| Sunday, January 21, 2007 |
| Burnin' Koh Phi Phi Love |
 Koh Phi Phi, home to Burning "Love", was fantastic and we stayed almost a week. The sea is gorgeous, of course, the atmosphere is really relaxed and friendly and clean, and everyone seems honest. Most of the businesses are run by families, and it has a much safer feel to it. The land travel across the isthmus (via dirty dirty Surat Thani) took hours and hours because they keep transferring you from travel agency to sketchy travel agency. It doesn't make any sense, since none of the individual drivers or buses can be making any money. Word on the street is that the Thai mafia owns Surat Thani because it can control drug trade through the ports and up to Bangkok. So, they supposedly shunt tourists through 14 agencies in 4 hours as a front for other business. Glad to be of service!
Highlights of Phi Phi: We spent almost every day on a beach, more commonly known as Shirtless Man Heaven, and wandered around the entire island by foot or boat. There are no roads on Phi Phi, so almost no motor vehicles. Our bungalow was up on a hill, above tsunami-level, hidden up in the trees. It was lovely, except when it poured rain one day and 4-inch centipedes threw a soiree in the shower, much to my dismay. And by dismay, I mean screams. The restaurants were amazing, and a nice change after the very-tasty but slightly-repetitive orphanage food. (The Burning "Love" is a bacon mashed potato dish, not something that requires an awkward test and a course of antibiotics.)
 We met up with Colin and his pals and had a fun night of food and drinks and midnight swims. I really wish we had seen him take on the 6'6" Aussie amateur fighter in a boxing match the night before, but we just saw the after-effects: split lip, damaged rib, increased fame. (Next up, Colin-- fighting 10,000 men in fundoshi at Naked Men festival!! Let's take down the yakuza!) After he left, we kept hanging out with Fran (on the right), who is from Johannesburg but now lives in Italy with her husband. After dinner one night, she looked at her change, and instead of a one-baht-coin, she had been given a South African rand. I can't imagine there are many of those in circulation, but she thought it to be fateful. She was really fun and knew everyone on the island, so it was like being with a celebrity. One of the Finnish boys in the group was in love with her, not to be deterred by her wedding ring and constant mentions of the husband. Oh, little Finn...
 We formed a fan club for this guy, who was awesome. The band did all cover songs, and if you closed your eyes, you'd alternately think that Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder or Bob Dylan were suddenly in the bar with you.
On a kayak trip one afternoon with Fran and a hilarious Canadian couple (Roger and Loretta), we did some snorkeling and visited the swimming monkeys on a place called, predictably enough, Monkey Beach. One came up and stole Roger's green tea, and proceeded to drink the rest of it. It's sad to see animals like this, going after people food and stealing garbage, and filling their bodies with crap that they should never have to encounter in the wild. Probably Steve Irwin would be rolling over in his grave. He seemed fine with wandering into wild animal habitats, but animals are not supposed to have people food. Or sweetened o-cha. You know, saru-chan, that's just all empty calories...
 As we were on the beach, a guy came hobbling out of the water, limping on one foot. While walking on the rocks, he stepped on a sea urchin, and the spines went deep into his foot and broke off. In addition to that, he already had gashes on his shoulder and leg from a motorcycle accident on Phuket, and looked a bit worse for the wear. The Thai man running the food stand told him to pee on his foot for the time being, and then to ice his foot. As he and his friend went behind a rock to take care of that, a monkey hopped into his kayak and ran away with his camera. Worst day every for the beautiful sea-urchin guy! We tried to chase the simian klepto, but it pulled a Hot Zone "ebola jaws" impression and we stayed back until it got bored and dropped the camera in the sand. We met him again at a bar that night, and his foot was completely swollen up. "Koh Phangan tattoo" is the phrase for damages incurred by idiots on motorbikes. This guy also managed to get a "Koh Phi Phi tattoo" due to urchin spines imbedded in his foot, but such tattooes are much less common. And hardly in demand...
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posted by Raychaa @ 10:11 PM  |
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| So wrong it's right. And then wrong. And then wrong again... welcome to the inaka. |
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Name: Raychaa
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About Me: “No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this - 'devoted and obedient'. This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.” (Florence Nightingale)
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