Green x white // Bestie birthday pre-celebration

Testing out the camera before my best friend’s birthday today. She didn’t ask me to become her photographer, I suppose because she forgot about the need to have one. She asked me to bring my polaroid, but didn’t even remind me (Rai forgets 1). She didn’t tell anybody that it’s supposed to be a pastel themed party (Rai forgets 2). She didn’t specifically tell our friends that they are supposed to come on day 2 (Rai forgets 3). She didn’t prepare a backdrop of any sort (Rai forgets 4). 

She did not forget to use her free labour though, because I am asked to come on both days of her celebration. Albeit exhausted, we still went to waterway yesterday to get her decorations going! We found a $5 mugshot backdrop for all the photo-taking, fairy lights (which really is for her room, but she insist that she will use it for her birthday), pegs, some strings. Typo is our holy haven. 

Spending the pre-celebration resting at home and preparing for interview #3. Then, we are ready to rock the world. Praying for fantastic lighting and camera-ready friends. 

Family Pet

Unemployment also meant that I get to be woken up by your sudden jolting. 

And maybe that’s a good thing, that I can watch you and my cactus all morning then go about my usual routine/chores. This might not be that bad after all. T-2 days to sun, sand and fun. Let’s hope it all goes well! 

Maybe if I write in small chunks, I’ll write more. Let’s see how much bite-size pictures/sneak can I churn out. 

Mood Boards

(Cr: here)

Mood boards have been around for the longest time (I think?), but I never really had the time or resources to go try it out! I was looking throughout the mood boards on tumblr and I guess I should try my hand on these amazing mood boards. Question tho: Physical or Digital?

I am a rather sentimental person and I like to hoard things, which is less than ideal for my current home. Then again, I am a sentimental person and I feel the only way to inject your personality into something is to make them by hand. I shall try one and put it here one day this week. *excited*

Furkid & Coney Island

To Cocoa’s delight, we are finally going to the much-raved Coney Island Park at Punggol! How ironic is it that, after being a Punggol resident for almost half a year now, we haven’t been to Coney Island once. Unfortunately public transport is out of the equation if you want to travel with a furkid, so if you want to bring pooch, it’s the good that you have your own car! However Honwee and I don’t own a car so we Grabbed ours. *Do let the driver know that you have little pooch with you, some drivers would refuse your ride if they see little pooch getting on board*

Drivers can park their car along the Punggol Settlement car park and walk along the stretch of restaurants to the gates of Coney Island! While the park is a walkable 2.4km trial, we decided to rent a bike because Cocoa is not the most athletically-inclinded of dogs. And trust me, carrying a 7kg hufflepuff is not the easiest thing to do on a day out.

If I am not wrong, there are a few bicycle shops at Punggol Settlement, but we got ours at a rental shop opposite the terrapin pond, near the roundabout. There are a few different types of bikes you can rent! Cocoa is small enough to fit in the basket, but if your pooch isn’t. there are also pet carriage for your Cinderedog. 

Us adjusting to the ride, I was probably too inappropriately dressed for parks. But zero mozzies’ bite so yay! 

There are monkeys around BTW, actually they are a lot of animals around (e.g. boar & cow) and you have got to mentally prepare that not all of them will like your pooch very much. I have a monkey creeping up near me to check Cocoa out. #truestory I cycled away as fast as I can just in case they thought it would be funny to snatch Cocoa away from me. Doesn’t help that furbz is only almost their size. 

Fled away safely. 

The hoomans and the doge took a breather after their near escape. *Remember to at least bring water for your dog! Stop for a few photographs and off we waddle again. 

*Cycles off to the horizon* 

and almost fell. 

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OKAY, ANYHOW, we managed to get to the other end of the park fairly quickly because we were on bikes and didn’t take much of a pit stop because the skies weren’t looking that great. 

but there was no shelter on the other end. 

LOL....

so we had to cycle back in to find shelter in the midst of a passing rain, and at some point of time I felt like Ash in the very first episode. I might or might not have screamed “don’t worry Cocoa, I will get you out of here” 

and obviously Cocoa didn’t look at me so admirably, it didn’t bother her that it was raining. But she was a little wet by the rain when we found shelter. I mean, we all were. 

The passing rain came and left quickly so we went on our tracks again. This time, stopping at instagram-worthy places to take photos. 

and then, there was pooch refusing to take photos.... 

It was a happy day for both the humans and the dog, Cocoa was all smiles and running around. And all these is humanly possible because I have the best human around to help me out (with photo-taking, bag carrier, drinks provider etc)  

Thank-you very much, best instagram boyfriend EVER. 

and you fluffy thing for being so easy to manage. 

Crystal, out. *drops mic* 

Travelogue: Krabi, Thailand

This was the most impromptu overseas trip in my entire 21 years of existence. EVER. It all started with Qiaoli (middle girl) saying that she wants to go overseas and viola, here we are! I should probably advised otherwise since I am already going to Phuket with Shan & the 8 gentlemen, and according to my grabcar driver "its just next door!" BUT I just finished school and wanted to feel as liberated as possible. So with my entire savings, I went with it, head on. Probably not the best advice I would give the rest of you since now I am broke AF.

