Travel Day!

After a late night, for us, not of course to the young people who visit this island, we woke up late, packed our bags quickly, bought passage for a boat to Krabi, and boarded a beat up old boat.  The boat we arrived on was brand new, but not this one!!  We were one of the last passengers to board, and I can tell you that there was no space or seats left.  We managed to find a couple seats, down in the hull of the boat.  All three floors of the boat were overloaded!!  We got half way out of the bay, and we stopped!  I could see that another boat had pulled up beside us, so me being nosy, and concerned, hiked it up the the main deck to check out the situation.  They decided to unload some passengers because the boat was unbalanced, and you could feel it.  The whole upper deck was banished to the rescue boat!!  I guess we were too top heavy!!  Being in the hull of a boat is not where you want to be if it goes down!!  I was making a plan in my head on what to do if a sinking situation were to happen!! 

We landed in Krabi about 90 minutes later, ate, caught a cheap cab to Ao Nang, and hit the pavement looking for a place to stay.  Hotels, we found were a bit more than we wanted to pay, but we started looking at guesthouses which are always cheaper.  We found one real close to the beach, about a block away, called Popeye.  It is located down a narrow lane.  The room was basic, clean, and everything we were looking for.  It has a small bar/breakfast nook, that many different people patronize, so socializing isn't a problem.  The family who runs the place are warm, and hospitable.  We have been really enjoying our stay here!!

Night Life in Phi Phi

We spent our last night in Koh Phi Phi wondering around the streets visiting different establishments.  We started with dinner at the Hippy Bar.  Actually, there was nothing hippish about it.  They sported a Jamaican flag, a picture of a marijuana leaf, a Bob Marley photograph, and the music sucked!!  But, the food was good.  After dinner we wondered down to Carlitto's.  It's a rockin' little bar that sometimes has live music.  There is an area where you can lay around on loungers, have your drinks and smoke shesha.  Even though we don't smoke we decided to give this shesha a try.  It's a water pipe that you smoke fruit flavoured tobacco from.  We chose peach!  It was actually quite nice, but I don't think it will turn into a habit.  I found it relaxing and went quite well with our wine!  Forty minutes or so later, when our shisha was done we hit the beach party.  Each bar along the beach competed for clientele by pounding out the music and putting on a fire show.  The fire show is fun to watch, and many tourists who end up staying longer get into also.  Hoops, rings, ropes doused in kerosene flare up when lit, making the quick actions of the performer a dazzling display for the eyes.  The brilliant, dancing, glow of the fire against the blackness of the night keeps you mesmerized.  It's a lot of fun to watch!!  After the performances are done, they light up a skipping rope, and the tourist can then have their chance at playing with fire!!  Many are liquored up, so I imagine the burns don't hurt until the headache starts the next day!!  After the fireshow, we went to the Rolling Stone Bar, where a live band played music to a rowdy, dancing crowd, and of course, you know it, we were in their like a dirty shirt!!  We caught this scene right at the end of the night, so we were there for only a few songs.  Then the rain set in, closing down the island party early for the night!!  So home we went!!  So long Phi Phi, you've been a riot!!

Long Beach

Long Beach is just a few more steps past The Viking.  It was a favourite beach of ours.

Exploring Koh Phi Phi

We started off our day having a great breakfast at a place called The Rock, but to me it looked similar to The Ark!  After breakfast we took a trek down a different pathway to find a hotel called The Viking.  We tried to book into it but it was full.  On our way there we passed a school and beyond The Viking is a beautiful beach called Long Beach.

                                            Breakfast at The Rock.

                                         A school.  I guess the education system is terrible
                                         in Thailand.

                                         The sidewalk ended, and this is the path we had to take
                                         to get to The Viking. After this hike I almost felt like a
                                          Viking.  If you stayed at this resort, you would take a
                                          long boat and someone carries your bags to your room.

                                         The Viking Resort.  You get to stay in funky cabanas.
                                          This is the restaurant/bar.

                                       
                                          The beach in front of The Viking.

                                         I couldn't figure out why they would name a resort
                                          after the Vikings, but I guess the Vikings had explored
                                          and had a settlement on Koh Phi Phi Island back in the day!

Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi is a small island that offers great diving.  We are snorkelers, so we didn't take any of that in.  It is also a place for the young.  It's party central, and goes hard until the wee hours of the morning!!  For us, we hit the hay around midnight, but no matter where you stay, you can hear the loud, pounding music, from the bars, and from the beach where there are fire shows nightly.

