Well, I finally found some steady wifi, so as I write this I'm sitting at the restaurant with my friends waiting for our meal.
Ko Phi Phi has been absolutely amazing. The island itself is crazy small, so you can walk around it in less than 10 minutes. The beaches are amazing, you can walk out for a kilometre before you can't touch, and the water is so clear you can see your feet on the ground. There are no waves, and the water is still and warm.
Now I'm writing from in my bed at the hostel, as gangham style plays softly in the background... I use the term softly loosely. I do not have wifi, but I can find some later, and tell you all about my phi phi adventures.
I've lost track of the days of the week, I honestly don't know what day it is, so I'll say this instead... Day 1.
We left Phuket and got a taxi to the harbour, after which we boarded a 3 story ferry to ko phi phi. It was the whitest, multicultural boat I've ever been on. 90 percent of people were white skinned, but all from different places, I heard Irish, Scottish, Australian, Swedish (Yennifer), Californian, and even a few Canadians.
When we first got to the island, it was insane trying to get people off the boat, and it looked like it was going to rain. We were then taken to our hostel, which had been over booked, and had to pay 200 baht more for an air conditioned room, in which the owner would enter every night when he thought we were asleep, and raise the temperature 10 degrees to presumably save him money.
Anyways, we got food, checked out the beach, which was amazing, and then got ready to go out for the night.
This island is definitely a party island. We walked through a number of different bars on the beach, and watched some of the fire dancing, and some of the drunk 20 somethings get burned from trying to jump in the fire skipping rope. After that, Rachael wasn't feeling too well, so I agreed to go back to the room with her. Strange things happened that night, I won't say anything, just that it involved Shaun, Jess, and me trying to wake Rachael to get the aforementioned people to stop doing what they were doing...
The next day we had booked a boat trip, and apparently I was the only one excited about it once we got on the boat, and the sick / hungover people felt the rocking.
Our first stop was monkey beach, where we kept our distance after last time. After a quick stop, our little wooden boat took us to a bay on ko phi phi don, where the water was deep enough to dive... So of course I did, off the side of the boat, so much fun.
After that, we got taken to another bay, where the water was twice as deep, but we were able to see the bottom, along with the coral and fish. We strapped on snorkelling gear, and I put on my dysfunctional flippers, and we were off the boat floating around.
While everyone else on the root felt content with just floating at the surface looking down, Jack and I took it upon ourselves to dive down to the bottom, which I would say was about 20 feet. I only dove down all the way once... And that was a stupid mistake. I should have known to turn back when the water started to get freezing cold, but I wanted to see that colourful fish so bad. Long story short, my ears popped, hard, and after feeling instant pain I turned right around and swam towards the surface.
A little while later, I was actually swimming with a school of colourful fish about 8 feet underwater. I was like "this is awesome, the fish have accepted me as one of their own". That went on for quite a while, and I could even touch some of the fish...
Then came the jellyfish. The sings on my arms, legs, and shoulders I could deal with, but when I got stung on my lip I was like "I'm done" and decided to get out, swimming face first into the off boat prop, because I was so focused on my underwater dolphin kick...
The boat then took us to Maya bay, which is the beach you always see pictures of when somebody talks about paradise. The sand was actually fluffy soft, the mountains were beautiful, and the water was calm. I climbed a steep rock, and got lost in a jungle looking for ice cream, but had a good time there.
The boat then took us to watch the sunset, and Beth and I sat on the bow the whole time as a peacefulness washed over all of us, it was awesome.
The next day we decided to rent some bikes, it was actually pretty fun, despite the island being so small. We biked for a it around it, and ran into trees, and people, due to the fact that we had no brakes. After that, we decided to hike up to the viewpoint to catch the sunset. Literally climbed a mountain in 10 minutes, it was bloody exhausting.
I had to say goodbye to Rachael a few minutes ago, who decided to catch the ferry and a plan home to Perth instead of continuing on. She will be missed but it's for the best, because I think she was missing home a lot. I feel really bad because she was sick the entire time, so never got to enjoy herself as much, but she was a good friend, and I hope to see her again one day!
We're moving on to our next "island" which is Krabi, or Railay or something... not really sure, we're just sort of figuring it out as we go...
I also applied for a medical internship in a Chiang Mai hospital today. I had to pay quite a bit of money (around 1000 dollars) but it seems the norm for volunteer projects abroad, etc. Since accommodation and most meals are included, etc. It involves shadowing doctors, and getting some OR time, so it seems like it will be a lot of fun. I'm just hoping that for the money I paid, that I'll get a good experience out of it. I can justify spending 1000 dollars out of my Curtin scholarship towards a 2 week intensive medical education project, as long as I get some good experiences, memories, and inspirations out of it... Plus, who needs a flight home, really...
I'm in an internet cafe right now, and they charge 2 baht by the minute, but my pictures are taking forever to upload... I'm not too pleased here, since they've made enough money off me sending frantic emails, but whatever, it'll be around 2 dollars, so I reckon that's okay.
I need to start watching my money more carefully now that I'm down a grand, and start eating at less expensive places (despite a full restaurant meal here being only about 3-5 dollars.
Shaving off all my hair has been good for the heat, but I do miss it terribly. I'm definitely growing it back out again from now on.
But I've gotta go catch a ferry, so until next time, see ya later!
