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Published: January 22nd 2006
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Sunset in Phuket
One of many taken, there may be a quiz when we get home! Well, since we've been spending most of our time laying on the beach soaking up what sun we could, we lost track of how long it had been since our last entry...Whoops!
After our New Year's bash in Bangkok, we took a couple days to recover before catching the 15 hour bus south to Phuket. We took off for South Thailand on the night of the 2nd and after checking the weather forecast had prepared ourselved for many days of scattered thundershowers....Fun! The bus ride was like any other---long, cramped and full of backpackers, only this time by the end of it I was $300.00 poorer. Oh ya, Leslie was robbed! Thankfully the thief was nice enough to leave me some money so we were able to eat and get to our room later that day! Once in Phuket, we were 'had' by a nice tour office guy into paying more for our room than we should have ('I give you good deal if you book now') and we also had to cut the lock off Mel's bag, since for some reason it changed its combination all on its own (we think it could be linked to the thief on
Koh Phi Phi Don
There they are, the taxis of Koh Phi Phi, Long-tail boats! the bus!). We counted our loses, had a laugh, hoped that things only happen in 3's and renamed Phuket "F' it" and started our South Thailand journey at day 0.
We spent our days relaxing in the sun. Yep, no thundershowers in Phuket! We stayed at Karone Beach (sandwiched between Kata and Patong Beaches) and did nothing but relax. We met up with Tom and Ben---who, by the way, were a little upset they weren't actually metioned in the last blog (the 2 guys in the picture taking shots with us). With them we caught some beautiful sunsets and hit up some clubs in Patong--The Banana and Tiger club.
From Phuket we caught a ferry to Koh Phi Phi Don---amazing island. A year later and there is still construction going on trying to return the island back to its original state before the tsunami. Although most of the buildings are back in running order, there is still a huge difference from before (when we get home we'll show you the before and after pictures we have on a postcard). Regardless, the island is beautiful---so are all the aussies and swedes that vacation there--guys and girls! It's quiet during
The Beach
Koh Phi Phi Ley, Maya Beach...Where Leo started to go crazy!! Isn't it beautiful? Now picture 20 boats behind you jammed with tourists...so beautiful!! the day, no cars or motorcycles, and lively during the night---including Muay Thai Boxing matches (between professionals and between travellers) and downing buckets of alcohol---literally buckets! The main thing to drink on the island (and other parts of Thailand) are buckets (like the ones you grew up with making sand castles) filled with ice, redbull, micky of your poison and mix of your choice---oh they're fun! We spent our days there enjoying the sun---aka recovering from the buckets and our nights enjoying the buckets---aka cooling ourselves from the sun It'a vicious cycle! We took a tour to Koh Phi Phi Ley (site of Maya Beach--where they shot 'The Beach') and although beautiful, it was jammed full of other tourists and at that point we decided there would be no more tours. We also managed to see Monkey Beach, Viking Cave, and Bamboo Island (which was also really beautiful). Along the way we stopped to snorkel at various places and saw lots of fish, including 2 dolphins---the most amazing things can happen when you least expect it!
After 5 days on Phi Phi, Mel had to drag me off the island onto a ferry, bus and night ferry to Koh
Bamboo Island
The water...sigh, the sand....sigh, one of the most beautiful islands we've seen. Plus, the location of the dolphin sighting...sigh!! Phangan--I didn't want to leave! We said bye to Tom and Ben (who were heading toward Malaysia) and arrived on the party island 3 days before the Full Moon Party. We found a cute bungalow on Haad Rin (Sunset) beach, for cheaper than our 6' x 6' dirty room in Phi Phi, just minutes away from everything. It took us a day to find a decent beach though, the one by our place was about 2 feet, and Haad Rin (Sunrise) Beach was covered in garbage---result of so many Full Moon Parties! We finally located a small, but perfectly ok beach between the 2 and spent our days awaiting the Full Moon laying on it---again....no thundershower! We met back up with the Irish lads the night before the Full Moon, and had a trial run in which we encountered pre-moon partiers, some passing out and others losing their shoes---2 very common things at a Full Moon. The Full Moon Party was crazy! We have no idea how many people were there (~15 000) but the beach was full! Most of the clubs are located on the beach each playing a different style of music, and between them are vendors all
Koh Phi Phi Lookout
The climb up to it was rough...but the view was worth it. Picture this a year ago with 30 foot waves coming at this poor island from both sides of this little inlet. So sad, but the people here are amazing! set up with beer, breezers, water and all the mixings for a great bucket! 'Lady you want bucket?!? Bucket, bucket, bucket!!' (all Full Moon pictures are on a disposable...didn't want to be robbed of my camera too!)