We took the budget airline because it was merely a 1.5 hours ride to Krabi. There were 3 seats on each side of the plane, just in case you need to make necessarily arrangement with your friends on who is sitting where. We boarded the flight with only 4 of us (ben was only joining us on day 3), so the girls took 3 seats and Jimm sat alone. 

We rode with TigerAir to Krabi and Air Asia when we were returning.
I am not sure if there was much a difference between the two airlines but Air Asia definitely looks a lot more comfortable. However, I slept like a baby on Tiger but couldn't get into slumber with Air Asia. There could be a few possibilities 1) I sat at the window seat with my friends when on Tiger Air but with strangers on the aisle seat on Air Asia. 2) I am too excited about going home to Honwee 3) It wasn't very comfortable.

See, I gave up my seat with the girls so that this can happen.

WE WILL GET INTO THIS LATER. *chuckles* 

We booked a villa at Oscar Villa Pool at Ao Nang, AND WE LOVED IT.  Our two bedroom Villa circled around a common pool which we always came back for a dip before returning to our villa to wash up for the day. We had 5 people and 3 of us could squeeze together in the bed without any discomfort so it's safe to say that it can fit 6 people? Then again, we are all rather smaller in build so maybe if you are bigger or train at the gym a lot, 3 per bed might be a little squeezy for you? 

We paid 600B (approx S$24 per ride) to travel from Krabi Airport to the Villa, it was a 30 minutes ride in a car. The villas are actually situated in the midst of trees. You can see the exterior from HERE. There are two types of Villas there, I supposed, one with its own private pool and the others, which was the one we stayed in had a common pool. There are always new tourist over here, but it is never crowded. Our villa is 200B (approx S$8 per ride) and 10-15 minutes to Ao Nang beach where all the food, beach and shopping are at. They also provide shuttle service to Ao Nang beach (at 9am, 12pm and 3pm), but it's one way so you still have to take the tuktuk back to the villa. Anyway, you can visit their facebook page to see how the rooms look like. 

Staff are extremely polite and friendly, they have taxis/tuktuk services and also car/motorcycle rentals at the villa. Rates are standard and up at the lobby so you don't have to ask every time you use the taxis. Car rental is 1500B (approx S$58) and Motorcycles are 200B (approx S$8) for full 24 hrs. 

Woo so content heavy, I felt like I typed everything under a single breath. Anyway, this was taken at our pool which we visited EVERY NIGHT. Especially after a full day of activities (ew haha). If you don't really like Oscar Villa Pool there are many hotels/resorts/hostel AT Ao Nang beach itself, but its' definitely going to be a little bit more expensive. 

We went to Krabi unplanned (refers to our YOLO motto for more information), we figured that we can decide with the hotel what we wanted to do. Actually the packages were EVERYWHERE. Not just with the hotels, but also along the streets of Ao Nang Beach. SO, here's what we did for our 5D4N trip at Krabi. 

DAY 1

We dedicated our day to exploring the place at Ao Nang and also finding activities to do for the rest of the trip. We went to have a dip at Ao Nang beach (water wasn't as clear blue as we liked tho, went in for 30 minutes and never returned). We had our dinner at the streets and went back to play splash at the pool. The day went by super quickly, I have no idea why, but I think we spent a lot of time waiting for our dinner to be served. And maybe it's bc we are soaked in water most of the time, we were tired out really quickly too. 

Had to buy an airy top because I am still pretty much wet but unlike Jimm, walking around the streets with swim wear can really attract a lot of uncomfortable attention, but it's a good buy so yay!! 

Day 2

We bought our island hoping package, 1400baht, the day before so we waited at our hotel's lobby for transport (yes, transport AND LUNCHHHH is provided!) It's a MUST-go when you are in Krabi. Although we were given merely 30-45 minutes on each and particular island, it was still a fun-filled trip for us. 

The view is SPECTACULAR, Qiaoli took these pictures from her phone and it all looks too amazing.

Our enthusiastic guides helped us take a few photos! The locals are generally very friendly, patient and loving. I don't even know how Singapore Service is a thing. An unchanging smile, and heavily rehearsed hospitality cannot compete the one with a genuine heart and love for what they are doing. We all re-looked our perspective towards living life while we are at Krabi. 

How did we get into this sombre situation. 

Anyhow, 

WE ALSO TRIED SNORKELLING!! 

I had a really bad experience with snorkelling when I first tried it at Adventure Cove, it was such trauma I went home feeling like I am being surrounded by fishes. Honwee says its probably the fish burger I had the same morning, that's why the fish swam towards me, head on. ha. ha. ha. It was a horrifying experience for me, but I didn't want to let that get to me. So I went down to snorkel! 

Thank goodness no fishes swam towards me, I couldn't even touch any of the fishes but we saw a lot of them. Island-hopping is a half-day tour, it was 4pm at Krabi when we returned to our hotel. We went for a dip in our pool AGAIN before washing up and heading out for dinner, before retiring for the night. It's tiring as heck, unfortunately we were all sun-burnt and no amount of aloe vera gel seems to soothe our skin. 

