Day 7-9: Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

I think Ko Phi Phi (Phi Phi) was the most beautiful place I have been so far.  Before we left Krabi, the receptionist from the Krabi guesthouse we stayed at offered to arrange in advance our “pick-up” service with our next guesthouse in Phi Phi.  Collectively we decided it would be worth the few dollars extra to avoid the hassle of trying to figure out where we were going and how upon arrival at Phi Phi. We arrived in Phi Phi around 11-am after a 1-½ hour ferry ride from Krabi.  The Island was beautiful with white sand beaches and blue water.  We walked with all our bags to the end of the dock to find what we assumed was our taxi waiting for us.  We found a small Thai man holding a sign with one of our names on it and followed a few feet then he told us to “wait here.”  We stood and waited for him in the middle of what seemed like a busy market made up of tons of souvenir selling stands in every direction with very narrow walkways, we had no idea how we would find the little man and his taxi.  About 10-minutes later the little man comes back with a huge metal cart for our luggage, we thought that was very thoughtful of him to go out of his way to get a cart to take our luggage to the car when we easily could have carried it ourselves.  He directed us to follow him as he wheeled our luggage, about 15 minutes into our walk through the busy market area it occurred to us there wasn’t going to be a taxicab.  The “pick up service” we had arranged was in fact this little Thai man and his cart.

When we finally arrived at the guesthouse we were very grateful for his service because honestly it could have been hours until we found the place we were staying at.  Although small, the island’s central market/town area wasn’t easy to navigate through.  It was made up of narrow dirt roads and numerous sandwich stands, pancake stands, souvenir stores, restaurants, bars, adventure & scuba tours, nail & massage salons, and guesthouses. 

The next day was incredible.  There were about 9 of us (NTU exchange students in Phi Phi for recess) that also really wanted to go snorkeling so we were able to arrange a private longboat and tour guide to take us to a coral reef, Maya Beach (where Leonardo DiCapprio’s “The Beach” was filmed) and cliff jumping.  In total we each paid under USD$13 for the entire adventure (I don’t even think it is possible to rent snorkel gear in the US for under $13.)  The snorkeling was better than I could have imagined.  I expected it to be similar to the snorkeling I did in Indonesia, but instead we snorkeled in a large cove protected by the tall rocky cliffs (unlike Indonesia where we were out a bit deeper in open water.)  The water was calm allowing for excellent visibility and the ability to swim easily without being thrown into the coral.  Simply by skimming the surface of the water you could see a wide variety of brightly colored fish, coral, and other sea creatures you would only expect to see on The Discovery Channel.

Maya Beach was a little over-rated in my opinion.  I can’t say it isn’t a beautiful beach, but unfortunately the heavy tourism has subtracted from its natural ‘untouched’ beauty.  Maya Island is very small and doesn’t have any resorts hotels, restaurants etc., only one man lives on the Island, but offers the opportunity for others to arrange an overnight camp adventure and sleep outside in a tent on the beach.  

Only one guy from our group actually went through with jumping off the cliff, the remainder of us passed simply because the idea of hiking up a rocky cliff just to risk your life jumping down didn’t sound too appealing.  Luckily he made it up and down safely, completing our snorkel adventure in Ko Phi Phi.  The next day we took a late ferry to Phuket, ate dinner and flew back to Singapore very early the next morning, putting an end to our AMAZING recess break in Thailand!

 

Day 6: Krabbi, Thailand (Rock Climbing)

We arranged in advance for a ½ day rock climbing adventure tour for Manone, Alexa, and I.  To our suprize we were the only ones wanting to rock climb at 7:30am on a Tuesday, so we basically had our own instructor.  I still wasn’t feeling 100% better from Bangkok, but didn’t know the next time I would have an opportunity to rock climb in Thailand so I ignored the random chills/stomach pain and started my day.  Although in retrospect, rock climbing probably isn’t something to attempt if you are concerned you may have swine flu… luckily I didn’t!  The negative part of a 7:30am rock climbing adventure in Krabi is that everywhere that serves breakfast doesn’t open until 8:30 am.  So my first day rock climbing was ALSO my first day eating a microwave-oven ham & cheese sandwich from 7-11!

Our instructor drove us from Krabi town where we were staying to a nearby pier then helped us load the boat with all our rock climbing gear.  He took us to Railay Beach (an Island well-known for its beautiful cliffs and beaches) where we exited the boat and walked through the shallow water to the small beach at the bottom of the cliffs.  As he began setting up the ropes it began to rain, not a little rain, but tropical monsoon kind of rain.  Our instructor warned us before it might rain, but he said that the cliffs had an overhang that would protect the area we were climbing.  For the most part he was correct, but there were a few times when I was reaching my hand up above my head, not being able to see what I was reaching for and as soon as I think I found something I could use to pull my body up, my hand would reach deeper and suddenly be soaking in a puddle of rain water.  Other than the surprise cliff rain puddles, it was an amazing experience.  