A day after the Full Moon we said our goodbyes to the Irish lads---Who we'd like to say "it was great to meet you all and we wish you the best in Australia, we hope everything goes well for you down under"---and hopped on a ferry to Koh Tao, the island of divers! We were bombarted by various dive resorts offering us rooms and diving deals on the ferry and decided on Big Blue Dive Resort for their one day tour. Unfortunately, when we got there we were informed the the tour wasn't an everyday thing but that the next one was going out on the 21st....2 days after we were scheduled to leave Thailand. After a brief discussion we decided to do our advanced diving course. The course included a Navigation dive (here's a compass, swim there and then swim back) a Bouyancy Dive (swim through this ring), a Night Dive (here's a torch (flashlight) go diving), a deep dive (I
Tsunami Evidence
One year later and Koh Phi Phi is still cleaning up. We met some people who had been here twice a month apart and they said the amount of work done was amazing...new hotel rooms, restaurants, etc. never thought I'd reach the bottom...30m is a long way down!), and a Computer/Multilevel Dive (here's a computer, go diving). All in all it was unbelievable, after our dives in Vietnam I wasn't sure I'd want to go again, but the conditions here were much better and it's definately something we'll do again! Mel's actually reconsidering becoming a marine biologist!
After 2 short days in Koh Tao (or the waters around Koh Tao) we were back on a ferry and bus to Bangkok a day before our departure flight. We arrived in Bangkok around 2am and assumed we'd find a place to stay no problem. Turns out everyone was in Bangkok that night and we ended up paying a lot for not a lot---but we were only staying for 7 hours! We shared a cab with a man from Brazil (all the 10am shuttle buses were full too) to the airport and got on our plane to Bali.....beautiful Bali! Late that night we arrived in Kuta, Bali and crashed---we weren't used to all that travelling, it takes a lot more out of you than laying on a beach! We got lost our first day trying to find Kuta Beach
Sunset at Sunset Beach
The view from our restaurant in Koh Pha-ngan.....watching a sun set is something I don't think you could ever get enough of! (it really isn't that far...we just turned right instead of left!), but once there we booked some surf lessons and on day 2 in Bali we were out in the ocean. Surfing, it's kind of like snowboarding but completely different. We had great instructors who were determined to have us standing on the board (sort of riding a wave) by the end of our 2.5 hours lesson. And they came through! (only all our pics are on the water camera so you'll have to wait!). Today, though, we are super sore. We used muscles to push ourselves up that we hadn't used in the past 3 months, or maybe even ever! So we spent today laying by the pool---the sun returned after a 2 day break, which was nice since we were already starting to fade!!!
So, this entry is a little uneventful, we know, but there isn't a whole lot that happens between laying on the beach and laying on the beach (a snake is a one time thing I think!). However, we hope you enjoy the pictures (the few that we've actually taken---mostly sunsets) and we can't wait to see some of you in less than 2
Sunset in....
a) Koh Phi Phi
b) Koh Pha-ngan
c) Koh Tao
Answer C: had to make it a little more interesting....Koh means Island by the way and Tao means Turtle! weeks....Man time flies by when you're having fun!
Love you all, Leslie and Melissa xoxo
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Donna
non-member comment
Hello, bucket ladies..... Sounds like a lot of fun. Sorry to hear you got robbed. Luckily it was only money. The pictures are terrific. By the way, don't get too attached to those kids Melissa, you have a few back here waiting for you! See you soon!