Koh Phi Phi Lookout

Despite going to bed at somewhere around 4am, I got myself up at 7:30 am and gathered up my camera and headed to the view point. I wasn’t sure exactly where to go but there were signs pointing the way so it wasn’t hard to figure out.

At the end of the normal street, there was a set of stairs that went straight up, and I couldn’t even see where they ended. I started to climb. Up and up and up I went, the odd slight curve in the stairs but for the most part straight up the side of the hill/mountain. Eventually I got to a look out point with a couple of benches to rest on. I was the only one there so I snapped a few photos and saw a couple signs pointing to “Lookout 1” and “Lookout 2” so I started to follow them. Instead of stairs this time, it was a paved path that was on a 40 degree angle that I had to go up. Up up up some more I went, glad that I decided to do this trek in the early morning and not at high noon, since it was already feeling like it was over 30 degrees.

After about 20 minutes of hiking I reached the top of the hill, where a little guesthouse and restaurant was located. There was an outcropping of rocks so I climbed up on them and took a seat to enjoy the view.  There was a man, who evidently worked at the guesthouse, outside sweeping and tidying up around the establishment.  He asked me where I was from and I told him Canada – to which he replied there sure seemed to be a lot of us on Koh Phi Phi. I agreed, thinking of the massive group we were with the day before.  He told me that there had been a massive storm in the morning, around 5 am, when the sun was coming up. However, since the sun had come up behind the storm, there had been a fantastic rainbow that was visible from the view point. I told him I was really sad to have missed such a sight.

I spent about 20 minutes just sitting and staring out over the island. One the left hand side was the port, where we’d arrived into. There were boats docked out in the harbour area, and boats all along the shore. On the right side was the bay that all the bars were located along, where we had spent the first night partying and swimming.  The actual town was situated on a very small sand bar between the two bays, and on either side of the sand bar were massive hills like the one I had climbed to catch this fantastic view.

I started back down the hill, deciding to maybe go swim in the water before we left the island that afternoon.  When I got back down to the lower view point to where the stairs began I started to count each step, curious to know exactly how many steps I had climbed to get up here (not to mention the paved portion of the path up to the official view point).  I must have looked kinda crazy, counting as I went down but considering I was the only person on the path at 8:30 in the morning I wasn’t too worried about it.

Eventually I reached the bottom.... 325 steps later.  It seemed completely ridiculous that I had just climbed up that many stairs. But, as I said before, it was completely worth it.

I wandered to the beach, and walked along with my feel in the water. There were a lot of jelly fish, however, so I ended up not swimming after all. I sat down, tried to take as many mental pictures as possible and just enjoyed the moment before heading back to the hotel to get the boys up and moving.

I thought maybe when I got back to the room the guys would be up and moving, but I was wrong. I’d left the key behind, in case they needed it,  so I wasn’t able to get in. I banged on the door and was surprised to see the room still dark and both boys still laying in bed barely functioning.  I told them I’d be back in a bit, and left to go hang out near the cafe with the internet.

After about half an hour I went back to the hotel and started to get the boys moving. We decided to find some food and then come back and check out officially.  We made our way over to the fruit shake stand that we had gone to the day before and ordered up some drinks. I had already had one that morning, when I had gone to check out the internet, but for the equivalent of $1.10 I really couldn’t pass up the chance to have another.

While drinking our drinks we saw the guys we’d been hanging out with and asked what their plans were. The guys from Edmonton were heading to Koh Tao, and the German was thinking of heading back to Phuket, so asked if he could join us. We said no problem. 

Because we had to be at the airport at noon the next day to catch our flight to Bangkok, our only option was to head back to the main land that afternoon, since the ferry likely wouldn’t give us enough time to get back in order to catch our flight.  Unhappy with Patong Beach, we opted to spend the night in Phuket Town, tagging along with some other Germans that the guys had met while they were out without me.  They already had a room booked at the On On hotel, the hotel that was used in the filming of The Beach.

