Leaving Paradise

Today we enjoyed our final breakfast on the beach here in Phi Phi then packed up & headed into town.  We had a little time to kill so we stopped at our go-to massage place for some more awesome abuse at the hands of our thai torture masseuses.  This time I went for the straight Thai massage, (because I figure Thailand is probably the place to do this), and was contorted around even more than the previous one- still in a good way.

After an hour of that we headed to our go-to Thai place on the island, Khun Va where I got to have my first thai iced coffee of the trip.  I probably would have had one earlier in the trip if it had occurred to me sooner that looking for "thai" iced coffee on the menu wasn't necessary- in Thailand, it might just be called iced coffee.  I'll blame that on jet leg, which ironically could have been helped by a "thai" iced coffee.

 

 

I also picked up a spicy papaya salad from my lady at Pung Pond.  She let me try the sauce before she put it in the box to see if it was spicy enough & I immediately had a coughing fit so I was pretty sure that it was.  Since we missed the first boat- which may or may not have been due to Amanda's obsession with looking over the side of the dock at the fish- I had plenty of time to enjoy it before our 2 1/2 hour boat ride to Phuket.

The boat ride was awesome! Since we were an hour early for the next one, we got great seats in the top level at the very front of the boat.  It felt so good to lean against the boat in the sunshine with the wind blowing, listening to our headphones and the occasional wave splashing up to cool us off.

When we got to Phuket, we hopped in a little shuttle van to the airport.  Since they were having some sort of parade in the street, the ride took about 45 minutes and we had plenty of time to get to know our new friend Preston, who was also traveling to Chiang Mai for the festival.  He works everyday for 6 months flying surveillance planes for the military in Afghanistan and then gets 3 months in a row off to travel & do whatever.  I'm not sure if I'd be cut out for that schedule but it's a pretty cool concept.

At the airport we got some food while we were waiting and I was really excited to see that they had cracker coated peanuts because they were one of my favorite things when I was living in Mexico.  There they were flavored with lime & salt and called Japoneses, these were coconut which I also love so I thought I was all set.  Unfortunately I would be willing to give somebody $500 if they could correctly identify the flavor as coconut, and an additional $300 if they could figure out there were peanuts in there- they tasted just like cardboard....Mexico 1, Thailand 0.

Our plane took off late, obviously, and when we landed in Chiang Mai it was about 10, so we just checked into the Thapae Boutique and are going to call it an early night.  On a side note, the option to add a third bed to our really cute hotel room turned out to really mean "add something sort of like a mattress to the floor" but I don't mind sleeping there because it is actually probably more comfortable than sleeping on the bed- all the beds in this country have been rock hard.  And with that, we're going to do our best to rest up for the festival tomorrow.

Even more Phi Phi

With all the fun we had the night before, we had just enough time for a power nap before breakfast.  We had signed up to do a snorkel and sunset tour so I paired some excedrine with my malaria meds and we were off.

The first stop was monkey island where there were monkeys of all shapes and sizes chilling on the beach, waiting for some tourists to come by and feed them- rough life.

Next we scooted by the Viking Cave on our way to Pileh Bay.  There we hopped off the longtail and into the water where we snorkeled around and saw all kinds of tropical fish- it was like a scene from Finding Nemo down there.  We then went further into the bay over some very shallow water (the guy driving our boat actually had to get out and push at one point like it was a stalled hoopty) and into this gorgeous lagoon.  It was probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen- the sun was shining and the water was basically glittering and green.  The boat went back into deeper water and we got to jump off and swim around for awhile.  Even though there were a few other boats and people around, it was still very peaceful and just floating in the water and looking up at the cliffs surrounding us was surreal.

 

 

 

 

I probably would have been content to just float there and get picked up the following day but I reluctantly got back on board and we motored over to Maya Island, where The Beach was filmed.  The fact that you that you have to dive off the boat and basically do a ropes course over the slipperiest rocks in South East Asia to get onto the island and may almost be eaten by a giant crab during the process is not included in the brochure.  On your way to the other side of the island, you also have to pass through a campground that you could not pay me to stay in because it is permeated with the smell of restroom.  I am pretty sure Hell smells like a Thai toilet.  Not that bathrooms usually smell great but the ones here really are their own special level of disgusting.

We got to spend about an hour on the island and then swam back to the boat for some pineapple and mixed drinks- or just mixed drinks for those of us that are allergic to Thailand's favorite fruit.  Our boat driver mixed us up some Sangsom Thai whiskeys with redbull and coke.  Fun fact: Red Bull originated in Thailand and has even more caffeine here than in the states, and is therefore even more likely to make your heart stop.  This however didn't stop us from drinking an actual bucket of it, because another awesome thing about Thailand is they serve their drinks in mini beach buckets.

We got to enjoy our drinks for about 10 minutes before our driver took off, sending our wooden boat hurtling across the Andaman Sea at warp speed, as giant waves came splashing into the boat, adding a refreshing salt water mixer to our beverages as we white knuckled the sides.  Being on the receiving end of nature's bitch slaps didn't make for a very relaxing sunset watching, but it was fun!  It was pretty beautiful but we have yet to see the kind of mind blowing beach sunsets I have been envisioning- there's always this hazy low hanging cloud cover that blocks the sun as it sinks to the horizon.

