Advertisement
Hey folks - Aleks here. Apologies for the delay but the Travelblog servers went down for a few days and we couldn't post. As a result, this one is going to be massive!
So we pottered around Phuket for a few days, doing the markets and drinking beers.
Just in case anyone was wondering how I managed to leave Oz with so little baggage, it was because I forgot stuff. I had to go and buy a skirt and sandals within moments of being here. Did not pack well for Thailand and am hoping that I am faring better for Europe.
Roadsigns in Thailand are classic and you can't help but feel that they sometimes know how we're reading it. There are parking signs that only allow you to park there on 'even' days, and tsunami evacuation signs everywhere. And then there are the ones that really have you thinking they're taking the mickey.
Everywhere we've walked, there is the call of Tuk Tuk Taxi, massage madam and you like suit sir. One afternoon in Phuket, we finally got a tuk tuk to take us to View Point - where there are a series of bars high
up on the hill and looking down to the beach. As the tuk tuk climbed the steep hill, I have to confess some concern about us rolling straight out of the back of it.
The bar we went to was called After Beach Bar, where we had cocktails and watched the sun set. It was just the most magic place. Didn't order food there though, colourful as the menu was - Duck Morning Gory? My favourite... Had Mai Tais in pineapples and all the requisite touristy stuff.
Later in the evening, a kid came along selling orchid lei's for 20 baht. He was cute and the leis were pretty so I decided to buy one. Nemo gave the kid some extra money for himself and before you knew it, he'd made a friend for life. This kid was jumping up all over us, delighted that he'd met his night's quota with one pair of fat gringos. We knew it was a gimmick but fell for it completely anyway. Considered adopting, but figured we'd wait till after Europe.
Next day (9th May - Happy Birthday Steph!) we were wondering why everything was so quiet, and found out it was Budda
day. So most venues were either shut or not serving alcohol. We went to one of the bars to enjoy a delicious soda water (OK, we pretended it was beer) and had our first Aussie twit experience. Upon being told that they weren't serving alcohol, he proceeded to rant about how he respected their religion and stuff but that they should be serving beer while the footy was on. Proud day?
To honour Budda day, we pottered to the temple where they were preparing for the ceremonies that night. Got let inside by a lady and we were blown away by the murals and shell inlaid wood, and the hand carved shutters. Also amused to see a dog run off with a kid's shoe outside, but hey - we're easy to please.
Unfortunately the night was a little waylaid by torrential downpours, but I did make it all better by having my first banana pancake. First one was with honey but now am firmly addicted and have them with nutella or my favourite - banana and lemon. It is the best food around as far as I'm concerned. Nemo thinks I'm insane.
So that was a quiet
night and early to bed, so that we could be picked up at 7am to get transferred to the pier for our ferry to Phi Phi. Just to clarify - transfer in an air conditioned van for a 40 min trip to the other side of the island PLUS our 1.5 hour ferry trip to Phi Phi cost us 400 baht each. That's $16 Australian. Happy days. Had a great trip over to Phi Phi, but nothing compared to when we actually got our first look at these islands.
Of all the places that we have been, Whitsundays, Philippines and so on, we'd be hard pressed to find anywhere as pretty or as majestic as Phi Phi looked to us when we first arrived. The stunning turquoise water and white sand were one thing, but the combination of that with the cliffs that fall vertically into the water and the long boats all around set this place apart for us.
We'd spent 2 days in Phuket trying to contact the place that we wanted to stay on Phi Phi but couldn't get through. We'd found Garden Home on an accommodation website and really wanted to stay there. But
we arrived in Phi Phi without a booking - not a problem as it is low season.
On our way off the boat we were 'discovered' as not having anywhere to stay by the booking agents around the pier. They told us that Garden Home was booked out and we then tramped all over town with one guy who was showing us cheap cheap beach side bungalows. These amounted to bamboo boxes that we could have picked up and taken with us. Eventually we escaped and took off on our own in search of the elusive Garden Home. With some help from a dude in a dive shop, we eventually found it and were delighted that we bothered.
Garden Home is about 10 mins stroll (can't walk fast, sweat too much) from the pier but far enough from everything that you can easily sleep as it's quiet. It is clean as can be and the rooms are divine. And still, all of that is nothing compared to the bathrooms which are this indoor/outdoor/tile/garden affair that has kept us amused for every day we're here. And best thing about the place? $20 a night. Chris, the manager, is an angel
who'll do anything he can to help out. When we found the place we were head to toe covered in sweat and he shuffled us into our room, told us to shower and cool down, and then to come and check in when we're more civilised. It was the happy ending I'd hoped for!
