E Loves Coco

As the title of the post states, I do love fresh coconuts. For those of you who are into such things as adorable babies drinking from coconuts and eating fruit, enjoy as you stay warm/dry during Winter Storm Saturn.

Overstaying Your 30 Day Thai Visa Waiver

To enter Thailand (legally, of course), you can get in without getting an actual visa if you have the right passport (US and Israel work along with 46 other countries). You'd be covered under Thailand's Visa Waiver Program (i.e., you don't need a visa) and can stay in the country for up to 30 days.

Background
We arrived on February 5, 2013.  By my math, 30 days later would be March 7, 2013 (the date of our departure flight out of Thailand).  Except... they counted February 5 as Day 1. So therefore, Day 30 was March 6.

My father asked the immigration officer as soon as he stamped the March 6 deadline into his passport, but he said it was fine and nodded his head in agreement, even shooing us along. Either he thought we'd be fine or the language barrier came into play and he thought my father was asking about getting rub & tugs in Bangkok's red light district.

So for the past month, we've been ignoring this issue and enjoying the Thai hospitality and sunshine all over their country. But now as it was time to leave Thailand, my father started to wonder exactly what would happen at the airport immigration checkpoint since he would have an overstay by 1 day. So he did what any parent does when his kid is sick. No, not ask an official expert. He looked it up online.

By the letter of the law, every day you stay beyond your visa waiver deadline incurs a fee of 500 THB ($17 USD) per person per day. It also potentially puts you on the black list for future entries. But everyone online said they really only cared about the big (20-30+ day violators) and that overstaying by only 1 day is overlooked (no penalty fee). Despite all the informal assurances by "experts" on FlyerTalk and ThaiVisa.com message boards, we weren't so lucky.

Krabi Airport - March 7th

We got to airport extra early (at 1PM) for our 4:50PM flight to Bangkok because the Sheraton Krabi didn't give us the requested late checkout. But that was OK, because there was a Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge for business class / Star Alliance Gold members. So after checking our bags, we went over to the lounge which was on the outside of Security/Immigration.

Side note: We could go through Immigration at the Krabi Airport on a domestic flight to Bangkok because we were connecting to an international departure (so we didn't have to exit the airport in Bangkok and go through security/Immigration again over there). This point is important because now we had to go through Departure Immigration in Krabi.

So around 4PM, we decided to head to security which didn't have any line. Getting through the metal detector and x-ray machine were a breeze since they allowed me to stay seated in my stroller instead of having to put my wheels through the x-ray. But then around the corner, there were 2 long lines waiting for Immigration checks.

It was getting close to boarding time (4:25PM) and we were still about 6 people back. A Thai Airways employee identified our purple boarding passes and asked all Thai Airways passengers on the 4:50PM flight to come to the front of the line and cut in front of everyone. Sure, why not?

Bad Online Advice #1.  When my mother handed the Immigration agent her passport, he flipped through it and said "Overstay!" like he had caught an international drug dealer. We tried to say it was only 1 day, but he didn't care. Then he started punching away at his computer and walked back to a small table with paper documents on it. He repeated this about 4 or 5 times as the rest of the line started to roll their eyes and shake their heads in disgust at us/him.

Well, it was taking a quite a while. My father knew this Immigration agent was going to be a stickler for the rules, and he was prepared to pay the 1 day penalty for my mother and him (young children don't have to pay). But my father didn't have any Thai Bhat left. (He read online about a trick to use all your leftover foreign currency to pay down your hotel bill and then the credit card to pay the remaining balance, Bad Online Advice #2).

And the third and final fatal online advice he got: they said that as of December 2012, you could use a credit card to pay the overstay penalty fee. But that was probably for Bangkok Airport. In Krabi, cash was king. The Thai Airways flight attendent almost threw a fit when my father said he only had credit cards. With no ATM in sight, my mother was getting nervous that we'd miss our flight.

But luckily, my father he had some US dollars in his wallet and threw out two crisp Jefferson's ($40USD = 1,200 THB). The Immigration officer said "OK" and put the money into his pocket (shady!).

He then made my parents sign some forms written in Thai (probably relinquishing all rights to their only child), and we were finally on their way to Bangkok.

Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort
Dates: February 28-March 7, 2013
Rate Paid: 2,800 SPG Points + $45 /night
Regular Rate: $223 / night (incl. taxes)
Total $ Savings: $1,243
Point Redemption Value: 6.3 cents/pt

Now that you know how my father cleverly booked this 7 night stay using SPG Cash & Points, here's what I thought about the hotel.

To begin, I will say that this resort is like a middle aged divorced mom who was probably very attractive when she was younger, but has succumbed to time and the wear & tear of dirty Europeans having their way with her. Now she was looking for any nickle or dime she could get her hands on.

As we drove up the hotel's driveway around 4:30PM, we were sort of expecting some staff to help with our luggage out of the taxi.

 Perhaps we were getting a bit spoiled and entitled, but after traveling since 10AM that morning, my parents were desperate for any help they could get. But no one came, so we made do and lugged our bags up the ramp to the main lobby area.

We found the lobby to be somewhat crowded for the mid-afternoon, with lots of guests sitting around on their smart phones.  I suppose it was because they charged for WiFi in your room, but it was free in the spacious lobby. So yeah, it was full of cheap Europeans.

The open air layout meant it was humid and muggy. There were strong Russian accents mixed in with the scent of the famous Sheraton white tea shampoo that they pump into the air.  The front desk welcomed my father and asked for our passports as mother chased me around the lobby. After sitting in a stroller or car seat for almost 7 hours, my fat little legs were in need of stretching.

As I mentioned yesterday, they found my father's 1st reservation for 5 nights and he informed them there was another reservation for an additional 2 nights. He also asked if they had any rooms with a king sized bed instead of the 2 queens in the reservation (that was the only option available for Cash & Points).

We had hoped the single king bed request could be accommodated, but apparently they were unable to find anything aside from a smaller non-renovated room. They apologized and encouraged us to take the room with the double bed saying it was a SPG Gold room and renovated (sure it was). But it didn't seem like we had much choice, so we just took what we reserved.

Then they proceeded to make a surprisingly hard push for us to "upgrade our reservation" to include Club Lounge access. Access would give us a place to have breakfast each morning (a smaller spread than in the main breakfast restaurant) as well as free beer/wine in the evenings, but most frugal men (especially my father) will never pay up for an extra option. For him, it's either free/included in the base price or he's not using it. So we passed knowing full well that the "free" club lounge breakfast wasn't worth the price to upgrade.

Our Room
The room they gave us (Room 381) was in Building H, at the far end of the resort.  The property was quite large, and it took a good 10-12 minutes to walk from the lobby to our building/room.

We didn't specifically ask for a room that far away, but we did find that we enjoyed the leisurely stroll everyday and it was probably quieter than the rooms closer to the lobby. Or perhaps, as my father says, I'm just rationalizing a bad outcome.

Nevertheless, here are some photos of Room 381.

In either case, we got into our room and blasted the air conditioning. If they were going to be difficult at every turn, might as well get our $45/night's worth. My parents also pushed the two beds together to make a mega-bed (or as I like to call it, my trampoline).

Hotel Restaurants
The hotel had 3 different sit-down restaurants (Mangosteens, Malati's and Geckos). Given there was a handful of restaurants right outside the front gate, we didn't really eat in any of the Sheraton restaurants except for a failed breakfast one morning at Mangosteens where I threw a huge fit because I didn't want to sit down in the high chair.

The food was decent, but nothing worth paying 2-3x for. Pizzas were about 250-300 THB ($8-10 USD) and sandwiches were about the same. Those prices seem about right for an American restaurant, but of course, the portions weren't US sizes.

Like I said earlier, we mostly ate out of the hotel along the street where they had about 5-7 places at more reasonable (though still inflated) prices (about 120-200 THB per entree, or about $4-7 USD).

Most of the places were Thai restaurants, but we did find a few more international places, including one called Maya that served Swedish meatballs. We mixed it up every day between Thai or Indian for an early lunch (places didn't open until 11-1130AM) and International (or 7-11) for dinner.

Hotel Amenities for Kids
As the Sheraton Krabi was a large Western resort, they attracted a lot of families who wanted some comforts that a guesthouse or lower budget hotel wouldn't have. For example, there were sections of the activity pool that were shallow enough for babies like me to stand and even sit.

And they also had a Kids Club that was stock full of toys, arts & crafts, puzzles and DVDs. The rule was that if you were 4 years or older, you could get signed in and the staff would watch you while your parents were at the pool or beach.