Back on dry land we headed to the main strip for dinner.  We went to a BBQ attached to the Banyan Tree hotel where you can basically point to a skewer of raw whatever you want and they grill it up for you.  Given my limited love for seafood, I ordered some traditional thai- or at least I thought I did, as the Pad See Ew I got was angel hair with a different kind of sauce but at that point I was too starved to care.

We were pretty exhausted but managed to rally for another fire show at the beach.  These guys are just my type; exotic looking, skinny, and appear to be about 15 years old, which they probably actually are lol.  We did a couple hours of dancing at the beach, where there really is some excellent people watching- and called it a night.

Koh Phi Phi

Today was one of the best days I think I've ever had, despite the fact that it started off with me getting up to try and see the sunrise and instead being chased down by a probably rabid bat- Amanda heard me screaming from inside our hotel room lol.  After I recovered from my run-in with nature, we went for breakfast at our hotel where things turned around; I had a delicious banana shake and we got a glimpse of our first lady boy!

Then we went down to the beach to catch the boat to Phi Phi.  While we were waiting, people we having breakfast outside at one of the hotel restaurants when a furry visitor dropped out of the tree to say hey.  It was really cute and funny at first- he went over to this couple and started rifling through this woman's breakfast and throwing what he didn't want on the floor.  Then he moved on to her husband's plate and when he tried to give him a banana to keep him from getting to his plate, the monkey busted out the fangs and tried to scratch him!  This guy behind them swooped into to save the day by putting his arms above his head and making scary monster noises until he ran back into the tree.

So after morning entertainment hour was over- we hopped on the boat for a 2 hour ride to Koh Phi Phi, home of the famous Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach", which unfortunately didn't make it to the top of my Netflix queue before I left so I guess I will just have to watch it when I get back and be nostalgic.  The island itself is gorgeous- it was bathed in sunlight when we arrived & surrounded by limestone cliffs.  Not to mention the water here is a color greenish blue that I can't even describe.  We have been throwing around crayola crayon names for the last 3 days and none of them seem just right.

 

 

 

We found ourselves some accommodations- when you get off the boat there are little stands that have walls covered with all the available hotels on the island with pictures and prices.  You just browse, point to one and they call to set it up for you.  I think this is the smartest, most convenient thing ever if you're rocking up without a reservation.  Maybe I will do this in Penn Station in New York and get rich lol.

Our hotel, the Phi Phi Princess, was certainly nothing to write home about but if it were any closer to the beach we'd be sleeping in the ocean at high tide.  After we settled in we changed into bathing suits, went for a quick swim and then grabbed some lunch.

On the way back Lauren and I decided it was high time for another massage. We went with a 1 hour combination foot, shoulder, back and neck and it was hands down (no pun intended) the best massage I've ever had in my life!  It felt like she was trying to kill me, but in a good way.  She had me pressed against the mat so hard I could feel my pulse in my belly button and she was cracking things I didn't even know were possible- at one point I'm pretty sure she cracked my forearm!  At the end she had me sit up and put her knees in my back and I thought she was going to give me an airplane ride like I was 3, but instead she rolled me backwards and every vertebrae in my back went snap- ahhhhmazing.

For dinner I got a fresh papaya salad off the street that was so deliciously spicy that I was sweating underneath my eyes and my lips felt like they had been injected with Novocaine and set on fire lol.  I basically had no choice but to cool it off with some more banana nutella rotee.

We hung out at Carlito's Bar for awhile, sampling their selection of fruity drinks that are really only acceptable to drink at the same places that it would be acceptable to eat in your bathing suit.

Then we headed down to check out the action at the beach.  There was a whole strip of bars doing fire shows- the one we caught made the one on Railay look like amateur hour.  These guys were just ridiculous- so fast & they were also dancing to the music while they were doing it- on the other island people complained about the noise so they aren't allowed to play music anymore.

After the show we walked back up to the part of the beach where two of the bars had gigantic speakers set up, blasting music over makeshift dance floors and platforms on the sand.  It was just one giant, ridiculous party.  A few hours in, a rainstorm came through and it was amazing- some people ran for cover but we stayed out and danced in it and the strobe lights and lasers lit up all the raindrops and it was really beautiful.  After about ten minutes it passed and I felt cleaner than after we showered- I'm pretty sure the water in our room was pumped directly out of the ocean through the showerhead....I used a neutrogena face wipe on my whole body directly after every shower to remove all the salt lol.  We made friends with some French guys and took a break from dancing to play UNO on the beach- my child life uno skills would have come in handier if they didn't cheat.

After awhile Lauren and I noticed the tide had gone way out so we walked down to check it out- it was weird to be standing where water had been up to our shoulders just hours before.  We decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel but on the way there we ran into these Swedish guys who are on the male version of our trip- they ate breakfast at the table next to us in Raleigh, were at the Carlito's having drinks a few tables away from us and then turned up on the beach.  The party had pretty much died down by then but people were still hanging out at the beach and we ended up staying out until 6 in the morning.  A night out in Phi Phi was just the thing I needed after a long couple months at work