The rocks we climbed were above a beach and overlooked the beautiful ocean.  After rock climbing we decided to spend the rest of our day at Railay beach instead of getting a ride back from our guide.  Another traveler told us that the beaches on the other side of the Island are supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  He wasn’t lying.  We walked a short path through the jungle, near the bottom of the cliffs, across the Island to the other beach.  What made this beach “the most” beautiful was that it had white sand then a few yard behind the sand was the beginning of the tropical jungle and the tall cliffs we climbed earlier ran across the Island, through the jungle, sand and into the blue water.  The contrast between the heights of the cliff next to the water below was incredible! 

Day 5: Bangkok & the "160 baht" picture

ONE NIGHT in Bangkok (23 hours to be exact)
We arrived in Bangkok and the first thing I noticed was how polluted the air was.  It was such a drastic difference from the air quality of Northern Thailand.  Our first adventure was to the Temple of Dawn.  It was a beautiful, large temple a few stops up the Chao Phyra River.  What was unique about Bangkok is their mass public transportation system consisted of several express long boats with color coated for flags representing their route.

The “160 baht” Picture
We exit the boat and arrive at the Temple of Dawn, as we walked across the lawn around to the entrance we see one of those cheesy touristy life-size pictures where you stick your head through the hole and walla you’re a monk standing next to your best friend who is now an elephant ready for your picture to be taken.  So of course we threw our cameras to some European tourist standing near by and the 4 of us stuck our face through the cutout holes for a picture.  As we left to collect our camera some Thai women ran out from behind the temple demanding 40 baht from each of us for the picture (that she didn’t take), we questioned her and she pointed out the tiny “40” at the bottom of the picture.  Later we saw that the women had a little lawn chair inside the temple within distance of her cheesy photo-opp where she can spy on who puts there head in the cutout and charge them 40 baht.
After accepting the loss of our 40 baht, we gathered ourselves and walked around to the entrance of the actual Temple of Dawn.  We expected to pay the standard 20 baht to visit the temple, but when I went to pay the women working informed me it was 40 baht, I wasn’t dressed appropriately so that would be an additional 60 baht to rent “cover-ups” and finally another 100 baht deposit for the “cover-ups.”  Exhausted from arguing over baht, we paid and prepared to walk up the steep temple.  That’s when we looked around and no one else required “cover-ups” and as if we didn’t already standout before, we now looked straight ridiculous, but ready for this temple!

After being scammed into overpaying for a few more temples we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I had been feeling a bit unwell all day, but now I felt extremely ill and had chills. Swine flu-like symptoms and a 13 hours nap concluded my trip to Bangkok.

13 Reasons Why I LOVE THAILAND:

Fall Recess: Thailand

1. Thai food
2. Friendly culture
3. Less humid than Singapore
4. 1-hour Thai massages for $4 US
5. Most beautiful beaches in the world
6. USD$1 = 33.51 Thai Baht
7. Long boats are a common source of public transportation
8. Asian elephants
9. Gorgeous temples
10. Monks with iPhones
11. Worlds largest reclining Buddha 
12. Snorkeling so incredible it makes you bitter you live on land
13. More Thai food =)

Day 1-3: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Thursday: Flight from Singapore to Bangkok, then an overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (Thursday night)

I wish I could say fall recess began smoothly but in all honesty it was the complete opposite. About 2 minutes into the bus ride to the airport I realized I never booked my plane ticket OUT of Chiang Mai, I completely forgot the 100ml carry-on container policy (goodbye bathroom products), was reported as a missing person (while seated in my assigned seat… long story), but things looked up as we departed from Singapore.

We arrived in Bangkok (1½hr flight from Singapore) and immediately took a cab to the train station where we boarded an overnight train to Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand). The train was surprisingly more pleasant than I had expected and actually significantly more comfortable than my NTU dorm bed. The train trip was about 15hours long, we slept for the first 9hours and had a beautiful view of the country all morning until we arrived in Chiang Mai early afternoon.

Chiang Mai is definitely one of my FAVORITE cities so far it’s located in the beautiful green countryside of Northern Thailand. All the people we met in Chiang Mai were so friendly, helpful, and happy. This was also the only city we visited that didn’t have people constantly trying to sell us something we didn’t need.

Day 3: Our first official full day in Thailand

We signed up for an “Adventure Tour” that begun with a minibus picking us up at 8:30am and driving us an hour out of town to an elephant camp. Seeing an Asian elephant was my number one goal for Thailand, I was so excited! Alexa, Manone, and I all sat on top of a very hungry elephant for a bumpy ride through the jungle. Our elephant snatched the 3 bouquets of bananas we bought to feed it right from our hands, then stopped every few minutes to eat the plants and again would reach its trunk back to us just to make sure we didn’t have any more food. It was cute at first until the elephant exhaled through its trunk into our faces.

After the elephant riding was over we hopped back into the minibus and were taken to a river where we rode bamboo rafts downstream, then a 2hour trek through the jungle to waterfall. During the trek we visited 2 tribes and saw rice fields until it started to pour rain (which made for a VERY muddy adventure back).