This was quickly turning into a Leonardo DiCaprio vacation – first we watched Titantic on the flat screen at the beach bar, we visited Maya Bay, and now we were going to sleep where they filmed the hostel scenes of the movie.

We went back to the hotel and  packed up our stuff, left it to pick up later and went to book our ferry tickets back to Phuket. We had about an hour to kill before having to be at the port so we opted to just hang out and do a bit of shopping at the little stalls before heading to the pier.

The sky had started to cloud over since my walk up to the view point that morning, and it looked like it might start to rain. We’d been extremely lucky so far while on Koh Phi Phi, with the only rain happening while we were sleeping (or should have been sleeping). The wind had also picked up, which was sort of nice as it helped with the feeling incredibly sticky from all the humidity.

We took off for the pier, said our goodbyes to the guys from Edmonton, and climbed aboard the ferry. There weren’t a lot of people on the boat so we each took our own seats and tried to make ourselves comfortable.

Unfortunately the wind that was so nice on the shore was creating some pretty serious waves on the water. The boat bounced up and down, sometimes pretty harshly. Somehow I managed to sleep most of the way, despite the fact that my head was hitting against the window of the ferry off and on. Some people on the boat weren’t so lucky though, and were throwing up off the back of the boat. Eric made sure to tell us that even the baby behind him was throwing up.

Along with the rough waters, the rain had also started. Eventually we docked the boat and gathered our stuff. We scrambled off the boat to the pier to stay dry and jumped in our van to take us to the hostel.

Booze Cruise and “The Beach” Beach

We were rudely awoken at 8:30 in the morning by a banging on the door. Startled, we jumped up and wondered what on earth could be happening. Then it dawned on us - we thought we had been so clever to turn the air conditioning on in the room without the help of the remote. We had only paid for a fan, not the AC , and didn't think that anyone would notice. They did, however.

Ren scrambled to turn the AC off and opened the door - he was greeted with an angry Thai man shouting about why were were using the AC (ummm... because this is a tropical country and we're from chilly Canada? How is this not obvious?) before barging in, taking our fan and presenting us with a bill for the cost of using the AC for the past 18 hours.

We’d heard from one of our Canadian friends that there was a day cruise around Koh Phi Phi Le that took us to Monkey Beach and Maya Bay, where they filmed The Beach.  So, after breakfast and some amazing fruit shakes we spent the morning wandering around the island taking pictures before getting ready to go and get on the boat.

We met the group at the pier around 1pm and filed onto the boat. The majority of the group were about 35 Canadians from Edmonton who were traveling with a group who’s mentality was “Life Before Work”.  Within moments of being on the boat the group was creating “Donkey Punch” – a vile looking mixture of every imaginable colourless alcohol and random juice.  We had the option to join in on the “fun” but we decided to just stick with our big bottles of beer Chang.

                                                                                                                                                         

The boat departed the port and our first stop was Monkey Beach.  We parked the boat and climbed into long boats to take us to shore.  Once on shore we could see why Monkey Beach was called as such – it was overrun by wild monkeys that would right up to visitors. There were monkeys of all sizes, including a mother with a baby clinging to her chest.

Perhaps the funniest, but also most appalling part of the visit to the beach was the fact that the monkeys were fairly aggressive. And they apparently were alcoholics. They would run right up to people holding drinks, grab the drinks right out of their hands and run back to the safety of the trees and chug the drinks back. If people didn’t hand over the drinks the monkeys would attack.  The best course of action was to remain in the water, at about knee level, where the monkeys weren’t  brave enough to venture,

We got back on the boat and took off past Viking Cave – a cave in the cliff face that was originally home to Chinese pirates who painted murals on the walls. We couldn’t go into the cave because it’s currently inhabited.

