It was meant to be a family holiday. But the way things started with family minus 1 was hardly auspicious. As usual I had booked our annual vacation many moons ago (like almost a year in advance), being the 'kiam siap' mom that I am, to take advantage of Air Asia's sales. Booking this way had its risks - it was always a 'hit-n-run' kind of thing, because we never quite knew whether all of us would be free on the dates booked a year ahead. So far, we have been doing ok for the past years, but this time, we hit a major red-lite. We were booked for a 4 day trip to Krabi, Thailand, but it turned out the youngest boy, who had just entered uni this year, had a presentation test which he couldn't possibly miss on the scheduled day of departure. So I had to rebook him on an earlier flight, which meant he would miss the substantial holidaying time, not to mention additional expenses incurred for his changed flight. But I figured, half a holiday is better than none for him.
Things didn't improve when we flew into Krabi. Rain and wind greeted us for the better part of the first 1 1/2 days, not to mention we had arrived over a 2 day public holiday in town, which meant many shops were closed. It was an ominous sign. Still the kids managed to do a little shopping and we did find some pretty decent road-side food, before we headed off to Ao Nang, intending to catch the boat out to the island proper where we were to spend the rest of the holiday .
But the rain continued stalking us, despite my fervent SOS-es to heaven. We had intended to ship out from Ao Nang to Railay island by mid-afternoon. However the guys decided to delay it till late evening to enable my son to get a custom-made-to-order suit. That was when the near-misses started. Thinking that it was ok to delay the departure time, since we had bought boat tix, we merrily dumped our bags in the tix agent office and went off to do our own thingy. For me, that was a hair cut and color job, whilst the younger princess settled for a simple braiding and since she finished first, she nicely left for the island on her own. The other 2 kids treated themselves to a 2 hr massage. Waiting for the hair stylist to finish an earlier customer, it struck me the tix agent office could very well be closed by evening, so I double-backed and indeed it turned out they closed shop by 5 pm, so by hook or by crook we had better get our luggage out or else!! Thankfully my eldest and I were done just in the nick of time to be able to collect our stuff. But we hadn't bargained on having to walk a loooong way out on the sandy beach to catch the boat as it was (very) low tide. It would have been ok if it was just our own luggage, but we had to lug along the guys' stuff as they were still at the tailors. By the time we reached the island, the weather had turned really nasty with heavy rain and strong wind. Another long walk out from the boat struggling against waves and wind with slippers and 2 bags in hand each to get to the shore got us completely drenched. Someone commented sympathetically we had begun 'swimming' (in the rain). The guys arrived very much later, because they missed the last scheduled boat by 10 mins and so besides having to pay extra, had to wait an hour more!
My heart was pleading with God...please, all I ask is 1 day of sunshine tomorrow, at least for the boy to enjoy himself a short while on the beach before his departure. So it was early the next morning the boy was up accompanied by his (sporting) sister to catch a cold dip in the sea. Then it started to rain again, so we sat thru a very long breakfast session waiting for the sky to ease up, which thankfully it did.The younger princess had signed up for a rock-climbing session, so I decided to accompany her to explore a bit of the island. But as I was waiting for her to do her stunt, I remembered the boy's boarding pass was still in my hotel room - and he was leaving already. So it was a mad dash back to the hotel and amazingly I caught him just as he was walking out to catch the boat. Talk about perfect timing. So off he went ; at least he was happy that he had gotten his first suit very nicely done up, and his uncle plied him with a yummy lunch and special ice-cream before seeing him into a private taxi to board the flight home all by himself.
Back on the island, it was nail-biting time as we wanted to catch an afternoon trip out island-hopping, but wasn't sure if the uncle would make it back. As I was about to give up, there he came, hurrying up from the water's edge...just in time. That was when I knew despite all the near-misses and bad starts to this holiday, God's timing would be perfect somehow. And indeed it was - the weather did clear up beautifully, and we had a great day out in the sea, covering 4 islands and 3 snorkeling sessions, during one of which the sharp-tonged loud-mouthed entertaining tour-guide led us to "finding Nemo" in the ocean. The penultimate treat was a BBQ dinner watching the sun-set over the sea. The dinner was measly, but the sunset was magnificent. By the time we hit for home-shore, it was already dark and the stars were out in full force all over the sky above the shimmering sea waters.... awesome sight to behold. But for me, the best part was actually the last bit, which lasted all of 5 mins. The boat stopped off some cave on the way back for night snorkeling, with a difference. No one except 3 of us and 1 foreigner (out of 44 on the boat) dared take to the dark waters. But once inside it was a marvelous sight to behold literally hundreds of plankton glowing underneath the sea, stirred up in a frenzy by our movements...dazzling silver streaks of moving light against the pitch-black waters. Man, it is indescribable. From the boat, apparently they could see our bodies all lighted up in outline by the phosphorecence.
And finally in God's timing, the sun came out strong the next morning. My no. 2 and I had decided to do some trekking to catch a panoramic view of the surroundings. She left earlier with a new fren she had made on the boat trip. I took my time, as the hotel guy told me it would take just about 10 mins using ropes to climb to the view point and we still had a couple of hours to spare. I think his 10 mins applied more to an monkey than to an old 50+ aunty who had never rock-climbed in her entire life. It was much tougher than the rock-climb my girl had earlier completed. 10 mins of huffing, puffing and pulling myself up by half-worn out pieces of slippery mud-covered ropes along very steep rocky crags had me sweating and wishing I had never started. I was only glad there was no one with me to see me sliding and slithering up and down the rocks, although I did pass a family of monkeys sitting on some tree branches who, I swear were laughing out loud at me; at least that's how their chatter sounded like.
I lost my way twice, but managed to get back on the trail till I hit the final stretch, where the way ahead was an almost perpendicular rock surface which dropped straight down to the beach view point. Man, I was that close, so near yet so far, but I knew I had to turn back, for I was running short of time, and I couldn't have managed the descent and ascent again. I retraced the torturous climb back and finally made it to the hotel, all covered in mud. My no. 1 princess and the uncle were already packed and ready to leave. I knew my no. 2 would never make it back in time, as gung-ho that she is, she had gone further on an even tougher climb to another lagoon spot in the jungle. So the plan was for me to wait for her, and then meet up with the other 2 in Ao Nang.
Indeed she was very very late, off by an hour. By the time she came back, there was no boat out to Ao Nang. But there was 1 willing to take us to Krabi instead and from there arrange a taxi for us direct to the airport. So detour it was. The only problem was I couldn't contact the other 2 waiting for us in Ao Nang, since both our phones had died-ed, 'drowned' by Krabi rain and sea water. It was only when we arrived at the airport that I managed to call them from a public phone, only to find they were still waiting there but were just about to give up and proceed to the airport without us. It was a very close call, but thanks be to God and a very fast driver, they made it to the check-in gate on the dot, just before it closed. Like I said.....perfect timing.
Surely this was the most 'fragmented' holiday ever. The son had to leave earlier, the weather was unpredictable, at times we were all separated, doing our own tingy, we had no contingency plans, 2 (so smart) phones and my camera went kaput; our luggage almost got locked up, we missed boats and almost missed schedules and flights.... still it could have been worse, I guess. God didn't grant my prayers for an idyllic holiday, but He did protect, deliver and gift us with one that I would describe as simply .... out of the ordinary.
"As for God, His way is perfect.....He shields all who take refuge in Him" - Psalm 18:30
For fotos, click here
And more fotos here
No comments:
Post a Comment