After cooling down a little and unpacking a little less we ventured towards town where the local 'viewpoint' is. I had a hard time getting up there (still not quite a 100%, but almost!) but once I finally did the view was mind blowing. It shows the 'twin bays' and 2 beaches that we have walking access to, as well as the mountains around it. Sadly, the fierce monkeys we were promised did not appear, and we actually haven't seen one so far.
Apart from that, I'm afraid there isn't much more to tell of our first day in Phi Phi. We have walked, sweated, drunk beer, swam in water that is so hot it is not at all refreshing, eaten loads of good food and a few portions of average stuff, bartered for books and then we probably went and had another beer.
After Beach Bar
Waiting for the sunsetNemo has been performing his excellent rendition of the mosquito macarena whenever we're out (as opposed to his usual check to see I have everything before I leave the house macarena) although I think we've finally found some repellant that works.
Everything here is close, and a few minutes away from everything else. It would have been nice to see more of the island, but apprently eveything up the north side is really expensive and we still haven't covered everything around here. So Nemo has been writing the next installment of the blog for our time in Phi Phi...
Nemo's turn..............
By Jove!
What a first night's sleep I tells ya. I am incapable of not scratching mozzie bites. Luckily, armed with a pretty fair mozzie net and an ever dwindling tube of Itch-Eze, I managed to drive Aleks insane for only about a third of the night. It was a rough sleep as we were used to sleeping in air con, but luckily the room is inherently cool due to it being made of stone and concrete as opposed to the others that were made of wood, and we also have a good pedestal fan
that blows straight up our noses.
The second day in Phi Phi started quite late; it's always a pleasant shock to wake up when you're on holiday and realise that you've slept in - it gives you an even greater feeling of relaxation when it passes after you realise you don't have to get up for any reason (just rubbing the salt in a little bit dear readers). We decided to get up and make a day of it, which by the end of the day turned out to be a less than stressful exercise. Sitting here now I'm wracking my brain attempting to think of what we did other than walk, sit on the beautiful beach and wander around the various watering holes searching for the cheapest beers. Not much I don't think. Aleks wanted to go for a swim later in the afternoon but it was not meant to be - when the tide goes out here, it REALLY goes out, about two hundred metres off the main beach, that's how shallow the incline is. Even then it's shallow for another few hundred metres. Bummer.
Another thing, we are getting quite fit from dodging the manic
bicycle riders around here. I kid you not - the alleyways and sidestreets that make up the honeycomb that is Ton Sai town are cluttered with speeding bicycles. Most don't have bells to let you know they're sneaking up behind you, most of them just say "beep beep" in a really quiet non-offensive Thai voice and then scare the crap out of you as they ride past in a flurry of tourists diving out of their way. They can carry up to three people, so the chance of carnage is quite good. No collisions to date though.
Another thing has been growing more apparent since we have arrived here - the impact on Phi Phi of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004. With the Tsunami being 4 1/2 years ago now, the scar left behind by the waves is still a little raw. Everywhere we look is still slowly getting built, cleaned up, and there are many photos on people's businessfronts of them with help and rescue crews, as well as the sad little thankyou notes for the working bees that were started by volunteers from all over the world in an attempt to rebuild the shattered wreckage of
what was once the relatively well established area of Ton Sai Beach.
Samee, a local restaurant owner that specialises in true Thai food, was pulled from under a block of concrete the size of a car by an English bloke named John after three days of being there. John then helped Samee financially and logistically with rebuilding the restaurant, and there is a professionally made sign there thanking John and all the people who helped resurrect the eatery. The guy is so lovely and polite and serves the most amazing Thai food - we have eaten there twice. It's heart breaking.
Samee also has a laminated folder containing a collection of media and eyewitness photos of the Boxing Day tragedy from all over SE Asia... Bodies, rescue efforts, and the actual event itself in it's complete ferocity. Aleks couldn't get past the first three pages, but I looked all the way through and even for me it was a little hard to stomach. A particular photo comes to mind of a tourist running up the street looking behind him, wearing nothing but boardshorts and a scuba buoyancy compensator, while a wall of water rages up behind him and
hundreds of other terrified locals.
But anyway, back onto brighter things.
After a far better night's sleep the second night, with only a few hundred possible malaria carrying bites from the invisible and silent mosquitos of death due to putting the mossie net down early and remembering to keep the door closed, we spent a day at the beach on the other side of the twin bays to make up for Aleks' lack of swimming the previous day. The water temp in the shallows would be easily thirty-plus, and the sun is hot as hell, so the place is packed with Euro-touros working on their already black bodies. I managed to burn my shins (of all places), but I am managing to get some good colour happening in most other places, as is Aleks; thank God for sunscreen or the locals would be having grilled gimpy fish for dinner. Aleks went for a snorkel and I did too, although I must say it weirds me out being so far from the beach but still in waist deep water.
