Went for a 3D2N yoga retreat on 29 Aug in Krabi, Thailand and you can read about that experience here. This post is going to be on the resort that we stayed in, which is the Ban Sainai Resort. Walking on the gravel road to the reception, I was not really impressed until we made our short walk to our cottage and into the cottage itself.
Every pair of us had a whole cottage to themselves and boy was it HUGE. It could fit another queen sized bed in there and still have ample space for us to sprawl all the items in our bags on the floor.
The toilet was gigantic too. I think it’s almost the same size as my bedroom here in Singapore. Not kidding.
We had a big verandah that could easily fit a BBQ party for 6 adults comfortably and we were treated to a rustic, countryside view.
We were also given a welcome basket full of yummy fruits! It has been a long time since I’ve eaten Buah Langsat (the round ones behind the orchid) so I was really happy to be munching on these before our 1st yoga workshop that evening. After our workshop, my friend and I headed off to the pool for a quick soak before dinner.
The pool is sorta like an infinity pool but you’ll only get that feeling when you’re on the upper deck. The water was strangely salty and not very chlorinated. The lounge chairs do not have adjustable heights so they’re good for general lying down but a bit of a bummer if you want to tan your back or read a view. However, that’s all secondary because the view from the pool is amazing.
We were treated to the beautiful view of the huge cliff which turned into a gorgeous shade of gold as the sun set.
I was very thankful to have been able to capture the above photo because this didn’t last very long. Within 5 minutes, the cliff reverted to it’s normal grey and brown hues. However, the photo doesn’t do justice to reality because the cliff did glister like gold.
The view from the back of the pool. As you can see, the whole place is surrounded by greenery. They even have a hammock for those who want to snooze in the open and listen to the soft splashing in the pool. Note: the pool opens at 8.30am and is closed at 8pm.
After the evening swim and a quick shower, we headed off to dinner where there was just toooo much food! Well…I guess we did yoga just so that we could eat 😉
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| Rosella drink. Tastes a little like Ribena |
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| Tom Yum Goong |
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| Thai Prawn Green Curry |
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| Fried Chicken with Garlic |
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| Squid Rings with Sweet Chilli Sauce |
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| Stir Fried Broccoli with Prawns |
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| Papaya Salad |
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| Fried Squid with Garlic |
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| Attempting to be healthy with a fruit platter |
The food was generally good although the portion was really tooooo much. I found the green curry too sweet but some people told me that that’s the authentic Thai style. The squid rings were too tough while the fried squid with garlic was really really good. The Tom Yum Goong was very delicious and was chockful of prawns. Someone counted at least 10 tails in his soup. I think they realised that we couldn’t finish most of the food so the next day, the lunch portion was a bit smaller.
As the resort is kinda surrounded by a small pond/moat at the back of estate, there is a family of resident ducks! You can see them swimming or picking at food in the morning from the restaurant.
A must-try during breakfast is the Roti. We ordered Roti with Banana and Chocolate Sauce, which was simply delicious!
I suggest sharing it. It’s a bit much to eat it all by yourself unless you’re not eating anything else. It tastes like our roti prata except that it’s crispier and the banana slices are a lot thicker. You can get the Nutella spread for these “pancakes” in a street stall 20 minutes away from the resort. Another item to try on their breakfast menu would be the chicken rice porridge. the buffet line is quite standard – muesli, cut fruits, juices, Phad Thai or kway teow, sausages, bacon and salad.
This is the view on the walk from the restaurant back to the main area where the cottages are. Feels like a kampung and they try to bring as much of nature to you through small touches like filling the pots with water and flowers. Mind you…they change the flowers every other day.
The set lunch and dinner menus are the same but having stayed there for 3 days, I can show you the other items:
Thai omelette which wasn’t very special to me because I can easily order this in Singapore with seafood inside. It’s a plain omelette that has too much oil and salt but it is a lot less heavy compared to the other fried items on the menu (chicken, squid or prawns).
The spicy and sour beef salad was interesting and quite refreshing. The tomatoes were really sweet and enjoyable!
I was most excited about the dish above because I’ve never seen it in the menu here in Singapore. It’s a bowl of chicken cooked in a mild coconut soup with galangal. It was rich and savoury without being creamy. Tastes similar to a green curry minus the chilli.
Onto dessert. Instead of fruits, I opted for the sinful choice of an ice cream parfait. They’ve got 4 flavours to choose from: coconut, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. I chose coconut and it was really quite good! I couldn’t finish the whole thing but while eating it, I couldn’t help but think that this would make a really good banana split (was tempted to grab the banana in my cottage) or it would taste even more awesome with a drizzle of gula melaka. I managed to finish more of my food this time because I chose not to eat rice. Good decision. 😉
After lunch, a few of us decided to go to Ao Nang beach and although we missed the shuttle, there were 4 of us and so the staff were very nice and still gave us a ride into Ao Nang beach on their buggy!
For dinner, besides the Thai set menu, they do have a western option, which again involved a lot of food. My friend decided to order that for dinner and originally, she chose 2 toppings – Margherita and Hawaiian but they mistook her order and we ended up having 2 pizzas!
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| My seafood vermicelli salad |
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| The Hawaiian with chunks of sweet pineapple |
They were super generous with the cheese and we were all glad that the pizzas were thin crust ones. I don’t think we could stomach them if they were the thick ones, especially when we were all going for a full body massage an hour after dinner.
We gave our orders 4 hours before dinner and had specifically told them that we’ll be eating at 7pm. We were very specific about the time because of our massage at 8.30pm and you’re not supposed to get a massage on a full stomach, unless you want to puke everything out. However, they did not quite understand us and the food still took quite some time to be cooked. Thus, be warned. They tend to like to cook your food only when you arrive at the restaurant. Makes me wonder why we were supposed to give them our menus at least 2 hours before meal time…hmmm…
Overall, we had a very nice stay at Ban Sainai. It is a little far in (it’s 30-40 minutes walk away from the beach) but the staff is very friendly and accommodative. When we asked about transport from the resort to our new one (we extended our stay after the yoga retreat), they were happy to drive us there for free! Bring a lot of mosquito repellent if you’re staying in this resort because you’ll need it. Even at the poolside.
View: 10/10
Service: 9/10
Amenities: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Convenience: 6/10
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