Georgetown to Ko Phi Phi
Trip Start
Sep 30, 2005
1
14
29
Trip End
Ongoing
Ko Phi Phi (Part II), Thailand
Saturday, November 12, 2005
The group of us had decided to hire a boat for the day to do some exploring of the island. We had arranged to meet up at 12pm, but it looked like we are all running to South East Asia Time, because by the time we had all met up and arranged the boat taxi it was almost 1pm.
The girls have been having a go at me recently because I do not eat breakfast, its like traveling with four Mothers with them all making comments about "its the most important meal of the day....blah blah blah". I decided to have breakfast with them, seeing as they were going to have breakfast. I chose to sample some of the local delicacy, so i ordered Thai coconut donut and Thai chocolate cake. This is not classified as Western food as it had the word "Thai" in front of eat food.
We then finally hired a taxi boat for the day. Our first stop of the island was some cliffs to do some cliff jumping. The first jump was about twelve metres high and the second was close to fifteen metres. The eight metre jump was too low for us. Sean, Marie and I got to the top first. Marie and Sean were both talking about jumping, but by the looks of it didn't want to go first. I told them to move out of the way and did if I say so myself a pretty good dive from twelve metres up. I didn't want to be a chicken and jump it - like everyone else - I believe it is called cliff diving! I dived off the fifteen metre cliff and winded myself. I also slapped the top of my thighs in the water but caused no other major damage - serves me right though!
Marie told me I was crazy - I thanked her - that was one of the nicest compliments I've had in six weeks travelling! Sean and I saw there was an eighteen metre jump, I don't think I will dive off that one yet? I may jump off it first!
The next stop of the boat trip was to go to monkey bay where funnily enough lots of monkeys live. All the girls fed the monkeys bananas and let them jump all over the boat and some of our stuff. I showed them who was boss and scared them away before they stole one of our snorkels! Cheeky monkeys!
The next stop on our whirlwind tour of Ko Phi Phi was to power our way over the sea to Ko Phi Phi Ley, the small satellite island off Ko Phi Phi Don. This is where we had the chance to do some snorkelling. I chose not to do it, as I wanted to relax on the boat, take everything in and of course take many photos. After the snorkelling, we walked through the forestry to get to the other side of the island and arrive on Ma Ya Beach (ie. "The Beach"). It was nice, don't get me wrong, but I think I hyped it up so much in my head, that I was a little dissapointed with the real thing. I do think I have been on better!
The highlight of the beach though was playing lots of kids games in the water. It was like the clock was turned back and we were all ten years old again. We played a game where we swam under everyones legs and we were all in stiches when Marie turned to the other three Norwegian girls and shouted "Come on girls, spread your legs!" - maybe you might have needed to be there to find it funny?
We had nice rocky waters on the way back, but luckily we had no one with sea sickness. Our captain for the day took us into this little cove with a small beach that we had to ourselves but as time was getting on, we didn't really have that much time to enjoy it. He then took us into the waters between the two islands in order for us to get a great view of the sunset, but unfortunately, it looked like there was not going to be any sunset due to the cloud that had appeared, so he took us back to the jetty instead.
We all arranged to meet up for dinner, there was eleven of us, which is quite a lot to cater for unless we went back to Oasis for the third night on the trot. We decided to take a trip to the beach front to see if there were any restaurants down there taht could cope with us. The rain helped us make a decision on where to eat, as usual it started to pour down and we jumped into the first restaurant which had shelter.
After dinner, the girls were going to do a bar crawl after they visited a massage parlour, but Peter and I had more important issues as England were playing live on television (Rugby and Football). It was going to be a long night - I was ready to sacrifice sleep to watch my beloved country in action and shout my heart out for my country with other probably very drunk patriotic Englishmen & Englishwomen. Peter and I went to the Apache bar in order to watch both matches as it was one of a few bars showing both matches and that would be open until 4am.
We walked into the Apache bar and bumped into Siobhan and Luara - my two favourite lady (non lesbian) rugby players who i had met for the first time in the Cameron Highlands. I knew they were on the island and i knew they would be rugby, so it was not much of a surprise to see them. It was a complete surprise to see them pretty much out of their head though! Siobhan was a very passionette person when it came to her rugby. She spent most of the game critiscising the French referee - calling him a "French Bastard", critisicing the Aussie's filthy tactics - calling them all "Aussie Bastards" very loudly. There was an almost as passionette Aussie sitting behind us who we swapped banter with throughout the whole game. Siobhan would constantly slag off the Aussies to him, call them all cheats, slagg off the nation, then she had the nerve to ask this Aussie if she could have a cigarette!
Peter had no idea what was going on in the rugby as he doesn't follow the game. Siobhan was not in the mood to answer basic questions during the game and at one point threatened to hit him. Lets just say there was a clash of personalities with these two. It did have a happy ending though, as after the England game, they showed the Ireland vs New Zealand game where Siobhan took the time out to show Peter all the rules and gave him a big slap on Peter's arms and shoulders (his sun burn) everytime he understood something. You could see Peter was in pain, but he was getting so drunk, I don't think he could feel it anymore.
