KRABI DISCOVERY » Tiger Cave

Drive To Krabi – Day 3.

KDSH — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:46:07 +0000

AoNang – Wat Tham Suea – Emerald Pool
Posted By Kent

Date : 22nd September 2009
Time : 10.00am – 6.30pm
Destination : AoNang – Wat Tham Suea – Emerald Pool
Distance : About 150KM

After breakfast, we drove to Wat Tham Suea or Tiger cave temple about 15KMs from Aonang Beach. According to our travel information, the cave was discovered by a monk who wanted to meditate and noticed tigers roaming around the cave, so he named the cave – Tiger Cave.

This is the entrance to the temple. I was quite surprised when I have glance at the wording, this is a God of Mercy Temple ( Guan Yin in Mandarin ). Follow the road for about 100Meters will bring you to the temple where it house the Guan Yin Statue.

At the end of the walk way, you will this pagoda housing a huge Guan Yin Statue.

A very important reminder here, there are a lot of monkeys around the area, please take good care of your belonging or it will be hijacked by the monkey – like Zheng Er’s bottle, disappear in a glimpse of an eye. Put everything into your carrying beg, try to avoid holding a plastic bag.

The Guan Yin temple is located at the foot hill, there are 2 places that you can venture to from here : the tiger cave and the view point on top of the hill. Please take note that there are 2 different routes to both destination. We choose to explore the cave. In the beginning of of the trail, it clearly stated that this is not the trail to the hill top to avoid confusion. You wouldn’t want to waste your energy as the trail to the top of the view point is about 1200 steps, about 4.5 times of Batu cave, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Zheng Hao, Zheng Ni, Jia Chi, Zheng Yuan and Jia Yiin posting before the tiger cave trail adventure.

We do not hire a tour guide so basically we do not not what to expect and where exactly is the tiger cave, we are hopping that there are sign board lead us to the tiger cave. This is the first sight after we descending downhill.

I believe these huts are staying by the monk who meditate here.

There are a lot of cave as we walk along the trail, but unfortunately no clear sign of telling us which one is tiger cave. Anyway, we just enjoy the company of the natural environment.

Big tree is very common in the jungle trail. We walk for about 30 minutes, passing several caves and still not clear sign of tiger cave, we decided to turn back, may be we just missed it or the cave was not properly tag with sign board.

One of my favorite, Laughing Buddha statue in the temple.

After we return to the Guan Yin temple at the foot hill, Car 6 and car 8 decide to challenge the hill top. As I mentioned it is about 1200 steps, so I decided not to take up the challenge. Wai Chee decided to give it a try with the kids, they return after completed about 200 plus steps. It took Car 6 and 8 more than an hour to complete the trail. If you are physically fit, you should give it a try and the view on top of the hill is just superb. Even the kids did not make it, they are all rewarded with ice cream.

From the ground, you can see the viewing deck on top of the hill.

Its about 1.30pm, we are hunting for food at Krabi town about 5Km away. Krabi is small town and quiet during our visit. However, you may visit the night market here where you can find a lot of local foods. Since we stay at Aonang beach, about 30Kms from Krabi town, decided not to visit the night market.

We parked our car and roaming around the town and discover this coffee shop, since it is 2pm, not may choice available.

We ordered some rice and noodle with roasted pork and chicken. Do you notice that they put sugar in the food ?

After lunch, we decided to visit a natural tourist destination call ” Emerald Pool”. It is a last minute decision so some team member did not bring additional clothing to enjoy the fun at Emerald Pool. By listening to the name, you will know it is a pool with emerald like colour water. The water is originates from a warm stream in the low land forest of Khao Nor Juji. The colour of the pool water change from time to time according to the weather and time of the day.
About 50 KM from Krabi, Emerald pool is located at Khlong Thom town along highway 4. Turn at Khlong Thom town junction to road 4038 towards Lam Thap. About 100 meters from the junction, you will notice a white signboard on the right leading you to Emerald Pool, Hot Spring and a wild life sanctuary. Please take note that the sign board indicate Crystal Pond instead of Emerald pool. About 15KM from road 4038 junction, we arrived at the Emerald Pool or crystal pond. You need to pay about 50Baht for each car parking.

At the entrance, you need to purchase ticket before you can enter the area, it cost only 20Baht for local but 200Baht for foreigner.

Wai Yee and parents at the entrance of the park.

Even at the entrance of the park, you can see the beauty of the stream with emerald like colour.

After purchase the ticket, you need to walk about 1.5Km to the actual Emerald pool via this gravel road. The road is well under shade by a lot of trees.

Finally we arrived at the Emerald Pool.

Interestingly, it is indeed an Emerald pool, first in my life.
Be very very careful when you walk around the area, it is very very slippery.

