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Published: January 31st 2009
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First of all, sorry for the delay. It's hard to keep the blog when you're having a good time!
Here we go: the second delivery! We really couldn’t wait to get out of Bangkok, so we took the first bus south, to Prachuap Khiri Khan, the so called “gateway to the south”. We couldn’t resist to stop there because of its popular viewpoint hill apparently covered in monkeys . We weren’t disappointed, on our way up (the stated ‘369 steps‘) we got easily entertained and distracted, with more than we expected! We were surprised to see a huge army of more than a thousand monkeys! The monkey-viewing made it a breeze to climb. It was great because it was the first time we saw wild monkeys! Amanda was especially excited because, as we all know, she has an insane love for monkeys. Once on top of the hill it was beautiful, there was a stunning temple and we arrived as the sun was setting.
The next day, we decided to continue to head all the way down south to Krabi, to get the real tropical beaches that we desired. Our plans changed very fast after a few bus transfers, and
then we missed the last bus to Krabi, so instead we headed for Phuket. In the end this became as an excellent choice! We were able to take a ferry straight to Ko Phi Phi in the morning! The best island in the world! (That is, apart from New Zealand, of course!) Ko Phi Phi - home to the famous Maya beach, from “The Beach” (movie) on Ko Phi Phi Leh island.
We though it was going to be crowded because of its popularity, but as one of the waitresses explained, apparently the Bangkok airport recently shutting down really affected tourism. We decided to stay on a beach called Long Beach, in a little simple bungalow with very few commodities, and a shared bathroom. It was perfect, we were just in front of one of the islands top snorkelling spots called Shark Point!
One morning we got up really early to catch the low tide for snorkelling (apparently the best time to do it) and took the courage to face the sharks! The fish looked beautiful! We had a florescent blue fishy friend that followed us for most of the loop around the area. And suddenly, out of the blue,
without notice… a shark passed us! It was amazing! (and a harmless black tip one, so no need for alarm). Amanda had never seen a shark so close though, without a big glass panel and some oxygen and some land in between them!! It was a meter and a half long, and just went sauntering by without even acknowledging us! Amanda quickly scrambled up on the nearby rocks anyway, just to calm her nerves down a bit.
On our private excursion to Maya beach (“the beach” beach) we had another little incident. We caught a long boat (the common way of transportation around the island) for just the two of us, (we couldn’t have fit many more anyway). We stopped around a few of the bays to do some snorkelling (amazing colours of blues!!!). And then on way back, our longboat taxi broke down on the middle of the sea, and the most freaked out of us was our little driver! All we could do was relax and watch him go bananas as we gently rocked up and down with the waves. In the end, and after some time and some light rain, we got hooked on another friendly longboat
that dragged us back to our beach.
On the first night on the island, we did a long walk over some hills, roots, and little bays to get to the main village. It took us about half an hour, and a lot of uncertainties as where on earth we were going, but as we got used to the track, and after some coming and goings during our stay, we realize that every path in the end somehow leads to the village!
We got there and found out that it was Half moon party day! So after a pizza and a yummy nutella pancake, in a boat, up in a tree hut (that was something incredible to see), we went partying! We finished the night joining others to watch a group of Thai guys doing incredible talented fire acts, and ended up getting to run and jump into a long skipping rope lit on fire, and sprinted and jumped in between ropes of fire on the ground.
Ko Phi Phi had a really relaxed atmosphere. A lot of coconut shakes, pineapple juice and warm nights. And mosquitoes, lets not forget them buggers!
Next destination: Raylay beach!
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