I watched the England football match with a fellow Englishman called Gary, as everyone left me because they were all drunk by the time the football was on. Luckily, I had no ladyboy interupt my football game this time.
Sunday 13th November 2005
I did not wake up that early due to the late night before, but when I awoke I realised I was very very behind on my diary. I am struggling to keep up to date as my days are so full of exciting activities and sleeping, that I don't have time to write it. I am struggling to write things now and seem to get bored of the whole log thing, but I will try to keep it up, just so i can bore all my readers - half of you lot probably don't read it anyway! You're all wondering where the photos are? They are on their way - so i can bore you with them as well! In order to keep myself from getting bored, I decided to see how many Phil Collins song titles I could get into Friday 11th Novembers diary entry - I'll give you a point for every song title you get (there was eleven songs in total) - yes, eleven songs - Not sure what was worse, that I was that bored I had to do something like this or the fact that I know eleven Phil Collin Songs - There was no way I was going to get "Sussudio" into my diary entry.
I made it down to the beach around lunchtime to find the four Norwegian girls and spent the whole afternoon with them. James, Aaron and Sean all joined us throughout the afternoon, but no sign of Peter!
We decided to go back to our usual place for dinner at the usual place, which was quite convenient, as I had told Siobhan and Laura the night before I would meet them there too if they wanted. There was once again a large crowd for dinner, and it was brought up again the fact that I was the oldest person at the table - the "Dad" of the group.
The words "sensible" and "responsible" were thrown around a lot - they were talking about me, but that didn't sound like me! Peter finally made it to the table as he had had a hangover all day and only actually woke up late afternoon, but had spent most of it being sick.
Siobhan and Laura did not come out with us for drinks as they were off to Phuket in the morning. I told them i might meet them there in a day or so (might). The Norwegians were looking to have a large night out, as they would not be able to have a large night out tomorrow as they were leaving very early the day after tomorrow.
We were going to do a bar crawl, starting in the beach bar. We made ourselves comfortable in the deckchairs in the dark watching the electric stom that was passing the island form the distance. By the time we got to a bar by the waterfront, the electric storm was not passing in the distance, it was very much close (above us) and we had just sat down, ordered our drinks when the heavens opened, so we found shelter inside the bar.
Being the "Sensible" and "responsible" one in the group and being clearly the oldest person of the group - I've sort of taken a leadership role in the group. So after half an hour of being under the shelter of this bar and realising that the rain was not going to go away in a hurry, I led everyone on the dance floor to dance the night away. My leadership skills did not stop there. After dancing on the dry dancefloor, I figured we would probably get wet at some point in the evening, so why not now? I led the procession onto the open air dancefloor where needless to say we got absolutely drenched.
I was also involved in leading the diving accross the skiddy dancefloor on my knees, then on my stomach! If I remember rightly, when Run DMC came on, I led the body-popping routines with my caterpillar and spinning on my head! If that wasn't enough, it was also my idea to run into the sea for a quick dip during the evening and dance in the sea. I then ran back to the dance floor to celebrate a la Robbie Keane style. It was a memorable night - even more so as I did not have a single drop of alcohol that evening, what can I say, I was high on life! Now that is "sensible" and "responsible"!
I did feel my age when Happy Clappers version of "I Believe" was played by the DJ and I declared to everyone what a tune! The four Norwegian girls said they had never heard of it! I couldn't believe it - I told them it was an Ibiza classic in 1994 and 1997. It was then Peter told me they would have been seven years old when I was clubbing in Ibiza. Damn, I am old!
I spent the remainder of the night standing in the sea watching the thunder and lightning and realising that this island is as beautiful in a storm, as in the bright sunshine and glorious sunsets.
Monday 14th November 2005
I had an early morning, as I heard a mosquito buzzing around my room and since i ran out of garlic and vitamin B tablets a few weeks back, these small insects have realised that I don't taste too bad!
I think I may still be on a high from last night, as I was up at 8am and raring to do something. I thought about leaving the island and going to Phuket, but I decided to hang on in Ko Phi Phi until Saturday, when I would go to Phuket, as I had to meet Dan on Sunday at the airport. I decided to visit my friend Lee at the Banthai Guesthouse and use the internet. I got there and was greeted by the ever present Lee and within ten minutes of sitting down and using the computer, without asking, I had a coffee put my side - now thats service!
I thought seeing as I would be spending a lot of time downloading photos on the internet at the banthai guesthouse I should really be staying there as well, so I could just roll out of bed and sit in front of the computer (with my coffee). It was only a pound more expensive than where I was, but i got a double bed instead, so it was definately worth the investment!
I met up with Sean, Peter and the girls, as we were going to head over to long beach, which is one of the beaches I walked to the other day when i contempleted life, the universe and everything!
I had put both my swim shorts in the laundry that morning as they had got to the really bad smell stage. Instead, I stupididly, wore white shorts and even more idiotically decided to go commando - It was the moment I was just about to walk in the water when I realised that this was a poor choice in clothes as they would undoubtedly go transparent in the sea. Luckily I was wearing a t-shirt, so I think I got away with it.
