The boat ride from Phuket and Koh Phi Phi was pretty uneventful. Toward the end of the trip, we saw some beautiful views of other islands though:
After disembarking, the four of us (LI, the mysterious Norwegian girl of Iraqi descent; BK, the Texan who carries around her beer bong with her everywhere she goes; and NS her French friend) started walking in the direction of BK's and NS's hostel. But the time LI and I had decided to join them on this island adventure yesterday, there were no spaces left for this first night. LI assured me that it was no problem and we could just walk around to find one once we got there. I was skeptical but she seemed pretty confident, so I went with it. About 20 minutes later, we reached BK's and NS's hostel. Which. was. AWESOME. It was literally a bodega ON the beach. LI and I continued walking around the area and made plans to meet up with the girls in a little while. LI and I then proceeded to spend roughly the next hour trekking from place to place with our huge backpacks trying to find a hostel. Let me revise that, a hostel that was up to her standards of price and quality. We found lots of hostels. With open rooms. But there was always something wrong with them. To be fair, some of them were terrible, but others were totally find, but like... more expensive than she wanted to pay. To put this in perspective, the total spread between most and least expensive was probably on the order of a $5 difference. ALSO, for someone who comes from Norway, which is literally the most expensive country on the planet, ...$5? Really? I definitely hitched my wagon to the wrong horse on this one (yea, I said it). Finally, we found an acceptable place. Which happened to also be the first place we looked it and then decided we'd come back to if nothing else panned out. I was perfectly happy with it. It was also a whopping four-minute walk to the other hostel, which was perfect.
We headed back to the girls' hostel, but they were no where to be found. We waited a few minutes but LI and I were starving, so we ate some food at the hostel. It was meh but it was food, which was the important part. Eventually, the other girls came back and we all went to the beach together. To be clear, we were already on the beach, but we went out to find a place with some beach chairs and more people. Which was a maybe five-minute walk down the beach. THAI ISLANDS. This is awesome.
Hanging out at the beach was glorious. The sand was beautiful. The water was incredible. NS and I went to go swim while the other two stayed behind. This was pretty much the first time she and I had a real conversation and it turns out she's awesome. She's just traveling around for fun right now before heading back home. And she's super funny, with a "whatever, I don't care what people think" attitude a la Jennifer Lawrence. As I was admiring this picturesque scenery around me, I realized this was another one of those "this doesn't happen at home" moments: I'm swimming in the water on a Thai island with a French girl that looks like she should be a model talking about how awesome our respective life choices were that brought us here. [Update: turns out she actually may have done some modeling.]
After spending some more time on the beach, the four of us walked around the little town. There were a ton of shops, but absolutely zero haggling here. Prices are prices. The vendors all had an attitude of "meh, I don't really care if you buy this stuff or not." Which was so weird! But only weird because everywhere else it is the polar opposite of that. We also booked tickets for this boat tour of some of the surrounding area for tomorrow, which sounds awesome.
Thailand is famous for it's Full Moon Party, a huge party that happens on Koh Phangan, one of the islands here. By huge I mean HUGE. Unfortunately, I'm going to be back in the U.S. for the full moon party. Luckily, on Koh Phi Phi they also do a Half Moon Party, not quite as crazy, but still crazy, and luckily, it was happening tonight! There are a bunch of bars/hostels that are right on the beach, and a handful of them put on shows to lure people to their section of the party, but basically the entire beachfront is just one contiguous party scene. It started maybe around 10pm. There was a massive amount of people there, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. This felt like the spring break I never had.
We ended up hanging out in front of one of the places with a huge fire show. They had amazing fire dancers, some of the most incredible I've ever seen.
After the fire show, they lit this huge ring on fire and people could jump through it. Which.. obviously I did (sorry, Mom!).
Then they lit the perimeter of the dance floor on fire so we went to dance for a while. You can't not dance on a dance floor of fire, come on.
Our group ended up getting split up over the course of the night. Which was bound to happen with a party of this size. I ended up hanging out with NS most of the rest of the night. We had a long heart to heart which was... not what I expected to happen in the context of this massive party happening around us, but it was nice to have a real conversation with someone and not the typical "where are you from, how long are you traveling, where have you been, etc." conversations that are pretty standard among travelers.
