On Monday night we boarded a Bangkok bound bus in Surrattani. This was no ordinary bus but a bright pink double decker that blasted Thai music almost non-stop. I surprised to see that we were the only backpackers, the only white people actually, to be taking the overnight bus to Bangkok from Surrattani. The ride wasn't so great, but you can't expect much for a 10 hour ride that costs $18. The only time that Thai music wasn't blaring occurred during the showing of the Keanu Reeves flick Point Break...just kidding, we weren't so lucky. We got to watch his newer release, Constantine, in Thai. The double decker proved to be really bouncy and I didn't catch many winks during the ride. Even worse, I was sitting in the front row and was able to anxiously watch how dangerously the bus was barreling down the road. Probably the best part of the evening was dinner: a taro filled bun and Magnum ice cream bar at the Surrattani station and then a mung bean filled bun on the bus. Yum yum.
We pulled into the Bangkok bus terminal at 4:00 am on Tuesday, an hour ahead of schedule. Lindsay had been sleeping in the back row and hadn't been privy to the racecar-like driving, lucky girl. We hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, the Novotel (thanks Dad!), checked-in at 5:00 am and immediately fell asleep in our dark, comfortable room. So perfect. We woke up around noon, and strolled down to the Jim Thompson House for lunch and a tour. I enjoyed very tasty (and spicy!) chili shrimp with white rice. Jim Thompson was an American entreapneur that settled in Bangkok after WWII. He founded the Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company and ultimately rebuilt the Thai silk industry, in turn introducing the Western world to Thai silk products (his silk clothing was featured in the 60's film version of The King and I). Thompson had been an architect in the US and designed himself a beautiful Thai-style house along one of Bangkok's canal (Thai houses are built like compounds: the dining room in one little house, the sitting room in another, etc). Thompson was also an avid collector of antiques--we were able to examine ancient Chinese porcelain and 8th century buddhas, among other artifacts. In case you are wondering, Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared on a trip to Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (we went there!) in 1967, his body was never recovered.
That night Lindsay and I met our friend Jon (we were introduced to him one night in Khao Sok) for dinner at Pachino's, an Italian restaurant close to our hotel. We all ate good food that was reminiscent of Carraba's-quality dining or something similar. After dinner Linds and I said goodnight to Jon, and headed to one of the 5 huge cineplexes to watch a film. We decided on Eastern Promises, which I really loved! The viewing experience began with about 30 minutes of commercials and previews (not surprising) and then we stood with our fellow Thai patrons to watch the "We Love the King" montage video (played with the King's anthem in the background). The Thais apparently really love King Bhumibol. After the video we were seated; our violent film began and was enjoyed by all.
On Wednesday morning I got up early to work out in the hotel's fitness room. That felt great! After a mediocre breakfast in the hotel, Linds and I headed to the Vietnamese embassy to acquire visas for our trip in a few weeks time. When we left the hotel it was pretty much monsooning. We rode the sky train a few stops and then walked several blocks to the embassy. Despite our raincoats and umbrellas, we were pretty much soaked by the time we arrived. We applied for our visas, and upon leaving the building discovered that the building's entranceway was completely flooded as were all of the surrounding streets. It was really ridiculous, it had only rained for about an hour! Lindsay and I walked reluctantly through the murky, ankle-deep water to the sidewalk. I was standing close to the wall that lined the embassy when Linds told me to step forward because a cockroach was crawling towards me on the wall. I turned around to see it and realized that the wall was covered in huge roaches, it was so gross! I'm talking at least 30 huge, monster roaches! We screamed like little girls and ran to the curb to hail a taxi to return us to our lovely, cockroach-free hotel.
