Celebrating 2019 New Year's Eve in Krabi

Travel tip #1 : How to Gather A Group of Friends to Travel with You

Getting together a bunch of friends for a vacation is not easy. No one ever says it is. It's extremely difficult to decide on a time when everyone is free, and almost always, the trip won't happen anyway. So how do you make it happen? You book your return flights then you share your travel itinerary to a bunch of friends and whoever wants to go, they have to book their flights themselves. So if nearby seats are available, then you get to sit together. If you don't get to sit together, yall won't die sitting separately for a couple of hours.

We didn't prepare a trip itinerary before coming here. As we wanted it to be a true vacation to rest and relax, we didn't really plan on places to go and things to do. But of course, coming to Thailand means a lot of good food, nice beaches and good massages. So we've allocated some money on those things.

Travel tip #2 : When budgeting, include emergency money

Frequent travellers may say that X amount of money is enough to travel to a certain country but please prepare emergency money. Most of the time, you'd end up using the money unless you're financially discipline. Also, note that the food isn't as cheap as you think. It's about the price of a meal at a tomyam restaurant in Malaysia-- so an average meal would cost about RM18-RM20.

Travel tip #3 : Krabi is Muslim-friendly

For Muslim travellers in Krabi, you need not worry about a mosque or halal food. Ao Nang has a large Muslim community and halal food very easy to find. On top of that, majority of the restaurants that i entered were managed my Muslim ladies.

So that's how Mai, Emma, Lyn and I ended up in Ao Nang, Krabi (except Lyn came a day later by bus because she missed her flight). We were in Krabi for 4D3N.

We stayed at a backpacker hostel for an average of RM50/night. Came across Sleeper Hostel on Airbnb and i was very satisfied with it. The receptionist was polite and helpful. Though the cleanliness could be improved, the rest were top notch. The bunk-beds were equipped with blackout curtains and one light; so you get your privacy! The location is very strategic because the beach is within walking distance and so are the restaurants and good massage parlours. I highly recommend staying at Sleeper Hostel.

Breakfast was easy to find. Upon exit from the hostel, we turned left (away from the beach) and we found many Halal restaurants that sell, well, Malaysian food. For our first breakfast there, we randomly picked a restaurant and they sell oh the most amazing Nasi Krabu with fried chicken and crispy chicken skin (each sold separately). It was so good that we went there again on the last day!

Whenever we wanted to munch on something, a fruit and pancake stall was right across the hostel so we legit had banana pancakes every single day.

Yaaaaas to this!

For transportation, we wanted to rent a motorcycle, but none of us know how to ride it. Lucky for us that the beach is within walking distance, we simply walked everyday.

We deliberately travelled to Krabi in the morning of Dec 31st, 2018 to celebrate New Year's eve there, without knowing how it is celebrated there. But from what i read, Ao Nang is the party/fun area. That's why we chose Ao Nang in the first place. 

9.30pm. We noticed that other tourists are all dressed up and presumably to celebrate New Year's Eve. Seeing that, we quickly got ready and we went out as well. We followed the crowd and they were headed to the bars area. We just chilled around the area for some time and 

11.00pm. Shit, it was already 11.00pm and the area was really dull for us. This is not why we came all the way to Krabi. We left the area and Emma noticed some floating lanterns in the sky. We walked towards the lanterns and we realised that there was a sea of people by the beach releasing floating lanterns while waiting for the fireworks. 

I started tearing up. This blog is called 'Balloons, Lanterns and Fireworks' entailing my deep love for those three elements. I have always, always wanted to release floating lanterns and that was the moment that i've been waiting for. Each of us bought a floating lantern and we took turns to release them, one at a time. 

Not long after, the countdown started.

It was the most overwhelming moment of my life. It was beautiful. It was magical. So if you're looking for a place in Southeast Asia to celebrate New Year's Eve with a bunch of friends, please don't hesitate to come here. You won't regret it.

The beaches, needless to say, are picturesque. Crystal water and white, soft sand.

I'm having some problems uploading videos. I'll upload more videos from time to time. For now, here are some more photos from the trip.