Dancing Barefoot in the Sand

I know!  I've been getting lazy.  Even though there was an internet cafe on every corner in Ko Phi Phi, the beach life doesn't motivate a lot of ... well, anything!  That being said, Ko Phi Phi was its own unique beach experience.

We arrived in Thailand in Phuket around nine or ten in the evening.  We shared a cab into town with a very sweet Austrian couple and went in search of accomodation.  Without necessarily meaning to, we ended up staying in the exact hostel they used in the movie "The Beach".  The girl we met was actually really excited about and went in search of room 32, or maybe it was 38 (the exact room used for filming).  She even found out who was staying in the room and asked if she could take a look around and take some pictures!  She awas adoreable!  We spent the evening just lounging around the hotel common area, drinking some local Chang beer*, and talking with our new friends.  It was a late night, and early the next morning (our bus came to pick us up at 745) and we were off to Ko Phi Phi.

Ko Phi Phi is an interesting island, and more or less our first impression of Thailand.  As far as Thai culture goes, the island has little to offer except in the way of food, tattoos, and a sore excuse for Thai boxing, but we'll get to that later.  As soon as we found a hotel room, our first inclination was food!  All we had for breakfast were a two halves of PB & J sandwhiches (which we had made an entire loaf of for our layover in KL), not to mention that the lure of Thai food is almost unbearable for me!  Now, maybe I was just too excited, or maybe it just wasn't the best restaurant, but the red pineapple chicken curry (my favourite back home) I ordered left something to be desired.  Nonetheless, the watermelon fruit shake I had (as suggested by Cynthia) was the most refereshing, amazing drink ever!!!  So good!  (While eating our lunch (it was around noon) we noticed that everyone else was ordering breakfast: this was our first sign of things to come.)  We spent the remainder of the afternoon just wandering around our little stretch of the island and getting familiar with it as always.  The main beach which we eventually stumbled upon also left something to be desired--that something was the beach itself.  We had been warned mind you, but it's still a bit of a shock to walk about onto a beach and not actually be able to see the beach.  The bits that weren't crowded with people were crowded with beach bars, and what little was left was littered in garbage.  The water was murky and overall our first impressions of Ko Phi Phi were not promising despite all the rave of the beauty of the island.

And then there was Papayas.

The infamous Papayas.  We've read about it Lonely Planet and heard about it from anyone and everyone who has been to Thailand before us, and the reputation of the place certainly holds up.  Disappointed with the beach and the food thus far, we headed to Papayas looking for redemption!  Wow!  We found it!  We ordered Pad Thai, and with the reccomendation of the people sitting next to us, we also ordered the garlic pepper chicken.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  What we got was a huge plate of excellent Pad Thai, and a massive dish of chopped chicken.  The chicken alone was enough to fill us both, and yet we had the Pad Thai to boot!  It was so good and so delicious that Ko Phi Phi had been redeemed in our minds in that one restaurant.  We ate there every night the entire time we were there (save one when I mistakingly thought I'd try something different).  I think our favourite dish was the curry (Panang or Masamun) with chicken and vegetables.  We ended up staying on the island a few nights longer than we had originally intended and I'm pretty sure it was in part because of that restaurant.  As we were walking away our last night there Darren said, "I think I'm going to miss this place", and he wasn't talking about the island.  Just to put the cherry on top, not only is the food amazing but the owner/operator is the kindest man you'll ever meet!  He was so sweet!  He always greets you with the biggest grin and a personal introductory, and when you leave he thanks you for coming and hopes to see you again with the kind of sincerity and genuity that you just don't get at home.  The cats that sometimes sleep in the beer cooler are pretty great as well.