We went home, vegged out, showered and read for a little while, before going back out to the bar
scene, going to a beautiful place called Hippies Bar. What a place! The sound system pumped Clapton, Van Morrison and other awesome artists that were right up our alley, and I decided that it was a good idea to start of the night with a soda water... and a vodka bucket. The prices were the cheapest we've seen in any bar in Phi Phi, so we were instantly sold being the tight-asses we are. The bar itself was very organic - stools made out of hewn off blocks of wood, tables that look like they've been roughly slapped together from ancient floorboards but surprisingly solid as a rock, and kero lamps everywhere, all under a canopy of trees and soft light. Wow. We'll definitely be going back, especially in high season when the place would without a doubt rock very hard. The only thing wrong with the place was the toilet - Aleks is not a very good squatter at the best of times, especially when it's on an elevated platform. And the smell... oooh.
Later in the evening around 10pm both of us managed to have a good go with the bally-thingies (I dont know what you would
Delicious banana pancake
Have prescribed myself one daily... call them) that the fire twirlers use to practice their twirling - consisting of loops of material attached to a chain with a tennis ball on the end of it. We were both quite good... at smacking ourselves in the head with them that is, but we kind of got it in the end. A few minutes later after sitting back down, one of the nearby patrons lost a ring in the very fine sand surrounding his table, so I ambled over looking helpful... We know how absent minded I am and I'm great at losing stuff/finding stuff... Go figure. The guy and his girlfriend were pretty stressed about it. After a few minutes of scrapping around like chooks in a pen I came up with the prize and received a round of applause from nearby barflies and a very grateful hug from the guy - two beers were later brought to our table after they had left. Bonus!
We later wandered down to witness the Fire Twirling show at Carlitos Bar on Ton Sai Beach... Now THAT was an amazing sight. Three different performers with the bally-swing things, long flaming broomsticks and other assorted burny bits all blew
our mind with the speed at which they threw these things around. It was mesmerising and terrifying at the same time. It takes so much agility and dexterity to do it, the main guy had a body like a bowstring. I have now obviously decided that I am going to give fire twirling a crack.Aleks is looking forward to a visit to the burns unit.
I also have a nasty cold today, which may or may not get worse, and coupled with the buckets and Chang Beer from last night (which can range anywhere between 5 and 10% alcohol content in any given bottle)... AND the 30 baht 7-Eleven issued two minute noodles bowl I ate (with real beef pieces!), I am feeling a little worse for wear and Aleks is doing her best to stop me from whinging, including raiding the pharmacy for Paracetamol and feeding me Pineapple Juice. She is, unlike me, feeling quite cheerful about it all really, and is lapping up this beautiful place we're in... this arvo for her is another afternoon of relaxation whilst spending as little money as possible - got the life.
On that train of thought, Phi Phi is
Our room at Garden Home
Absolutely gorgeous for $20 a night! quite an expensive place to do anything. Even worse than Phuket, which is amazing. Keeping in mind that the exchange rate is quite good at the moment, with AU$1 = 26.3 THB, (it's gone up about 2 THB since Nemo got here), some prices are as follows.... 40-70 THB will get you a regular sized beer, whilst 130-140 will buy you a longneck. 100-150 for cocktails and basic mixers, and finally 250-350 for a vodka/sangsom bucket is the sort of prices you can expect to pay at a bar. Foodwise, you can get a good Pad Thai for around 60-80B, and a feed of Pasta is about 120-160. Cigarettes are 60-70B a pack. Water (you don't drink the tap stuff obviously) is between 15 and 35B for 1.5 litres. So it all adds up in the end. Add about 20% onto those prices for Koh Phi Phi Don prices. Yikes.
Our accommodation is costing us around 600THB a night at the moment, but we've got a pretty damn good place with a great owner. When we move on to Ko Lanta tomorrow, the prices are expected to drop right down for pretty much everything, or so we've been told.
Eeeexcellent.
Blimey, that's a mouthful. Sorry guys, got a bit carried away. We shall write again soon, so long as the Tigers in Tiger Cave don't eat us. Or the mozzies. Or the cats that are roaming the streets looking starved. Viva la Longboat!
Lots of love,
The Snotty, Grumbling Fish (and the Responsible Girlfriend)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0285s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Veronica
non-member comment
I am so jealous...... xxx