The bad sober moments between good drunken times: Ko Phi Phi

Sorry in advance for being a stranger, but we have a plethora of excuses for you from expense, distraction, illness, and most importatntly drunkenness.....

So let's see. Where did we leave off...right Bangkok. Well Mr James went home and Carla and I decided to go get drunk. We took an overnight bus with Erna our new Dutch companion to the Island of PhiPhi. You all know it from "The Beach". It was gorgeous, and there you pay for beauty. Upon arrival we decided that two more days in Thailand just wasn't gonna cut it, and we headed out the next morning on a day long visa-run to Malaysia to stamp in and out and in and out, we went with 4 Vancouver boys and it was hassle free to say the least.

What we've seen of Malaysia so far we like. Good sturdy squatters and everyone says "Canadian: Celine Dion!". I thought if they said "Canadian: Poutine!!!" we'd all get along better, but maybe someday. So we ended up with the four plus four Canadian boys on the mainland overnight and headed to a local packed Thai club. We met up with a couple English boys and drank some buckets and were wishing we knew the words so we could sing along to the live band. Then, they wouldn't sell us a bottle of Vodka so Whiskey it was and I felt like I was doing shots out of my Dad's liquor cabinet (haha..kidding dad...). That was that.

Paul, one of our London friends got out of the club and tossed his shoes..he said they weren't comfy, I said "what are you a nubee? trying to get in touch with nature in Thailand?" he proceeded to buy that bottle of vodka at the store and the party went back to the hotel. Needless to say we missed our boat in the morning, but luckily just made the afternoon boat, and met Paul and Hue hung over at the pier. We got on the island and decided to prove our youth and stamina and drink our faces off yet again. Which was hard not to do with these two as they were on a short week long vaca, with the mission to party. And so we did. We all stumbled home after dancing up a storm at the Half Moon Party on the beach til who knows what time in the morning.

So we were determined to do something with ourselves the next day, and hired a boat and driver to take us snorkeling to "The Beach", ie Maya Bay. Gorgeous. Limestone cliffs jetting out of the water like nothing I've seen. We tried to snorkel it, but I was so hung over and sea sick that it didn't go well. I tried, and there were some gorgeous fish, but I am still a bit afraid and so that didn't help. I ended up spending most of the time floating on my back and trying not to puke cuz I saw in the movie "Open Water" that it attracts the sharks. Well it didn't work. The bay was too choppy and I threw up a little and swam like hell and was surrounded by thousands of fish. Then swam towards the boat cuz I figured if I could just puke over the side they couldn't get me. I didn't make it and puked a lot more! There were millions of fish...big fish! I was so upset. Funny though at the same time cuz just then Paul and Hue came over and were like "why are there all these fish here!!! get down there!!! take a picture!!!" and were loving it, as the fish followed me back to the boat nibbling on me. I didn't have the heart to tell them they were swimming in my puke. They were so excited. Sorry guys...didn't want you to find out this way, hope the pictures turned out.

It may take me a while to get back in there. I'm sure you all understand. I started to feel better tho and we went to a private shallow bay and I taught them some cheer stunts. It was fun, and then back to the mainland and off drinking we were again. Went to a Lady-Boy cabaret show at Apache and drank as many 50Bhat shots at Tiger Bar as we could...zambuka baby! Then we were so hot from dancing I had the bright idea to go swimming. But we weren't sure what pool we could sneak into, so we decided to go skinny dipping in the ocean, but the tide was out and ended up 5 miles out in knee deep water surrounded by jagged rocks, being nibbled on by tiny fish. Lovely.

So back to the club we went. Carla was a bit sandy and a bit grumpy, but Hue and I managed to stay out till 5am chatting, and sat under a store awning thru an amazing storm. The thunder lasted ten straight minutes without a break. Awesome.

Anyhow, that was that and we were outta there. The boys flew home and Carla and I took the ferry in the morning for some R&R on Tonsai Beach , but only got as far as Railay, and couldn't get a boat to take us over to this quiet beach, and the tide was high so we couldn't walk. Carla ended up getting a crazy 110 fever that night and we thought she had malaria, and of course its 2 in the morning and were on an island with no doctors, and no phones, and no boats. I had a regulat thermmeter for the weather and we had that stuck under her arm, except neither of us knew when high was too high. I just knew I'd never felt such a warm forehead. And I managed to sprain my finger falling in the dark in our room at the same time and was outta commission for a few days. So we got a nice bungalow, and I sat poolside and read and worked on my tan, and Carla slept. Of course we didn't take a boat to the Hospital the next morning..that would have been too "responsible".

We were in a real jungle kingdom in the middle of this tiny island surrounded by giant limestone cliffs. Suposedly amazing for rock climbing, but that idea went out with the finger. We were woken up every morning at 7:30 am on the dot by a blue-grey monkey with white circles around his eyes and lips...so creepy. It sounded like thunder and scared the crap out of me the first morning as he fought with his reflection in our mirrored picture window. The seccond morning he sat and posed for some poics for me though. There were other monkeys too, including a family of three who were not shy to jump from tree to tree around the pool and scare the unaware sunbathing girls.

So now we are on Ko Lanta at the recomendation of Jeff A for one (thanx man!), and a crappy travel agent for two, whom we blame the most. It being the low season, it just looks like a hurricane blew through and the beach is fierce, although still tons of sun. But there is literally no one here. And I don't mean no one at the bar...I mean no one at all.

So tomorrow we are heading back to the mainland and shuffling between fitting in another Full Moon Party on the 11th in Ko Pangan, or heading to Malaysia...promise to let you all know!

Oh ya, and I am writting with a backdrop of gunfire outside....It's the Kings birthday and its party time. yikes!!

-R