Lindsay changed out of her wet sneakers and then we decided that the time had come for her to purchase a pair of shoes that could be worn while walking in rain (she only had sneakers and flimsy flip-flops). We spent the next THREE HOURS shopping at Bangkok's various malls, finally settling on a pair of hideously colored Puma watershoes. After shopping I picked up a sandwich at a deli in our hotel, and then reclined and swam in the pool for a while. After the r&r we headed to one of Bangkok's Thai boxing stadiums. The stadium wasn't very crowded, we chose to sit on the side with the smallest number of smelly old Thai men. There were a few woman there as well as a number of 8-11 year olds selling beers and alcoholic drinks. We watched five matches, all between men that weighed less than 130 lbs. Probably the part I enjoyed most was the intense drumming that was played during each round. The rest of it (punches, high kicks, and hugging kicks to the opponent's kidneys...I'm not sure how to describe the moves) I didn't find too enthralling. What I found interesting was that the crowd always obviously (and unanimously) chose a favorite between the two contenders--interpreting the unfamiliar boos and cheers was fun. Lindsay and I rounded off the night with a late sushi dinner in the Siam Paragon, one of the fancy malls close to the hotel.
On Thursday morning we headed to The Grand Palace, Bangkok's landmark attraction (and rightfully so!). Along with many other tourists, Linds and I walked around the Palace for several hours taking hundreds of photos. The intricate and ornately styled buildings and temples were really breathtaking, especially when glistening in the morning sunlight. In addition to gold, emerald and blue colored tiles and ceilings, there were also extremely detailed murals on the walls of passageways outlining Buddhist lore. One of the main attractions is the Emerald Buddha, which is actually not carved of emerald but of jade instead. The buddha was dressed in his winter wardrobe, a cloak woven in gold.
Once the afternoon sun was in full swing we hired our first tuk-tuk to drive us to Khao San Road. For lunch we chose a crappy Irish pub and I sampled a dissatisfying Thai-style papaya salad with black crab. Not good. We then hired a taxi to take us to Viamanmek Mansion, a royal residence built by Rama V in the early 20th century. The mansion was built of golden teak (an indigenous tree specie) in Western architectural style. The rooms were filled with antiques that showcased the modernity of the palace at the time it was constructed, for example the king's bathroom contained the first shower in Thailand. We really enjoyed the tour, especially since it was led by a friendly Thai woman with a jiggling snaggle-tooth.
We had a low-key night eating more Italian food at Pachino's. We celebrated my acceptance at UCSB with some wine and then I purchased the latest Harry Potter flick (at an obscene cost) once we were back at the Novotel. Of course once the film began, I remembered that I had watched it on the plane from Australia to Singapore, oops.
On Saturday morning we drove back over to the Vietnamese embassy to pick up our visas and then headed to the Hualampong train station. We purchased tickets for the next evening's sleeper train to Chiang Mai and booked accommodation as well. After our bookings, we hired a taxi to transfer us to Wat Pho, the oldest temple in Bangkok. Before touring the temple grounds, we ate some really foul, greasy noodles at a restaurant on the pier. To get to the restaurant you had to walk through a market selling really smelly dried fish. I'm not usually very sensitive to smells, but the whiff of the market made me feel physically ill. I saved myself from vomiting by purchasing a coconut and focusing all of my attention on it's sweet water while I ran to the pier restaurant. We spent an hour walking around Wat Pho looking at the many large golden buddhas and at the famous Reclining Buddha. The temple was under renovation so there were large heaps of brightly colored roof tiles all over the grounds. It wasn't very attractive but I thought it was interesting.
We then took a boat across the unattractive Chao Phraya River to Wat Arun. This temple was very tall--steep stairs allowed us to climb up to a second landing that was a couple hundred feet in the air. We were awarded panoramic views of the city and up-close views of the Buddhist architecture. My favorite ornaments were these squatted lions that support columns. I enjoy visiting the temples but wish I knew more about Buddhism and it's corresponding architectural style, there's a lot of symbolism, etc that I'm missing out on.
