April 24, 2005

Thailand Part Four: Koh Phi Phi

After staying up until sunrise the previous night at the Full Moon Party (aka - The Raver's Revenge), I slept until the early afternoon and then made it my first priority upon waking up to bust out my guide book and figure out where to head next. After some page-flipping, I decided to head to Phi Phi Island.

Thus far, all the islands I'd been to had been in the Gulf of Thailand and were unaffected by the Tsunami that had a hit a few months prior to my arrival. But Phi Phi Island, located off the south western shores of Thailand is in the open ocean and was the part of Thailand that was most devastated by the tsunami. So I decided to go out there, volunteer to help rebuild housing and throw some money into the suffering, tourist-depandent economy.

Sunday, April 24th

After deciding on Phi Phi Island, I found a travel agency (they're EVERYWHERE in Thailand, it's amazing) and booked a ticket on an overnight boat that left Koh Phangan that evening - first stopping at Koh Samui and then continuing on to Suratthani.

The boat left at 10pm and arrived at Suratthani at 6am.

These were my luxurious overnight accommodations. (I actually slept pretty well!)

We arrived in Suratthani on schedule, which meant I was just in time to catch my bus for a 3.5 hour ride from Suratthani to Phuket

Monday, April 25th

I pretty much slept the entire bus ride...

...and ended up here, where I had to wait another several hours to catch the next ferry to Phi Phi.

I killed time hanging out in travel agency/restaurant/internet cafe. Met two nice Danish guys named Jacob and Torres who were also waiting to catch the ferry to Phi Phi. Since I had quite a bit of time to kill, I decided to hunt down an a place that sold international calling cards and find a phone so I could...

...call Mer and tell her much I missed her! (Awwwww!)

Phi Phi Island is hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to on earth. When you're approaching it from the sea, it seems to errupt from out of the water. Here's the view of the other side of the island from the dock.

Right when you get there, there's all sorts of info about how you can volunteer and help re-build.

The main island (Koh Phi Phi Don) is shaped a bit like the letter "H."

When the tsunami happened, the island actually got hit simultaneously by two waves that approached from opposite directions and met over the island (one wave was 10 feet high, the other was 18 feet high).

When the waves hit, they killed around 2,000 people (about 20% of the island's population of tourists and locals) and destroyed over 70% of all buildings on the island.

Right where the boats come in is the narrowest part of the island that was damaged the most extensively. This hole in the ground used to be a five-story luxury hotel. Then entire thing, including the foundation was just swept away leaving a hole in the sand.

Even inland a ways, there were still entire building that were swept completely away.

As I walked around, the tide started to go out and I took some pictures of how shallow the water was. (you could literally walk out like 300 yards and not be more than ankle deep).

The island you see on the left in the background is the smaller of the Phi Phi Islands called Koh Phi Phi Leh.

After walking up the beach a ways, I ended up checking into the Andaman Beach Resort. Check out the sweet bungalow I got for 500 Baht a night ($13)! After getting settled into my room, I found a scuba shop and made plans to go diving the next morning and then I...

After dinner, I sat on the beach at a bar drinking scotch and eating peanuts and watched the obligatory...

It was a 15 minute, synchronized routine.

I was about to leave the bar and head home, when I met this dude (who's name I now forget) who was a DEAD RINGER for Kip Pardue. (The guy who played the amazing role of Victor in the movie adaption of "The Rules of Attraction."

Check out the resemblance! (This pic is Kip Pardue as Victor in the movie-adaption of Bret Easton Ellis' rad novella *Rules of Attraction*). Uncanny, right?

I ended up staying and getting drunk with the Victor-lookalike at the bar and ended up meeting a bunch of other fun drunk people that were all there to volunteer. This girl decided, spur of the moment, to get her first tattoo.

All the tattooing on the island is done old-school style by hand-tapping a sharpened piece of bamboo dipped in ink.

It was amazing to watch. Afterwards, I stumbled my way home to try to get some sleep before having to get up to go diving in a few hours.

*"I no longer know who I am and I feel like the ghost of a total stranger."*

Tuesday, April 26th

On the boat out to the dive site off the coast of Phi Phi Leh.

See those caves on the island? In them lives a rare type of bird called a cave swift. Cave swift's produce a nest during mating that is the very rare and expensive main ingredient in China's bird's nest soup. The island is heavily guarded to prevent theft of these rare nests - each one can be sold for more than a typical Thai family makes in an entire month. (I swear I'm not making this up).

Hans, our divemaster, and Danielle - the only other person diving that day.

Remember how I said these island spring up out of the water like mountains?

Just to put things in perspective; see that tiny speck of a boat anchored off the left-side of the island? That boat is 70 feet long! After diving, I ate some lunch, signed up to start volunteering the next day, and took a nap. Later that night, I met up wtih some of the kids I'd met the night before to go check out...

...another guy I'd met the night before, Austin, play an acoustic show at a bar called Hippies. After his set was over, a whole pack of us headed through the woods over to the other side of the island for...

...the grand re-opening of Reggae Bar. (One of the island's largest bars that had been closed after it was practically destroyed by the tsunami).

Here's Tores, one of the Danish guys that I met the day before while waiting for the ferry. The big exciting news of the night was that in honor of the grand re-opening, there were going to be three muay thai kickboxing bouts.

At the beginning of each fight, we'd each bet money on who we thought the winnder would be. I bet against this guy (black shorts).

