Krabi, Ko Phi Phi, and Phuket

Been moving around a lot, cramming a bunch of areas into a short period of time. Most of the previous blog entries pics are from Krabi. Last night in Krabi we decided to go to a Muay Thai kickboxing match. It was rad. Kind of expensive, but definitely worth it. I still want to see one in Bangkok, more culture in that one I think. This one was almost all tourists in the seats, the only locals stood on a platform and made bets. We paid like 800 baht to see the fight ("cheap" seats), I'll bet the locals only paid like 60 baht....aaahhhh to be a tourist. Saw some good knock outs though, they kick crazy hard.


Timo, Denis, Katie, Mmmeee

Next day Denis and I headed to Ko Phi Phi and split ways with the German couple - Timo and Katie. Ko Phi Phi was pretty cool, crazy busy there though. It's hard to know how to handle situations and get good deals, to know when you're being lied to etc. First stepped on the island and yeah, it was stupid busy. Everyone came up to us saying "book room here, only 1000 baht, cheapest on island, island full!". We almost did just to be safe, but decided against it. Walked around, and yeah...the island was full! We did find a place after a while, very basic but only 550 baht between the two of us, I kind of liked this place. Denis and I hung out on the beach that night, right beside a popular expensive bar. We got to see the fire throwers, listen to the reggae music, and make a few of our own drinks from some cheap thai home brew from 7-11. At the end of the night they had fire jumping for the bar folk, we got right in there...wish I had pics of it.

Next day we did a touristy tour - large tour on a big boat, many people, only way to do it semi cheap. Saw a bunch of places including Maya Bay, home of "The Beach". This tour was wacky, obviously not enough snorkel equipment or kayaks for everyone, and the boat parks a crazy distant from shore and tells you that you have 1 hour. We grabbed a boat and I grabbed snorkel crap (Denis had his own, pretty much a professional snorkeler) and we headed to shore. Walked through the bush and found a cool spot that wasn't as ridiculously busy. Started snorkeling and man....it was awesome! I've never snorkeled before, there are some crazy things down there and amazing colors of fish and reef. I had to learn how to dive down deep, then blow all the water out before taking another breath....I panicked a few times :) Denis went through a cave....so I followed...bad idea. I wasn't low enough, water came up and smashed me against the ceiling. I got cut in like 10 spots, my ass cheek was the worst. It looked worse than it actually was. Got back to the boat and found the world's worst first aid kit. Put some brown crap on it, and one band aid...the only band aid of the kit. My dollar store first aid kit was better.
Maya Bay..."the beach"...oooohhh
me and my bum...and cool brown stuff...hahahaha



Parted ways with Denis the next day, arrived in Phuket. Spent most of the day buying a bus ticket, renting a motorbike, and searching for accommodation. Phuket is big, many different beaches on this island. Drove all the way to Patong beach, accommodation was too expensive, it's high season so prices are double. Drove all the way back to Phuket town, finally finding a place. Left Ko Phi Phi at 9am, sat down and FINALLY took my big bag off at 4pm....fell asleep. I was planning on driving to Patong to see the night madness there, but I would've got lost in the dark, and MacDonald's was calling me :) Today I toured the island, actually very beautiful.



got in trouble for this one...

I'm off to Bangkok tonight, picking up Kristen and her friend Jen at the airport on the 10th. I'm more than a little excited :)

Thailand

Left Langkawi yesterday with a guy I met at the hostel named Dennis, we took a ferry to Thailand. As soon as we arrived I was appointed the bargainer for a group of 6 people for exchange rates and a price for taking a bus to Krabi. Arrived in Krabi last night with a couple from Germany, ended up staying at the same place. I've noticed that Krabi is definitely more expensive than the rest of SE Asia, maybe because it's peak season here....hard to barter.

We took a touristy tour today, first went on a trek riding on elephants, then off to a cool pool, then kayaking through a canyon type thing. It was actually pretty fun, hard to watch as they smack the elephants though, or poke them with their sharp sticks.


Group in our touristy day.

Cool pool that wasn't very wide....but it was like 200metres deep!!

Exploring Langkawi

Met a cool guy from Iran named Arash, we've been hanging out and rented a motorbike yesterday to explore the island. We were headed to a private beach and came across a secluded Four Seasons resort....so we drove in to check it out. We ended up on a golf cart type path (obviously no cars allowed) and just kept driving....no one stopped us. We ended up coming to a restaurant, drove beside a fountain thing....then right onto the private beach. There were chairs lined up perfectly along the beach, very quiet and secluded, very "upper class". So we ripped by on our noisy motorbike and waved to everyone, we almost crashed numerous times but were laughing hysterically. The resort sent out a quad to chase us down, they politely told us no motorized vehicles on the beach....they assumed we were guests so they were kind of nice. So we ended up back on the golf cart type path and kept making "wrong" turns and getting deeper and deeper into the maze of the four seasons....so they sent hotel staff on cycles to chase us down. Hahaha, they kept blocking off paths so we couldn't make anymore "wrong" turns, it was awesome.

The secluded Four Seasons beach...we are jerks.

We arrived at the boat jetty and inquired about prices of tours, it was expensive for just us two. We asked everyone we saw if they were interested in the tour so we could share the cost, a Japanese family agreed. The tour was awesome, saw a bunch of caves, cruised in a boat around salt water inlets, had a blast. Went to a bat cave, some monkeys trespassed on our boat while we were in the caves....glad I took my backpack! Saw a big water lizard, a crap load of eagles diving and feeding, super cool. Then we ended up at a fish farm thing which I thought was going to be boring, but ended up being a great experience. It was a family owned floating restaurant/fish farm. The guy who showed us around was like 24 and super passionate and knowledgable about these crazy fish. I got to feed a stingray....not gonna lie...I was kind of scared.











Anyway, going to drive back and our tire was completely flat...and we were over 5km from anykind of service station. Two guys offered to go home, get tools, take our tire off, drive it to get repaired, bring it back and put it back on...for 30RM (about $9).....we talked them down to 20RM!! Haha, they ruled, they worked on it in the dark, using a lighter to see. We started driving back to our part of the island and realized our headlight didn't work....we had to drive with no light! It was crazy, scary when we'd hit a speed bump, those suckers come out of nowhere! All good though, we made it back, awesome day.

Langkawi

Who's the cocoNUT jumping from the tree?
Arrived in Langkawi on Christmas morning, found a cheap hostel to stay in....another dorm room :) The weather is awesome on the west side of Malaysia, the beach is nice here. Spent most of yesterday hanging out on the beach reading and playing in the ocean. I debated going for a Christmas dinner, but the only ones I found were like 65RM (about $20), so I opted for a local restaurant and ate rice and curry fish.

Today I rented a motorbike and checked out the island. I climbed a cool waterfall area, then drove around the island more. Saw "I am Legend" with Will Smith, pretty good. That's it, more hanging out in Langkawi to come.


Cool tree while trekking in up a mountain in Langkawi