Paradise part 2

Wow, the suspense was killing you, Im sure.  But dont you worry, Im back to fill you guys in on the rest of our trip-- or at least until I feel like I've written and posted enough for today (this is much more time consuming that I thought!!)

Anyways, where was I?  Oh yeah, WERE HERE IN PHI PHI!

Beautiful right??  We havent even left the pier yet!  We didnt know a lot about the island before we got there... Im sure the locals have more interesting things to do, such as, stare at their amazing backdrops of scenery rather than build a proper website with current information :)  So we were amazed to see how compact and easy to get around this island was-- they dont even have cars there!  Everyone bicycles around and if they have anything heavy to maneuver they use carts that they pull around.  Someone from the hotel was at the pier to greet us, packed our luggage on one of the carts and told us he would meet us at the hotel with our things.  Our hotel (Phi Phi Cabana Hotel) was only a 2 minute walk from the pier, so it was super easy to get around.  The pier view was the front of our hotel.  The whole village is on this skinny little isthmus (a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterfronts on either side-- thanks wikipedia!!)  You can see from the picture- pier on the left, beach on the right, and village in the middle!  The first thing we did once we got there was change, taking extra long as we admired our view and went out into the village to get some lunch!!

Front of our hotel

village street

While we were out for lunch I spotted a lady carrying what I think she thought was her child but in reality it was a monkey dressed up in overalls and a Tshirt, they were picking out crabs together for dinner :) Strange!  Already at this point in the trip I realized how much I LOVE thai food!  It is soooo delicious and the food over there is so cheap that we just ordered waaaay too much food just to try out a bit of everything!  We could literally get a whole meal with appetizer and two beers each for $18!  It was great!  After a very yummy lunch we went to the beach for awhile and decided to rent a kayak for a little bit to the other side of the beach, Sunset beach!  There, Brian found a pretty good sized crab and somehow managed to pick it up!  He was very proud of himself :) hehe  As you can see from the picture- a big ole rain cloud was forming as we were enjoying ourselves out on this little secluded beach.  Unfortunately, the only way back was the way we came- on the kayak.  Less than halfway back to our hotel the rain started coming down hard!!  It was crazy and I was freaking out!  Brian kept assuring me that if I calmed down about it, it would be just like that scene from the Notebook (good effort, Brian) haha  Once we got back we dried off and enjoyed the view from our balcony while waiting for the rain to stop.  That didn't take too long- so we got to enjoy a lovely evening at the village with lots of food and drinks!!!  While on the beach earlier we made plans to head to Maya Bay in the morning on one of those cool looking long tail boats!  Maya Bay is a very popular place to go because that is where they filmed the movie The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio.  (hmm I wonder if I was sitting in the exact same spot on the beach as LEo??!  THAT would be cool!)  After dinner, we called it a night.....

Beautiful view from the hotel :)  

Mmmmmm PAD THAI!

GOOD MORNING PARADISE!  We were so excited to head out on the 3rd morning for our boat excursion.  We left around 730 or 8 in the morning (the time change had us feeling more like it was 1030 or 11) plus the guy who was taking us out on the boat said mornings are best, because the places we were headed are less crowded from people taking day tours.  First of all, I loved being in this cool old looking Thai style boat.  Brian said they just rigged up an old car motor to these boats haha but regardless it looks so neat and almost iconic for the area!  Also, it is so amazing because the water is soooo flat, no waves at all- Ive never seen anything like it!  (I guess that's also why we were able to kayak!)  Some areas the water is dark blue, some areas is completely clear like pool water, and some areas it is bright turquoise!!  Here are some pics of the route to Maya Bay.............

on our way, looking back at our hotel

brian checking it out

so hard to pick just a few pictures when they were all so spectacular!!

Almost there!!!

Brian enjoying the boat ride!!

