"I call a bamboo hut home"

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Life on the beach is beautiful.

After recovering from the full moon party, Catherine and I headed for Krabi, which turned out to be full day ordeal involving a taxi to a ferry, then entering a port and fighting crowds for another sticker (they give you stickers and people point you where to go--they have no faith in farangs' (foriengners) ability to navigate-- the Thai travel system is designed for idiots, they hold your hand every step of the way, which results in a kind of chaos because you don't know what is happening and you are just herded like cattle, which is difficult for me to deal with after months of independent travel. But whatever you eventually end up where you are going...)

From that port, we got a taxi to the other side of the point where we waited for another ferry for a few hours. After a two hour ferry ride, we boarded another bus, and this driver didn't seem to know where we were going and drove us in circles for a while before dropping us at another bus station where we boarded some minibuses and after 3 hours finally arrived in Krabi, 3 hours late. Then we got another taxi to a guesthouse where we got some food and slept on an extremely damp (VERY moist) bed with towels over it. I don't know what they deal was with this room but it definitely had some humidity issues. Anyway, I've slept in some shady places and atleast it had a warm shower-- a rare luxury for me, so whatever.

The next morning we caught another 2 hour ferry to the beautiful Ko Phi Phi. This island was rocked by the Dec 26, 2006 tsunami but is still going strong. This place is absolutely gorgeous!

I enjoyed my first beer on the pier before even finding accommodation, just stepping onto this utopic island put me in the best mood. I was so happy.

After some Thai food and beer with some guys we met on the pier (Jayde, NZ, and Victor, QC) we all set out to find a place to stay. We found some bamboo huts on the beach, and spent the day drinking on the beach, swimming and enjoying life.

The next day we decided to go on a snorkelling trip/ island tour. I stayed up drinking buckets on the beach and swimming until after 2am, and woke up at 6am (darn cheap Red Bull they put in buckets, as soon as you wake up, you are up. Also, turns out our location is not concusive of a sleeping, as there is blaring music from all the beach bars until 2am-- so you have no choice! (haha it is a hard life) but to party every night because you can't sleep anyway), so needless to say I wasn't exactly in the best shape for snorkelling, but after some eggs and a morning beer I was ready to rock, even though the poor guys were puking off the back of the boat---wimps. haha

I LOVED THE TRIP! It was absolutely beautiful! Our first stop was Maya Bay. This is the place where they filmed the movie, The Beach. The snorkelling was great here. I saw so many amazing fish and a big sea turtle.

We also kayaked in to check out the island. Then we boarded the boat again and went to many different locations to snorkel. One of the spots was a shark point. I found them! I was the only one on my boat who spotted some. It was really amazing to swim with them. They were small ones, only about 3.5m, and really quick, but you still get a huge rush. It was amazing!

We also went to Long Beach and Monkey Beach although the monkeys didn't show themselves, I wasn't too disappointed because I had already held a gerber monkey on the beach the day before. It was an amazing day. The fish were so colorful and numerous, the sun was shining, the sea air was sweet, I was in heaven.


I have spent the last few days with a simple laziness that comes with life on a beautiful island- lazing in a hammock having drinks, eating great food every few hours, swimming, and partying on the beach at night, or heading into town to the bars to watch some Mai Tai fights. There is a bar in town which offers a free bucket to anyone willing to fight. So you have these friends signing up to beat their friends up for some free booze. It is very entertaining! They also have some professional Mai Thai fighters every once in a while for good measure.


Some bars even have promotions for free buckets for 10 minutes in a night, so you show up and wait in line and get some free bucket of Sangsom (Thai rum which is actually pretty good), Red Bull and coke. Naturally, I was first in line.


Last night I played a drinking game with some German guys who were a lot of fun, before heading to a busy bar which was packed with British and Irish people. They really are everywhere here.

I found a great place where the green chicken curry is delicious, so I eat that a few times a day, have some banana smoothies and thai pancakes... Life's great.

But, at some point you have to come back to reality, and I'm really missing home. My time has nearly come---the moment when you are running out of steam, so I will head back to Bangkok and catch a flight to Hong Kong. Home is within sight and I can't wait.



Good bye Thailand...I love you long time.

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Comments

[Shannon]

You rock!
Erin I absolutely love reading your posts! I'm so glad that you are having such an amazing experience! I get to live vicariously through you! I hope that one day I have the opportunity to travel and enjoy life as much as you are right now! Miss you and can't wait to see you when you get back!!