Phi Phi (pronounced p p) is a series of island of the southern tip of Phuket. That's right, an island, a two hour boat ride! For those of you that don't know, I haven't been on a boat in years beacuse I get horribly sea sick and no pill, braclet or satanic ritual has ever helped. I couldn't not go or I would have been left alone all weekend so I stopped by the pharmacy up the street to get sea sickness medicine. Thai pharmacies are verrrrry different from American pharmacies, you don't need a perscription for anything- and I mean ANYTHING. You want it, they got it, no questions asked. I told the lady what I needed and she gave me this pill I'd never heard of, but I took it and it was a miracle! No nausea, no dizziness. I think I'm in love!
All 32 of us went to the island, with no prearranged place to stay. We decided to split up since no one hotel seemed to have room for all of us. Kelsey, Bree, me and several others found the Harmony House. Ya. Me and Kelsey had a 10x10 room with two twin beds and a lightbulb hanging from the celing on the bathroom that fell into the threshold. This meant either don't shut the door or move the bulb. That worked a few times, until Kels go out of the shower and tried to move it and electrocuted herself! The place was grimy, to say the least, but it was 150 baht a piece for the night and the whole island was fairly grimy. They got hit hard by the Tsunami and I think the infastructure is still iffy. Most of the streets reek like sewage and but greatfully there were no cars or motorbikes, feet and bicycles only. Short of the smell and the hotel room, this was the most breathtakingly beautiful place I had ever seen. The water was ridiculously warm, probably warmer than the air ever gets on Cape Cod, and it was a color that I don't even have a name for. It was almost saphire, but deeper. Or torquoise but greener. I have pictures, but they do it no justice. Some of the smaller islands that we saw on our way in were accessible only by rock climbing. One is the island where they filmed "The Beach" which I hce never seen but will now.
Once we got settled, we came across this tour that took you to the "Beach" island, snorkling, kayaking, to watch the sunset and eat dinner- all for 480 baht, about 16 dollars! It was one of the best things I've ever done. We got to jump off the top deck of the boat, which was far but fun. And the snorkling was incredible! I saw all the fish you see in the pet store, but bigger and free, as well as the most colorful fish I've ever seen and a baraccuda! after snorkling we went to Maya beach ("The Beach" beach) which was sick. We swam for a little while and while we were in, two baby sharks were swimming with us. Aside from being a little concerned about where their mother was, it was super cool. And the sunset, oh my God, amazing! The pictures do nothing for it, this is a must see!
After the boat, we went and got ready to get out. Wait, I'll back up. In Phuket and Phi Phi (maybe other places in Thailand, I don't know yet) there is this phemomenon they call "buckets." A bucket is litteraly like a little kid's sand bucket, filled with a drink. On the streets people push flyers at you that call for 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 buckets or 100 baht buckets at happy hour, etc. Sweet, but a little dangerous- maybe thats why they have signs all over the island that remind you "Alcohol impairs your judgement"! they also sell make it yourself buckets at the stores. I bought a vodka, redbull(much stronger than American redbull) and pineapple juice. A very tasty combo! Vodka is the most expensive liquor to buy here, btw, might be time to switch to whiskey...Anyhoo, so I made my bucket and Kelsey and I went down to the beach to check out the fire show. These people light rope and sticks and whatever on fire and start whipping it around. Pretty cool- except when they let the drunk Americans do it. Also cool, but some of the crew returned singed to say the least! Then we went and found the rest of the crew at the Reggae Bar. This is where things went a little downhill for me. At the Reggae Bar there is a full on boxing ring in the middle of the bar. If you fight your friend, you get a free bucket. Not wrestling or playing around but shin guards, head gear and gloves fight. After my second bucket, I decided this was a fantastic idea. I asked every girl in the group to fight me (they wouldn't let me fight a guy) and they all said no! apparently I'm intimidating. Eventually a girl who was visiting some of our group agreed and Rhia declared himself my manager. 3 rounds, 3 minutes, 2 buckets, much, much harder than I was expecting. And I lost of all things! I was comfortated by my very helpful manager who said "Don't worry, It was just a beauty contest." The comforting words of my drunkin manager! anyhoo, I was so winded and dizzy that I completley destroyed my buzz and felt rather beat up. I didn't speak for over an hour, went back to the beach bar and collapsed in a chair for a bit, then went back to the hotel. A bit of a bummer, but now I know.
If you can't tell, I'm having a great time! This blog thing is time consuming tho, so it may just be relegated to sundays. facebooks easier, and I have trouble putting pics on my blog, so check in!
*Love*
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Some thoughts...
1. Thai is a very hard language
2. There are tons of random dogs walking the streets
3. Thai people are super sweet and helpful
4. You have to be a certain type of person to come do this, and that type of person is fun loving, wild, fun and independent. My new friends are great!