After Viking Cave we stopped at a cove that offered the opportunity to snorkel and kayak, so of course I took advantage. Myself and a girl I’d met on the boat who was travelling from Israel took off and ventured around the cove. In spots the water wasn’t even deep enough for the kayak. We managed to get stuck and had to push ourselves off the rocks a few times.

We headed back to the boat where I was given a snorkel and goggles and pointed in the direction of some clown fish. I zoomed about under water with my camera, snapping photos of whatever fishes I could.

The major downside to all the swimming was the fact that the air was cool in comparison to the water and it was raining. Shivering, I got out of the water and wrapped myself in my pashmina scarf and attempted to dry off.  We spent a while at the cove while the kids from the tour group jumped off the side of the boat and swam around before heading to Maya Bay.

It’s possible to access Maya Bay in two ways. One way is to come into the Bay, park your boat and take a long boat to shore. The other is to park the boat on the opposite side, take a long boat to shore, climb some stairs and walk through a jungle along a path before being greeted with the oh-so-familiar view. This is what we did.

It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t sunny while we were on the beach, but it didn’t dampen our spirits. More than one (drunk) girl ran onto the beach calling for Leo, while the rest of us just stood in awe-filled silence while taking in the view.  Even with the overcast sky the beach was still amazing. Serene, secluded and peaceful.  The three of us photographers split up and spent awhile taking pictures around the bay.  Most of the pictures were fairly standard, but it never hurts to have a few iconic photos in the collection.  We sat on the beach, played in the water, and generally just enjoyed our time on the famous beach.

Because of the overcast sky, the original plan of seeing the sun set at sunset point was scrapped in favour of heading back to Koh Phi Phi Don and eating some dinner. We piled back onto the boat,  some of us taking the long boat and some of us, like myself, swimming.   Once back at the pier, we rushed ahead of the group and joined up with a couple of the guides from the group that needed a break from the (drunk) Edmontonians like we did.  One of the guys, a local, told us about a place where we could get the best Pad Thai on the island. For only 80B and the promise of a filling meal, we took the guys up on the offer to come with them.

The Pad Thai held true to its promise and was completely amazing. I’m fairly certain I won’t ever find Pad Thai that tastes that good again. Full and tired from a day on the water, we all ventured back to the hotel to take a nap.  We all crashed within moments of being back and didn’t wake up for a few hours.  Eventually, around 10pm the guys woke up and decided to go out and have some drinks. Still exhausted, I opted to stay behind and sleep some more. I told them I’d track them down eventually and went back to sleep.

I slept til about 12, maybe 1am. I got up and wandered out to see what I could find. I went up to street to outside the cafe we ate at earlier in the day to steal some wifi and debated what I wanted to do. The town seemed to be dead, I assumed everyone was at the beach. I internet-ed for a while and then decided to just hang out by myself. I walked around a little bit, went to 7-11 and basically just relaxed, happy to get a little bit of “me” time after being with the same people for days on end.

I figured that the guys would be back around 3, so I stayed awake until around then.  I must have drifted off because at 4am I heard the room door open and the guys come in. They crawled into bed and were surprised to find me awake. I asked them what they had gotten themselves up to and they told me hilarious stories of their night, using the most ridiculous accents imaginable and leaving me in tears.

I wanted to get myself up early to go and see the view point at the top of Koh Phi Phi so I fell asleep and so did the guys. All in all, a fantastic way to spend a day on the island!

Patong and Phuket - Beach Vacation Time!

We arrived into Phuket late at night – about 1am – and still had to head to Patong Beach, a beach town where our hotel was located. The ride from the airport to the hotel took about 45 min and I think I slept most of the way. I was exhausted and couldn’t wait for a good night sleep.

The next morning we woke up late, somewhere around 9:30. The sun was up, and it was already hot outside. We got some breakfast at the hotel and asked them if we could store our luggage until we figured out what we were going to do with our day.