We then returned to the Siam Paragon for a light, late lunch and some book shopping. After a gym session we went back to the Paragon for another sushi dinner. This time I ordered a special box set that contained 4 pieces of sushi, miso soup, noodles, a cold tofu thing and pickled veggies. It was so great! Lindsay was itching to explore Bangkok's salsa scene and so we headed to a club called La Rueda that she found online. It was indeed a salsa club; however, there was only one couple dancing and the only person seated at the bar was an old, obese, arrogant Swiss man. The friendly waitresses informed us that Thursday and Saturday were the prime nights for dancing. Bummer. We were forced into talking about politics with the annoying Swiss man while we finished our drinks and then took a cab back to our hotel. Before retiring to our room, we checked out the scene at the Novotel's bar and club. The music was so bad and the crowd of old Western men hitting on young Thai women was too much to take, so we just gave up on dancing and went to bed.
On Saturday morning we checked-out of our room, left our bags with the concierge and headed to the weekend market. We got a little lost of the train but eventually wound our way to the massive market containing 8000 vendor stalls! Initially I wasn't very excited about the trip to to the market but once I started weaving through the stalls, I really got into it. Lindsay and I set a meeting place and time and shopped our separate ways. I found some really great gifts! The market contained everything from trinkets and knickknacks to clothes to rabbits and puppies (and even more of that foul smelling dried fish). After a while I found Lindsay looking deflated at our meeting spot and so we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and continue on to the station to board our sleeper train to Chiang Mai....
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
January 26-28, Khao Sok
On Saturday we rode the ferry back to Krabi from Ko Phi Phi. In Krabi town we transferred to a minibus that would drive us the 4 hours to Khao Sok National Park. We made a couple of stops in Krabi town, and at one of them we picked up Gemke (a Dutch girl that we had been climbing with in Railay) and a friendly Californian guy named Jamie. We chatted the whole way to KS and had a grand ole time. It turns out that Gemke also got food poisoning on the same day that Linds and I did! And she wasn't even staying in the same part of town as us, crazy! The scenery during the drive was really stunning, more of those awesome limestone cliffs.
The minibus dropped Lindsay and I off at Smiley Bungalows in Khao Sok (Gemke and Jamie continued on to Khao Lok). We had a look around and then decided to ride with some Canadians to Our Jungle House, a guesthouse that was recommended by a friend. In the end we decided not to stay at Our Jungle House as it was tucked way back in the woods and was nestled really close to a mosquito-breeding river. Before driving back to town we ate at OJH's restaurant: I sampled some good but slightly overwhelming ginger soup. The crabby German man that ran OJH took us back to Smiley's and we checked into a clean, elevated bungalow that gave us a great view of the surrounding mountains.
After check-in, the nephew of Smiley's owner drove us down the rode to a Buddhist Temple to feed some monkeys. The monkeys were all over the place, large and small, as were several mangy dogs picking up the bits of bread that the monkeys left behind. Beside the temple was a limestone cave that contained bizarre, random objects that held significance (of what kind I'm not sure) to the monks. For example there was a plexiglass coffin that contained a somewhat mummified 200 year old person, actually it was supposed to be Buddha. Ummm...
We ate a delicious dinner at a nearby hotel, I ordered a local favorite of ground pork with pumpkin and rice. For dessert, I stuffed myself on sticky rice with coconut milk and fruit. Glutinous gluttony for sure. After dessert an American at a nearby table, Jon, introduced himself and we chatted for the next 45 minutes until the restaurant closed. Jon works for the World Wildlife Federation in D.C. but has been stationed in Vientiane, Laos for the past year. We realized that we would have some overlap in Bangkok, so we exchanged contact info before heading back to the bungalow.
The next morning we embarked on a trip to Chieow Laan Lake. The morning started off a little rocky when there were some issues with our breakfast. We were told that breakfast was included in the cost of our lake tour, so at 8:05 am we each ordered a banana pancake at Smiley`s restaurant. In typical SE Asian style my lead pancake came out at least 20 minutes before Lindsay's. In the meantime the other people for our tour (1 Brit and 2 Germans) were sitting in the bed of the truck waiting for us. It was really awkward, we felt like we shouldn't have ordered any food. But we were hungry! Also, our tour guide got pissed at us when we went to use the toilet before departing because "they had been waiting for us for an hour!" Right...