5. The orchids grow here like weeds! Its incredible.
6. I have never craved a bagel and cream cheese so hard in my life!
7. There is a very complicated system of showing resepect here, some of which involves walking on your knees by your elders.
8. I think I'm really going to like the teaching part, never saw that coming.
Anyhoo, I'm very tired because all these kids are just like me. "Oh, I'm so tired, I need to go to bed early tonight," at 6 pm...then 8pm...then 10, 11, 12, 1 etc. We're going for mexican tonight. I CANNOT drink alcohol tonight, my feet are super swollen still, I'm told its dehydration so I will lay of because its very uncomfotable. Will check back soon, Paytong (sp?) tommorow night...
*Love*
2. There are tons of random dogs walking the streets
3. Thai people are super sweet and helpful
4. You have to be a certain type of person to come do this, and that type of person is fun loving, wild, fun and independent. My new friends are great!
5. The orchids grow here like weeds! Its incredible.
6. I have never craved a bagel and cream cheese so hard in my life!
7. There is a very complicated system of showing resepect here, some of which involves walking on your knees by your elders.
8. I think I'm really going to like the teaching part, never saw that coming.
Anyhoo, I'm very tired because all these kids are just like me. "Oh, I'm so tired, I need to go to bed early tonight," at 6 pm...then 8pm...then 10, 11, 12, 1 etc. We're going for mexican tonight. I CANNOT drink alcohol tonight, my feet are super swollen still, I'm told its dehydration so I will lay of because its very uncomfotable. Will check back soon, Paytong (sp?) tommorow night...
*Love*
Monday, October 12, 2009
I made it!!!
Ok, here I am! I had quite the arduous trip here but I am now in the land of a thousand smiles and it is fantastic! Here's how it went down...
I made it to the airport with plenty of time, should have know then. I was to fly Boston to San Fransisco to Hong Kong to Phuket. The flight boarded on time. Check. I had a middle seat. Negative, but I was still optimistic. We taxied to the runway and sat..sat...sat until the piolt said that we were having a maintence issue with one of the air conditioning units and we were going back to the gate to see if they could fix it. They could not. "That's okay," he said. We can fly with one. And we did, taking off over an hour and a half late, cutting my 3 hour layover in half, until we reached crusing altitude. That's when boiling hot air came pouring out of the vents and the cabin heated up to at least 120 degrees. Scary and unacceptable, so we diverted to JFK and there went my connection. We were there until midnight (flight was scheduled for 6:40 pm). They promised up and down they would get me to Hong Kong on time, and I was far to discombobulated to figure that one out, so I got on the plane, landed in San Fran 3 am local time. There I was told that I could fly to Korea at 2pm and get to Phuket at midnight Sunday. I was unhappy, but what could I do. They put me up in a hotel and gave me meal vouchers. Fine. I went out to wait for the shuttle and called my dad, quickly approaching 4 am. As the shuttle pulled up, I hung up with my dad. Got to the hotel, super nice! Went to plug in my phone...my phone? Where's my phone?!?! Not in the shuttle according to the driver, so back to the airport to look around. Nope, no crackberry and now, its turned off. Gone, forever. Back to the hotel, a hot mess by now in case you were wondering. Managed to sleep from about 6-9:30 am, back to the airport. Got on the flight with no clue where my bags were at this point but on I went. 12 hours to Korea. One of the coolest flights EVER! Comfy seats, hot towels, lunch, dinner, snacks, toothbrushes, and wicked new t.v. and movies. I got to watch Entourage and Buffy! no sleep tho, still. Got to Korea without incident, where I discovered an odd phenomenon. Young couples, dressed alike. No, not alike, the SAME. Same shirts, sweaters, even pants some. And they went nuts on the duty-free shopping. I plan to find out what the deal with that is soon. Anyhoo, got on the flight to Phuket, only half full, so I chilled, nodded maybe but no real sleep. Six hours later, Phuket @ midnight local time. Waited in the passport line, got my little bag, with shoes and junk, no clothes. Great. Caught a cab (?), at least a guy with a car that charged me money. Got me to my villa, about an hour away about 2 or 3 am. Had to be @ training for 8:30, luckly I had one extra outfit in my carry on. I had made it, and to be honest I was ready to turn around and come home. I was extremley unhappy, lonley, tired and aggravated, but training I did.
Later I hooked up with some others from the program and caught a cab to "The Big C." Oh. My.God. This place is the Thai answer to Wal- Mart, only on steroids. 4 stories of food, clothes, electronics, bowling, nail and hair shops, etc. Very bright, loud and overwhelming on jet lag and no sleep, but I managed to buy a Thai cell phone, no easy feat with my lack of Thai and their lack of English. I felt like a jerk walking up to everyone in a cell phone booth going "English?' "English?" but I got it done (still having some trouble using it tho, will check back on that). Got back to find my crew at dinner at a Thai resturant up the street, so I went. Ate bomb Thai food, drank Tiger beer and swapped life stories until 2 am! at 2 am, I got back to my villa and discovered that my key would not work in my door, had to sleep in another room with none of my stuff, still wouldn't work, one of the maintenance guys used a latter to climb my balcony! Went to training on Thai culture, very different, interesting stuff!