                                                  Just pulled in. Thanks for driving, Adam :)

We took so many more pictures but I had to narrow them down....  So we pulled up to Maya Bay and it was absolutely beautiful!!  There was really not too many people there, which surprised me!  I would have thought such an amazing place would be packed all day!  And maybe it gets like that later in the day but for the time we were there we had lots of the beach to ourselves!

view of the beach we swam out to

Soooooo amazing!  After hanging out on the beach for awhile we decided to pack up and have our sweet boat driver take us to the next location to do a bit of snorkeling!!  It was beautiful and we had such a good time.  We snorkeled to this little beach then when we came back Adam, our boat captain, had some bread to feed the fishys!  Brian decided to feed them while he was still in the water so he was swarmed with tropical yellow and black fish!  It was so cool....  I tried from the boat and the moment I got the slice close to the water they were hopping out to get it- I freaked and dropped the whole thing in... oh well :)

Next up was Phi Ley bay which was on the other side of this island.  (there are actually 2 islands that make up the Phi Phi islands but only one of them is inhabited.  The one we were touring around this day was not!  By this time in the day we started to notice that there were many other bigger boats coming around.  We were feeling pretty lucky because most of those boat have about 100 other people on it and have strict times when they need to come in and head to the next place.  Phi Ley bay is another beautiful area with crystal clear water where we just hopped out (it was very shallow in some areas) and Brian did a bit more snorkeling while I lounged in the boat!  

Then we checked out Viking Cave-- I really am still not sure what this is or what they are up to in there... (but thank god for wikipedia-- There they have a thriving bird's nest soup industry, hmmm still not sure what that means, more please wiki: apparently this certain kind of cave bird produces a saliva nest (ew) and is a delicacy and one of the most expensive animal products consumed by humans) STRANGE.

Our last stop was Monkey beach!  After our trip in August to Singapore I was pretty excited about seeing more monkeys!  We werent really sure if there were actually going to be monkeys there-- we never even saw any at or near the village (you would think the little scavengers would go over there considering it was on the same island as all the people!)  Sure enough, there were tons of monkeys!!  A whole family of them!  My favorite was a sweet little fam with a tiny monkey baby who was still breast feeding his mommy and the daddy was right there the whole time, even started combing through the mommys hair (for fleas or something but it was still sweet)  Brian got a bit up close with one of them :)

Two monkeys on the beach :)

This little guy wanted the shirt of Brians back!

       

After all the adventure for the day we decided it was time to head back, get some lunch and hang by the beach!  It rained for all of 30 minutes this day, as well.  Apparently this is necessary for a tropical location to stay beautiful and green!  Then we watched the sun set while drinking a few beers :)

We then got ready for another delicious Thai seafood dinner!  It was a really nice outdoor restaurant (minus the millions of stray cats wandering around-- but I guess thats normal around there because they are everywhere!!)  We then walked down the beach where there was tons of beach party action going on!  There were light shows and tiki torches and  we couldnt resist stopping for a drink!  We stopped at one bar which was about to start a fire hula hooping show (or something like that!!) when I spotted some guy holding a monkey-- sorta like the lady who was cradling one earlier....  next thing I know the Thai owner of the pet monkey took him off that other guy and onto me!!!  The monkey wrapped his super long arms around my neck and his super long legs around my waist and nuzzled his little monkey face into my chest!  He was soo cute.  The owner told me he liked to be cuddled-- although he wouldnt let us take any picture :(  Guess I'll have to store that one in the old memory bank.  Later after I gave him back, as I was walking by the monkey reached out to me again for me to hold him -- I think he liked me :)  

This is what the little guy

looked like-- just wearing 

clothes hehe

I'm not sure a day can get any better than that one!!!  Life is good-- and we still have 3 days left of our journey!!  

Ill catch back up more tomorrow!

Paradise part 1

Hello everyone!  So we just got back from an amazing vacation to Thailand!  I have a feeling this will be a LONG entry because there is so much to tell and so many pictures to post so I decided to split it up into 2!  I really like that people enjoy reading this blog but one of the most important reasons for doing this is so I will be able to keep these detailed memories forever (my own brain is NOT good enough!!!) I wanted to add that just in case anyone is wondering why I am writing about every little thing :)  Anyways--- here ya go!

