Thailand Part 2: Koh Phi Phi

Day 2: 12/24/11

After the elephant trekking we enjoyed the last bit of our hotel stay, had a quick swim and hopped a ferry to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced pee, which is a different bodily fluid in English and Korean but presumably not in Thai). In any case we sat on the top of the ferry surrounded by all manner of dirty travelers and one large Thai family with the most adorable baby girl that I think stole everyone's heart. Rains came in and out and we were half under a tarp that got us more wet than the rain itself from water accumulation dripping down as the boat rocked from side to side. Overall it was an enjoyable and beautiful trip, though the smoking, drinking Brits next to us (one of which was talking about wandering Bangkok looking for a contraceptive shot, the other talking of a guy insisting on buying her this and that and paying for hotels, to their band of boys) were annoying Scott and I. Little did we know we were in for an island of that personality type times a million.

In short, Phi Phi is not what either of us had in mind. The shopping was great, little stalls with hippy dresses and fisherman pants galore, as well as amazing and dirt cheap food. Before we even found our hotel we settled in for some coconut soup and pad Thai. We eventually found our "resort" which was a bit off the beaten path but still very much a part of the chaos of Phi Phi that seemed like a never ending outdoor market. I'm sure there are parts of the island free of the tourism, but for most of our trip Scott and I just circled round and round the labryth never quite sure where we were going to turn up. And the stray cats were everywhere! Mostly kittens, and a fair amount missing large portions of the tails, most clean and absolutely adorable.

Our "resort" Maney Bay was passable though we probably wouldn't have booked if we'd read the reviews. As bare bones as it gets but not bugs and the staff was nice enough, we didn't spend much time there anyhow.

Actually we did end up off the beaten path. We took a wrong turn trying to find the north shore (the port was in the south) and ended up going up and down hills on a local road. We walked all the way, passing little homes, kids playing in their yards, a man showering under a hose in his side yard, and of course more stray cats until we hit a dead end at a retention pond, much like the one our room overlooked back at Ma Ney. On the way back a little girl shot at Scott with her toy gun and he feigned injury as the mom watched on smiling, washing something in a bucket. I kept worrying we were being invasive, leaving the confines of the tourist areas and walking among the local houses but the people didn't seem to pay any mind to us. I marveled that they all used a rather simple water catchment system and was really happy to see it. It boggles my mind why more people don't use water catchment to water their gardens and grass.


After that failed trip to the beach the sun was already setting  so we went for dinner and got a little tipsy. Wandering around we randomly bought a long boat tour trip for 200 baht (about $7) for the next morning. It seemed so unimaginably cheap, that we thought we'd been had and went to bed wondering if we were drunken dummies...

The only photo from the day I'm bothering to edit. A boat I saw from the ferry:

Day 3: 12/25/11

We awoke early Christmas morning, not to Christmas celebrations of presents and decorated trees, but to go on our unbelievably cheap longboat tour. We went back to the travel agents desk to meet and then were lead to a long boat without a dock. The driver at first tried to have us just jump aboard. He only hopped on himself and attached the ladder after the first girl failed to get on, floundering helplessly on the ledge of the boat even with her boyfriend trying to push her up form her bottom. All aboard and I was immediately glad I preemptively put my camera in it's underwater case.  It was a very wet ride.

Our first stop was monkey beach, where the brochure (more like print-out) said we'd have 30 minutes but we had barely enough time to swim ashore, chuck some fruit and them, and swim back. The boat driver called us back before I'd even gotten my camera situated. Perhaps because only 6 of us from the boat jumped out. I get the feeling that despite the trip being cheap as sin, people aboard were already getting pissy and weren't quite prepared for the more rustic experience we had found ourselves on. The photos are frightfully disappointing and I almost would have rather I just enjoyed the monkeys and not bothered had I known. There was a whole family out and  with their adorable little baby monkeys as well. The one in the photos was one of the largest and most brazen. Another driver on the island had to scare off a monkey that was getting too aggressive. Luckily ours behaved themselves. :)

