On the boat ride out here from Krabi to Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee fyi) we sat on the top deck and chatted up a couple Israeli girls. I didn't guess that they were from Israel however; I'm a bad guesser. Actually, I've met hardly any Israelis on this trip though I know that it's an unimaginable thing to anyone who travels in Asia. She pointed out to me that every other guy on the deck was Israeli and suggested that half the island would be too. I think that's a gross exaggeration though. The best part of the ride was seeing the thousands of jellyfish, basketball sized, float by as we sped through the smooth water and scattered showers.
The island is beautiful. It's basically two limestone mountains with a thin strip of beach strung between them making a single island. It's no wonder that the tsunami back in 2005 was able to wash everything away. Funny thing, we had a family vacation planned for Phuket that Christmas but canceled it after I found a job. We dodged a bullet on that one. The sand is clean, fine, and white and the water is very warm but very shallow at the popular beach. 
There are jungle vines hanging off of all the telephone lines and huge leafy trees and palms everywhere. Oh also, there are no cars or scooters allowed so it's generally quiet (except at night with all the clubs) and easy to get around by foot. Finally, it's quite warm and wet. I guess that I'm starting to get used to it since it doesn't bother me anymore like it did in Bangkok. That might be because I don't walk around so much anymore.
So now that I've described this bug infested tropical paradise, I'll get on with the story. While in transit to the island, Timo and I decided to make reservations at some cheap hotel for some reason. It was pretty run down and not in a great location near the bars so as evening approached we scouted out the two hostels in town in preparation for a move. One was clean and pretty but far from downtown and the other was dirty but had a good location with more interesting bunk mates. We chose the dirty one. After that we went out for dinner and I posted the last update on their wifi. Not much else happened that night since we were dead tired from the train ride the night before. 
Oh, we did walk out the the beach to see what the clubs are like and they were packed, loud, and they all have fire shows from 10-11. That's where guys have sticks and chains coated in fire and sling them around for the tourists. It is pretty cool though.
The next morning we moved over to our new home, The Rock. It's built on the side of a small hill, just a short flight of stairs up from the downtown strip. The view of the beach is great and it gets a little bit of breeze but other than that it's a disaster. It's dirty, the white walls are covered in sharpie graffiti (I love that actually) and slogans, the beds are as hard as rocks, and there's no common area to hang out. That said, it has got a small deck that you can hang your legs off of, it's cheap ($5), and it's easy to meet people there. 
One of the 3 dorms is mostly filled with people that have been there for weeks or months and support themselves by promoting the local bars and restaurants. It's a sweet deal actually. You hand out fliers on the street from 8 to 10 at night, and then drink for free at the bar though you have to stray until 2 AM to make it look busy. They also pay you $13 which is enough for food and lodging.
We spent most of the day hanging around the hostel, chatting, and doing a few short explorations of the tiny town. Most of the town is aimed at providing for the tourists with restaurants, tattoo parlors, diving shops, travel agents, bungalows, bookshops, clothing stores, fruit shake stands, bars, and massage parlors. There's also plenty of food stalls selling deep fried everything... I've had a good bit of the selection. The most popular item is the spring rolls, but I also love the fried chicken and cheese balls, and breaded prawns that still have their shells on... you just eat the whole thing and don't ask questions. A small section of town had the produce market selling a wide variety of common vegetables and positively unidentifiable fruits. I know some of them, but most are a mystery.Today I bought a huge bag of mystery fruit and I liked most of it though the unique textures freaked out the other travelers. I'll have to do the same with Erika and Rob when they come to visit in Cambodia. Of course, they're not all so delightful. They've got a fruit here called the Durian which is famed for being one of the least pleasant foods on earth, though some people seem to love the stuff. I can smell which shops sell it from the street and it turns my stomach. I'd have to describe it as sulfurous, rotten, and generally god awful though I haven't worked up the nerve to bite into one yet. I'll wait for Erika on that one.