We drove about an hour to the national park entrance and boarded a longtail boat that would take us across the lake. The boat ride was absolutely gorgeous, the cliffs were just amazing! Totally breathtaking in the morning sunlight. I am obsessed with the limestone cliffs, completely obsessed. After 45 minutes, our boat pulled up to a long row of bamboo bungalows that were floating on the lake. We were prepared an enormous lunch of fried fish (fresh from the lake), sweet and sour chicken, stir fry chicken, Thai omlette and fresh fruit. It was too bad I ate that lead pancake for breakfast (it more like a really dense cake, than an actual pancake) because I was still really full by lunchtime.
After lunch we boarded the boat again and puttered around to a spot to pull up on shore and begin our "jungle walk." The walk wasn't very strenuous and we didn't see a ton of wildlife but it was still fun. Our guides captured a big beetle with a really long nose (probiscus beetle?), a flying lizard that they called a chameleon, and a lot of pretty butterflies. We made a lot of stream crossings, and thankfully, because it's not the rainy season, we didn't need to constantly check for leeches. After about an hour of walking we reached the entrance to a large limestone cave. We waited for another group of about 10 tourists to join us, then we grabbed our flashlights (or strapped on a headlamp in my case) and entered the cave. So much fun! There were bats, large spiders, frogs and crabs crawling around. We walked (and sometimes swam!) through the cave for about an hour. Even though our guide (named Ah) was cranky at breakfast, he certainly warmed up over the course of the day and kept trying to hold my hand while we were trekking through the cave (I made the mistake of telling him that I didn`t have a boyfriend earlier in the day). It was a little embarrassing...at one point after he took my hand I turned around and everyone else in our group was silently laughing at me. Sigh. The best part of the cave walk was when we would enter into narrow canyons and see the rippled limestone up close; sometime we would have to pull ourselves through the water using a rope. It was so great! We returned to the boat and rode back to the floating houses for some down time. Some people swam, but the five from our group just hung out and talked. I spotted a HUGE, green moth laying on the floor of the woman`s bathroom so everyone went up to take a look. It was really beautiful. After the chill time, we rode the boat back across the lake and drove to town.
Back at Smiley`s, Lindsay and I got showered and ready for dinner. As we were walking through the lobby-restaurant, the owner and her nephew directed our attention to a large toad that was hanging out with them behind the counter. This was a really big toad, larger than any I have seen in the past. Lindsay insisted that I take her photo with it. So she picked it up and I snapped a photo. Of course she wasn`t satisfied with the picture, so she picked up the beast again and I snapped another shot. After returning the figgety toad to the floor a second time, she looked at the photo but still felt dissatisfied. She scrambled to capture the hopping toad for a third time while I warned her that the toad was looking upset and would probably pee on her. Well unfortunately for Lindsay, she did not heed my warning. She picked up the toad, I snapped a picture and then as she held it in front of her stomach this massive blast of toad urine burst out all over feet! I`m talking an insanely forceful blast of pee, really use your imagination here. Lucky for Lindsay, I still had the camera pressed to my face and was able to snap a few pictures that I think accurately reflect her horror and utter disgust at what had just occurred. Of course the staff of Smiley`s all fell over laughing! Lindsay looked like she was about to throw up and ran off to the bungalow to re-wash her feet. Our friend Steve, the Brit from the afternoon`s lake trip, strided into the Smiley`s just after Lindsay ran away. Needless to say, he was really disappointed that he had missed the incident. Lindsay came back down and the three of us walked down the street to an Italian restaurant and all enjoyed pizzas for dinner.