Zheng Yuan can’t wait to jump to the pool.

Jia Chi enjoying the natural slide to the pool.

We spend about an hour at Emerald pool and reached Aonang beach about 6.30pm. Again too late to enjoy the sun set. I hope I can make it tomorrow as we only plan for Island hopping trip tomorrow. No more seafood tonight as we decided to try out some local food. We found this small food stall selling noodle not far from our hotel. ( It is at a small lane opposite McDonald ). I strongly recommend you try this stall, it cost about 35Baht per bowl, but you need 2 to 3 bowls to fill your stomach as the portion is very small, a few meat ball and 3 – 4 mouth full of noodle, that is.

After dinner, shopping and massage again.

With kind permission, article from : http://www.drivetothailand.com/drive-to-krabi-day-3/

Around Krabi Town

KDSH — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:23:00 +0000

With its situation on the estuary, Krabi has been a commercial town from the past to the present, but with different purposes and businesses. Those appearing now are mostly part of Krabi’s tourist centre to the many spectacular islands in the Andaman Sea. The size and shape of sea-going vessels have also changed from large ships used in trading to the relatively smaller passenger boats used in the tourist industry.

A good time to set off exploring by yourself around the streets of downtown Krabi is late morning. By then the crowds of travelers and tourists have passed through Krabi’s many travel agencies on their way to various attractions lying along the coast, offshore or even deep inland. Krabi town is busy, bustling and bold – you will find all kind of interesting shops there. The triving atmosphere goes on till the afternoon.

In an attempt to make Krabi town a second home to visitors, the local government has supported the town’s modernization with various establishments, including Vogue Department Store, which is centrally located. Uttarakit Road, the main road running alongside Krabi River, is important for its many government offices, Krabi being the provincial capital and the seat of local government. There are also many smaller, private businesses, such as guesthouses, travel agencies, sourvenir shops, local convenience stores, second-hand book exchanges, a complete range of banking facilities, immigration and police. Krabi Hospital lies 1.5 km upriver from the town centre. There is a short road near Chao Fa Pier called Kongka Road, which has the highest number of travel agencies. Leading to it is Chao Fa Road, which has the highest concentration of guesthouses.

Along the riverside in this area are some public gardens known as Chao Fa Park. Furture South is the provincial sports stadium and the grand, spacious Tara Park. This is a great place to relax or take exercise in the afternoon and famous for its tasty snack food, especially som tam. In the evening time, Chao Kong ka Road is transformed into a splendid food bazaar, with dozens of stalls serving a wonderful selection of barbequed seafoods, deep fried chicken with sticky rice, tasty meatballs, and many more fascinating treats besides. Strolling along this road at night, with its riverside location, is a romantic thing in itself. A busier and more commercially orientated night market, which closes at 10 pm can be found opposite City Hotel on a Srisawat Road. This is a good place to hunt for cheap, appetizing, local food, fruits in season, homemade desert, snacks and refreshments. Tourist attractions you can discover within fairly easy reach of Krabi town are as follows : Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Seua) 8 km from Krabi town centre, is a Buddhist monastery surrounded by mountainous primary and secondary forest, with 1,227 steps to the magnificient 600 meter look-out point, revealing Phanom Benchar in the North, Krabi town’s river estuary in the West, and if you can wait for it, an awesome sunset amongst the limestone pinnacles. Tiger Cave Temple also has fascinating stalagmites and stalactites in its many caves. Khao Kanarb Nam From Uttarakit Road and Kongka Road, you can clearly see two 100 meter high limestone pinnacles on either side of the banks of Krabi River. This is for many people the very symbol of Krabi itself. There is a large, well-ventilated cave inside, with stalagmites and stalactites. Local taxi-boats will take you there at a moment’s notice. Transfer time is just five minutes from Chao Ra Pier.

Krabi Mangroves On the river bank opposite the town, there still exists a substamtial area of very fertile mangrove forest and swamps. Canoeing or kayaking is the best way to go exploring here – canoes and kayaks being being widely available for rent at the local travel agencies. Due to the very richness of the natural resources here, the mangrove operate as a kind of marine nursery to many fish species, and it is also home to many kinds of birds. Fishing Village There is a small but thriving fishing community living on the island facing Chao Fa Pier. Apart from fishing, the local people here also breed fish in hinged, floating baskets. Visitors are welcome and can find their way there by taking a local taxi-boat from Chao Fa Pier.

