To Err is Human…

To err is human. To catch your error late at night before it completely screws you over the next day, now that’s luck. Before falling asleep last night I remembered to check us in for today’s flight from Bangkok to Krabi. The AirAsia website is not very sophisticated and I had to refresh the online check-in multiple times. And thank god. It wasn’t until the third time I refreshed that I saw something that seemed amiss as my eyes scanned the boarding pass that kept loading and disappearing. I had sworn the airport code in Bangkok was BKK. Why was I seeing a departure from DMK?! Upon further inspection I realized that there are actually TWO airports in Bangkok! Who knew?! Obviously not me. Had I not caught this minor detail we would have gone to the completely wrong airport and missed our flight to Krabi as you must allow well over an hour, as much as two hours, to get between the two in Bangkok traffic. I laid in bed stunned by my realization and so very mad at myself that I had not realized this sooner. I would have had nobody to blame but myself had we made this critical mistake. The rental car though! I quickly googled and confirmed that DMK also has Hertz onsite so I figured I would call them in the morning and let them know I’d be returning it there instead. Who knows what the airport drop would cost me but oh well, I deserve some penance for this one. My panic and research kept me up for an extra hour and I had a hard time falling asleep.

Since sleep did not come easy I managed to sleep in until about 7am once I did finally pass out. I’m still not sure what time zone my body is on since I’ve been up around 5am every day so far. I broke the news of my mistake to Brandon and called Hertz to let them know where I’d be returning the car. At least I tried. With a terrible phone connection combined with a language barrier I finally gave up on the conversation and decided we’d just roll with dropping off the car. While Brandon hit the gym, I got ready and found myself in the hotel bakery to get us breakfast. And maybe some hazelnut and Christmas spice truffles as well…

Our flight was at 11:30am and DMK was closer, only about half an hour away so I figured if we were in the car by 9am we should be perfectly timed. We left our room at 9 sharp and encountered a small snafu when valet did not have our car pulled up; apparently what we thought was our valet ticket number was not. They figured it out and by 9:15 we were loading up. In my mind I had things timed just right so the 15 minute delay already had me feeling behind. We ate our truffles and they were horrible. What a waste of calories. I was so disappointed in the extravagant Grand Hyatt Erawan for their terrible treats. Traffic wasn’t too congested and only a couple times did we take the wrong route when roads veered as we made our way to the Don Mueang Airport.

Thankfully I had thought to google where the rental car return area was before we left so I felt confident that we could figure it out. As we arrived at the airport it was a mess of traffic as one would expect but we stayed the course properly and arrived at the rental car return area, right where I had read it would be; between gates 10 and 11 in the domestic terminal. Timing was tight, it was about 9:50am but we were still going to be fine. But as we slowly drove past the return spots and rental car attendants, we saw no Hertz. We must have missed it, time to do another pass. But doing another pass was not so easy. It was more of a 10ish minute ordeal to circle back around. Coming back on the second pass we slowed again and asked a security guard if he knew. He waved us back to the return stalls we had already cased and thankfully he heard us when we repeated Hertz. “Hertz!” He put his hand to the side of his face in the universal phone call gesture. He didn’t know where we needed to go, but he knew we needed to call them. This actually made sense since when we thought we were returning it to BKK, they had told us to call as we neared that airport to be met. I scrambled around to find a phone number and finally got someone on the phone.

After some back and forth, we finally figured out that we needed to meet them in front of International Terminal Door 1. Circling back around a third time we finally landed in the right spot. We were really cutting it close now, this return better be quick. I told the attendant that I had already called and confirmed my plans for the drop-off change and thankfully he didn’t even blink an eye at the discrepancy with what was on our paperwork. We also forgot about filling the gas tank. Who knows how much this snafu will cost me, but it’s my own damn fault.

Thankfully the walk between the terminals was short and we made it in time to get our luggage checked in before the baggage check-in window closed. Security lines were short and we made it to our gate with a full ten minutes to spare before boarding. Don Mueang is the older of the Bangkok airports and it was obvious. Parts of it literally smelled like a cat litter box. Today we flew AirAsia. Thankfully the flight to Krabi is short, only about 90 minutes, cause this plane was not meant for anyone over 5’ tall. The legroom was non-existent, we both sat with our knees pressed up against the seats in front of us. We had ordered upgrade meals when booking, only because it made it seem like everyone got a meal so I thought it’d be best to pick our food at least. But in fact, I was wrong. Meals were only served to those who ordered, and there weren’t many of us. The menu was extensive though and we had selected a pad thai for me and a spicy beef for Brandon. Plus mango sticky rice. Our meals also came with vegetarian fried rice that we were not expecting. We each had one spoonful of rice. No good. Brandon’s meal was decent but my pad thai was at the same time bland and spicy. However, I will say it was better than the flavorless crap we had on our way to the FloatHouse. The mango sticky rice was delicious. I could’ve polished off ten packages if given the chance!

The skies were grayish when we landed in Krabi but the heat and humidity made up for it. If we’re going to be hot and sticky again we don’t need the sun beating down too. We were definitely back in a tropical environment! Reunited with our luggage we were ready to get our car and get to our resort. We are both exhausted today, it’s time to relax. But where were the rental car counters? They weren’t in the terminal. They weren’t outside the terminal. There was no overhead signage. Where the hell do we get our car? Finally the ladies at the Information kiosk instructed us to call. And even more thankfully I was able to find the confirmation in my email so I could figure out the number! The nice Hertz lady on the other end of the phone said they would drive the car to us and gave me the license plate number to watch for, just give them two minutes. Sure enough, a couple minutes later a car with a Hertz placard in the window pulled up with a license plate matching what she had told me. But it was a small subcompact, we had reserved an SUV. Another couple was standing outside and approached the car at the same time. No, no I told them (thankfully nicely), this was our car, the lady had just told me over the phone. We don’t really need an SUV and I figured as long as they’re charging us less, fine. But our luggage wouldn’t even fit. This would not do. Turns out this car was indeed the other couples’. Oops. A few minutes later Hertz Honda CRV appeared and soon we were on the road.

