A Very Krabi Firstbud! - The Bill Beaver Project

Hua Hin → Bangkok → Krabi
157.8 mi (253.9 km)*

Sùk sǎn Firstbud, everyone kap!

As you know, Firstbud is the beaver holiday that celebrates the arrival of spring! As you might also know, none of my adventures since the equinox have come near great waterfront blooms, put part of Mom’s grand plan for quality vacation time was to find some equally suitable Firstbud conditions! That plan began to unfold as we hopped on a plane from Bangkok to Krabi and took a long-tail boat to the Centara Grand Beach Resort, an impossibly beautiful place nestled in a secluded cove! To get there, though, we’d have to brave the floating pier, which rocked and rolled with every passing wave!

But once we were ashore, what a place! We had an entire beachfront villa that could have housed a whole family of humans at the price of a decent, but basic, hotel in the States! There was a private yard with lounge chairs where we could kick back and enjoy the sound of the surf, which was just on the other side of the gate!

We even had our own private swimming pool! That’s a luxury I’ve sure never had before! My mom sort of has a private pool in the form of the pond at Neungheodae Park, but nothing this clear! Since Mom had forgotten to pack her tuho supplies, we were going to spend this vacation reconnecting with the time-honored beaver tradition of swimming!

The private pool was nice, but the main pool was stunning! Just look at that view! There was a “cave” and a waterslide, plus lots of fountains to splash around in! We were just across the Andaman Sea from the famed beach city of Phuket, but this place felt a lot more like a secret island hideaway! There were more roving monkeys than guests here, at least that we could see, and as rainstorms switched on and off across the afternoon, it was clear that this wasn’t the height of the tourist season!

So we had the first part of Firstbud covered (the watery frolic), but what to do about the flowers in the trees? Well, there were plumerias everywhere, dropping flowers left and right, so we decided to take some Firstbud with us to the beach! It was a little unusual, but with some roaring waves and mango smoothies, it was enough to call a successful Firstbud. When you’re in an island cove, surrounded by towering cliffs on all sides, there isn’t much to do but enjoy the ambience, and that’s just what we did!