Foods You Should Try in Krabi

WARNING: DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE HUNGRY.

Hello! Thanks for all your comments on my personal Instagram asking for food suggestions in Krabi.

So, in this post, I'll basically showing off foods we had while we're in Krabi. :p
If you haven't read about my tips on traveling to Krabi, please refer to this post.

I love to try different McDonalds ice-cream flavors when I travel other than different Strabucks drinks which aren't available in Malaysia. So, when I was in Krabi, there was this Mango ice-cream  I gotta try and maann it's really good even though we had it when it was raining at night. LOL

Now what's Thailand without its tomyum? It's like going to Seoul without trying their kimchi. That seafood tomyum is the best we've had! There were tons of fresh seafood inside with the right level of sourness and spiciness. We had this in one of the store inside Jame foodcourt near the Ao Nang mosque. I couldn't find the picture of the store but if you see a professional looking chef (I meant literally like a chef with his white chef uniform and long hat - is that what you call it? idk lol), go order your food there. *swallow saliva*

Tried these at the same foodcourt. Not that special.

We tried these cute balls at Krabi town weekend night market. It's like one of Malaysian traditional dessert called gula Melaka but these are smaller with big gula Melaka inside. So so goood! Well, I think they made everything tastes better in Thai.

Of course, mango sticky rice.

Cute waffles at the night market

Basically at the night market, we filled ourselves with street foods instead of real-big-portion foods. You should also try the creamy coconut milkshakes they have there. I think there's only one store selling it at the night market. 

Pancakes are popular desserts/street foods in Krabi as well. I regretted not to eat it everyday there. -.- Still, managed to have these while we're strolling down the Ao Nang beach.

Butter cheese pancake. 1 isn't enough.

Chocolate banana pancake. I love their soft and slightly chewy pancake.

By-the-road restaurant

On our last day, we had lunch at one of the restaurants found nearby our resort. The foods there were good too. Best part is, they gave us fresh pineapple as a starter. 

Need to find out how to make that dip. It goes really well with pineapple.

Unlike asam cicah we had in Malaysia, this one is like asam powder mixed with sugar, a little bit of salt and chilly flakes. Other foods we had there:

Tomyum, pad thai, again and again

This tomyum over here has that kick I tell you. And generous amount of seafood as well. Other recommendation is this plain rice with yellow fried chicken (forgot the name).

Taste almost like ayam goreng kunyit but so much better.

We ate at Adeela Delicious nearby the Emerald Pool entrance. Surprisingly, the food price is the average considering its location in one of the major attractions. What we had:

Yum mama. Delicious :)

Pad Thai. Not the best we had but still good!

We had Pad Thai almost everyday! LOL 

Kim loves it too much. Idk how it taste so much better than our kue teow goreng in Malaysia *salivating*

Our last dinner was spent here. Kim found this place to be quite famous among Koreans. It's located along Ao Nang beach and the area is like an open foodcourt where we really enjoyed the ambiance. What we had: 

Tomyam fried rice. (Y)

Soft shell crab.

I forgot the full name (like ketam masak kunyit like that) but it taste so good I had to keep up eating it with Kim because he was eating it faster than he usually did.

Fried chicken in pandan leaves. 

I really love this dish. It's not the best one I had because I had tried a crunchy one in one of the Thai restaurants in KL but can't deny that this dish completed our meals there. 

Fresh mango juice.

We drank fresh juices everyday for lunch & dinner because it's so fresh and most importantly, cheap there. 

Finally, don't forget to shop for Thai instant noodles and snacks at their supermarket like Tesco Lotus or Big C.

I literally filled in a big trolley with these and ended up paying like 700baht (which is SUPER CHEAP - around RM80). Even with these much, we finished it in like a week or so. Next time, I'll book a whole 20kg luggage for these. 

So, that's all for my Krabi journey. All in all, Halal foods and snacks aren't hard to find and they're marvelous. I would suggest getting some snacks as souvenirs instead of the normal touristy stuff (read: keychains/fridge magnets).

Thanks for reading! 

P/S: I shoot a video with Kim and our friends, trying out these snacks. I'll post it on my Youtube (yes, I finally have one) channel once it's ready. ^_^v

How to Go to Singapore by Car for First Timer

I'm currently living in Skudai - another city closed to Johor Bahru (JB) which is actually just across Singapore. I usually go to Singapore by bus since it’s the cheapest way of traveling to Singapore until one of my Singaporean friends told me that it’s more comfortable to go to Singapore by KTM train.

Believe it or not, it takes just 5 minutes by train and RM5 (one-way) from JB Sentral to Singapore by KTM train. The cons of taking a train to Singapore are the limited time and tickets where if you didn’t book your ticket earlier, it might be hard to get it especially during the peak hours and weekend. 