Thankfully today was a short drive, just half an hour to our resort and no real traffic. We both felt a sense of calm restore within us. Until I mixed a bottle of airborne for us and my shaking to hasten the little tab dissolving created an explosion of sticky orange airborne juice as Brandon open the cap. Oopsie, my bad. I was craving a Thai tea and we stopped at a roadside stand, almost taking out a parked moped as we pulled off the road. Oops. My thai tea was delicious but the green tea drink Brandon got was one of the most delicious things I have ever drank. Imagine a sweet matcha with hints of jasmine. It was incredible. I couldn’t help but be a total brat and keep sneaking sips of his.

The Phu Petra Resort is adorable. Consisting of only 25 villas and a short ways off of the main road it feels like a sleepy little oasis. The villa is specious and private and we were once again greeted by a bed of towel animals and feathers. The little towel bunnies and beautifully laid out spread of flowers was obviously so painstakingly arranged and so gorgeous it hurt my heart when we finally had to clear them off the bed this evening. The beach is only about 1.5 miles away and the resort offers a shuttle service at set times.

We got settled into our villa and changed to head down to the beach, but not before Brandon did some laundry. Apparently he had underpacked and was out of shirts. I could hear him splish-splashing in the bathroom and found he had created quite an efficient laundry service utilizing both the sink and large tub. His legs had become agitators as he mimicked a full-on washing machine in the tub. Guess who gets to take over laundry duty from now on?!

We figured we would take the shuttle this time to make sure we knew where we were going since we had not been that direction as of yet. A half dozen Indian men are staying here as well and I couldn’t help but photobomb one of them as we walked out the resort and they were taking pictures. In hindsight, I maybe should have had some restraint as they then wanted to take group pictures with us and tried to latch on like we were one big group. No no no no no. They were also headed on the shuttle and we ditched them as quickly as we could.

We expected this area to be touristy and busy but it was ridiculous. There are maybe 5 different kinds of shops that just repeat themselves over and over as you walk down the strip. And the closer you get to the water, the more expensive everything gets. As we walked the rest of the way to Aonang Beach we stopped at different tour coordinators to figure out an island-hopping tour for tomorrow. One lady had the ultimate gimmick to get us in her door, the most adorable little dog. We almost booked with her but in the end decided to spend just a few dollars more to book through the resort due to the peace of mind of less risk getting screwed over.

Neither of us were loving the feeling of the area and finally making it to the water did not make it any better. The beach was littered with people and long boats polluted the water. Badly. As the water lapped onto the sand you could literally see oil swirling in the shallows. Walking down to the far end of the beach we finally found an area with less people and clean water. The surrounding mountains and islands off in the distance are beautiful and provide some enchantment but the water seemed dark and not even close to blue. Part if may be our exhaustion but we were over it.

We were also hungry. But not wanting to be caught up in tourist row we decided to put some distance between us and beach before stopping to eat. None of the choices excited us but we really needed food and were nearing our resort so we stopped at a little halal restaurant. Fun fact that I did not know, there is a HUGE Islamic population here. It felt like half the restaurants on the main road were advertised as halal. We ordered garlic chicken and a beef noodle ball. And could not believe how disappointing it was. The menu had pictures that were nowhere near reality. Though delicious, the garlic chicken plate only had five bites of chicken. I’m not exaggerating. The noodle bowl had maybe eight bites of beef and was just ok. The meal was 180 baht, over twice what we paid for full meals our filet night in Bangkok, and was barely an appetizer.

At the turn-off to our resort we saw the first real street food vendors in the area, over a mile up from the beach. We ordered a seafood noodle bowl from one stand and watched her expertly construct our dish as loud speakers from an old building across the street sounded the Muslim call to prayer. At the next cart we ordered a variety of chicken skewers. This should do. We popped into a 7-11 convenience store for a couple cans of beer and bottles of water. Checking out my eyes scanned the shelves and found a marvelous sight. I may have let out my biggest grin of the day as I tugged on Brandon like a little kid and pointed. Right there, on the shelf, a bottle of Domain Chandon Sparkling Rose. It may not be the best sparkling wine but it’s a good one and this was exciting. We hadn’t carried much money with us tonight but we’ll be back for that beautiful pink bottle tomorrow!

There was no place near the street vendors to eat our food so we decided a picnic by our resort pool was in order. And holy smokes. Our street food meal was out of this world. The chicken was moist and tender, perfectly seasoned, and easy to nibble off of the stick. The real start of the show, however, was the seafood noodle bowl. It may be my favorite thing I’ve eaten this trip. It was stingy on the protein but contained perfect vegetables and noodles in a divinely fragrant lemongrass broth. I must eat her food again tomorrow. Hell, I would go grab another bowl right this very moment if I could.

We had the pool to ourselves, the resort seems to be pretty low occupancy right now, and the atmosphere was sweet and romantic. Decorated for Christmas, a scene of lights lit one side and icicle lights with giant ornaments hung from the trees. The water in the pool felt cold at first but a dip after dinner did wonders to cool down my hot and sticky skin. This was the peace and relaxation we are ready for.

Tomorrow we are going island hopping with four stops scheduled on our tour. I hope that everywhere isn’t a crazy shit show of tourists but am basically expecting that it will be so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.