Move over Leo and first kiss and I love poland

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but the internet was much much too expensive in the South Islands.

4-28: Took the ferry to Phi Phi Don island and on the way we cruised by Phi Phi Leh island, the island made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio and the beach. Just from the brief look aboard the ferry I could tell it was spectacular with its emerald and turquoise water, shimmering beach and towering limestone cliffs. I checked into a bungalow near the beach at a fairly reasonable price. Good thing it was the low season as it was(100B) 9 dollars a night, but they say in the high season the same one would be (800B) 24 bucks. Luckily for me I got pretty spectacular weather while I was there, so the low season didn't affect me. I hiked up a steep trail to an amazing viewpoint overlooking the cliff filled island with the sand bar connecting two islands with white beaches on either side and gorgeous turqoise water in the bays. One of the more breathtaking sites I have ever seen. Then I met up with a brit and a chilean and we hiked down to a remote beach on the other side with a very fancy resort on it and really only accessible by boat. We swam in the gorgeous water there for a bit and then I poached the resorts nice freshwater pool to get the salt off me before the hike back and to take advantage of the water slide and massage rocks. It was easy to poach...just act like you know what you're doing, confidence as lucas would say. Explored the island after that. Phi Phi Don Island is quite cool. All the structures are pretty much on this little sand bar. There are no cars and no dogs (which was a nice break). Instead cats rule the island and I preferred them much better as they don't chase you, bark at you, or try and bite you, but instead rub up against your legs and ask for a chin scratch. Phi Phi was one of the islands most destroyed by the tsunami as it all just sits on a little sand bar. So now they have warning sirens everywhere and evacuation plans and pavement everywhere. That night I checked out some fire shows on the beach, watched some muy thai fighting and then friend on friend fighting at this bar

4-29 Took a boat tour of Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh where we visited several beaches along phi phi don, did some snorkeling and visited maya bay and beah on phi phi leh (where they filmed the beach; now I've seen khao san road, the waterfall they filmed, the on on guesthouse where they filmed, and this now). The scenery was stupendous! The water so brilliant green, turquoise, and emerald, and the white beach tucked up into the cliffs. Kayaked from the boat to the beach and then walked to the other side where you can go through a small hole at low tide (or climb a ladder) to get to a bay on the other side. After that we also went for a swim at bamboo island. I was glad that I got to see maya bay and go around the two islands, but the tour was quite poor. Too short (only 1 hour to kayak to and explore the famous beach), and just not very good guides, and there were a million people and speed boats parked along the entire length of the beach so it was a bit disappointing. That night I walked up to the viewpoint to read and watch the sunset, and then some vacationing thais at my guesthouse invited me to share some beers with them on their deck.
4-30 I explored the island some more and hiked to long beach. I signed up for an overnight camping tour to stay at maya beach. So at 4 we left for that. First we got to kayak all by ourselves in gorgeous pi leh bay with its aquamarine waters and then do some snorkeling there. Then as a monsoon wind was blowing in (but no rain thankfully) we couldn't enter through maya bay so we docked at the next bay and walked through the hole to get to the otherside of the island and maya beach. It was jaw dropping when we got to the beach! Not a sole there. Just us. Empty sand and empty bay. We swam around and tossed the frisbee and bit and then watched the sunset. We then had some thai food and they gave us all free buckets and free shots of samsung and we played some drinking games, which led us to buying another round of buckets. It was a lot of fun as the group was very cool. Several brits, some canadians who had been in india for a while, and a couple from poland. It was more of my type of people and not the sunworshippers doing the speed boat trips. Eventually the drinking games led to kings cup, and I pulled a make a rule card and my rule was that everyone had to yell I love poland before taking a drink which turned out to be a riot as the polish people just loved it. One of the british gals pulled a dare card and they dared her to kiss for 5 seconds someone in the group. As I was the only single male in the crowd, it ended up being me. First kiss in thailand...yosh would be oh so disappointed, but hey at least I didn't pay for it like half the creeps there. After a while we moved to the water for some swimming which was awesome b/c there was tons of bioluminescence from the plankton there so that it really lit up the water and seeme rather psychadellic when mixed with the alcohol and a little bit of weed that was passed around. Eventually around 4am we crashed on the beach and then woke up for sunrise.

5-1: Everyone else was going to go sleep on the beach and nurse hangovers this day, but of course not me. I rented a kayak and and paddled to monkey beach (but unfortunately no monkeys) and then along the towering cliffs of phi phi don having fun going through lots of caves and arches. Found a cool little bay hidden away that I paddled to. At the end was a tiny white beach and one ancient thai guy and another younger thai guy just sitting there and smoking. I assume they do that everyday. Everynow and then they'd get up to peer at the sky or grab another cigarette, but that was it. They made me some tea and I sat with them for a while. Based on pointing and previous knowledge I deduced that they harvested swallow nests from the cave nearby for the chinese bird nest soup. I continued along phi phi don until I got to the end of it and there was a long strait between me and phi phi leh. Partly b/c it wasn't late in the day and I had nothing else to do, partly b/c I'm always up for an adventure, and partly b/c all the locals (and obviously the lazy tourists) said it couldn't be done b/c it was too far, I set out for Phi Phi Leh and maya bay. It was quite amusing to see the looks that the thais on their speed boats and long tails gave me as they zoomed by me. 4 hours after starting out I arrived at the bay, which was must less crowded today. Coming back it only took 3 hours b/c I went in a straighter line and did less exploring, but I was definitely feeling it in my arms when I pulled up to the beach. The food on phi phi had been quite expensive as even the local stands were double what they normally were, so I hadn't eaten as much as normal and I was starving after missing lunch and the long paddle. There was a texas bbq place I had seen earlier that had a burger challenge that if you could finish an 800 g (1.75lbs) patty, bun, toppings, bacon, cheese, a salad, coleslaw, and what seemed like 2 pounds of steaming hot frech fries in 30 minutes it was yours free, otherwise you had to pay 500B which is quite expensive. I had confidence I could do it after Caleb and I dominated the burger challenge at Elliot's in caldwell. But this was a whole new ballgame. Much bigger burger, and just so many fries. I was done with the burger, salda, and slaw by 8 minutes, but the fries were tough. So hot and dry, and so many. I was beginning to think I wouldn't make it. Time wasn't the issue, it was just fitting everything in my stomach. But alas, at 22 minutes and some seconds I slammed my fist down as done. The australian manager was impressed and said I could really eat. I was so full I just had to walk around for a while after that to digest a bit, but I have to say the burger was quite tasty and a nice treat from the rice and curry.