In the evening I went to the Reggae bar with Timo to try and find some other travelers from our hostel but ended up spending our time with some other random people who I don't clearly remember. I also had my first exposure to the buckets of this island, and I look way too enthusiastic about it in the picture. The best value in drinking here comes in the form of plastic buckets that usually have a mixture of thai whiskey (Samsong), Coke, and Redbull for $5 on the street or $7 in the bars. The only trouble is that Samsong is an evil liquid that makes you feel like you were kicked by a horse in the morning so some people pay $10 to get a better quality one with vodka and tasty mixers instead. It's a wise move. There are lots of ways to get free buckets though... you can show up to certain bars at certain times to get a free one as a promo, or you can fight in the ring at Reggae.
The Reggae bar has a kick boxing ring and after 10 they let tourists fight in it. You get headgear and gloves and most of the people who climb in just dance around throwing fake punches to get the bucket. Those who have already had a bucket however throw real, if unskilled, punches. Mercifully, there are two professional Thai boxers who fight at the bar every night and they really kick ass. 
They fight for real, and scare the crap out of me though they're friendly when they go around asking for tips after the fight. Anyways, it's a free show so most of my nights start there. That night after the Reggae I met some girls from the hostel, followed them to the Appache club at the beach, and don't clearly remember what happened from there. I've been warned about the buckets now... don't have any other drinks before them.
In the morning I felt like hell and tried to take it easy around the hostel. The weather wasn't so good for the beach so I mainly sat around practicing ukulele, eating fried food, drinking water (bottled as even the locals won't do tap in this country), and reading. Every tree I look at here has large 6" centipedes climbing around and at night the roaches come out. The mosquitoes do too... 
My legs are bitten all to hell but I don't care so much. I also met an English guy, Mark, and that night the three of us went out to the Reggae bar despite swearing that we wouldn't drink. Mark randomly ran into some friends from back home there and the lot of us hung out. Timo went home because he didn't feel well but I was peer pressured into getting another Samsong bucket. The English friends drank 3 buckets each which seems completely impossible to me but they are known for their truly epic drinking skills. English per capita drinking dwarfs that of America.
Next morning I felt like crap again so I sat around a good long time until the sun came out (it's rainy season after all) and Timo and I went to the beach to try and get a tan. We ran into a lot of people from the hostel there so we had someone to talk to but eventually we just waded a hundred yards out into the shallow bay and sat down. 
The water almost covered my shoulders when sitting. I wasn't wearing any sunblock and went back to the hostel just in time to avoid burning. It was close though. At the hostel we met a couple English girls and went out drinking with them. One of them, Kate, upon hearing that I'm 29, asked if it's time for me to start thinking about settling down and having kids. That was the first time I've ever heard that directed at me and in retrospect I should have slapped her. 
We had cocktails at a nice restaurant, got beers and sat on the docks (we saw a couple huge boats crash into each other), and went to Reggae again. One Thai guy who works there knows us and we got free shots along with our bucket. Trouble is that I'm pretty sure he was hitting on me. Sigh. Around midnight we waded into the sea and sat in the warm water chatting for an hour. That was cool.
The next day (I'm really rushing through them now) a big group of us went out for breakfast and then sat around the hostel for 6 hours chatting. This island makes people intensely lazy. I practiced ukulele for at least 3 hours and am getting some good progress on Losing my Religion and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. My list of songs to learn is getting too long and I'm having some difficulty focusing on a single one. Oh well, I'm having fun. 
At sunset we hiked up a hill to a popular viewpoint. It was REALLY pretty, and there were monkeys in the trees on the way up, but the mosquitoes were thick and we came back soon enough. I had a cocktail with dinner but otherwise I didn't drink and instead wrote this very post. I didn't like having to stay behind when Mark and 3 English girls went off to the bar without me, but I really needed a night off anyways. Tomorrow we're finally going to do the boat tour to Maya beach, where they filmed 'The Beach' and then maybe we'll think about leaving this rock. Oh also, I dropped my camera off at a repair shop since it's getting sooooo full of dust that it has spots in all the pictures (for the last few months), vibrates when it opens and closes, and has issues with focus. Hopefully, it'll be back to full strength tomorrow.
1 comment:
That last picture of the scenic viewpoint is incredible. I wish I was there right now.
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