The next day Lindsay and I had the intention of spending the morning and early afternoon hiking through the park. But since our sneakers were still wet from the day before and our hammock was so comfortable, we decided to spend the day relaxing instead. Lindsay went off to internet while I lazily finished reading Joy Luck Club. We returned to the hotel where we had dinner on our first night in KS and enjoyed some familiar fried noodles. After lunch we walked back to Smiley`s to pack up our belongings and to catch a minibus to Surattani. From Surattani we aimed to take an overnight double-decker bus to Bangkok...
The minibus dropped Lindsay and I off at Smiley Bungalows in Khao Sok (Gemke and Jamie continued on to Khao Lok). We had a look around and then decided to ride with some Canadians to Our Jungle House, a guesthouse that was recommended by a friend. In the end we decided not to stay at Our Jungle House as it was tucked way back in the woods and was nestled really close to a mosquito-breeding river. Before driving back to town we ate at OJH's restaurant: I sampled some good but slightly overwhelming ginger soup. The crabby German man that ran OJH took us back to Smiley's and we checked into a clean, elevated bungalow that gave us a great view of the surrounding mountains.
After check-in, the nephew of Smiley's owner drove us down the rode to a Buddhist Temple to feed some monkeys. The monkeys were all over the place, large and small, as were several mangy dogs picking up the bits of bread that the monkeys left behind. Beside the temple was a limestone cave that contained bizarre, random objects that held significance (of what kind I'm not sure) to the monks. For example there was a plexiglass coffin that contained a somewhat mummified 200 year old person, actually it was supposed to be Buddha. Ummm...
We ate a delicious dinner at a nearby hotel, I ordered a local favorite of ground pork with pumpkin and rice. For dessert, I stuffed myself on sticky rice with coconut milk and fruit. Glutinous gluttony for sure. After dessert an American at a nearby table, Jon, introduced himself and we chatted for the next 45 minutes until the restaurant closed. Jon works for the World Wildlife Federation in D.C. but has been stationed in Vientiane, Laos for the past year. We realized that we would have some overlap in Bangkok, so we exchanged contact info before heading back to the bungalow.
The next morning we embarked on a trip to Chieow Laan Lake. The morning started off a little rocky when there were some issues with our breakfast. We were told that breakfast was included in the cost of our lake tour, so at 8:05 am we each ordered a banana pancake at Smiley`s restaurant. In typical SE Asian style my lead pancake came out at least 20 minutes before Lindsay's. In the meantime the other people for our tour (1 Brit and 2 Germans) were sitting in the bed of the truck waiting for us. It was really awkward, we felt like we shouldn't have ordered any food. But we were hungry! Also, our tour guide got pissed at us when we went to use the toilet before departing because "they had been waiting for us for an hour!" Right...
We drove about an hour to the national park entrance and boarded a longtail boat that would take us across the lake. The boat ride was absolutely gorgeous, the cliffs were just amazing! Totally breathtaking in the morning sunlight. I am obsessed with the limestone cliffs, completely obsessed. After 45 minutes, our boat pulled up to a long row of bamboo bungalows that were floating on the lake. We were prepared an enormous lunch of fried fish (fresh from the lake), sweet and sour chicken, stir fry chicken, Thai omlette and fresh fruit. It was too bad I ate that lead pancake for breakfast (it more like a really dense cake, than an actual pancake) because I was still really full by lunchtime.