We played frisbee (if you can call it that - everyone is rubbish) and chilled out to a great sunset. We also did a bit of Tai Chi - actually, Peter did a bit of Tai Chi, we just took photos of him! I also used the time to perfect my photography skills. Ater all, I had four beautiful girls who all did not mind me taking pictures of them. That meant I did not have to wait until they were asleep for me to take their pictures. I have decided that I need a new camera!
We had dinner at Papaya which is a small restaurant that managed (just) to fit seven of us around one of their tiny tables. Peter had been trying to get us to go to this restaurant all week, but we always had too many to go. It rained once again, so we took a very small stroll nextdoor to Papaya to sit and listen to some classic 'tunes' played in Rolling Stoned Bar.
When the rained died down, our last stop for the evening was going to be the Apache bar to take in the Ladyboy show. The girls had enjoyed it so much last week and it was their last night on the island, so it was up to them. We got there and the girls sat right in front of the dancefloor, which i knew was a bad idea. I know know what Victoria Beckham does when shes not....what does she do? Well, this bloke was a spitting image of Victoria and he imitated her brilliantly. He had her monkey features (plastic surgery - especially to remove the adams apple), he excelled in miming just like our Victoria and he too couldn't dance to save his life. I'm still questioning whether if in fact it was actually the real Victoria Beckham. There cannot be two of them in this world? Can there?
Actually, none of these ladyboys could dance and I was told by all the girls if i stayed on the island, I could teach and coriograph these boys into a better dance routine. It is scary how attractive some of these guys/girls are! Honestly, if you saw them in the street, you wouldn't know otherwise! I, not surprisingly, went a bright shade of red when one of these guys did a very sexual and seductive dance right in front of me and then winked at me during the show - i knew it would be a bad idea sitting at the front, but did they listen to me - No!
The night was coming to an end and i had to say goodbye to the four Norwegian girls. Maybe its cause they are young or maybe its just girls, but they always get emotional when saying goodbyes. I'd only known them five days - it is quite amazing how attached you can get in a very short period of time. They're young - They'll get over me! They still think I'm crazy!
Tuesday 15th November 2005
I managed to get up at a reasonable time once again, so I was able to volunteer again. This time it was a proper beach clean. We got taken out on a boat to the beach about twenty minutes from the bay to clean a small beach that had shit loads of rubbish on it. Most of the mess was made up of needles, fishermans nets, bottles, flip flops, polystyrene, light bulbs, lighters and of cause a fridge. We filled at least twenty-five bads and didn't even come close to finishing it. We had to leave the bags on the beach as we could not get them on the boat due to the tide going out and the boat not being able to get close to the beach and also because there was not enough room in the boat for the rubbish bags and the volunteers.
Today we had five helpers and two organisers. There was Katy (Canadian), Aaron and Lauren (both Aussies), Sean and myself as the volunteers and Ben (English) and Katy (Canadian) were in charge on behalf of the charity. We only had a half day of collecting the rubbish as the boatman decided after 2pm it would be very difficult for him to get the boat anywhere near the beach because of the tide.
I managed to put my foot in it today, by telling everyone my theory about travellers who carry a guitar have no personality and only use the guitar to make friends. How was I mean't to know that Ben had a guitar. I should really check these things out before opening my mouth next time.
I had to have another mid-afternoon snooze if I was to be in some sort of state for the afternoon. We met up in the bar next to Oasis and surprisingly we ate in Oasis. I believe this is my fifth time in this restaurant. Trust me, when I say - I'm not getting sick of it - I could never get sick of Thai food. I have now had all four curries available on the menu. We did not want to move from the cushions off the floor and it seemed like we lying there for a good hour or so after we finished our meal.
Katy and I shared a few jokes about Americans, we were sitting right next to to the American Aaron, but made sure he could not hear us. We also realised how well travellers from the Commonwealth countries always gell together quite well! We had to move from the floor at some point and when we finally did, we replaced cushions on the floor with deckchairs from the beach bar.
Obviously, being night time in Phi Phi, it started to rain. We dragged the deckchairs under the shelter and carried on laying around. Sean and Katy left early as they were going to volunteer tomorrow and I was going to leave early as well, but found myself dragged into a conversation with Lauren the Australian.
Lauren and Aaron were both very mature nineteen year olds whose intellect was way above me and were deeper than the whole cast of Dawsons Creek put together. She was breaking all the rules of travelling by talking Politics and religion and actually knowing stuff about this rubbish! I felt like I needed a thesauruas when i was speaking with her. It doesn't help that I have not used my brain for the last few weeks, so I felt it may need to be kick-started back into gear when talking with these two girls.
I certainly had to bring the conversation back down to my level. How in the hell was I going to be able to do that. Then I remembered that Aaron was from a couple miles north of Sydney (Home and Away territory) and Lauren was from Melbourne (Neighbours territory). Bingo. I asked if they had been on the 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours' tours. They both had not, so I told them to promise me when I visited them in Australia, that they would take me on the tours. I had had too much intellectual conversation for one night, so I left good old Peter in the company of these Einsteins!