But for babies like me, I needed my mother or father there at all times. I had fun there for a few of the days we were here, but I couldn't imagine spending 7 straight days in there.

Overall
So that was our stay at Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort. It was a fine place to stay but nothing amazing. In fact, everything seemed worn and tired, including many of the staff. Very few people seemed to really enjoy working here (or at least fake it well enough), but then again, who does? The beach here at Klong Muang was nice, but not a destination beach worth going out of your way for. They did do a great job keeping all the gardens and landscaping looking pristine though. And the WiFi was pretty consistently stable in the room.

But if I were to come back (with or without my parents), I'd probably prefer to stay on Railay Beach, but for only $45 USD a night using C&P, the Sheraton option was tough to beat.

Here are some photos of the rest of the property if you're into that sorta thing.

By the time you're all reading this, I'll be slowly making my way back to the US via Bangkok (BKK) and Seoul (ICN) for a weekend in San Bernardino county (California) with my new friend Peyton and her parents Hannah and Ivan.  Then, I'm back in NYC on Monday morning.  Prepare your finest baby sized pizzas and burgers!

Smarter Way to Book SPG Cash & Points

For our final week in Thailand, we decided to return to our beloved Starwood Hotels and stay at the Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort (after our last fling with Hilton/Conrad the week before).

The hotel was a Category 3, which meant we could either get (A) a free night for 7,000 SPG Points or (B) a night using the Cash & Points ("C&P") option for 2,800 SPG Points + $45 per night.  [UPDATE: the Starwood C&P prices have increased as of March 5, 2013 so it would now be 3,500 SPG points + $55 per night]

With cash pay rates at $223/night, Option A implied you were getting 3.2 cents/pt of redemption value but Option B was 6.3 cents/pt.  Guess which one my "always optimizing" father picked?

As I mentioned last week, it took us a while to get here from Koh Samui.  And while we were excited to check out the Krabi province (and its world famous beaches), we were also looking forward to just enjoying a regular hotel with normal (read: not rich) tourists where a baby could sleep using a diaper as a pillow just be herself and not get dirty looks from people.

During check in, they found my father's 1st reservation (Feb 28-Mar 5) pretty quickly, but he had to remind them that he had another one for March 5-7.  Why does my father make multiple consecutive reservations?  Well, he has a reason for that of course.

Background
As mentioned in another post (and above), Starwood has 2 ways to book a room with SPG points: (A) Free Night Award or (B) Cash & Points.

(A) The Free Night Award is available whenever there is a standard room available.  If the hotel is <95% occupancy, then Starwood pays the hotel something like $20-40 (estimate) as reimbursement for allowing their SPG member to book a room with points.  The hotel takes it because it would have gone empty otherwise, and they might as well get some income for their fixed cost.

However, if the hotel is 95%+ occupancy at the time of points booking, then SPG has to reimburse them at/around the full Average Daily Rate (in this case, around $223).  But the hotel HAS to make every standard room available for the Free Night Award redemption to be a part of the Starwood family. But since they'll get their Average Daily Rate from Starwood, the hotel is somewhat indifferent (though the Points Guest is probably more frugal than a Cash Guest).

(B) The Cash & Points program is different.  The hotel still gets a cash payment (from you this time instead of from Starwood), but not every standard room is available for C&P.

In this case, hotels can voluntarily elect to participate in this program whenever they want to fill vacant rooms, but can also choose to not participate when they feel they'll get strong demand from guests who pay in actual cash. Since they will only get your small cash co-pay, they have no chance of getting close to the Average Daily Rate during high demand times.

So if you want to book with C&P during high season, you're only chance is to book months in advance before the hotel gets too confident about its occupancy rates.

Our Sheraton Krabi Reservation
My father originally booked this reservation (Feb 24-Mar 7 split up in 3 different C&P reservations) back in October as soon as he found out about his job situation. And because the hotel allowed cancellations with 48 hours notice, he felt like he still had all his options open. But again, why the multiple bookings?