Fresh Market Fresh food markets in Krabi town are crowded with buyers and sellers everyday of the week. All kinds of vegetables, fruits, fish and meat have their place here. Local specialties include various curried dishes with rice, fermented noodles with herbal soups and tsaty confectionery made from flour, coconut and sugar. An enormous variety of fruits arrive at the market, year round and depending on the season : Durian here is referred to as ‘the king of the fruits’. It has a powerful, compelling taste, despite an unpleasant aroma. Mangosteen is known as ‘the queen of the fruits’. It has a dark red shell and sweet or sour, white, juicy flesh. Pomelo is a large, juicy, citrus fruit with a sweet-tasting pulp. The fresh, tropical fruits of Krabi are highly popular with visitors.

Text Source : Krabi Tourism Association

Krabi Rainforest Day Tour

KDSH — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:03:49 +0000

COOL POOL IN THE JUNGLE AND HOT JACUZZI SPA

Jacuzzi In The Jungle,

Learn and discover the amazing natural wonders of the rainforest santuary in Krabi. Along the jungle tracks to the hotspring, watch out for the tall swaying bamboo trees that grows among other plants with their built-in defense systems; observe closely their big sharp thorns that protect themselves from danger. Species of insects, spiders, birds, flowers, rattan creepers and hermit mountain crabs can be found here. This place is rich in tropical fora and fauna. Here one can observe the intricacy growth of the climbing rattan or the marching black jungle ants among the pitcher plants growing under the forest canopy shade.

The famous Krabi rainforest santuary features naturally hollowed-out “bathtubs jacuzzi” filled to the brim with running spring water at a pleasant 35-40C for you to relax in the jungle spa. The pool area was shady and a nice place to relieved stress, tension and soothing aching muscles.

A 30 minutes ride away, tug peacefully in the no-man land, lies Crystal Pool or ‘Sa Morakot’ in Thai. This is a greenish crystal reflection-hued natural pool at the centre of the Khao Nor Chuchi lowland forest, where the source of water originated. The pool is large enough to accommodate tourists going in for a dip or swimming. The water are chest deep and the temperature are cooling especially after the hotspring experience. Take extra care as the floor around the area is super slippery because there are these special layer of moss that grows around it’s surrounding. You can trek your way out of the rainforest along wooden walkway designed over flowing rapids, mossy pools with lots of tiger barbs and other fishes swimming around.

End up the evening with the visit to Krabi Tiger Cave, home to the monks who meditate there among the limestone caves. Archeologists have found remnants of ancient habitations such as stone tools, shards of pottery and beads and idols of clay have all been unearthed. All these bear -testimony to the cultural heritage of the area. A circular path in the nearby forest offers a pleasant walk and a 300-meters (1237 steps) high staircase leads to a large Buddha image and Buddha footprint perched atop the cliff enveloping the area with a great sunset view of the province below.

When you are in Krabi for a holiday, don’t miss Krabi Rainforest as it is all fun and exciting, good for a group or family-oriented trip.

Been here and what blogger discovered & experienced :-

” As we ventured deeper into the forest, we passed small streams, clear pools and lots of rotting leaves. Finally Chim led us to a dark spot and we started to hear noises coming from behind the trees. There was the ‘hot spring’, which was actually a small waterfall flowing down smoothly-polished boulders. The special thing was that there were alcoves formed by the boulders and tree roots which allowed us to anchor ourselves there and submerge in the mini waterfall. According to Chim, as the water that fed the waterfall came from a natural source, it contained minerals beneficial to our bodies. So I lapped them all up while Slug took an even longer time to adapt to the temperature of the water and join me in this natural jacuzzi. So I quickly scrambled into one of the alcoves, chose a private spot and let the hot cascading waters run down my back. We finally arrived at the Emerald Pool and Slug and I were awestruck. It isn’t called the Emerald Pool for nothing. We slid into this shallow pool (about 1.5m) for a delightfully cool swim. We even saw tiger barbs and other fishes swimming around. We checked the water from the river that fed into this pool, but it was nowhere near emerald. So we still wonder today what gave that pool that radiant emerald. After lunch, we were taken to the Wat Tham Seua (Tiger Cave Temple). It is a big temple at the base of a karst tower, which not only houses many Gods, but also is home to the monks who meditate there. The founder of this temple had seen a tiger decades ago at this very location, and so, built this temple to commemorate his sighting and named it thus. Chim told us that there were two flights of stairs in the temple compound. One had 1,300+ steep steps, which led to the meditation temple at the top of the karst tower, and which offered a wide view of the Krabi landscape. I was hoping to scale that flight, but Chim led us to the shorter flight of stairs (130+ steps) instead due to time constraints. Finally, we were taken to the Tiger Cave Temple where we saw figurines of more Gods and tigers, as well as a realistic wax figurine of the founder of this temple. “

MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN KRABI

KRABI RAINFOREST WALK

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KRABI HOTSPRING

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