All complaining aside, I'm good now. The people in my group and all the staff are wicked cool, this island is amazing and unlike anything I could have imagined. There are geckos and dogs everywhere! Orchids grow like weeds all over and everything is soooo green and beautiful. It is super hot, but not unbearable. I just got back from a Thai massage! Talk about different.
Well, I have so much more to write, can't wait but my brain is shutting down, so I'm off to bed. Sigh. I will write more soon, so much more to share. In short, I'm great.
*Love*
I made it to the airport with plenty of time, should have know then. I was to fly Boston to San Fransisco to Hong Kong to Phuket. The flight boarded on time. Check. I had a middle seat. Negative, but I was still optimistic. We taxied to the runway and sat..sat...sat until the piolt said that we were having a maintence issue with one of the air conditioning units and we were going back to the gate to see if they could fix it. They could not. "That's okay," he said. We can fly with one. And we did, taking off over an hour and a half late, cutting my 3 hour layover in half, until we reached crusing altitude. That's when boiling hot air came pouring out of the vents and the cabin heated up to at least 120 degrees. Scary and unacceptable, so we diverted to JFK and there went my connection. We were there until midnight (flight was scheduled for 6:40 pm). They promised up and down they would get me to Hong Kong on time, and I was far to discombobulated to figure that one out, so I got on the plane, landed in San Fran 3 am local time. There I was told that I could fly to Korea at 2pm and get to Phuket at midnight Sunday. I was unhappy, but what could I do. They put me up in a hotel and gave me meal vouchers. Fine. I went out to wait for the shuttle and called my dad, quickly approaching 4 am. As the shuttle pulled up, I hung up with my dad. Got to the hotel, super nice! Went to plug in my phone...my phone? Where's my phone?!?! Not in the shuttle according to the driver, so back to the airport to look around. Nope, no crackberry and now, its turned off. Gone, forever. Back to the hotel, a hot mess by now in case you were wondering. Managed to sleep from about 6-9:30 am, back to the airport. Got on the flight with no clue where my bags were at this point but on I went. 12 hours to Korea. One of the coolest flights EVER! Comfy seats, hot towels, lunch, dinner, snacks, toothbrushes, and wicked new t.v. and movies. I got to watch Entourage and Buffy! no sleep tho, still. Got to Korea without incident, where I discovered an odd phenomenon. Young couples, dressed alike. No, not alike, the SAME. Same shirts, sweaters, even pants some. And they went nuts on the duty-free shopping. I plan to find out what the deal with that is soon. Anyhoo, got on the flight to Phuket, only half full, so I chilled, nodded maybe but no real sleep. Six hours later, Phuket @ midnight local time. Waited in the passport line, got my little bag, with shoes and junk, no clothes. Great. Caught a cab (?), at least a guy with a car that charged me money. Got me to my villa, about an hour away about 2 or 3 am. Had to be @ training for 8:30, luckly I had one extra outfit in my carry on. I had made it, and to be honest I was ready to turn around and come home. I was extremley unhappy, lonley, tired and aggravated, but training I did.
Later I hooked up with some others from the program and caught a cab to "The Big C." Oh. My.God. This place is the Thai answer to Wal- Mart, only on steroids. 4 stories of food, clothes, electronics, bowling, nail and hair shops, etc. Very bright, loud and overwhelming on jet lag and no sleep, but I managed to buy a Thai cell phone, no easy feat with my lack of Thai and their lack of English. I felt like a jerk walking up to everyone in a cell phone booth going "English?' "English?" but I got it done (still having some trouble using it tho, will check back on that). Got back to find my crew at dinner at a Thai resturant up the street, so I went. Ate bomb Thai food, drank Tiger beer and swapped life stories until 2 am! at 2 am, I got back to my villa and discovered that my key would not work in my door, had to sleep in another room with none of my stuff, still wouldn't work, one of the maintenance guys used a latter to climb my balcony! Went to training on Thai culture, very different, interesting stuff!
All complaining aside, I'm good now. The people in my group and all the staff are wicked cool, this island is amazing and unlike anything I could have imagined. There are geckos and dogs everywhere! Orchids grow like weeds all over and everything is soooo green and beautiful. It is super hot, but not unbearable. I just got back from a Thai massage! Talk about different.
Well, I have so much more to write, can't wait but my brain is shutting down, so I'm off to bed. Sigh. I will write more soon, so much more to share. In short, I'm great.
*Love*
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