Every time somebody (mostly Honwee, who always seems to forget about my sun burn) touches my shoulder, it is as though somebody is using their dirty bare hands to touch my open wound. It hurts really badly, so if you intend to go for island hoping: 1) do not sit out at the front of the speedboat where there is NO shelter 2) apply, reapply and SPAM that sunscreen. Just do it. 

We sat out at the front of the speedboat b/c there weren't any more seats left, but we regret nothing. The choppy waters meant us getting thrown off our seats from time and time, it might be the root of our backaches after but it was so worth it. Also, if you must know, never wear eyelash extensions when on a speedboat. Your eyelashes will flutter uncontrollably by the strong winds and you wouldn't be able to open your eyes. Qiaoli let me have her cap so that I wouldn't have to shield my eyelashes. Yup, true story.

Day 3

Ben joined us on day 3 because of his work, it must have been a painful wait for him because we were posting picture and what not. We didn't get any packages today because most of the packages started at 8AM, and Ben was only arriving at 11AM. So screw packages, we rented a car, fetched Ben and proceed on to our secret location that we didn't make known to Ben prior his arrival. 

Poor boy didn't even get to put his luggage back in the villa, we jumped right into action. And we went to... 

TIGER CAVE TEMPLE. Behind the impressive name hides a stairway that has 1237 steps. It didn't sound like much to us initially we counted our first 10 steps and figured that it would be easy. IT WAS NOT. 

Some flight of stairs were really steep, and scary, I believe you can literally fall to your death if you slip and start rolling down the stairs. 

THIS IS THE PICTORIAL EVIDENCE OF ME STRUGGLING. I DIDN'T POSE FOR THIS PICTURE. 

We also stop at certain stops to catch a breather and also to goof around. When we were nearing the top, Rachel, from a few flights below me actually asked "do they sell coke on top?" because she thought we reached the peak, but we still had 200 more steps to go. HAHAHAHAHAHA and nope, they don't sell coke, they do have water tho, but its best you carry one with you before you die of thirst. Also please wear proper footwear and dress decently. Qiaoli and I went in spaghetti straps, and the kind policeman helped us get these blue robes to cover up. 

"Pose like you own it" -- Jimm. 

Qiaoli is obviously a better model than I will ever be. 

The view is breath-taking (this post is really challenging my vocabulary)!! This is not for those who are afraid of heights. I am not exactly the most comfortable with heights but its tolerable. 

 

We hurried down later on to drive to Krabi Town and eat our dinner! And back to Ao Nang for a oil massage. My female masseur actually smacked my ass while calling me sexy, I didn't know what to do so I just giggled my way through the massage. Our masseurs also asked if Qiaoli and I are twins. I don't think we can shake off this "you two look alike" thing for the rest of our lives haha. 

Day 4

We bought the jungle tour (1600Baht) for today since Ben is already here with us! We waited for our ride again, and was sent to our first location: Hot Springs 

We only had 30 minutes, but haha it wasn't really big so 30 minutes was sufficient! 

Second Location was The Emerald Pool

aka the most disappointing location to visit in Krabi. 

Perhaps its the Songkran, it was insanely overcrowded!! This was the view I captured on my phone (below):

and this is what we were expecting (below): 

(picture from here!)

We had high expectations of the place after we trekked in for about 15 minutes (?) We were so turned off by the crowd, we left without a dip. Went out to get good street food instead. 

I can't resist, this is such a good picture of Qiaoli and her coconut juice. We are happier with food :') After our little pre-lunch, we went to have our free lunch which was at the entrance of the the pools. We barely touched our food because we had too much street food. Oops. 

Well rested, we left for ATV!!!

there was elephant trekking, but thank goodness everybody felt that it was too cruel. I wouldn't know what to do if they forced me to it. I might cry and make a big fuss to stop everybody from buying the tour. Anyhow, the elephants were nearby so we did still get a picture. 

How intelligent, it is actually posing for a picture like commanded. 

our ATV guide was this overly enthusiastic man brimming with excitement and welcome for us. We had a great time and he helped us take LOTS of photos. I should've given him a big tip. He is too kind!! :( 

Our very sweet guide, if you happen to go for ATV and see him. Please do me a favour and give him a big tip if you like his services. 

We returned to our villa the same time as we did when we went island hoping. Same thing, we chilled at the pool, washed up but this time we head down to krabi town for their street SEAFOOD. There is no argument as to how affordable the seafood here are. It is awesome. 

We let the pros (aka ql and Ben) to do the ordering and waited with much anticipation. We also went to their night market which opens every Friday to do our very last minute shopping. Although we did get somethings there, it cannot compete with Ao Nang beach's streets. Ben managed to help me get discount for all my hauls. Thanks Ben!!! 

We concluded the night with massive shopping, thanks friends for tagging along and helping me with my buys even though all of you are dog-tired. Thank you, I genuinely appreciate you all as my travel buddy. I hope I wasn't too difficult to live with hehe. 

Left early in morning on the fifth day back to SGP, this is a group picture of us at the airport playing bridge. 

Thank you Krabi for being the splendid (alert: limited vocab) place. 

Photo Credits: Jimm, Qiaoli