FYI, if you buy return tickets at once in JB, you only have to pay RM10 but if you buy separately, you will have to pay SGD5 from Singapore to JB. 

I'll talk more about this on my upcoming posts :)

Ok, let’s get to the actual point. Last month, my family and I decided to visit Singapore for Eid by car. It’s our and my first time of going to Singapore by car. I’m quite nervous but thanks to this blog, I learnt few things I need to take care of before going.

In case you don’t know, there are two highways you can take to go into Singapore. The first one is through Woodlands (main entrance, and the nearest to JB city). Another one is through the second link known as Tuas Linkedua. Linkedua is a little bit far from the JB city but if you’re from Nusajaya or Bukit Indah, this way will be the fastest one to go to Singapore. It was Saturday when we went there. Weekend means that the traffic is kinda unpredictable unlike in the weekdays where you only have to avoid rush hours (morning 5-8 and evening 4-7). 

So we kept on checking the live streaming video here before choosing Tuas as the way to go in. The toll fee is a little big expensive through Linkedua as compared to Woodlands but we chose spending more money than time stuck in the traffic. 

As expected, at 6pm, it took us less than 20minutes to go into Singapore through Tuas Linkedua. Oh! Before I forgot, other than the toll you have to pay to enter Singapore, there’ll be a Gelang Patah toll before you leave Johor which costs RM7.60.

After scanning our passports at the Malaysian custom, we proceeded with the Singapore custom. We need to fill in a white card as visitors in Singapore. After that, we have to stop and the car’s bunk will be checked. Since it’s our first time, we need to buy the Autopass (it works as Touch & Go in Malaysia). After our car has been checked, we proceeded to the office on the left of the customs to buy the card. It costs SGD20 with SGD14 value inside the card. Other than that, we were asked to fill in a form and show our insurance & car’s grant for registration. Note that one Autopass card can be registered with a vehicle only.  And that’s it! That’s all we did to go to Singapore by car.

Other tips to go to Singapore from JB:

1.       Bus to Singapore. If you’re taking buses, you need to know where you’re going as the charges for each bus may vary. It’s not as convenient especially if you’re with small kids or elders because from my experience, it could take up to 4 hours from the JB causeway and immigration (have to go up and down twice– 1 JB's and 1 Singapore's custom separately which means you have to get on and off the buses, wait for them etc). But hey, if you want to cut down the cost, this is the best way.

2.       Train to Singapore. You can buy the train tickets online (different charges) or buy it directly at the KTM counter in JB Sentral. You can also check the time and tickets availability here. Usually the morning tickets (5am to 8am) and evening tickets (5-6pm) are fast-selling because of the rush hour I believe. Not to forget, as mentioned earlier, THE WEEKEND. Trust me, you would rather spend more money than standing for hours to go to Singapore.

3.       Fill up your tank (and stomach maybe?) before going in. Price for gas in Singapore is expensive. No kidding. If you’re entering from Tuas, you’re spoilt with choices: Shell, Proton and Petron, right after Gelang Patah toll.

4.       Prepare small SGD cash change for the Autopass card. That's what written at the office. Easier for them I guess because it's a small counter without proper cashier machine whatsover.

5.       Reload the Autopass card at any convenient stores (eg: 7-eleven, Cheers) in Singapore before going out of Singapore. You need to have enough balance (or else you might end up paying an amount of fine, sure you wouldn't wan that?).

6.       Don’t forget to reload your Touch & Go card as well. Coming into Malaysia you'll need to pay the toll and it can be paid only through T&G. 

7.       Abide the rules in Singapore. I don’t mean you can take Malaysian rules simply but yeah… I don’t think I have to justify this lol.

8.       Avoid both entrance early in the morning (5-8am) and in the evening (4-7pm). These are the rush hour as told by my Malaysian friends who are working at Singapore. Generally during the weekend, traffic going into JB will be bad in the Friday and Sunday evening. Just check on the live streaming link I shared earlier, just to be sure. 

9.       Only vehicle less than 10 years old are allowed in. But I heard in some cases, they didn’t check your car’s grant so I guess it might just depends on luck.

10.    Note the VEP fee is SGD35 per entry except on public holidays, weekend and weekdays after 5pm.

Cost:

T&G Gelang Patah toll fee – RM7.60
T&G coming into JB – RM3+ (I forgot how much exactly but RM3 plus)

Autopass – SGD20

Reload – SGD30

Total payment when exiting Singapore – SGD17.60 (included, tolls, ERP and parking)

VEP fee is free for first timer (valid for 10 days only). 

I hope this post helps! Do lemme know if you wanna know more on other modes to go to Singapore. Thanks for reading!