So after the much rushed Monkey Beach we headed to "The Beach" from the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. Not a fan at all of the movie, and there was a controversy over the film company clearing out natural vegetation to make the shore larger. Bulldoze paradise? Oh sure, as long as it's for Leo's movie. Aside from being immensely over-crowded, we did have a great time and got the chance to lay around on the beach and eat our "lunch" provided by the tour (tiny box of fried rice). After that we took the boat  just across the way to "snorkel". Yes, lots of quotes in this portion of my blog, but what did I expect for 200 baht? There were so many other boats and snorkelers that there were almost no fish, but I had fun regardless. For a time most of the boats had gone and I got a chance to see schools of fish swimming under me.

The trip there and back, there was not a dry body on the boat. Scott and I probably got the worst of it being in the front. For a while we couldn't see for the salt stinging our eyes and just had to buckle down, grab whatever we could hold onto, and enjoy the ocean spray. By the end I was shivering, cold, soaked, and full of goosebumps but absolutely elated. That tour saved Phi Phi for me, 100%. Very glad the woman at the tour booth recommended the morning trip. We could already see storm clouds rolling in, and I couldn't imagine handling the cold and the wind at sundown with clouds like that.

After that we got cleaned up at the hotel and went for a "fancy" Christmas dinner. I insisted on seafood, being nostalgic for family Christmas dinner, but we were pretty disappointed with the results. The mussels were pooping out sand and shell bits and Scott's crab dish was basically all shell laying in a few vegetables. After complaining (which I very rarely do) were were able to at least get our money back for the mussels, but she wouldn't budge on the crab because "I can see the meat right there. There is meat." If this was some back alley local spot, I never would have complained, but as her clientele was tourists, and it was one of the more expensive spots, I expected more. It was honestly the worst food of the hole trip and the most expensive. Christmas for us was an amazing cheap trip and a terrible expensive dinner.

In Thailand apparently you don't get what you pay for.














After this I put the camera away and we went to try and enjoy the party scene for Christmas night. Drunkards with cheap buckets wandered the streets (us being 2 of them) and competing music blared from different bars. After many circles and losing our way we found a bar with bean bag chairs in the sand and settled in for some good people watching. The guys drinking from the beer can towers were getting quite a lot of attention from the skantily clad Mrs. Clauses in the crowd. Eventually we danced a bit and switched to another bar, were there was a pole shooting right of from the ground. Men would climb it and then stand on the platform on top to show their bravery. One guy though just stayed on his belly and danced with his arms and I thought... that's pretty lame.

Day 4: 12/26/11

It was time to leave for Ko Lanta and I had the feeling of, oh my, I didn't take enough photos. Most of these were shot in a literal drive by fashion as we walked to the docks.

Our room, M22.

 

  Some of these were taken in Bangkok, some in Phi Phi

Thailand Part 1: Krabi Town/ Ao Nang

Scott and I began our trip to Thailand after nearly 24 hours of airplane travel, the worst leg of it spent overnight on the wooden benches of the ticket area at the Bangkok airport. We took a domestic flight and at 8 am, finally arrived at the Krabi airport. We then took a bus to Krabi town (an error we later realized) had a wonderful lunch and our first taste of a young Thai coconut smoothie (of which there would be many more) and boarded another bus to Ao Nang. We walked a bit to find our most luxurious hotel room of the Thailand stay. With help from Scott's friend Brad (a seasoned Thailand vet) we found an amazing half off deal on a fancy schmancy hotel with a porch that walked right into the pool, the Mercure Krabi Deevana, (setting us up for some disappointment at our less than stellar lodgings thereafter.)

We relaxed and swam at the hotel, then walked along the beach and had dinner with Brad at buffet. We attempted to see monkeys on the beach but it was getting dark and they were a no show, despite the girls arriving ahead of us yelling and throwing fruit into the trees. Can't imagine why...

