Lipe to Phang Nga to Kao Lak to Similan to Phuket to Phi Phi to Lanta to Lipe again!!

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Well it has been about a week since I last blogged anything for you guys (both family tuning into our travels and you other travelers looking for tips). Since we last showed you our progress we were in Pak Bara again waiting for transportation to Krabi, which when we got to our bus in Trang, we found out the bus went further west after Krabi so we just stayed on the thing and paid the difference. In that process, there was a Swede and a Kiwi girl who met on Koh Tao and were travelling together trying to make it to Krabi as well, and the minibus company ended up giving us a 'transfer' that was one ticket for all four of us, and with a 2 hour 'layover' in Trang we had no choice but to hang out and drink beers with them while waiting for the public bus. I havent quite figured out the system in Thailand for local buses because they make people move all the time out of seats for Farangs and we even witnessed them making an 80 yr old thai lady move from her seat and stand until the next stop where she was getting off. weird.
We made it to Phang Nga and got off the public bus around 10:30 pm and wandered the deserted streets until we found a guest house. It was 450 baht for an air-con room which is pretty much a steal and yet another reason why we knew we were in the middle of no where. We got up in the morning and chartered a taxi to Khao Lak where we were to check in for our live aboard trip and leave that night around 10 PM. Khao Lak was one of the worst places hit during the tsunami and is also where a ton of the relief money and volunteer work has poured into and as a result the place is really built up (relatively) and we were graced with a little tourist wonderland with t-shirt shops and so forth, which was actually kind of nice after the night before.
We checked into the dive shop, paid up, after having to call Bank of America to fix the frozen credit card situation and were to get on trucks at 9 pm to head to the port to get on board. There were 2 american girls on board and lo and behold they happened to be from Seattle (Blaine actually) and went to Gonzaga. One lives in West Seattle and the other has moved on to San Diego, but we got along great with them on the 3 day trip.
The diving was unbelievable, and on our first dive, Amy and I had 2 Manta Rays, each no less that 12 ft across, swim within 15 ft of us. On the remaining 8 dives over the 3 days we saw sharks, sting rays, scorpion fish, lionfish, sea turtles, morays and just about everything else you can imagine. During the downtime between dives, the boat had a dinghy that would ferry you to the nearest beach and you could spend the day snorkeling, hiking, or just generally chilling out.
We got back to Khao Lak after the trip on the 7th, stayed one night and then headed off to follow the Seattle girls to Koh Phi Phi (from the movie 'The Island'). Caught the public bus again and for 60 baht took us to the port. I decided that the cube of clothes I was carrying around and had yet to wear was just too much and we hit the post office in Phuket where I shipped half my clothes home to save some weight. It was 10lbs, cost me $30 bucks and it will be in Seattle in just 3 short months 😊 Oh well, guess its good that its my summer clothes.
We landed on Phi Phi after catching the slow boat and realized that we had made a HUGE mistake. It is farang hell, with shirtless 20-something Euros all over the place scouting for chicks. Definiteley not our style. We managed to charter a speed boat (think Miami Vice) over to another island called Koh Lanta and we spent the last 3 days chilling out over there and having a great time on the beach. We took a Thai cooking class and filled our time in between with Thai massages on the beach, for 250 baht/hr, which translates to about $6 USD. God we love Thailand.
We grabbed the fastboat from Lanta this afternoon after spending the morning on the beach in Lanta and ended with another sunset on the beach on Lipe. This is definteley the most beautiful place we have found in all of Thailand and are staying here for 5 more days before wrapping up the trip heading to Bangkok to get all our shopping done.
I am making this a text only blog since this place on the island is pretty spendy for internet time, a whopping 3 baht/min. I will post pictures tomorrow or the next day when I am avoiding the midday sun since the internet is a good 15 min walk from our beach.
Love you all and we miss you very much. Thanks to all those who have helped in our absence, and please give Kona and Hunter an extra treat from Mom and Dad.
Also, for those of you doing research I promise to write a "what I learned about Thailand" uber-blog later so that you can get some good info from this instead of just the play-by-play

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Comments

[Barbara]

Hi y'all, It's been cool following your adventure. Sounds like a lot of fun!

[deleted_29352]

hello from pcnw ,)
Sounds like things can get interesting trying to get around. Glad to hear you're making it well. Can't wait to see your Koh Phi Phi photos :) "cost me $30 bucks and it will be in Seattle in just 3 short months" LOL! Be safe!