Phuket and Phi Phi Paradise

Happy New Year everyone! We just returned from a week vacation to Phuket Island and Koh Phi Phi (the famous beach in The Beach). We left for Bangkok right after school on Friday and ate dinner with Somsak and his wife at this posh Chinese restaurant. We ate suki - which is sort of like an Asian version on fondue. After a delicious dinner, we got caught in awful holidy Bangkok traffic for like 2.5 hours and didn't get back to the condo until 12:30! Our flight was at 7 and we needed to wake up at like 5 am. So we saw some Christmas decorations in Bangkok on the trafficky drive and then after 4 hours of sleep, woke up for our flight! Somsak was running 10 minutes late, then 20, then 30 so we called and he was still sleeping!! We hauled ass to the airport and made check-in just in time. Thankfully everything in Thailand is late otherwise we would have missed check-in! We had about 40 minutes until our flight left so we decided to grab some food from Auntie Anne's. Apparently it takes 30 minutes to make one pretzel and pour coffee in Thailand because after learning that they won't accept cash (you have to use these stupid prepaid, total bullshit ripoff cards) we waited and waited for our food. 10 minutes before our plane left, Sarah ran down to the gate to make sure the plane didn't leave and I finally got our food. I was running down the walking sidewalk with burning coffee in one hand and a humongous lemonade in the other getting rushed by a flight attendant only to find out that I can't bring drinks onto the plane. Of course, no one told me in the 10 minutes it took to run there. So I finally made the plane and we set off for paradise. Phew, stressful.

We spent the whole first day relaxing on the beach and swimming in the gorgeous water. We met up with some other girls from our program and all went out for a well deserved dinner. The next day we planned a trip to see James Bond Isle and some of the surrounding smaller islands on a longtail boat. It was gorgeous!! There are so many tiny, untouched islands around Phuket and the we even were canoed around some limestone cliffs. Canoed around is important because I vowed to do 0 work on this trip. We went out exploring the town that night only to discover that all of the women working in the bars double as prostitutes so yeah....all these disgusting, old European and American men were skeazing around Phuket and we decided Phuket is just not the place for us. We felt like we left Thailand because even the "Thai" people who were mostly Indonesian or Cambodian didn't speak Thai, white people were everywhere and the Thai food sucked. After another day on the beach, we left to go to Koh Phi Phi. The island is absolutely gorgeous and no vehicles are allowed so it was a nice change to be able to walk freely without a motorbike almost killing us constantly. Our bungalow was nice but a 10 minute walk from the beach. We hit the beach for the first day and enjoyed the sunset. Again, the nightlife on Phi Phi was dominated by foreigners both working and living in Thailand (mostly really obnoxious 20 something guys). We enjoyed the beach the whole next day and then planned out a snorkeling trip. That night we discovered the best (in Thailand) Italian restaurant and had real flatbread pizza!! Also, they had wine, which was not cool aid mixed with rum but actually wine!! It was fantastic. Then we all split REAL chocolate brownies for dessert (I know, luxury!). Our day of snorkeling was simply amazing. The water was emerald and see through and there were all sorts of fish and crabs. The fish will eat anything so we brought bananas and pineapple into the water and they SWARMED all around, it was awesome. I saw a swordfish, some angel fish, and tons of others. We went snorkeling at 5 different spots - all beaches around Phi Phi that are only accessible by boat. Some of the beaches were indescribably beautiful and if I ever come back with a little more money, I'll be staying in those resorts. We ended up at Maya Bay (the famous beach from the movie) and it was nice, but not my favorite. It definitely lost it's appeal with so many drunken teenagers all over it. We watched the sunset on the water and went straight back that Italian restaurant! On New Year's Eve day we hiked up this moutain to find a private beach. Hiking generally assumes there is a path and there was for the way up. After checking out the fantastic viewpoint, we crawled and slipped our way down through the jungle. It was probably the most unsafe thing I've done so far in Thailand, but there was no turning back and we finally found our private beach (well worth it). Our lazy butts boated back for a reduced price (awesome bargaining skills!) and then hiked back up to see the sunset over the bay. We got all dressed up and had a classy NYE dinner with wine and dacquiris (a huge splurge next to the awful concoction of Thai "whiskey" we normally drink). We met up with some people from our group and hit the town. There were fireworks and a dance party, as well as fire shows, on the beach at midnight and we all had a blast! The next morning was pretty slow, I finally slept past 9 am ( a huge success in Thailand)! We sat at the beach all day long and shopped a bit. The next morning was our last day so we had a big good-bye breakfast, enjoyed the beach for a bit and hopped on the ferry. We took a taxi in Phuket to the bus station but for some reason the bus station was only 1 window...We booked a bus to Bangkok at 5:30 pm for 750 baht. We literally walk around the corner and there's the real bus station. Tickets to Bangkok? 626 baht. I was FURIOUS! I should have looked more before we trusted that shady place! We went to eat, defeated and went back only to find out the bus was actually at 7! I lost it, I demanded our money back because she overcharged us and lied about the time. I really didn't think it would work but we actually got a refund! So we went and bought the cheaper tickets and left an hour earlier. The busride was an awful 12 hours long of bumpy, terrifying driving. So with no sleep, we arrived in Bangkok around 5:30 am....only to find there are no buildings around and we're in the middle of nowhere. Apparently Bangkok means the very far outskirt of Bangkok. After searching for a bus back to Chach, we just gave up and decided to take a taxi. I would have paid $1000 for someone to just get me home by that point. So we hail a taxi. "Train station?" The driver literally looks at me and goes "Um, no" and drives off! I have never been rejected by a taxi driver in my life before! It happened 4 more times! Sarah suggested we were probably way too far out for anyone to drive us there. Eventually some guy agrees to take us and after heckling over his meter cheating, we finally get on our way. After a half hour $6 taxi ride (expensive for here), we get to the train station and experience some lovely, helpful and friendly Thai people again. After a quick train ride, we arrive back in Chachoengsao, exhausted but relieved. We went to eat for a mere 50 cents again and enjoyed the huge lack of Western people. Monday, teaching was horrific. Mondays are my worst days and after the most fantastic vacation of my life, working just seemed pointless. We had a great time and saw so many things on this vacation - Phi Phi was probably my favorite. Sarah and I booked our flight to Istanbul on March 2 and are planning on traveling around fora couple of weeks. I booked a flight back to the states for March 19 and will be back in St. Louis around March 25. It's going by so quickly but I'll be glad to see everyone again! I miss you all terribly. Love you and now back to the daily grind.