Advertisement
Published: September 3rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
I just spent five days in one of the most beautiful places I will have ever have the good luck to see in my life. Even better I got to spend it with the Jennys.
A while ago, one of my oldest and best friends from high school told me that she was going to be traveling SE Asia for her bar trip. For those of my fellow real world job neophytes, that means the trip you take post bar exam, pre-signing your life away to a corporate firm as a first year associate. So we made the plan to meet up and travel around Krabi and Phi Phi islands for five days. Her friend Jenny from law school was going to be traveling with us as well.
I flew into Krabi and headed on a longtail boat over to the side of the island called Railay, which is the main rock climbing and backpacker destination. Krabi's landscape is unreal. It is an island almost entirely composed of giant jutting limestone cliffs. It is breathtaking. We found out about lagoon that you could get to by climbing up over one of the cliffs through the jungle. Someone had hooked
up a series of ropes that lead you over the hills and out into the lagoon. I felt like I was in that old 80's movie "Honey I shrunk the kids"- a tiny kid in a very big playground, which might be one of my favorite feelings in the world. Covered in mud and surrounded by giant trees and cliffs totally to ourselves. We got about halfway to the lagoon and could see it but unfortunately it had rained earlier and descending over the rocks became too dangerous without being roped in. Regardless it was far and away one of the coolest/most fun things i've done in Thailand.
We spent three days in Railay then took the ferry over to Phi Phi. I hadn't had a chance to get over to Phi Phi Don last time, so I was excited to be heading back. Phi Phi Ley is the main island where all of the resorts and hotels are and Phi Phi Don is a short longtail boat ride away. it is another island that has been completely preserved and doesn't allow any construction. We ran into a few Spaniards who were looking to rent a boat as well
so we all went in on one together, which turned out to be the best decision we've made in a while. Laura and Xavier were from Spain and Noel was from Italy. We love them. Love Love Love them. We all spent a fantastic day snorkeling and hanging out on the boat. I have never seen anything like the coves of these islands. Almost completely enclosed in limestone cliffs. The snorkeling was unbelieveable. Xavier threw bread in the water and HUNDREDS of fish came swarming. We were literally swimming in a sea of fish. It is the strangest feeling to be eye to eye with them. We spent about an hour in one cove with a giant rope swing. A big boat of Japanese tourists came in and we all had contests of climbing up the rope to the top of the tree. Guess who has two thumbs and was the only chick who did it? THIS KID. I knew I was strong. I just like to hide my muscles so all you weaklings don't feel too bad. An old Japanese dude actually did it first and showed me how to get up by using my toes on the knots,
but whatever, i'm still awesome.
Quick stop on the way back to feed some monkeys then we all showered up with plans to meet up that night. We had a great diner on the water and stayed out watching the fire dancers and dancing until 4 in the morning. The bars on these islands are crazy. They are all the old wooden bungalow types with fire dancers. It's almost hard to take it seriously because it seems like a movie set. I stayed up speaking in Spanish with Laura and Xavier and am completely convinced that I need to be in a Spanish speaking culture soon. I love the language and the life and energy of the culture. South America is calling my name after this trip.
Leaving Phi Phi and the Jennys was hard. It was an amazing time and by far my favorite week of Thailand. It's times like those that make me realize how lucky I am to be experiencing this and how lucky I am to have such wonderful people in my life.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0509s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
margie
non-member comment
Deja Vu
Amy, your father and I looked at our photos from Thailand tonight and we have a shot that looks like it was taken in the exact same spot as your longboat Phi Phi Islands photo above. The rock formations are identical and it's the same spot where we took underwater photos of all the fish - just like you mention. Very surreal!!! Jenny "Stump" Greenberg looks absolutely beautiful and I'm so happy you were able to meet up half way around the world with one of your dearest friends. This will be another wonderful memory that will last a lifetime. Love, MOM