We left for Thailand Wednesday night at 130 am (actually this is Thursday morning I guess...)  The flight was really nice because we got super lucky and no one was sitting in the third seat in our row!  yay!  So we got lots of sleep on 8 hour the flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in Malaysia.  The airport in KL is one where go down stairs straight from the plane onto the landing strip-- why this is cool to me, I dont know, but I wanted to take a pic of it!!  We then had a 5 hour layover, which felt like forever because we were SOOO ready to be there!

When we finally got to Phuket, Thailand (it was only an 1 1/2 hour flight from KL) we needed to get to our first hotel.  We were not 100% sure how to do this but there were so many people trying to get us around (taxi, bus drivers etc) so after we exchanged our money into Baht (thai money) we had to decide whether we wanted to take a taxi on the 50 minute drive to Patong beach for 600 baht or take the mini bus for 150 each so obviously we chose the cheaper option.....  so there we were on this mini bus with probably 20 other people, still in my jeans and sweater from the plane in 90 degree weather and on this tiny winding road where we dodged mopeds the whole time-- I was actually scared, not for my life, but for the many lives of moped drivers and each of their 3 passengers, mostly small children- no lie!  Probably 5 minutes before we got there (after we stopped for 10 minutes while they tried to get us to go on the other "tours" they offered and figured out where they were taking each of us) we realized the currency- 300 baht for the mini bus was $10 and 600 baht for the private taxi

which would have taken us straight to the hotel was $20... so basically we vowed to NOT take the mini bus on the way back to the airport to save a mere $10!!!!  Once we got dropped off at our hotel it was probably 3:30pm so we decided to change into our swimming suits, go get something to eat then walk around the beach!

Later on we decided to go have a few Chang beers along the beach down some small streets with heaps of bars.  They have a huge nightlife scene in Thailand because there are so many people who go there backpacking (because its beautiful and cheap!)  most of the backpackers seem to be between 18 and 30 -- prime age for nightlife, the bars are busier than the beaches!  While walking along Brian spotted some woman selling BUGS to eat... sooo gross,

 but we still gave it a go!  I was not aware Brian was videoing me eating a grasshopper... you can tell by my reaction I was NOT a fan.  Brian ate his down so fast I missed it-- I think chewing was not a good idea, ew.

Here is Brian....

After a few more Changs we decided that the 3 hour time difference and the fact that even though we slept more than normal on a plane, it was still not enough and we were so tired.  

The next morning we woke up had some brekky and walked around for a little bit longer before we decided to head to our final destination: Phi Phi island!!  Here are a few more pics of Patong Beach.

Our view from the hotel

Really?  A moped can pull THREE jet skis????

The parasailer had a little Thai man
 on top to help move him around--
 no harness, just hanging
 out at 100 yards over the
ocean-- real safe!

 

Around 11am we decided it was time to say bye bye to Phuket and head to Phi Phi :)  We left from the hotel to the pier on the other side of the city.  Next thing we know someones telling us to get on their boat and they would take us "Cheap, Cheap" so we said ok!  So Brian and I, along with 4 bags of luggage boarded up along with around 100 other people!  It was a beautiful sunny day and we got to sit out on the deck drink a few Changs and take lots and lots of pics!  

Rasada Pier

We passed by hundreds of little islands (a few I had picked out for us to buy and build a house on-- but then I realized I might need to then build a Target and things got a little too complicated for my plan...)  Brian LOVES ferry rides even silly ones that just take you a short way like in Port Aransas or even Bolivar in Galveston so he was super excited-- he took millions of pictures (which is why he is barely in any of them!)  Finally, after an hour and a half ferry ride we arrived to PARADISE!!  Dont get me wrong we loved being in Phuket but Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee) is just unreal!  I kept saying over and over "is this real life!?!"

hmmm I think I'm going to have to stop writing tonight at catch back up tomorrow..... This is such a cliff hanger, I know!  This may end up being more like 3 entries since Im still only on day 2 of our 6 day trip-- oh well :)  LOVE YOU!