We left the hotel and headed towards the beach. The town was exactly what you would expect of a beach town. Tacky, lacking in character, and immensely different from the cultural centre of Chiang Mai that we had just left. The guys weren’t feeling the beach town vibe and I was indifferent about what we should do, so we found a travel agent and booked ourselves on a ferry to take us to Koh Phi Phi. The shuttle was to pick us up at 1pm so that gave us time to explore the beach and make it back to the hotel.

We strolled along the sands at Patong and it was gorgeous. The town might not be awesome but the beach sure was.  (Just a note – Patong is know for it hedonistic ways – you can get into all kinds of “trouble” there... cabaret shows, lady boys, drinking... you name it, it’s there). At one point I wandered ahead of the guy and didn’t realize they had stopped to sit. I went way off ahead of them and then when I turned back to them (after sitting on the sand myself for a bit) they were gone. I looked around for them for a while but then decided it made the most sense to head back to the hotel – they were smart and would know to head back there to meet me.

Eventually the guys did find me back at the hotel, maybe 15 min after I got back. We grabbed our bags and waited for the shuttle. I slept most of the windy drive to the pier,  waking up just before we got there. We unloaded our stuff onto the waiting area and looked around at the other passengers waiting to board the ferry. Beside us was a group of 3 guys, whom after talking to them for a few moments we found out were from Canada. Well, 2/3 of them were. The other was from Germany and he had just met up with the guys from Canada moments before.

We talked about all the things we’d all done up until the point we were at, marvelling at all the different things that could be accomplished in such a short amount of time. They mentioned that they had a hotel room booked upon arrival at Koh Phi Phi and if we tagged along we could likely get a room at the same place, so thats what we decided to do.

The ferry was late arriving, but once it did get to the port we all embarked and put our stuff in the hold before heading outside  to the front deck to enjoy the sea spray and sunshine. The ride was about 2 hours and very enjoyable (unlike the return trip, but thats for another day..)

Koh Phi Phi Le

Arriving at Koh Phi Phi

Once we arrived at Koh Phi Phi we disembarked and regrouped. Half the group had been drinking on the boat and thus it was a bit difficult to keep people on the move to figure out where exactly we were supposed to be sleeping that night. I was given a map, asked directions from someone and we headed off in the direction of the hostel, as according to the helpful guy at the diving centre.

Turns out there happened to be two hostels by the same name and we walked to the wrong one. We turned around and found the correct one. One of the guys from Canada talked to the woman at the counter and got us a deal on the room for the night. No air conditioning though – we’d have to make do with the fan.

We went into the room and unloaded our stuff. I jumped in the shower and when I came out I found that Ren had somehow managed to turn the A/C on. Wonderful. It was insanely hot out.

We met up with the guys from Canada and made plans to go for drinks after a bit of a rest.  Because it was so hot we decided to just eat some street meat for dinner and ventured out to find something. We found a decent little place around the corner and each picked a few random meats on a stick. We watched the guy heat up the sticks over a makeshift bbq and then douse them in an obscene amount of chilli sauce before he handed them over to us. We passed the stick around, pulling pieces off – didn’t look like much but OH MAN! Tasted so good.

                                                                                                                                                                       

Back at the hostel we met up with the rest of the guys and set out to the beach to find a party. It should be noted that it gets dark early in Thailand, and so while we’re used to it getting dark around 9:30 in Ontario (even later in Edmonton, where the guys from Canada were from) it’s dark by about 7pm in Thailand. We got to the beach and it was dead – which shouldn’t have been surprising, since it was only about 8:30 and the night was still very very young.

The group of us found a little eatery by the beach that served food, but more importantly had cheap big bottles of beer Chang... and had Titanic playing on a big screen. The guy who was running the eatery brought us all out some chairs to sit on. A few of the guys ordered some food and so we all had a seat while waiting for it to be ready.

After the guys ate their food we continued down the beach to Slinky Bar, where we’d heard that the party was... but it was not.  We were the only ones at the bar.  Regardless, some buckets (popular all over Thailand,  buckets are exactly what they sound like – mini buckets of alcoholic beverages) were purchased and we played a few drinking games.  

