Headed Down South

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After over a year of being here in Thailand I was finally heading down South to the real beach. After spending some time in Bangkok, my friend Duffy and I headed down to Koh Phi Phi before we joined other volunteers with an English Camp.



We headed out the night of a Friday and spent the entire evening on the bus headed down to the beach. Night buses are always rough for me, I struggle to sleep on them and if I succeed at all it is never a real sleep. Despite all this, I knew a beautiful beach awaited me so I had no complaints. Arriving bright and early we hopped off our bus and into a tuk tuk and were taken to the ferry where we grabbed some breakfast and ferried over.



Once at Koh Phi Phi we were instantly bombarded by everyone to go to their guesthouse. Being poor, resourceful volunteers we by passed all these folks and found a woman down some little road that had no other farangs on it. Using our fancy Thai we asked her where the cheapest place was to stay. Fetching another man we again asked for the cheapest place. He suggested one room and we asked for cheaper and he brought us to the perfect spot, just 400 baht a night, that is my kind of place!



Paying our room we dropped our bags, put on our suits and headed out to the infamous beaches of Thailand. Exhausted from our bus ride we passed out right there on the beach, causing us both to get a lovely shade of red, worth it! From there we got cheap delicious lunch and did a bit of shopping.



Not wanting to waste our evening, the two of us took a nap to prepare us for a night of going out. Dolled up and ready to go we headed back to the same place we had lunch and grabbed some dinner and then voyaged out into the great unknown that is nightlife in Koh Phi Phi. We are poor so our drink of choice was not just beer but it was beer bought at Seven Eleven and then drank on the side of the street. This works for us because not only are we getting drinking on for a fraction of the cost but we are also getting the chance to people watch, a hobby of both of ours.



Eventually we moved out onto the beach were clubs like the ocean and blast music all night long. We danced our fannies off all night long until it was time to head back home to rest up.



The reason we had to rest up was because today we were going rock climbing. Neither of us had ever done it before and we were excited to try it here where it is one of the best places to go in Thailand. Breakfast at our new favorite restaurant and a bit of relaxation in the am we eventually meet up with our tour guides and headed out. We were joined by one other girl who unlike us had experience in the field.



Turns out Duffy is a bit afraid of heights and thus this was a bit of a struggle for her. I put so much pressure on myself that not reaching the top is hardly an option, that is until I literally can’t hold on anymore and go swinging from the rocks. The two of us make an interesting pair trying to conquer these rock faces.



We try at each pass and although fear stops her in her tracks at each face she makes it up a little higher each and every time. I always make it to just before the top and two out of four times succeed in touching the very top. On my second go, our guide told me that once I’m at the top he is going to bring me down fast. He wasn’t joking, after reaching the top I flew to the bottom in record breaking speeds. Ok that is probably an exaggeration but truly I went so fast I was a bit nervous for my life!



We spent the evening much like the evening before, grabbing beers from Seven and exploring the night life. Dancing on the sand and walking in the streets before we headed to bed because tomorrow we were off to work again.

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