Black shorts started out strong, but by the third round...

Since returning, I've read on a few websites that a lot of muay thai fights are staged.

At least more-real than pro wresting here.

Jacob, who lost all three bets, wincing as he counts out my winnings.

After the fights were finished, I wandered off with Jacob to another bar down the road where there was...

...a live band playing. I'll bet you can't guess what happened next? Hahaha. That's right! I got up and sang with the band! I ended up singing "Ob-lah-di" by the Beatles and Sweet Child O' Mine. Afterwards, the band took me up to the bar and bought me shots. I ended up getting so drunk, I got lost on the trails walking back across the island towards my hostel and ended up wandering around in the wilds of the island for like 90 minutes. Hahaha.

Wednesday, April 27th

Wednesday morning I got up super-early and helped build a retention wall.

I spent the first 2 hours of the morning trying to meet up with a housing group (because I spend 3 summers working on a construction crew and am half-decent at swinging a hammer) but things were so dis-organized and nobody really seemed to know what was going on - so I ended up spending most of my day mixing mortar for the guy who was laying the blocks.

Thailand is really fucking hot. I'd spent a few summers working outside, but not in a climate like Thailand. Oooof.

Fresh rambutan! (A really weird, hairy looking fruit). So delicious! After you peel away the strange exterior, there's a smooth, fleshy fruit inside tastes like a cross between coconut and lychee.

No partying. After working all day, I went home, took a shower. Read a bunch and went to bed early.

Thursday, April 28th

Same thing for Thursday. Volunteered from 7am until 5pm and then went home. Read two books between the two days. This one.

And this one. (Which for some reason I never read in high school).

Friday, April 29th

After finishing up the wall early Friday morning, I felt like this cat. I met up with Jacob and Tores for some lunch, and then we...

...chartered a local guy to take us on a boat tour of Phi Phi Leh and Maya Bay. (Maya Bay is the inlet of Phi Phi Leh where the movie adaptation of The Beach was filmed.

Jacob lounged on the bow while Tores and I hid from the sun.

Here's a close up of Phi Phi Leh's "Viking Caves" where those crazy birds make the nests that Chinese people pay hundreds of dollars to melt in their soups!

The birds only build the nest way up high in the caves that appear in the sheer-rock wall like eight stories up! The guys that collect the nest risk their lives free-climbing up to get them!

Our tour guide scared us shitless by driving the boat UNDER the edge of the island at FULL SPEED. I so thought I was going to die.

Here's the view as the boat pulls into Maya Bay.

The island rises up like ten stories up out of the water. It's breathtaking.

And the color of the water is like nothing I've ever seen.

After getting back to the main island, I spent like three hours playing ping pong with some local guys I met.

Then later that night a whole bunch of us met up and headed back over to Reggae Bar where it turns out they were having a WET T-SHIRT CONTEST!!! Woooo!

Ending up running into this girl Ellie and her friend David (two Brits that I'd met a few weeks earlier in Bangkok through Claire)!

We convinced her to head up to the stage and join the wet t-shirt contest! Check out her face just as her ta-tas are about to get doused! Hahaha.

The afterwards, we ended up at the bar where the same live band was playing again!

The band recognized me and invited me up to sing again!

Me and David. (By the way, see how sweaty I am? That's how sweaty I was THE ENTIRE TRIP anytime I was outside for a period of time longer than 20 mintues. Thailand is SO HOT).

By the end of the night, I couldn't find where I'd put my flip flops and ended up having to do the 25 minute walk through the woods back to my hotel in bare feet.

Saturday, April 30th

Saturday morning I got up early to do a three-dive trip. Check out my uber-healthy breakfast of banana-Nutella crepe and bottle of Red Bull (*shudder*).

Divemaster Hans, Jackie and Michele "with one L".

Jackie and Michele in the cabin waiting for the excess nitrogen in their bloodstream to be absorbed before our second dive.

After our second dive, we pulled into Maya Bay to eat some lunch.

Check out how tiny that two and a half story-tall boat looks next to the island!

After we finished eating, we took turns...

...diving off the tower of the boat and taking pictures. Group shot!

Later that night, before meeting the girls for dinner, I decided to get a massage. After my massage was finished, I was paying the owner of the place and out of the blue, she's like "Do you want a pedicure?" I was like "Uh, why? Do you think I need one?" She looked down at my filthy, calloused, taloned feet, slowly nodded and said "For you, *half price*." Hahahaha. My feet really were pretty grody, so I figured - why not! I had no idea I was going to get double-teamed! It was amazing!

Afterwards, I ate dinner with the ladies and then we met up with a few other people we'd gone diving with earlier in the day for drinks.

Then we headed back over to Reggae Bar...

...and there was a fire show *sigh*. With my days on Phi Phi starting to feel like Groundhog's Day, I decided to pack up the next morning and pick a new destination.

Check out the fried snack-insanity cart I stopped at on the way home.

Sunday, May 1st

Sunday morning, I woke up super early, busted out my guide book and decided that Chang Mai (waaaaay up in northern Thailand) was going to be my next destination.

I walked around taking some more pics...

...scored some fresh fruit. Hit an internet cafe and bought the necessary plane tickets...

...to do this! Ferry from Phi Phi to Phuket (oops, not Krabi, ignore the mistake I made in the graphic!), took a cab to the airport, hopped on a plane, had a layover in Bangkok, then hopped another flight all the way up north to Chang Mai.