside in a locker and were strictly asked to turn the flash off of our phone while taking pictures. At first, I was extremely scared but there were three to four trainers of the tigers to make sure that they don’t attack anyone. That made me feel better and slowly I got over my fear and enjoyed my first ever experience with the Big Cats.

Guys! trust me if you go to Phuket 2-3 days are not enough to explore the wonderful places out there. I and my husband are surely going back there soon as we could not explore the place properly because of the restricted time frame.

Thank You Voyage 2 Thailand, for giving us the best deal through the Parbhat Travels. It was an amazing experience, as we didn’t have to worry about our travels, our stay, our transfers literally everything was managed by the Prabhat Travels. What we actually did there was complete enjoyment, shopping, and we made beautiful memories!