Koh Phi Phi... "The Beach"
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
16
27
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Ko Phi Phi Don,
Thailand
Friday, November 7, 2008
Continuing from my last entry, the guys (being Kris and Chris) Nadz and I jumped on another night bus bound for Krabi. After building up the horrors of past bus rides, this one proved us wrong and the entire journey was quite smooth sailing. Pretty much slept the whole way which is very unheard of around these here parts.We arrived in Krabi and jumped onto the ferry bound for Ko Phi Phi, one of the islands largely hit by the 2006 tsunami and where they filmed the movie The Beach with Leo DiCaprio. The scenery coming into the island reminded Nadz and I of Ha long bay in Vietnam. Large limestone cliffs and turquoise waters. Very nnnnnooooice. Found a nice hotel pretty quick and moved between the beach and the pool for the rest of the day.
The next day Kris, Chris and I hiked up to the viewpoint which had amazing views of the island below. Quite the trek but sooo worth it. Headed down and picked up Nadz then jumped on a long boat to go to Long Beach around the island. Swam...tanned...you know how it is.... :) The long boat drivers tried to charge us double to go back and even though it would have still only cost $5, I made everyone walk back out of principle. No one makes a fool of this girl... well except myself when the nice walk along the beach back ended up being a 1 hour jagged rocky adventure. Ooops. Headed out for dinner and then I packed it in early (!!!) while everyone else partied.
Next day was amazing. We purchased some snorkelling gear and hired a long boat driver to cruise us around some surrounding islands. First stop did some snorkelling. Lovely. Second stop was Monkey Bay. Crazy ass monkeys stealing stuff and chasing Chris. I do not like Monkeys (see more later). Third stop in this bay where the water was the clearest I have ever seen. Just did some swimming here. Fourth was more snorkelling. I sang to the fish until I realized the boat guy could hear me out of my snorkel... Nadia threw crackers in and suddenly we were surrounded by Nemo's friends. Fifth stop was Maya Bay where they filmed the movie. Very beautiful but tons of tourists and lots of garbage which is sad. From there we headed home and hit the town. If anyone has been to Ko Phi Phi you may have seen the guy who walks around with the Gibbon dressed as a child. I do not like this monkey...he does not like me. The man made him chase me and kids laughed. On the walk home I asked Nadia for some legal advice on whether or not she thought I would be put in jail for bottling a monkey. She said yes, but I did not loosen my grip on my vodka cooler... evil evil monkey...
Sorry just had to get that out. Rest of the night was good. Watched some drunk guys try and be Thai boxers. Then "real"Thai boxers. Now here is the scam for you... Nice, pretty young lady stands outside the bar handing out "Free Buckets!!" flyers. So you ask and it really is "one free bucket between 12-12:10". Still seems like a steal. You watch some drunk backpackers roll around with gloves on then at approx 11:50 they put on the real Thai fighters "from Bangkok" who are in a fight for the "title". So the fight starts and right off the bat there are major kicks to the head and they are flying all over the place. The crowd gets pretty excited over this, so no one is moving towards the 3rd floor of the bar which houses the "Free Buckets". Kris and I suddenly clue in that neither of the two fighters are bleeding despite numerous head kicks and flights over the ropes into chairs....hmmmm what does that remind you of... so him and I leave the ring and head up to the 3rd floor. By this time it is 12:05 and they have all the buckets lined up ready to go but seem to be unaware that it is past 12. They then go and hand out maybe 5 at a time until ooooopss is it 12:10 already??? Luckily I pushed forward and fought for the right of every "Free Bucket" victim. I was successful and the usually rancid Thai whiskey bucket tasted like victory!
Next day we sad goodbye to Phi Phi and prepared for the most unusal transport night/day of the trip to Koh Tao....