The village of Phi Phi is made up of small lanes.  It is a walking town, no motorbikes allowed, only pedal bikes.  There are two sides to Phi Phi, the harbor side, that has a beach, many boats, and makes swimming non-existent.  You can enter the water for a cool down, but there isn't enough room to swim.  The other side is very shallow, and is impossible to swim.  So rented a double kayak and paddled to Monkey Beach.  It's a good place to go snorkeling, and the beach has a lot of monkeys! I didn't get any pictures because the kayak is too wet for the camera.

                                        This is the shallow side of Koh Phi Phi, very beautiful!!
                                          I took this picture from the first place we stayed.

                                         Small walking lanes that make up the village of Koh Phi Phi

Phi Phi Lodgings...What the Hell??

We splurged big time on a room in Kho Phi Phi.  The island is expensive, and after being used to spending $18-20 a night, we had a bit of sticker shock at this price...$80!!  So, we sucked it up and thought, wow, we are getting a fancy place!!  Big Surprise!!  We spent one night, checked out, and found another place for half the price, that was in town, and had a restaurant!!


                                         This was the road to our hotel.  It started out as a small
                                          sidewalk, then turned into a path, then this small trail.

     
                                          The steps up to the hotel were narrow, steep, and
                                          slippery.

                           
                                          This is a brand new place.  Very basic room, the only
                                          furniture was a bed. and a shelf!  This place was about
                                         a mile from town.  Someone told me that if we were
                                         staying there we should take a stick with us when
                                         walking home at night because she heard monkeys and
                                         snakes will attack you!  Not True!!!!  Where do people
                                         get this stuff!!

Travel Day

Today, we say goodbye to Patong, and ride back to Phuket Town, return the bikes, and catch the boat to Koh Phi Phi(pronounced pee pee).  It is a small island off the coast of Phuket Island.  The journey was short, 1 1/2 hours, the sea calm, the day warm.  We welcomed the site of Phi Phi knowing that a new adventure was around the corner.

Hard Rock Cafe

The Hard Rock Cafe had The Broken Angels playing one night.  We saw them at The Blues Bar in Phuket Town.  They are pretty good, so we went to watch them again. 

Same, Same...But Different

The Southeast Asian countries we have been traveling through all the same saying..."same,same, but different".  It's hilarious!!  They even have me saying it.  To me it means, whatever you have seen, tasted, smelled, read, worn, rented, bought, is going to be a version of whatever they are trying to sell you, because they always saying, "same,same".

So, when we went to Walking Street in Patong, I say... same, same but different, from Pattaya's Walking Street.  It is a much smaller area, but busier with more people walking up and down, crazier with more hawkers, buskers, beggars, entertainers, magicians, people trying to earn money by selling pictures with their lemurs, monkeys, iguanas, louder, noisier bars, discos, stripclubs, and outrageous ladyboys!!

The one night we went to Walking Street the ladyboys were dancing for everyone in their tight dresses showing everyone their lady parts, and their boy parts.  The second night we went down there, the ladyboys were all costumed up similar to what they wear in their Gay Pride Marches.  I tried to get a couple of pictures of their outrageousness, but I got caught by one blonde ladyboy who aggressively grabbed me, to get a picture of us together(of course for  a few baht).  I thought it was best to go with the flow, and let the picture happen rather than to push him/her away!!

                                         A disco.

Karon Beach

We snorkeled at another beach called Karon.  We pass it each day on our way to Kata(our favouite beach).  All the beaches are pretty much the same.  They are all housed in a bay with rocky outcroppings on each end.  Some beaches are longer, while others are shorter.  They are all quite wide, and have small outdoor cantinas.  Fine, white, sand line the crystal clear blue waters, that lap gently on the shoreline.  It's no wonder people from all over the world come here to bask in the sun, and play in the water.


                                          Quite good snorkeling off these rocks, and around the
                                            corner.  Huge schools of fish!!

                                          You can see our sarongs on the beach!!

                                         Hoss...sporting his new swimsuit!!

Tsunami!!

Today, while sitting at our favourite beach, speaking to a Swedish couple, who were sitting beside us, a very loud siren began to blare out a huge warning.  Then an announcement came, first in Thai, then English, stating that an earthquake occurred in the middle of the ocean, and a tsunami was coming, and everyone was to leave the beach immediately.  Totally surprised by this news we just looked at each other!!  People who were swimming in the ocean exited...families gathered their crying children... and left the beach.  Many people looked around in disbelief... like us  The Swedish couple said they were here when the 2004 tsunami hit Thailand, and said it was awful.   They packed up their stuff and left Dodge.  So... we did the same!  We got about half a block down the beach, when some random guy stopped us and, said it was only a drill.  Hoping he was right, we turned around, went back to our spot and reclaimed our loungers!!  And yes, it was only a drill, but an unnerving one!!

