Phuket & Koh Phi Phi - First long weekend of the year

Wow. It’s been awhile since I have blogged. Sorry for the delay! The girls and I decided to kick off our first long weekend of the school year with a big trip. We booked our flights to Phuket and our resort in Koh Phi Phi. Leaving right after school on Thursday night, we battled the Bangkok rush-hour to the airport. A short, but not so great 1.5 hour fight and we landed safely on the Andaman coast down south on an island off of the Malay Peninsula. We spent one night in Karon Beach, Phuket, and tried to get out of there early Friday morning by ferry to Koh Phi Phi. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how to get to the pier, and couldn’t get on a ferry until afternoon. Mai pen rai – no worries. I spent the morning wander around Phuket and the beach (which had HUGE waves). It was gorgeous weather…we were so lucky. We traveled to the rainiest location in Thailand in the monsoon season and had 20 minutes of rain all weekend.

We arrived at the pier ready for our 2 hour ferry ride to be delayed again. Oh Thailand. These are the things you get used to fast. And getting mad is not an option. “Losing face” is looked down upon and you are viewed as having a hot heart. At last, we departed Phuket (which I am not so impressed with…but I only saw one area) on a crappy boat that made us very seasick. Two hours later, we pulled into a bay on Koh Phi Phi Don (where the December 26, 2004 tsunami hit hardest) and were happy to step onto solid ground. What a gorgeous place!

It was late afternoon after we checked into our hotel and we split up to explore the island and search out a place for dinner. I set out looking for an Italian place (surprise, surprise) called Ciao Bella that I had read about in my trusty Lonely Planet. The beaches were beautiful and it was so nice not having any motorized vehicles around (none on the island). Especially true for those of you that have experiences the madness Bangkok calls “driving.” I met back up with the girls for dinner (which was delicious) and then we sat on the beach at a beach bar watching a fire show and drinking our first “buckets” of Thailand. The night was spent beach-bar hopping, and we even participated in a fire show at a bar called Carpe Diem. It was so nice to be away.

The next day we set off on a half-day private speedboat trip around Koh Phi Phi Don and Ley. We stopped at numerous locations around the islands for amazing snorkeling in coral reefs (I had fish eating out of my hand), swimming in a crystal blue lagoon, and sunbathing on Maya Beach, the beach from the movie “The Beach.” The boat ride was rough and quite scary but it was my favourite experience in Thailand so far. I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the island and taking in the gorgeous sights.

It was quite sad to see how much the tsunami destroyed. These people live off of nothing, and there were still piles of rubbish/building materials from the destruction of the tsunami 3.5 years ago. There are tsunami evacuation signs everywhere, and I can only imagine the people fleeing to the top of the mountainous island trying to stay alive. We decided to do the 1000m hike to the lookout at the top…and boy was that a workout. We went for sunset and just sat on rocks looking out at the beauty that we call home. We all had a little moment about how nice it is and how lucky we are to have this experience.

 

I was surprised at how unimpressed I was with Phuket. That is all you hear travelers and tourists talking about when you say Thailand. I think there is much more to Thailand than Phuket. I LOVED Koh Phi Phi though…a truly serene location. It was an amazing long weekend but I wish we had gone for longer. None of us were ready for school on Monday, especially since we returned to teacher housing around 1am. Three days was not enough to do everything we had wanted to. Oh well…much more traveling to come!

Pattaya Getaway

After being in Thailand for 5 weeks, it was time to hit up a beach for the weekend. Ellen, a teacher in the ES, organized a girls weekend to Pattaya, leaving Friday night after school. We packed in to a van with our driver, cracked open some beverages (which is legal here) and sat back for the two hour drive to the coast.

             

We arrived at Rabbit Resort on Jomtiem beach a little after 8pm. The seven of us shared a gorgeous villa with two floors, and a well stocked fridge. The whole "rabbit" theme was a bit much...think rabbit statues, salt and pepper shakers, goodbye cards...too funny.We decided on a quiet evening, eating dinner at the resort restaurant by the beach. The food was delicious and shared "thai style" as to try many, many new things. Mary and Ellen (the Thailand vetrans) hooked us up with some great choices. My tolerance for spicy food has increased so much in just a month here! After dinner, we took a nice walk on the beach, saw some soi dogs (street dogs) and had some great conversation.

     

The next morning we had "american style" breakfast at the resort and headed to the beach. It looked like a huge storm was coming, but thankfully, it passed. This is not on of the nicest beaches in Thailand, but still great compared to what is back home. Nothing is better than sitting with a good book, listening to the ocean and getting an hour foot massage (which includes legs and lots of interesting body positioning) for $5. We spent the entire day at the beach (which is a gay beach and had some interesting sights), saying "my ow ka" (don't want thank you) to the vendors that were trying to sell us clothes, food and henna tattoos, and soaking up the sun!

           

Saturday night we went into Pattaya and checked out the oultet mall (looks surprisingly like Florida) the night market and finally, walking street. Pattaya is known for it's sex industry but I was truly shocked by what I saw. Girls with numbers lined up outside the bar, the most beautiful male "girls" I have ever seen, old white men with these young Thai girls...it was insane. We literally just walked down the street trying to take it all in (while enjoying some ice cream and Heineken for dinner). It is really quite sad at how pronounced the sex industry is, especially seeing how young the girls and boys are that are selling off their bodies to survive off tourist dollars.

    

Sunday, was another day of relaxing on the beach (I know, this is a tough life I lead). We lucked out on not having any rain, but it was actually a bit too hot for the beach (and this is the cool season!), so we lounged by the hotel pool for the afternoon and enjoyed some tropical drinks! I had an amazing grilled cheese for lunch (needed a bit of Western food) at our hotel restaurant, and loaded back into the van for the ride back to reality. 

    

It was a much needed getaway with great company! I am counting down the days until our first long weekend when a few of us are going to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. I am trying to take advantage of every day off school to see as much of this beautiful country as I possibly can in a year!