So, our first few days were hindered somewhat by weather and our need to eat constantly, and we didn't get up to doing a whole lot.  One must on my list however, in Thailand for sure and most likely in Ko Phi Phi, was to get a tattoo.  Now, I've taken precautionary measures and already told my mother about this so she's already been fully disclosed.  There are so many "Bamboo Tattoo" shops on the island that I couldn't help but stop and look at every one for just the right picture.  Darren has also been wanting a tattoo, and the more I looked the more he thought about it as well.  While trying to think about what he'd want, it suddenly dawned on him: a Chinese warrior.  I thought it was a cool idea, but I thought it might be more fitting for him to get it done in China.  He spent a day searching the internet and actually found a really cool picture; but I still thought it would be more fitting to get it done in China.  Well, while we were walking back from Papayas we passed this one shop and stopped to take a look.  There's actually a girl named Sharon working there, who is also from Vancouver, and so with a bridge to the language barrier I started asking all sorts of questions, explaining what I wanted mine to look like and so forth.  Meanwhile, Darren went to the internet cafe across the street and printed out his warrior and started talking to some of the artists.  In the end, Sharon said they'd draw something up for me and Darren said he'd sleep on it.

I woke up that morning to a very wide awake Darren.  He had apparently been thinking about it all night and hadn't gotten much sleep.  There were doodles on the margins of flyers and any scrap piece of paper we had lying around and all I can remember is him saying, "I've made up my mind.  I'm getting my tattoo here".  Well, who can argue with that?!  Sharon said that they usually didn't open until around noon, so we grabbed breakfast and headed to the book store.  We walked by the shop and Sharon wasn't there.  They said she'd be in around 2 maybe so we walked around some more, had some lunch and walked by again.  In truth, we were walking by more often than necessary and showing up earlier than they told us to because someone was just a little anxious.  Finally, they told us seven o'clock and we killed some time reading and sleeping.  We decided to go for dinner around 530, but since it was on the way, we stopped by the shop... and there they were!  (By the way, earlier that day Darren had me pull the picture up in Photoshop and clear it up a bit and the save it on a USB so he could show them a proper image on their own computer... he had been carrying around the USB stick all day!)  To sum up, they started the sketches while we went to dinner, and within two hours we were both seated, ready to be inked.

My tattoo took about fifteen minutes, it barely hurt at all and I love it.  We both started at the same time (around 630) and Darren wasn't finished until 4 in the morning!!!  It took about 9 hours for his tattoo.  He was exhausted, the guy tattooing him was exhausted, the guys who were holding his arm (they stretch the skin so its tight) were taking shifts, and I was falling asleep in one of the chairs.  But it was worth every minute! 

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It looks amazing!  The detailing itself is different than the original image.  He did the outline exactly as it was supposed to be and then freehanded eveything else.  It's unreal.  This guy was so talented!  Sharon told me that of all the people on the island, he's been doing it the longest, and was the one who taught some of the other guys in the other shops.  He did such an amazing job.