• Reservation 1:  Feb 24-Feb 28 (4 nights) for 11,200 SPG points + $180 cash
• Reservation 2:  Feb 28-Mar 5 (5 nights) for 14,000 SPG points + $225 cash
• Reservation 3:  Mar 5-Mar 7 (2 nights) for 5,600 SPG Points + $90 cash

When your hotel bookings are flexible, your plans firm up and you have a better sense of where you'll be, you can adjust your hotel reservation to match. However, with the C&P booking, you can't modify your check-in or check-out dates to shorten your stay.  You can only cancel and then hope to rebook with C&P if they're still available.

In this case, the hotel was now fully booked by late November and no longer offered any more C&P availability. So any small change in the booking would require a cancellation of the complete reservation (i.e., 11 nights from Feb 24 to Mar 7).

But instead of putting all 11 nights in one reservation basket, he broke it up into multiple reservations so that each one could be cancelled without it affecting the rest of the nights.

And this came in very useful, because when he called an audible on our vacation plans to extend our stay at the Conrad Koh Samui (from 2 nights to 6 nights) last week, all he had to do was cancel the 1st of the 3 Sheraton reservations and now he had his desired 7 night stay.

• Reservation 1:  Feb 24-Feb 28 (4 nights) - CANCELLED
• Reservation 2:  Feb 28-Mar 5 (5 nights)
• Reservation 3:  Mar 5-Mar 7 (2 nights)

Had he not split up the Sheraton bookings originally, then to stay at the Conrad for those 6 nights last week, it would have meant he would lost the valuable C&P bookings at Sheraton Krabi for the remaining 7  nights (Feb 28-Mar 7). Then he would have had to rebook at the full Average Daily Rate (paying actual cash) at that time (late February) which would likely have been higher than the $223/night he found back in October.

But all I care about is that I get a real bed to sleep in. I'm tired of this car seat.

Visiting Railay Beach

Railay is a popular beach destination when you're staying in/around Krabi.  They say it's kid friendly but from our experience, you'll have to be pretty comfortable traveling with your baby if you're planning on getting there.

As you can see from the photo (taken from the southern view), there are 3 pristine sugary white beaches:  Railay West (left), Railay East (right), and Pranang Cave Beach (bottom).

But as you can also see, there are massive limestone mountains that block any land access to Railay, so you have to reach these magical beaches by boat from Ao Nang beach (far upper left corner) and go around the limestone cliff border.

But the trip is worth it, because the area is quite stunning and makes for amazing photos that you can use to passively brag to your friends online (which is the whole point of Facebook anyway, right?) But I digress.  "How do you get to Railay," you ask?  Well, let me tell you.

I'm only 16 months old, but I'm getting pretty good with reading maps.  The best way for us to reach Railay was to take a Sheraton shuttle van from Klong Muang Beach (just to the left of the penis looking figure) and drive to Ao Nang (towards the center of the map where all the roads converge). From there, we found a cheap ferry.

Ao Nang itself (seen below) isn't much more than 2 long streets lined with various restaurants, lodging, souvenir shops and massage places. At the end of the street closest to the west, there's a bunch of street food carts selling fried chicken, noodles & rice, and fruits.

On the far other end, after the turn (mentioned below), there's a shady redlight district area full of cheap bars.  They're not on the main street, so you have to go through one of the side alleys. Overall, Ao Nang isn't much but it's very much a backpacker haven for those who want to visit Railay but not pay the resort prices to stay there. 

The only thing of interest for a baby would be the pharmacies & convenience stores to get diapers or milk. We did pass by a 7-11 under construction, so they have that going for them...

When the street reaches the beach, it turns sharply left and turns into the 2nd street. At this corner, you'll find a small ticket booth (seen here in the photo) on the beach side of the road.

Here they sell tickets to the longtail boat ferries to take you around the cliffs to Ao Railay as well as other longtail boat tours/rides to other island destinations like Chicken Island or Tub Island.

A few notes about the Ferries:

1.  Tickets cost 100 THB per person one way (about $3.33 USD).  Babies ride free.

2.  You should buy round-trip tickets from Ao Nang because rumor has it that one-way tickets back from Railay back to Ao Nang can be incredibly expensive.  I don't think this situation is true (or at least anymore), but might as well play it safe.

3.  The ferry has no set schedule and departs whenever the boatmen decide there's enough passengers to make it worth their while.  My father the day before around 3PM and after waiting about 10 minutes, they just took him by himself.  Most tourists go in the morning and actually come back between 3PM-6PM.