I had not been feeling so hot since the beginning of the day and it got slightly progressively worse as the day went on. Nothing awful, but I still decided to call it a night at around 4am. It honestly didn't even feel late. This place is amazing.
So... this really crazy thing happened next. I walked back to my hostel and as I climbed the stairs onto the porch, this blonde girl asked me for a lighter. I looked up at her and told her I didn't have one and realized she looked really familiar. It took me a second but then it hit me, she was the same Australian girl from airport bus ride in Phuket! What?!?! Her name is BE, and we hung out for a while on the porch. She was incredulous that this was actually happening and asked me some more questions about the retreat I was going to. When we first met in the bus a few days ago she seemed really interested in it, but in a "that's so cool, I'd love to do that but... let's be real I'm just lying to myself and I'm never actually going to do that" kind of way. I told her that I was leaving in a couple days so if she wanted to come, she'd know where to find me.
After a while, I was off to bed. I'm really excited for our boat tour tomorrow!
CONTINUE ON to Koh Phi Phi Part 2: Give Me Cipro Or Give Me Death
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| Cliffs. Vegetation. Standard. |
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| With my "yes, I belong on this boat" sticker and rolled-up pants, I was FOR SURE the coolest kid on the boat |
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| Koh Phi Phi harbor. STUNning. |
We headed back to the girls' hostel, but they were no where to be found. We waited a few minutes but LI and I were starving, so we ate some food at the hostel. It was meh but it was food, which was the important part. Eventually, the other girls came back and we all went to the beach together. To be clear, we were already on the beach, but we went out to find a place with some beach chairs and more people. Which was a maybe five-minute walk down the beach. THAI ISLANDS. This is awesome.
Hanging out at the beach was glorious. The sand was beautiful. The water was incredible. NS and I went to go swim while the other two stayed behind. This was pretty much the first time she and I had a real conversation and it turns out she's awesome. She's just traveling around for fun right now before heading back home. And she's super funny, with a "whatever, I don't care what people think" attitude a la Jennifer Lawrence. As I was admiring this picturesque scenery around me, I realized this was another one of those "this doesn't happen at home" moments: I'm swimming in the water on a Thai island with a French girl that looks like she should be a model talking about how awesome our respective life choices were that brought us here. [Update: turns out she actually may have done some modeling.]
After spending some more time on the beach, the four of us walked around the little town. There were a ton of shops, but absolutely zero haggling here. Prices are prices. The vendors all had an attitude of "meh, I don't really care if you buy this stuff or not." Which was so weird! But only weird because everywhere else it is the polar opposite of that. We also booked tickets for this boat tour of some of the surrounding area for tomorrow, which sounds awesome.
Thailand is famous for it's Full Moon Party, a huge party that happens on Koh Phangan, one of the islands here. By huge I mean HUGE. Unfortunately, I'm going to be back in the U.S. for the full moon party. Luckily, on Koh Phi Phi they also do a Half Moon Party, not quite as crazy, but still crazy, and luckily, it was happening tonight! There are a bunch of bars/hostels that are right on the beach, and a handful of them put on shows to lure people to their section of the party, but basically the entire beachfront is just one contiguous party scene. It started maybe around 10pm. There was a massive amount of people there, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. This felt like the spring break I never had.
We ended up hanging out in front of one of the places with a huge fire show. They had amazing fire dancers, some of the most incredible I've ever seen.
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| Fire spinning! |
Then they lit the perimeter of the dance floor on fire so we went to dance for a while. You can't not dance on a dance floor of fire, come on.
 |
| You would think fire and thousands of drunk people is a bad combo but somehow I didn't see anyone severely burned or horribly disfigured. Only minor burns and slight disfigurations. |
I had not been feeling so hot since the beginning of the day and it got slightly progressively worse as the day went on. Nothing awful, but I still decided to call it a night at around 4am. It honestly didn't even feel late. This place is amazing.
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| Ain't no party like a Half Moon Partaaaaay! |
After a while, I was off to bed. I'm really excited for our boat tour tomorrow!
CONTINUE ON to Koh Phi Phi Part 2: Give Me Cipro Or Give Me Death
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