The next day, and everday following for that matter, hot or cool, Darren was walking around without a shirt on showing off his new tattoo.  If we met anyone and started talking about tattoos, his shirt came of (if he was wearing one at all), and sometimes when we were hanging out at the tattoo shop he couldn't help showing off their work. We sort of made ourselves at home there, stopping in and hanging out with Sharon, just about everyday since until we left.  They were really cool people and we definitely wouldn't have stayed so long if we didn't have that place and those people to hang out with. The night after the tattoo, Darren, Sharon, and I decided to go check out the beach.  The beach at night turns into one large party.  Everywhere you go in Ko Phi Phi, you can buy buckets.  Buckets that come with a micky of whatever or Sangsom (Thai rum), a can of mix (coke, sprite, soda, etc) and usually a small red bull (the non-carbonated type that comes in a glass bottle).  This, my friends, is a recipe for disaster!  The worst part of it is that it's the cheapest thing on the menu.  You get what looks like a small sand pale almost full of alcoholic beverage for the equivalent of $4.  While it may seem brilliant at first, the faces of the people staggering around the morning after suggest otherwise!  Anyway... we found ourselves a nice little patch of beach at a place called "Hippies".  It wasn't as busy as "Slinkys" or the "Apache", but the music was better, and well, less-busy was more or less the point.  We didn't dance in the designated dance area either.  No, we made our own dance floor a few picnic tables back, with plenty of room to less loose without fear of accidentally smacking someone in the face with a stray arm (which I seem have made a habit of doing with conversational arm gestures).  The three of us attracted a small but pleasant crowd and danced the night away!  The next morning... well... We've decided that there is something about the Thai beer that doens't agree with Darren.  It's sad because he really does enjoy a good beer, and the Chang beer is quite nice-- nice tasting, but sort of mean otherwise.  It doesn't matter if Darren has four large beers or one small beer, the stuff makes him sick.  Even now, after only a small can with dinner last night, he's more or less incapacitated!  So, the day after our night of dancing barefoot in the sand, I had a day all to myself! I walked up to "Viewpoint" which was beautiful but rather difficult to get to.  Lots of stairs.  I was told that from viewpoint you can get to "Long beach" which I had heard was much nicer and quieter than the main beach, so I thought it was a practicle route for me to take.  Well, if you've ever tried to take any sort of route/direction with me, you're probably aware that it usually takes me twice as long to get there, mostly because I take a lot of wrong turns.  In fact, from viewpoint, I didn't even get to Long beach.  After walking through trails in the jungle, being frightened by large lizards and with the call of some sort of primate in the distance, I ended up on the other side of what we call "Poo Garden", not five minutes from where I started.  (Poo Garden is a "waste water collection and water garden" that separates the area where our hotel was and the main hustle and bustle.  It smells like poo.)  It was hot, and I was sweaty and a little frustrated that I had done all that walking and all that sweating without the reward of a nice beach and ocean to swim in!  With the help of a rather good looking dive instructor, I was re-directed and I did eventually find the beach--not Long Beach as I later discovered, but a rather nice, rather quiet stretch of beach and I was content.  I read my book, went for a swim, bathed in the sun and felt really good about my day! So, the day Darren was recovering from his allergic reaction of sorts, we were supposed to go see the other islands and go snorkelling, but that was obviously postponed, and so we had decided we'd do it the following day.  The problem was that we didn't get up early enough the next day, and both of us were quite tired and not really up for it.  So, while eating our delicious breakfast (home-made muesli with yoghurt and fruit, and a grainy bagel with cream cheese!--which we ate every morning) we booked a tour of the islands for the following day. Instead, I took Darren and I ended up at another quiet little beach (which we thought was Long beach but again was not), and we took the day easy.  In the evening, we walked up to the viewpoint along with everyone else to go watch the sunset, and ended it all with yummy curry at Papayas.  Overall it was a very relaxing and successful day! That brings us to yesterday and the island tour!  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  Darren and I ate breakfast at our usual spot, and it was also where we were being picked up.  The picking us up part, interestingly, was actually a guy coming around on a bicycle who would wave his hand and say "Okay go!' and then speed off out of sight.  As we walked through town more and more people were joining us from various shops and restaurants, until there was a huge crowd of us following this guy through the streets.  I felt like cattle being herded.  Occassionally he would stop to let us catch up, but there were a few girls who were even running behind him trying not to lose sight of him.  It was a rather strange experience. Well, once we reached the shore, we were all shuffled into various "longtail" boats and handed either a doughnut or tuna sandwhich (which was meant to be our breakfast I think), and fitted for a pair of fins.  