After lunch we boarded the boat again and puttered around to a spot to pull up on shore and begin our "jungle walk." The walk wasn't very strenuous and we didn't see a ton of wildlife but it was still fun. Our guides captured a big beetle with a really long nose (probiscus beetle?), a flying lizard that they called a chameleon, and a lot of pretty butterflies. We made a lot of stream crossings, and thankfully, because it's not the rainy season, we didn't need to constantly check for leeches. After about an hour of walking we reached the entrance to a large limestone cave. We waited for another group of about 10 tourists to join us, then we grabbed our flashlights (or strapped on a headlamp in my case) and entered the cave. So much fun! There were bats, large spiders, frogs and crabs crawling around. We walked (and sometimes swam!) through the cave for about an hour. Even though our guide (named Ah) was cranky at breakfast, he certainly warmed up over the course of the day and kept trying to hold my hand while we were trekking through the cave (I made the mistake of telling him that I didn`t have a boyfriend earlier in the day). It was a little embarrassing...at one point after he took my hand I turned around and everyone else in our group was silently laughing at me. Sigh. The best part of the cave walk was when we would enter into narrow canyons and see the rippled limestone up close; sometime we would have to pull ourselves through the water using a rope. It was so great! We returned to the boat and rode back to the floating houses for some down time. Some people swam, but the five from our group just hung out and talked. I spotted a HUGE, green moth laying on the floor of the woman`s bathroom so everyone went up to take a look. It was really beautiful. After the chill time, we rode the boat back across the lake and drove to town.
Back at Smiley`s, Lindsay and I got showered and ready for dinner. As we were walking through the lobby-restaurant, the owner and her nephew directed our attention to a large toad that was hanging out with them behind the counter. This was a really big toad, larger than any I have seen in the past. Lindsay insisted that I take her photo with it. So she picked it up and I snapped a photo. Of course she wasn`t satisfied with the picture, so she picked up the beast again and I snapped another shot. After returning the figgety toad to the floor a second time, she looked at the photo but still felt dissatisfied. She scrambled to capture the hopping toad for a third time while I warned her that the toad was looking upset and would probably pee on her. Well unfortunately for Lindsay, she did not heed my warning. She picked up the toad, I snapped a picture and then as she held it in front of her stomach this massive blast of toad urine burst out all over feet! I`m talking an insanely forceful blast of pee, really use your imagination here. Lucky for Lindsay, I still had the camera pressed to my face and was able to snap a few pictures that I think accurately reflect her horror and utter disgust at what had just occurred. Of course the staff of Smiley`s all fell over laughing! Lindsay looked like she was about to throw up and ran off to the bungalow to re-wash her feet. Our friend Steve, the Brit from the afternoon`s lake trip, strided into the Smiley`s just after Lindsay ran away. Needless to say, he was really disappointed that he had missed the incident. Lindsay came back down and the three of us walked down the street to an Italian restaurant and all enjoyed pizzas for dinner.
The next day Lindsay and I had the intention of spending the morning and early afternoon hiking through the park. But since our sneakers were still wet from the day before and our hammock was so comfortable, we decided to spend the day relaxing instead. Lindsay went off to internet while I lazily finished reading Joy Luck Club. We returned to the hotel where we had dinner on our first night in KS and enjoyed some familiar fried noodles. After lunch we walked back to Smiley`s to pack up our belongings and to catch a minibus to Surattani. From Surattani we aimed to take an overnight double-decker bus to Bangkok...
Sunday, February 3, 2008
January 24-25, Ko Phi Phi
On Thursday morning Lindsay and I boarded a longtail boat at West Railay Beach that cruised us over to the large, 300-passenger ferry to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee). It was so nice to be on a large boat that wouldn't get jostled about by the waves! Lindsay and I happily sat out on the deck with our legs dangling over the side for the 1.5 hour ride. The mere fact that the ferry docked at Ko Phi Phi (as opposed to dropping anchor off shore and shuttling passengers to the beach via longtail boats) indicated that Ko Phi Phi would be very different from our previous island stays.
We spent our first hour on the island searching for accommodation: the sun was blaring, and the streets were very busy with hoofing backpackers, bicycling Thais, and the loud banging of post-tsunami reconstruction. We finally settled on a family-run joint located on the outskirts of town called the Laleena Guesthouse. After checking-in I decided to beat the heat with a banana smoothie and took refuge in an internet cafe. Lindsay, on the other hand, opted to layout at the beach like a proper tourist. After updating my blog for a couple of hours, I headed back to the hotel and found Lindsay half asleep in our room mumbling about the heat...