The next morning we got in an "elephant trek" before departing for our ferry to our next stop, Koh Phi Phi. The supposed Elephant trek consisted of going in a well worn loop through a rubber tree plant, with mud holes so deep the elephants feet made loud plunger-like noises with the suction of air as they clomped in and out. The scary one eyed elephant driver who wasn't shy about the use of his hook to clock his elephant on the head was behind us as we went, smoke billowing into the faces of the Japanese tourists riding behind him. Scott and I had acted fast enough to bypass that experience and get the young, kind driver. It's at this point that I should mention the travel agent (the term meaning little more than people working at booths set up on the city streets collecting money and giving out paper reciepts) sold us the wrong elephant trek (despite us double checking the company with her). Perhaps this is incorrect, I'd like to maintain the idea that the one I had specifically chosen would have been a better experience. In any case the elephants seemed fine and taken care of. Most were just standing around batting the bugs off of themselves with palm fronds, though ours did have questionable purple marks behind it's ears and I felt pretty sorry for the baby alone in a pen, elephant babies need constant physical contact, though I'm not sure up til what age...

Scanned image of the proper elephant riding photo (as well as the yet to be developed fisheye shots) pending. Anyway, on with the shots I do have:

Day 1: Krabi        December 23, 2011

Playing around with my new underwater case:

Sunset in Ao Nang:










 This sign cracked me up:



Log Bridge

 Day 2: Krabi                December 24, 2011
Our elephant driver:








The driver with the bum eye and bad temper














My favorite shot:


The Idle Elephants... or perhaps they were working on something else? I couldn't tell.
 Will finish the trip in a couple more installments. :)

Tuesday morning

I dreamed of helping men push dead trucks, one black, one white, carrying marijuana up impossible hills. One portly fellow fainted and stole a kiss when I went to help. We then searched for a hotel in this tropical paradise but only found an underground bunker with a particle board trap door. I awoke to remember I slept laid out flat on the heated pipes of the ondol floor, craving heat, craving the tropics to warm me, outside to in, but my little bubble of reality burst. I awoke to remember it was Tuesday in cold gray Seoul where there never is a day now that one needs sunglasses, and I have a meeting to attend to. Frivolous things to write down and pretend are important. More important than stolen kisses and the heat of the sun.

A Day of Firsts (TMI to the max)

So last night I had a delightful run with Colyte in preparation for today's endoscopy and (gasp) colonoscopy. The latter being news to me upon my arrival to the hospital, I thought it was one or the other. You must take 4 powder packets of Colyte (which is basically like salt and aspartame flavor wise), on every half hour for 2 hours with 500ml of water each time. I couldn't finish the last one, and I had an... entertaining night to put it lightly. Luckily I was so exhausted that falling back asleep in bed after awaking each time was no problem.

This morning Scott (my guardian as necessary) and I headed out to the hospital. It was the first snow of the season. The Floridian that I am, I was pretty excited. Scott less impressed. Pssh. New Yorkers. I reflected on this colonary happenstance, as my first meeting with the doctor was on Thanksgiving. Ah, the colon fairies are wishing me good morrow.

Arrived at the hospital where no one in the endoscopy department spoke much English and called the helpful nurse over from the International clinic to translate the risks of the procedure to me. Let me tell you, risk of heart attack and death seems worse spoken, then the usual skimming of documents. I was going to be sedated and have a camera put down my throat, AND up my bum. A sad state of affairs to be necessary for a fairly healthy living 26 year old, but, c'est la vie.

I changed into a stiff blue gown with a hole in the bum (No no, why would I want buttons or some velcro? Leave it a gaping hole by all means!) and top gown to cover. It was a few minutes of concentrated work to get the crusty draw string to cinch around my waist. The nurse takes me into a room to put the port in a vein on the top of my right hand. I used to have a near phobic fear of needles but after acupuncture, a nose piercing, and 2 tattoo attempts, I've mostly gotten over this. Thankfully, for she failed the first time and left my hand swollen and bruised and had to put the port in my left wrist. She injected meds in me and I went back into the waiting room. I was not told what these meds were.

