nothing to prove

life is rough

The following morning Melissa and I took an early morning flight to Phuket Island, which is one of only two ports that has access to Ko Phi Phi, We quickly grabbed our luggage and grabbed a taxi to the marina where we took the first boat to Ko Phi Phi. After a two hour ride we finally arrived at Ko Phi Phi and it was gorgeous! There is just no other way to describe it. Once we unloaded a person from our hotel, the Ko Phi Phi Viewpoint Resort, was waiting for us to take our baggage and show us to our accommodations for the week. Thanks to a recommendation from one of Melissa’s friend, we got a great location with an amazing view.



Every morning we would wake up, open the curtains, and be in awe of our surroundings. The island was full of Europeans, in fact we only ran into one other American the whole week, but it was interesting to be around so many bilingual and trilingual people. Three meals a day and I can’t remember a bad meal. Thai food is absolutely delicious and, despite it probably being tamed down for foreigners, it was not as spicy as I had expected. For the most part Melissa and I always had meals together but it wasn’t uncommon for us to split up during the day to do various things. Almost every afternoon I was at the beach playing volleyball and did my best to get a tan, although I did burn more than I would have liked.



One day we spent on a boat tour around Ko Phi Phi and nearby Phi Phi Lei, where the movie The Beach was filmed. There were multiple stops throughout the day so we could do plenty of snorkeling and swimming. The boat even had a pseudo diving board off the side, which I only went off to show up the guys who thought they were so cool going off it. We also met a guy from Norway, named Andre that was fluent in English. In fact, if he had not told us he wasn’t from Norway, I probably would have guess he was from the states. Really fun laid back guy that was traveling around Southeast Asia for a few months.

On a different day we took a hike up to a place called the viewpoint, after which our hotel was named after. At the top of this hill is a gorgeous view of the inhabited half of Ko Phi Phi and being able to see both bays. Words can’t do the picture justice and let’s just say it was worth the trek through the woods to get there, little did we know there was an actual paved path that we took on the way down.


There was lots of random socializing between volleyball, the beach, and the bar. The people there intrigued me a lot and it was great to be able to meet people from across the world. One night Melissa were at our hotel bar and met this couple from Sweden that were really fun and taking their honeymoon after three kids and almost 8 years of being married. Then our last full day there I met a guy from Israel, Shahar, and his two lady friends. We ended up having a blast on my last night on Ko Phi Phi.



Obviously there were plenty of nights out, although admittedly not as many as usual, and there was pretty much a pattern that all the tourists took throughout a given night. First was the Reggae Bar but don’t be fooled by the title because there was no reggae music only Thai boxing. The second stop was always Apache Bar that was a multi tiered dance club. Finally everyone went to the hippie bar that seemed to be really chill and there was a little hamburger stand that I liked to hit up before the walk home.


My actual birthday was anything but fun. Thankfully Melissa bought us some manicures and pedicures before we left the island so we were relaxed for beginning of our trek, it was a great birthday present! Forty hours later after taking a boat, two planes, and two trains we had traveled from Ko Phi Phi to Sanjo. The most exciting part of my day was taking a shower and I had a nice birthday dinner of sushi go around. I figure Thailand was one big birthday present to myself. Basically the trip was very relaxing. I am glad we got in one last big trip before my family comes out and my life in Japan comes to an end. In some ways it is still difficult to believe it actually happened.

posted by Aaron @ 7:28 AM