That night we walked down to Long Beach for dinner at one of Ko Phi Phi's nicer resorts. We both ate fresh white snapper that was prepared in a delicious Mediterranean style. After dinner we navigated the narrow, crowded streets and shopped around for a snorkeling tour. We decided to pass on the multitude of loud, smokey bars and clubs for a good night's sleep since we had 8 hours of snorkeling ahead of us the next day. Our neighbors at the hotel obviously had a different agenda since they returned from town drunk and extremely loud at 3 am. They were really obnoxious, as were the numerous mosquitoes that were biting me during the night (we needed the window open to keep cool at night but there wasn't a screen...not good).
We began our longtail boat snorkeling trip at 10am on Friday morning with ten other tourists (4 Brits, 2 Brazilians/Australians, 1 Swede, 3 Lithuanians/New Jerseys). The trip didn't get off to a good start at Shark Point, our first stop. We all strapped on our gear, got into the water and after a few minutes began getting stung all over our bodies. One of the Brazilian/Australians said that it was sea lice that were stinging us; someone else said that it was the chopped up bits of jellyfish that were floating all around. I don't know what was the cause, but the stinging was very distracting and really detracted from the snorkeling experience. In addition, the chopped up bits of jellyfish seriously compromised visibility. After 15 minutes everyone was back in the boat ready to move on.
We spent the next 40 minutes battling the waves on the longtail boat riding out to Bamboo Island. We parked alongside many other boats on the picturesque beach and ate the complimentary lunch of fried rice. Nothing spectacular about the rice except that Lindsay found a lot of egg shells in her portion. I snorkeled a bit there but didn't see any noteworthy fish. After lunch we made five more disappointing snorkeling stops around Ko Phi Phi Leh (a supposed marine reserve and the smaller of the two Phi Phi islands). The coral looked dead and the fish were certainly not plentiful or diverse, plus we encountered stinging sea lice/jellyfish at most stops.
We did make a visit to Monkey Beach where there were...monkeys. Not surprisingly, the monkeys were fat and tempermental from constant feedings from tourists. At one point I was chatting with one of the Brits from our boat who was eating a corn on the cob (a common snack over here). Our conversation was interrupted when we both noticed that a rather large, mean-looking monkey was charging towards us. The man had absolutely no choice but to hand over his cob and back away from the bossy monkey. It was ridiculous!
The most attractive beach we anchored on was one that was filmed in DiCaprio's "The Beach." The limestone cliffs rose high and encircled the area providing an amphitheater-like effect. After "The Beach" we puttered past Viking Cave and then the captain asked whether our group wanted to wait 45 minutes out on the water for sunset (we were on the "sunset tour"). Everyone unanimously declined on this opportunity, so we headed back to Ko Phi Phi. In retrospect the excursion probably would have been better if we never snorkeled--the cliffs that rose out of the water were much more interesting and beautiful than what could be seen below.
That night Lindsay and I assuaged our snorkeling disappointment with large, tasty calzones at an Italian restaurant, yeah for Western fare! After dinner we purchased tickets for the next morning's ferry to Krabi and bus tickets onward to Khao Sok.
Needless to say I was excited about moving on from Ko Phi Phi...
*Geology tangent*
In case you're wondering about the limestone cliffs in this region, here is the (simplified) geologic history as I understand it...
The limestone was deposited about 200+ million years ago as a massive coral reef that extended from China down to Burma. The reef was uplifted about 65 million years ago when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate to form the Himalayas. When uplifted, the limestone faulted and cracked vertically in many places creating "joints". Over time rain preferentially eroded the limestone in those vertical joints (acids dissolved in rainwater dissolve calicite, the main mineral constituent of limestone), creating the spectacular cliffs that we see today.
We spent our first hour on the island searching for accommodation: the sun was blaring, and the streets were very busy with hoofing backpackers, bicycling Thais, and the loud banging of post-tsunami reconstruction. We finally settled on a family-run joint located on the outskirts of town called the Laleena Guesthouse. After checking-in I decided to beat the heat with a banana smoothie and took refuge in an internet cafe. Lindsay, on the other hand, opted to layout at the beach like a proper tourist. After updating my blog for a couple of hours, I headed back to the hotel and found Lindsay half asleep in our room mumbling about the heat...