All geared up the oil spewing motor was started and out into the ocean we went.  First stop was Monkey Bay.  It was a whole ten minutes on a small coast line where tourists piled up taking pictures and feeding the local monkeys.  A girl we met earlier had actually been bitten while feeding a baby monkey, so we proceeded with caution.  They were cute, and of course they were monkeys, and ten minutes later we herded back onto our boat, off to the next destination, Shark Point.  I'm not sure if it's called Shark Point because there are actually sharks here, but we didn't see any.  Like a lot of other offshore places, a lot of the coral was dead, but there were still lots of bright and colourful fish, though the water was a bit murky.  We snorkelled and swam for about twenty minutes and off we went.  We went snorkelling off the coast of Mosquito Island next and the snorkelling there was much better.  The water was clear, and such a dark shade of blue it was incredible.  The coral here was also much more diverse and lively, and so were the fish.  There were even jelly fish here as well, which scared the begeezes out of me at first, but it's easy enough to keep your distance from them.  They were pretty big and as long as you were cautious you couldn't miss them.  It was actually knd of neat, watching swarms of fish seemingly eating the jelly fish.  One side must have been the stinging part because they only nibbled from one side and it seemed that with so many fish the poor jelly didn't stand a chance.  Next was Bamboo Island, which was nicer than the main beach but nothing special as far as I could tell.  It was a nice place to stop for lunch but no more beautiful than any other island.  Unfortunately, while we sat and ate our lunch a bit of a storm seemed to be brewing across the ocean, and by the time we got going again the wind had picked up and it had started to rain.  The boat had to cross some pretty rough waters and some of the girls on the boat had a rough go of it.  It was kind of like being on a rollercoaster.  I figure, so long as I can look up at our driver and he's still smiling I needn't be too worried.  Anyway, I think from Bamboo Island we went to some sort of lagoon which was absolutely breathtaking (Pileh?).  It was a small inlet surrounded by large karst cliffs, and because the air had become so chill the water was so warm!  It was like diving into a warm bath and it was so peaceful and sheltered from the wind.  It was just what we needed.  After swimming for a half hour or so, we then went around to Maya Bay.  Now, it seems that you can actually bring a boat right into the bay itself, but what they do is park the boat on the other side of the bay, make you jump out into the water, swim across some pretty harsh waves (at least in that weather), follow a rope to the cliff side, either crawl through a hole or walk up some stairs, and then take the short walk to the beach on the other side.  Anyway, for all the struggle it is pretty cool once you get there.  Maya Bay by the way, is "the Beach".  It's the beach where the movie, "The Beach" was filmed.  Again, the water seemed extremely warm and everyone was up to their necks in it as if it was some sort of warm blanket.  We just waded and watched people run from the cold open-air pathway into the warm sea water.  Except, because of the waves the running into the water wasn't very graceful, so people would run about a foot or two into the water and then try to dive in, which ended up looking more like they were falling on their faces.  Everyone was just too eager to cover themselves in the warmth of the ocean.  The tour is supposed to take you out until sunset at which point you park out on the ocean and watch the sun go down, but it was cold and raining and we high tailed it back.  Most of the people in our boat seemed utterly miserable, and I don't know why but Darren and I both had a blast.  We could've done without the cold wind but we otherwise enjoyed ourselves rain and all! So while Ko Phi Phi seemed to have little to offer at first, it turns out there are a lot of little treasure tucked away on that little island.  Whether it's beautiful views of the sunsets, great food, or great people, there is more to Ko Phi Phi than once giant beach party.  Don't get me wrong though, I have discoverd that I do love dancing barefoot in the sand!  That being said, Darren and I are currently in Krabi (back on the mainland) suspended in some sort of limbo.  We have yet to decide whether or not we want to brave the Full Moon Party.  Negatives:  thousands of people on once beach intoxicated beyond belief, all hours of the night, and apparently the next moning, with more than just alcohol to keep them going.  Prices on Ko Phagnan sky rocket and you have to show up several days in advance to get accomodations.  Our time is running thin.  Positives:  more dancing barefoot in the sand (but maybe that wouldn't be so safe).  Hmmm... I think we just made a decision.  Well, a day or two in Krabi to decide but most likely off to Ko Tao next.  One last stretch of beach before we head to the interior and North of Thailand for a little cultural experience... and elephants!  Yay! *Note:  Apparently, the Chang beer (or maybe all Thai beer) has no "quality control", if you will.  Though the bottle/can may say that the beer is 6.4% alcohol (which is still quite strong) it can in fact be anywhere from 4-14% alcohol.  Or so we've been told.