Happy New Year from Krabi and Phi Phi Islands!

After my Thai Christmas, and a fun Sunday wandering around Chatuchak Market, I packed my duffel bag and headed to the southern bus terminal to catch the 12-hour bus to Krabi Monday night. The three coworkers I was meeting up with in Krabi had flown, but booked their flights over a month in advance, and by the time I decided to go, flights were too expensive. So I sucked it up and took the stupid bus. This was NOT a pleasant ride, as the first three hours were drowned in (very high-pitched and extremely annoying) Thai comedy DVDs on the tv screens. Three DVDs. After those finally ended, other than being really cold, I survived.


The bus arrived at 7am on Tuesday at the Krabi bus station, where I then hopped on the back of a motorbike to get the 25k to the pier. Took a longtail boat from the pier to Railey Beach East, waded to the shore, followed the path to Railey Beach West, and then climbed over/under/around rocks to get to Ton Sai Beach..all with my backpack and duffel bag in tow. Ugh. After searching for a good hour and a half, I found my friends(no cell reception made locating them more challenging than I had anticipated), and was finally able to get started with my day. We changed into our swimming attire, climbed back over the aforementioned rocks, and hit the beach for a day of swimming and relaxation. We met up with a group of Germans for dinner, one of whom Harry had met while traveling through Vietnam(rock climbing is very big in Germany, and with Ton Sai being the cheapest and one of the best places to rock climb in Thailand, we were surrounded by Germans..and a few Swiss).



Railey West

Ton Sai Beach





On Wednesday, the four of us(Me, Rani, Harry, and Melissa) went on an all-day snorkeling speedboat tour around Phi Phi Islands, stopping at Monkey Island(a 7 year old on our boat got bitten by one and had to get rabies shots), Koh Phi Phi Don(for lunch), Bamboo Island, Maya Bay(where the movie The Beach was filmed), and one of the big coral reefs. The weather was cloudy(and rained a bit) but it was still warm enough to enjoy the day, and the water was still really clear, making for great snorkeling.
Early morning

Monkey Island

Rani and I helping each other not fall

On a swing! :P

Maya Bay


Our Group(Harry, Melissa, Rani, Me)

The Lagoon

Viking Cave

Koh Phi Phi

Bamboo Island




Thursday Rani and I had a lazy morning, enjoying a long breakfast at our resort, and then went rock climbing in the afternoon. I climbed two different routes; didn't make it all the way to the top on the first one, and when I was about 3/4 of the way up on the second one, I got stuck. I was NOT, however, coming back down; I struggled and struggled and whined and complained(I know, shame on me) and couldn't get more than a few inches up for almost 20-25 minutes; my arms were exhausted, my belayer was running out of (patience and) encouraging things to say other than "you have to push yourself!", and I was covered in dirt, sweat and chalk. I was near the point of surrender, and as a few angry, frustrated and defeated tears staggered down my sunburned cheek, I glanced to my left and saw a little 14yr old girl shimmy up the rock face next to me like there was nothin' to it, then bounce her way back down to the bottom. WELL. I was NOT going to be shown up by some kid. I wiped those pitiful tears off my cheek, gritted my teeth, and MADE IT TO THE TOP! And then I was officially done climbing for the day.





Friday(New Year's Eve) we started the day off with a friendly, but competitive, game of beach volleyball, 4 on 4. My team won 3 out of 5. Following volleyball, the four of us rented kayaks and paddled around the nearby islands for hours, exploring caves, watching climbers, snorkeling, and just enjoying the water as we dodged longtails and speedboats. We arrived back at the beach just as it started pouring rain. Luckily, the rain stopped after an hour or two, and we met up with the Germans again for dinner, then headed down to the beach for music, drinks dancing, fireworks and festivities! The fireworks were fantastic(except the one that went off course and exploded amongst all the people on the beach..oops..everyone was okay). I danced and ran around until I could stand it no more..and hit the sack at about 5am. Happy New Year.
The Winning Team(Harry, Anja, Me, Max)

The Losing Team(Stephanie, Melissa, Rani, Ollie)




Fire-twirling child

Harry, Anja, Me, and some random guy

Lighting Lanterns on the beach


Saturday, as you might have imagined, was a sleeping-in day. After breakfast, Harry, Melissa and I headed to one of the travel offices to book our train ride home for Sunday evening(Monday was a holiday, Tuesday back to work). But all the train tickets were sold out. So we asked about the bus tickets. Sold out. The earliest we could get a bus home was Monday night, getting us to Khao San Rd in Bangkok at around 5 or 6am Tuesday morning, and then dragging ourselves into work three hours later. With no other option, we booked the bus for Monday night. The rest of the afternoon was spent lazily on the beach, with dinner in the evening followed by a prompt and welcomed bedtime.

*I feel compelled to mention that on this Saturday, this first glorious day of 2011, the three of us managed to get banned from a Thai restaurant. It's a long story, but the short of it is, they brought us the wrong food, argued with us about it, wanted us to pay for all of it(we paid for the rice we'd eaten and the waters, nothing else), wouldn't bring us the correct food, told us we didn't know anything about Thai food because we aren't Thai(despite the fact that we LIVE here), and shouted at us that we were the worst customers he'd ever had, and that we should leave Thailand and go back to our countries and never come to his restaurant again. Needless to say, we didn't return to his restaurant.

Since we had an extra day to spend on Ton Sai, on Sunday I joined Harry and Melissa and our group of German friends(and two Swiss) to Taiwan Wall, one of the sweet climbing spots. It's a bit of a hike to get to, but the view was gorgeous. One of the climbing routes takes you to the mouth of the cave, and I and the Germans(Ollie and Vali) and Swiss(Andreas and Shantelle) climbed up and went through the cave, which comes out at Phranang Beach on the other side. Harry and Melissa walked around. The boys stayed near the cave to climb some more, so Shanti and I hit the beach. We ran into Anja(lovely German from Cologne) there, and the three of us, four when Melissa made it around, chatted and soaked up the sunshine until sunset.
The hike

The route

The climb

The view

The cave

The sunset

The boys climbing, Ollie on the wall, Vali bottom right, Harry watching, Andreas far left


Me and Anja

The adorable Swiss couple, Andreas and Shantelle


Monday morning we enjoyed our last delicious buffet breakfast at Dream Valley Resort, checked out of our bungalows and headed to the beach for our last few hours or relaxation before catching the boat to Au Nang to board our bus. The day was beautiful, the wait at the bus "station" was long, and the bus ride was miserable. I'll spare you the torturous details, but it's safe to say I will NEVER be taking an overnight bus again. Anywhere.



*We also met a sweet and spunky French girl named Stephanie(in the volleyball picture) who is currently living in Nepal. She had dinner with us most nights, and we'd see her at breakfast and random places during the day sometimes. She wanted a new book to read, and asked if I had any in English; I told her yes, but that it was a horror book(Stephen King's Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger) but she seemed fine with it, so we swapped, and I came home with EatPrayLove. :D