A crappy Krabi!

This weekend was my first outing with my new colleagues. I have recently joined a new IT company whom I am proud to say is a GIANT! I hope they are proud to have me....ok we got the necessary polishing out of the way.

Anyway, forging a good rapport with your colleagues is ALWAYS a very important agenda in anyone's career. Some may see it as shoe shining or ass-kissing, some may see it as selling out your principles and some may even see it as an act of cowardice and selling out to the establishment. Me? I just want to get along and do my job. Anyway, being the shy person that I am (yeah right!), I was invited to the team's outing in my 2nd week on the job. I was honoured and of course very self conscious. Will I fit it? Will they like me? Will they understand my humour? Will I snore too loudly? It was decided we will go to Krabi which is a new beach resort in Southern Thailand. Krabi is about 2 hours ferry ride from Phuket. I have never been there, so I said ok.

We took the single flight was KL to Krabi via Air Asia. I was expecting the worst whenever I fly Air Asia as I don't always have good incidents with these guys. At best, I will not have any incidents. At worst, I have to wait 6 hours to take the next flight because my flight was canceled, yes canceled!! Not delayed but canceled. Thanks goodness this trip was uneventful which is good for Air Asia.

The 9 of us piled into a very comfortable van and we were taken sight seeing along Krabi new town, old town town and Ao Nang (where our hotel was). The sights were extremely fascinating as the first it struck us that Krabi was exactly.....like any blinkin' beach resort in Thailand. It looked like a mini Phuket or Pattaya. It even looked like Sitiawan or Kajang. Take your pick. Difference was, the food in Sitiawan or Kajang was excellent and food really sucked in Krabi.

We ordered some 8 dishes for lunch but it wasn't enough as the Thais have only one size for every dish, which is starving midget size! Every serving was enough to feed a hummingbird. The only good thing about the serving size is that it tasted bad so that we didnt have to eat too much of it. But lunch is lunch and we were hungry. I think the closer you get to the sea, the worst the food gets.

Thanks goodness the hotel was actually quite beautiful. It was clean, new and very well decorated. Surprisingly we had Astro. Didnt quite understand that. Our hotel was called Krabi Thai Village and it is definitely worth a visit. Only problem was, it was located about 15 minute walk from Ao Nang town. So walking in and out wasnt very appealing and we did a really cool thing. My colleague Deric suggested we rent motorbikes at just TBH200 a day (I dont know what the Thai Bhat symbol is but in this blog it is TBH). For this city slicker who went everywhere in a bus and then in cars, the motorbikes was a superb experience. I can now appreciate and understand the novelty of all those bikers going around for long trips (not those idiotic Mat Rempits) with not a care in the world and only the road to guide and rule you.

For 2 days we went everywhere in our bikes. The town like I said was like any beach resort in Thailand but much milder on the "girly" stuff. Krabi has it fair share of pizza, steak, burger restaurants. It has its knock-off merchandize stalls, massage parlours, ATM currency exchange and convenience store. The one thing that was hard to find was a Thai restaurant or a Thai hawker. The bars had the gwai-los and Thai "working girls" but at least they didnt come out into the streets to grab you like they do in Phuket, Bangkok or Pattaya. When I was in Pattaya with my cousins, the 2 guys were walking back to our hotel with 5 kids after leaving our wives shopping and we were almost dragged to come in despite the kids. Surprisingly they have a small play area for the kids and a BIG play area for the daddies. We politely declined (really we did. I dont know about my cousin but pushy women scare me). Anyway they didnt do so in Krabi. If anything I saw a lot of couples. Young and old, holding hands and just not caring about anything.

Krabi does give you that feeling of relaxation and not having a care in the world. We were rushing a bit since we wanted to go for our massage and shopping. We managed to do all that. We even chartered a boat to take us out to the islands to do a bit of snorkeling. We were taken to 3 snorkeling spots. Shallow waters, not so shallow and deep waters. They all looked the same. The same fishes, same corals, same tourist. There were these small yellow fishes who will come in schools to eat whatever you throw at them. Since we will be throwing bread and shit at them, I think they have lost the ability to find food for themselves. However, whenever I am snorkeling I avoid them like the plague. From under the sea it looks like a scene from the 70s movie Piranhas coming at you but instead of a meaty threat it is a piece of bread, banana or someone's shoe.

We were thrown in a hearty lunch which taste like prison food at the famed Phi Phi Island. The sauce was watery, the gravy was watery and the whole experience was repetitive and boring. Phi Phi Island was actually a good place to get complacent and lazy. Nothing to do but just lie by the beach under a shade and go to sleep until dinner time or until the bugs have sucked your blood dry. I thought this was money very poorly spent and the only saving grace was the company of my colleagues and now friends. They made it not just bearable but very enjoyable.

As we were coming back, we were already planning our next trip and it these guys stay my friends, no matter how long I stay at my new company, I know I will definitely enjoy myself. Also I am going shopping for a bike tomorrow.