I began to feel tingly and dizzy, and sat down leaning my head on Scott. I knew the feeling, I was going to black out. A nurse tried to carry me back into the procedure area but I didn't quite make it. I awoke on the floor disoriented, one limb to each of the female nurses crowded around me, and a young kindly male nurse (the chosen English speaker I presumed) was asking me if I was ok. I looked around out of breath like a wild animal, thinking of the oh so many episodes of hospital shows (damn you House) where someone undergoes a routine procedure and all of a sudden they need intubation or defribulation or who knows what. But no I was fine. They lifted me onto a bed and wheeled me into a curtained off area and let me rest a little before the procedure. I lay there, calming myself and began to laugh a bit at the whole scene. Apparently I had a reaction to the meds that were to stop my bowel movements. Maybe my body knows its not supposed to be doing that.

Later I was wheeled in for the procedure and luckily was passed out for the entire ordeal. Like it didn't even happen. I got to rest again on the bed a while and feel just about as calm as can be. Mmm. Sedatives.

After that I was scheduled for a precautionary mammogram of my own accord. I several times had to explain why. "You are so young."  "Yes well, a good friend of mine got breast cancer this young and died so... I'm gunna just be safe here." Nods of understanding.

This mammogram was set for 2 weeks, I was taken to prepay for it at the front registration desk. After I had paid and returned to the mammogram center, I was informed I was 10 years too young for the procedure, young breasts are too dense. No big deal, you can get a sonogram instead, and swap the cost after. Sweet. Sonogram was fast and easy, super nice English speaking woman who said I had nothing to worry about, no lumps. All is well. (I must admit the sonogram felt pretty awesome.)

 My grand total for the day was around 450 bucks and I was shocked at the price. I got so spoiled by how cheap medical is in Korea with insurance that I forgot to factor in that I had undergone some major procedures today. But still, something didn't seem right. The mammogram that got refunded was supposed to be 30 bucks, I assumed the sonogram to be about the same. But it was a whopping 200.

I nearly began to cry. The same International Clinic nurse was helping me at that time and I went on a rant about how I felt tricked into it. They wouldn't let me have the procedure that was 30 bucks, and didn't inform me that the alternative procedure was many times that cost. That seemed unfair. I reiterated this several times. (At this point it was around 3 pm, several hours after I should have been done, I'd eaten nothing all day, and very little the previous 4 days, I was NOT in the mood to be duped). Eventually she offered to cancel it, even though it was already done. They did it with no bureaucracy, no getting of a manager. Just like that, 200 bucks erased from my bill. Free sonogram for this girl.

I left thankful and confused. The results, my insides look fine. The doc said he thinks I have a low threshold... for what I said? He said pain. I wanted to smack him. Again he told me he thinks I have IBS (as he already concluded after 5 minutes of talking to me on our first meeting). Again I think he's an idiot. I have a sonogram scheduled for them to look at my gallbladder on Tuesday (apparently no one could do it today), which is what I thought it was in the first place. But I guess at least I have piece of mind now. No cancer, no leaky gut, no ulcers. I'm sure the cleanse didn't hurt either. Though they are going to look further and talk with me more about the results in a week or so, it will probably be the same information.


Mmm. Pizza time.

Rainbow Birthday!

So I know it's been... well over a month but I'm finally getting the photos up. For those of you who don't know, I don't have internet at home any more, by choice. Attempting to be more "productive" and less overstimulated by all that is available via the internet in my bed.

August 20th Maggie and I had a joint birthday party. The theme: Rainbow! Pick one color and wear as much of it as you can.

We met in the park to do photos before going out for the night, but poor planning on my part had us there far too late in the evening. Anyway, here are the photos!

































And Hanbok Day. In celebration of the Korean fall harvest festival, Chuseok, the kids wore their traditional Hanbok to school. Pretty adorable, though I made the mistake of letting them have a dance party BEFORE trying to take a photo with them. Pretty chaotic but I love it. :D