What we experienced was an early warning system set up by the Thai government.  The 2004 tsunami that hit this side of  Thailand claimed around 8000 lives, causing millions of dollars of damage to homes and businesses.  You can see huge warning towers along the high-risk beachfront areas that broadcast announcements in various languages and tips from the public regarding potential or unfolding disasters.

I try to imagine what it must have been like when the tsunami hit, and the aftermath of its destruction.  I was totally mesmerized by this event when it occurred in 2004, and was glued to the TV, continually watching the news.  Today, I look around the different beaches of where this enormous wave claimed the land, and marvel at how normal things now look   The elephants we see everyday on our way to the beach were used to help remove the heavy debris.  People from all over the world came to lend a helping hand!!  It's to bad the world can't work together like this in other countries!!

Kata Noi Beach

We have been snorkeling every day, just off the rocks of each beach we go to.  Each beach is set in a bay with rocky edges at both ends, and fine white sand in between.  It makes for not bad snorkeling and very calm water!!  Every beach looks very similar to each other.  Today, we went to Kata Noi(Noi must mean south in Thai).

Elephants!!

On our way back from Kata Beach one late afternoon, we saw an elephant barn, where you can purchase a ticket to ride an elephant for varying amounts of time/prices.  We weren't too interested in riding the elephants, but we were very interested in watching them, and we were even allowed to touch them.  Their skin is extremely dry, rough, tough, and wrinkly, and the small amount of hair they do have is very wiry.  We watched as they brought the elephants in from their trek up and down the hill with tourists, unload the passengers, took off the saddles, then sent each elephant one at a time for a shower, and a cool down.  They were then given some sort of plant to eat, to us it looked like pineapple tops.  After they ate they were moved across the street to a grassy field for the night where they could eat some more and have a sleep.  There was also a baby elephant that was about 2 1/2 years old.  For 100 baht($3.30)we could take pictures of the elephants.  So we chose to take a couple of photos with the little guy.  He took me by surprise by how strong he was.  He grabs you around the neck with his trunk, and searches over your skin with his snout, then gives you a kiss on the neck.  He was interested in Hoss's goatee!!

The next day we stopped again and saw a couple more elephants.  We paid for a basket of bananas...100baht again, and fed the baby elephant.  It was amazing to see how he took the banana, placed it in his mouth to peel it, spit out the peel, and gulped down the pulp!!  I love these guys!!

Coffee With a View...and If You Like, a Place To Stay

On the way home from the beach, we stopped for an iced coffee and spring rolls, at this little cliff side restaurant.  Beautiful location!!  You looked out onto the ocean and had the most fantastic view.  The accommodations were small huts, built on the cliff, overhanging the ocean!!  For entertainment, we had the resident rooster by our side, waiting for small niblets of springroll. Very relaxing, and a relief from the sun!!

Andaman Sea and The West Coast of Phuket

We rented our small motorbikes from Phuket Town, and headed down the road to Patong, which is located on the west coast of the island of Phuket on the Andaman Sea.  It was a short ride of about 45 minutes but we did stop to take a look at a golf course.  Very nice!!  Every player gets a caddie!!  But, holy cow is it hot, I don't think I could handle golf and the heat!!

We made our way to Patong, found the beach, and then started looking for a place to stay  We quickly found a hotel in our price range that was a couple of blocks from the beach.  We checked in, settled in, then hit the beach.  By now we were hot, hot, hot!!!

The beach is beautiful!!  Fine, white sand, crystal clear water, with very little wave action!  Perfect!!  We rented an umbrella and a couple of loungers.  The fellow we rented from would come by from time to time, and with a small broom sweep the sand off our feet and loungers.  Now that's service!!

The last few days we have been scooting around on our motorbikes checking out all the beach towns that run up and down the west coast.  The island is small so distances are not great.  My favourite town is Kata, and it's south of Patong.  We did some snorkeling off the beach of Surin yesterday.  There was no coral, but the rocks that run along the shoreline are home to a multitude of fish.

We really enjoy this area and plan on staying a few more days.  It's laid back atmosphere is the kind of thing we both really enjoy!


                                          Patong Beach

                                              Birthday drinks at a beach bar.

                                             Kata Beach

                                          The only surfing you can do at Kata.  The water is too
                                           calm, but it's a good way to learn.

                                   
                                          Surin Beach... we did some snorkeling around the rocks,
                                          and on the other side.

                                        
                                            Surin Beach

                                          We had way too much sun the day before, so we hid
                                           under the umbrella all afternoon.