Let's head south

On Monday we met up with our friend Jessica from back home, who is also on vacation here. Since I also wanted to catch up with a college friend who was in the south of Thailand, we decided to head for the beach. Some sun (or a lot of sun!), sand, and surf sounded just right.

We booked three tickets on the overnight bus/ferry combo from Bangkok down to Koh Phi Phi, an island in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of southern Thailand. Our bus arrived late, which, looking back, was just the first indication of what was to come. When the bus finally arrived, they loaded us up into what would have been better used as a freezer than a bus. The AC blew strong and cold non stop, leaving everyone to scramble for any blanket or scrap of fabric they could cling to. The bus crept away from the starting line, but it was immediately evident that our driver could not drive stick on a large vehicle. That, or our bus was having very severe transmission problems. The grinding of gears and revving sound of an engine in neutral had everyone cringing. Then, he stalled. He stalled the bus right in the middle of a very busy Bangkok intersection, and called for all the men to get off the bus and help push. They did, and amazingly they push started the darn thing!

We spent the next two hours or so in 1st or 2nd gear, never seeming to reach more than 20 miles an hour. We had little hopes of arriving on time. Thankfully, at some point in the night our driver either figured out the whole stick thing, or switched out with someone who did, because we finally found ourselves traveling at a normal speed down the highway. Although the night was absolutely miserable due to the cold, we did arrive in one piece to Krabi, and only a few hours late. A comparatively short ferry ride later and we were settled on the beautiful island of Koh Phi Phi.

Having had a long day, we didn't do much at first other than find the best fruit shake stands and street market food. It was here at a street food cart that I ran into my friend Matt, who I know from college, and his beautiful wife Erica. I was thrilled to see Matt again after so many years, and we had a great time as a group for two days. They are on their own great adventure and are traveling the world for 2 to 3 years, having left their "regular" lives in the States behind for a while. If you're interested, the tales of their travels are great, and they're much better bloggers than I. Head over to www.livingif.com to see for yourself. They'd love to hear from you if you have comments (and so would I!)

There's really not a lot to do on Phi Phi, and that's the beauty of it. A tourist mecca, you'll find sun worshipers on the beach throughout the day and followers of the gods of party dancing the night way. Diving can be found at any number of the dive shops on the island, but we instead went the snorkeling route. For a mere 7 dollars a person we were taken to all the beautiful spots around the island by longtail boat, which is like a large canoe powered by a car engine and a super long propeller. We got to see monkeys (which are evil), to snorkel amid beautiful fish, to sun on a white sandy beach and finally to watch the sun set into the ocean. It was a great trip, followed by a great night on the beach with some drinks and fire shows as entertainment. I hope to share some pictures soon. I just need to find the right cable for my small camera, as we must have forgotten it.

We didn't stay long on Phi Phi, but we got exactly what we wanted from it. We're headed to Koh Tao, an island off the West coast, where we'll continue our lazy sunny days and where our friend Brigitte will be join us. It's great having so many friends to share our fun times with!