Koh Phi Phi

Donovan writes: The Koh Phi Phi islands are about a two hour ferry ride off the west coast of Thailand. The movie "The Beach" was filmed here. This island was devistated by the tsunami. Although there wasn't an official count, it was estimated that over 2,500 tourists and residents died on the island. We only visited the large island. Here, reconstruction is still occuring, but most businesses have reopened.

One of the greatest features of the island is that no cars or motorbikes are allowed. It means the only thing you are dodging on the streets are local teenagers on bicycles. It makes for a much more relaxing stroll through the town. It was a little rainy, as we expected, but it made a good excuse to catch up on some sleep. The weather cleared up after the second day and we were able to get some sun and do some snorkling. There was a huge shallow coral reef only a 20-minute boat ride from our guesthouse. We also hiked up the hills to the highest point on the island. It provided a great view of both beaches. The photo hanging from a tree near the viewpoint showed what it looked like just after the tsunami. For good reason, no residents in the town were interested in talking about the event. The nightlife scene was pretty good on the island. The biggest bar on the island has a boxing ring, which provide a free drink for anyone willing to enter the ring. The Thai boxers were good, but watching drunk guys and girls try to fight was the highlight. 

Jess interrupts...Honestly, the main draw here was geared to tourists in search of a beautiful, but westernized island. That and buckets of alcohol (literally) and meeting other bucket drinkers who like to drunk box...then go watch fire twirling shows on the beach while dancing to trance and techno music. Only to wake up with a killer hangover at noon and missing good sun that is in short supply during the rainy season. We skipped the beach, but caught the rest. One night was enough. Though, we did notice our fellow bucket buddies heading out night after night. We figure they must be single...

We shortened our stay to 3-nights before heading on to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Diving in Koh Tao

Jess writes...Have you ever scuba dived? If not - come visit Koh Tao. Less than half the price of diving certification in the US and you get to learn in beauiful, clear waters full of amazing fish. You get off the ferry and are bombarded with diving companies more than willing to extract money from you. How do you decide? It's not easy, especially as they are standing their collecting tourists into their open pick up trucks. They give you a total of 8 mintues flat to make a decision. Needless to say, prices are all the same, accomodations are included, therefore, we are left with no determining factors and a confused look. We end up following up on a lead from another backpacker only to find the staff to be somewhat void of friendliness. We bum a ride from them to view their secondary location (knowing that the other place we were interested in was nextdoor to it). Jackpot. Nice people, good prices, beautiful resort - the offer of two free dives didn't hurt either.

We started our Open Water course at Coral Grand Divers that afternoon. Lucky for us, we end up in a group with just the two of us and a very cool German chick instructor. After minimal course work we head to our first lesson in the pool with an ocean view. Believe it or not, we passed the swimming test. Donovan took to it immediately. I, on the other hand, had some issues with breathing underwater. I have a tendency to be claustrophobic at times. I think it's something that has come with age though because I've never really had a problem until our honeymoon in Italy. We headed up a tower viewpoint in Venice, the small circular stone stairs we're packed with people, it was hot and I was freaking out. It took me a good 30 minutes at the top before I was able to embark back down into hell. That was the first episode, diving apparantely was the second. After some coercing and deep breaths, I was able to conquer my fears. It still takes a good several mintues every time I dive, but the sight and feeling of being part of the underwater world - even for only 40 minutes at a time - is an amazing feeling that I hope you are also able to experience.

The open water course included a pool session, a final exam and four open water dives - two one day, two the next day. My favorite was the gigantic eagle ray and the spanish dancers. We liked it so much that when they offered for us to take the Advanced Open Water course for a discounted price - we said, "why not?" As an open water diver you can only dive to 18 meters, as an advanced diver you can dive to 30 meters. Big difference.

There were five us in the advanced group together with our red-headed Canadian instructor - "Captain Ginger." Captain Ginger, British Police Officer Andy, Double Dutch and Donnie and Jess. The first trip included two dives to local sites and the next day we headed to a place called Sail Rock several hours away by boat. Three dives that day, a couple beers (and a couple buckets) later we crashed hard. Good times, good people, GREAT diving (25 meters visibility!).