That night we walked down to Long Beach for dinner at one of Ko Phi Phi's nicer resorts. We both ate fresh white snapper that was prepared in a delicious Mediterranean style. After dinner we navigated the narrow, crowded streets and shopped around for a snorkeling tour. We decided to pass on the multitude of loud, smokey bars and clubs for a good night's sleep since we had 8 hours of snorkeling ahead of us the next day. Our neighbors at the hotel obviously had a different agenda since they returned from town drunk and extremely loud at 3 am. They were really obnoxious, as were the numerous mosquitoes that were biting me during the night (we needed the window open to keep cool at night but there wasn't a screen...not good).
We began our longtail boat snorkeling trip at 10am on Friday morning with ten other tourists (4 Brits, 2 Brazilians/Australians, 1 Swede, 3 Lithuanians/New Jerseys). The trip didn't get off to a good start at Shark Point, our first stop. We all strapped on our gear, got into the water and after a few minutes began getting stung all over our bodies. One of the Brazilian/Australians said that it was sea lice that were stinging us; someone else said that it was the chopped up bits of jellyfish that were floating all around. I don't know what was the cause, but the stinging was very distracting and really detracted from the snorkeling experience. In addition, the chopped up bits of jellyfish seriously compromised visibility. After 15 minutes everyone was back in the boat ready to move on.
We spent the next 40 minutes battling the waves on the longtail boat riding out to Bamboo Island. We parked alongside many other boats on the picturesque beach and ate the complimentary lunch of fried rice. Nothing spectacular about the rice except that Lindsay found a lot of egg shells in her portion. I snorkeled a bit there but didn't see any noteworthy fish. After lunch we made five more disappointing snorkeling stops around Ko Phi Phi Leh (a supposed marine reserve and the smaller of the two Phi Phi islands). The coral looked dead and the fish were certainly not plentiful or diverse, plus we encountered stinging sea lice/jellyfish at most stops.
We did make a visit to Monkey Beach where there were...monkeys. Not surprisingly, the monkeys were fat and tempermental from constant feedings from tourists. At one point I was chatting with one of the Brits from our boat who was eating a corn on the cob (a common snack over here). Our conversation was interrupted when we both noticed that a rather large, mean-looking monkey was charging towards us. The man had absolutely no choice but to hand over his cob and back away from the bossy monkey. It was ridiculous!
The most attractive beach we anchored on was one that was filmed in DiCaprio's "The Beach." The limestone cliffs rose high and encircled the area providing an amphitheater-like effect. After "The Beach" we puttered past Viking Cave and then the captain asked whether our group wanted to wait 45 minutes out on the water for sunset (we were on the "sunset tour"). Everyone unanimously declined on this opportunity, so we headed back to Ko Phi Phi. In retrospect the excursion probably would have been better if we never snorkeled--the cliffs that rose out of the water were much more interesting and beautiful than what could be seen below.
That night Lindsay and I assuaged our snorkeling disappointment with large, tasty calzones at an Italian restaurant, yeah for Western fare! After dinner we purchased tickets for the next morning's ferry to Krabi and bus tickets onward to Khao Sok.
Needless to say I was excited about moving on from Ko Phi Phi...
*Geology tangent*
In case you're wondering about the limestone cliffs in this region, here is the (simplified) geologic history as I understand it...
The limestone was deposited about 200+ million years ago as a massive coral reef that extended from China down to Burma. The reef was uplifted about 65 million years ago when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate to form the Himalayas. When uplifted, the limestone faulted and cracked vertically in many places creating "joints". Over time rain preferentially eroded the limestone in those vertical joints (acids dissolved in rainwater dissolve calicite, the main mineral constituent of limestone), creating the spectacular cliffs that we see today.
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