3.  There is no pier, so to get on board the boat, you will have to wade into the water -- probably up to your hips if you're my father's height (or to your knees if you were a normal sized man).

4.  Any thing that cannot get soaked (cameras, phones, towels, adorable babies and return ferry tickets!) should be held in your hands up high and put into the boat before trying to climb on board.


5.  The ride should be smooth provided the waters are calm. If they're not, the ferrymen will still take you over, but you may be in for a roller coaster of a boat ride.

6. The boat ride to Railay should be about 11 minutes (my father timed it - what a dork!)

As you first approach the limestone cliffs, you'll realize how beautiful they are. Then as you get closer, you realize how truly massive they are. It's almost as if they were created solely to be a wall to protect Railay from bad swimmers and poor people who couldn't afford to buy ferry tickets.

But after you clear the cliff, then you see the magnificent beach of Railay West ahead of you and realize all the effort was worth it.

As the boat pulls up to the shore, you have to steady yourself and jump off into the shallow water. Some friendly advice, don't jump off with a baby in the bjorn.  Rather, wait for your significant other to get off the boat and then do a hand off.  Just sayin....

As picturesque as Railay West is, you cannot visit Railay without going to Pranang Cave Beach on the southern end.  But getting there isn't as simple as walking along the water.  Nope.  First you walk to Railay East, then from there, you continue south and then turn as you get to the mountain and head on towards Pranang Beach.  So here's how you get there.

First, as you start on Railay West, you'll see a bunch of restaurants and shops.  Walk south until you find a sign for Railay Bay Resort & Spa.  Immediately to the left of that hotel sign, there should be a paved pathway that heads away from the water.

Take that path and pass the tourism shop until you find a fork in the road with signs steering you left. You've found the Path (no, not the train that connects New Jersey with Manhattan), but the paved walkway that connects Railay West with Railay East.

In case you get worried you're going the wrong way, there is a part of this walkway that leads you behind some of the hotel rooms. That's the right way. As my mother put it, "it looks like you're walking through Auschwitz" because of the old cement walls lined with rusty barb wire. But you're going the right direction. Eventually, the path returns to the normal serene garden view as soon as you get past the hotel buildings.

Now, at this point on the Path, if you turn the wrong way on any of the side walkways, then you're actually going into one of the resorts. Luckily for you, they have signs informing you that they're for hotel guests only (what a great security system).

Eventually, you will reach Railay East.  They say it's not as nice of a beach (and they're right).  It looks more like an island lagoon (that during low tide gets really muddy) instead of being a sandy beach to sunbathe on.  Nevertheless, it still makes for an amazing screensaver on your office computer. But a word of caution. As my father says, "If I ever saw someone with computer wall paper of some tropical place, I'd just assume he's a lazy daydreamer and fire him."

When you reach the water, you then turn right and proceed to walk south, continuing along the paved path until you reach an intersection of sorts.

To the left, you'll find a rock climbing area where white people pay money to try to be monkeys, scaling the steep face of a limestone cliff.  To the right, you continue to walk around the limestone mountain.

This path follows the base of the mountain which is lined with dozens of small caves and what looks to be pathways (probably not fit for babies).  But if you had proper shoes (ie, not Crocs) and a flashlight, then you would likely see some cool limestone stalactites & stalagmites.

But even if you just stayed on the paved path, you'll still get to see enough cool cave formations to check it off your bucket list.

About halfway down that path though, you'll reach a "resting area" with covered benches that looks like a primitive bus stop. This is the location where you can venture off the proverbial beaten path and climb up the jungle side of the mountain to reach a "secret" lagoon (that apparently everyone knows about).

Even if my father had me strapped securely to his baby bjorn, I'd still freak out if he climbed on tree roots and ropes to visit some lagoon fill of sweaty, dirty European backpackers when I'd be perfectly happy splashing around in our hotel bathtub. But I hear the view is quite nice and worth the 20 minutes of climbing/hiking to get to the top.

We, however, opted against climbing up to the view point and continued to our final destination -  Pranang Cave Beach.  As it turned out, we reached it in about 2 minutes continuing down the path.  Suddenly, the narrow pathway opens up to an amazing beach with a massive cave along the left.  It's very striking.  Between the sharp knife like intensity of the limestone structures and the powdery white serenity of the white sand beach and emerald ocean, you realize you're definitely not in New York anymore.