In all, we spent 5 days, did 9 dives (Donovan did 11), saw a school of 15+ giant barracudas, met some crazy Dutch girls, a great couple from England and an ex-hippie Australian (Gus the Snail), drank several buckets of red bull vodka, danced on the beach, watched Holland kick ass over Italy 3-0 and soaked up the beautiful sun in Eastern Thailand. I could go back tomorrow.

However, it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and head to Krabi and Koh Phi Phi on the west coast. Our fingers are crossed that the rainy season will hold off for a couple days.

Bangkok

Jessica writes...As you can tell we've been MIA for a while. Truth - we fell straight into island time. It seems to suit us after all our constant traveling.

So Bangkok...
Normally, we tend to avoid big cities. But this was the exception. 2 nights in Bangkok easily turned into 4. Local transportation is super easy - tuk tuk, boat, sky tram, bus, taxi - whatever you fancy. We stayed several blocks from Kohsan Rd - Bangkok's famous strip of bars, overpriced drinks, young tourists getting absolutely hammered and prostitutes. We got several offers from tuk tuk drivers to go to a ping pong show (use your imagination), but declined and headed to see a good cover band. The scene was just a little too much for us so we didn't make it back for a repeat night of drinking. Instead we opted for some pizza and beer in the comfort of HBO. After days of traveling, we are started to miss cooking (well I do at least). Donovan on the other hand could eat absolutely anything with curry in it every meal for a year. I've instead opted for pad thai, which is cooked up on every other street stand by our current home. I'm not sure I could ever get sick of it - well maybe, but then I can move on to fried rice :)

Now for the kicker - those of you who know Donovan will appreciate this. He actually made the suggestion - on his own, without the help of any irish or begging - to go to the mall. And not just one mall, but TWO!!!! It's only taken me eight years, 10 months, 20 days, 12 hours and 8 minutes. Cathleen, you would be proud! (OK, the small detail that I'm being forced to mention is that one of the malls showcased several Italian Sports cars - but I'm still proud and will promise to remind him every once in a while of his lapse in concentration).

On a separate note, Thais (and many other visiting foreigners) are obsessed with shopping. How else could Bangkok support their 6+ malls, their weekend market that extends over 35 ACRES and their daily night bazaar that's open until past midnight. It's absolutely insane and even crowded most of the time. The food stands that exist among the shopping makes the experience quite different than your average American mall or boutique shopping court. The prices are right or at least you can bargain them down to a price that is right. My game plan consists of asking half and sometimes a third of the offering price - it usually works out and if not the next stand sells the exact same item so I just keep moving. (Note: at this point, Donovan is usually left to his whiskey at some random bar OR off for yet another thai massage). I'm thinking that maybe if Austin malls had several pubs/massage places/sports that many man would actually consider a day shopping trip or at the very least several hours)!

On Saturday we headed to the weekend market, Chatucak Market - the 35 ACRE shopping extravaganza that housed so many freaking stands that I got lost in the pet section for over an hour. After a 5 minute break watching the cock fighting, I found myself in the chicken and rooster section where they actually also hosted a food stand of BBQ chicken skewers right across the hall. I'm thinking that maybe this practice is a little bit bad for business, not to mention disgusting. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. As I stumbled around a corner because of almost running into a passing motorbike in the 4 foot aisle, I came face to face with a parrot that was twice as big as Fuji and just a little bit smaller than Scooter. It made the loudest squawk that I have ever heard, though if it could talk it might have been pretty cool. Actually, considering that there were over 20 of these 4 foot parrots, maybe not. So in all, my hour of wanderings got me trapped in a different world with good stories for Donovan - if I could ever find him again.

At Siam Paragon, yet another Bangkok mall we went to, had the most unbelievable movie theatre. Ticket price includes an escort to your modern and super comfortable lazy boy chair, fully equipped with blanket and pillow, as well as superior electric reclining abilities. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (or something like that) never looked any better. Though, I did forget how majorly cheesy these movies were. Harrison Ford must have had to try hard to act that bad. Don't go. Unless of course, you have a soft spot for Indiana Jones flicks. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Four days in Bangkok was a blast! We both loved it. The streets aren't NY crazy busy and the people are very friendly. But it was time to move on.

Next stop...
flight to Surat Thani then
to a random dirty bus stop then
to another random even dirtier bus stop then
to a ferry dock then
to a boat to Koh Panghan then
to a half remodeled bungalow on the beach then
to another ferry to Koh Tao

signing off...click to see more photos...