One of the guys who had been drinking pretty heavily started getting out of hand, so the decision was made to get him back to the hostel. We headed out of Slinky Bar and stopped at one of the food stands to get him some food.

While we were waiting I saw the most amazing sight – a man walking a monkey. Not just any monkey, mind you, but a monkey wearing children’s clothing. Never the type to remain calm in such a situation, I immediately ran over and asked if I could hold him. The man said yes and the monkey climbed up into my arms and gave me a hug. It was the most exciting thing that had happened to me that whole day.

Eric snapped a few photos discreetly (the monkey man wanted us to pay for them) and then we continued on our way back to the hotel.  We dropped our friend off in bed, pretending it was late at night and headed back out.

The night from there on out became something of a blur, but included watching people throw around fire sticks, dub step and swimming at low tide. Along the way I ended up hanging out with the German and Eric and Ren went back to the hotel on their own.  When I got back  I found them asleep on the floor (Ren) and awkwardly curled up in the chair in the “lobby”. Feeling terrible, I woke them up and we all made our way to our room to pass out.

On deck for the next day? Booze cruise around Koh Phi Phi Le.

Thailand Planning

In about 5 weeks I'm taking off on my next adventure. As I mentioned before I'm off to Thailand with two of my good friends. We've only got about 10 days to see as much of the country as possible. We are all photographers, so we want to be able to hit all the photogenic sites (and a beach or two for me, hopefully...)

Here's the itinerary (for the most part) if you're interested. We're trying to not plan too much of the trip and just let it happen, but with only 10 days we're forced to set a few parameters:


Depart from Toronto at 10am. Convince myself to sleep on the plane so that I can function when we arrive in Hong Kong. Spend 24 hours in Hong Kong just because we can. Hopefully do a whirlwind tour of the city and see what we can in a short period of time. I'd love to hit a night market if possible.

Hong Kong at Night  (Google Image)

We fly out of Hong Kong in the afternoon and arrive into Bangkok in the late afternoon. We've got an airport hotel booked, so we'll drop off our stuff and probably take a bus into the city (or maybe just sleep, it's hard to say).







Next morning we have a relatively early morning flight to Chiang Mai. We have about 3 days in Chiang Mai to check out the temples, elephants, markets and hilltribes.

I've been given a heads up that we know a family that operates a bar/restaurant that we should check out, The Lost Hut, so we will definitely do that. I've also heard that if you're going to do a cooking class in Thailand, the northern part is the place to do it.

Long Neck Tribe (Google Image)

 


After that we head to Phuket to take in some beach action. The guys aren't as stoked about the beach as I am but I refuse to go to Thailand and not see at least SOME sun. They're more than welcome to go do their own thing while I frolic in the water. I have full intentions of attempting to surf ... and probably doing some snorkelling. Will probably look here for more ideas on what to do in Phuket

Koh Phi Phi (Google Image)

From here we're going to hit up Krabi province and it's islands (Ko Phi Phi for example), the backdrop for the movie The Beach.

After some beach time, which I'm sure will also include lots of party time, we're heading back up to Bangkok for the last few days before returning home. I've already made some Twitter friends that we are going to meet up with to get a photo tour. Since it's our last stop before heading back, I'm really looking forward to some night markets and maybe the Ampawa Floating Market, if we have time.

There are so many things I'm looking forward to doing on this trip - eating being a huge part of it. I love Thai food. Well, lets be frank, I love food. I'll try just about anything once... and if this includes some of the stranger things like roasted tarantulas or crickets, I'll give it a go. Rice and rice noodles, I live for those things. I think I'm going to be the only person who comes back from Thailand having put on weight.

 

 

 

image courtesy of wikipedia

Overall, I can't wait. It will be a fantastic trip and I'm sure I'll have a million awesome photos to share when I get back so that I'm not forced to steal images off the internet to fill my blog with :)