(These photos are not mine, I stole them! Most of them were taken by Alice or Saleem)
I never finished blogging about my New Year’s adventures, so here I go. On Friday, January 30th, Dave and I boarded a plane to Krabi. We arrived in Krabi town around 9 p.m. and headed right to the bus that would take us to the pier so we could catch a boat to Tonsai Beach. Initially we were ahead of schedule, but then our bus couldn’t find one couple’s hotel and we drove around for thirty minutes in search of it. Our ride ended up taking an hour and a half when it should have taken only forty minutes. Once at Ao Nang pier we hurried over to the ticket window. The lady at the counter said the ferries were finished for the night, but pointed down the coast and told us to, “Ask lady, blue shirt.” So we walked a long ways down the beach and asked a couple random ladies about boats; they had no idea what we were saying. Then we heard, “Boat, boat, boat!” We rushed over to the men, whom told us it would be 150 baht each for a long tail to Tonsai. Then they told us we would have to wait for two more people. We were getting tired, it was pitch black and all we wanted to do was take off our packs and eat dinner. Another man came along a couple minutes later and the three of us agreed to split the remainder of the price. Once again we were off. This is where our adventure and love for Tonsai really began.
In the darkness we could see huge limestone formations rising up from the sea. As we turned the corner the rocks became even more enormous. We were both in awe at the sheer magnitude of the crags. Twenty minutes later the boat pulled up to the muddy shore. We climbed over the side of the boat into a thick muck. The shells and rocks were killing our feet, but we were almost there so we complained and grumbled a little bit and walked on. Our hotel was the furthest one away, but it worked in our favor because we were able to check out all the bars and restaurants on our walk down the beach. Once we got to the hotel office, a woman came out and said, “Miss Sarah Schu?” Dave and I looked at each other, both amused and delighted by this and I answered, “Yes, Sawadeekah.” She motioned us into her office where we filled out the usual form and paid the deposit. She said she was waiting up for us and that they sold our room, but they upgraded us to a private villa. We were pumped. We really wanted to go chill, but we were starving. We asked if any restaurants were open and a worried look came across her face. She told us to wait a minute and she ran and got the manager. He helped us with our bags, showed us the only open restaurant and then took us on his motorcycle and sidecar up to our room. We dropped our stuff and hurried back down to eat pad thai and drink smoothies. The best part about dinner? There was a lady holding a kitten and when she saw me staring she told me I could have it. The entire dinner the little babe slept on my lap and when I was finished eating I laid the kitty down next to her mom and she immediately began feeding. Too cute and partially the reason I want to live on Tonsai. After dinner we hung out at an open night mic at a beachside bar on comfy little cushions, enjoyed a beer and listened to a variety of voices. Later we walked slowly up to our villa only to find that we didn’t have electricity. The key was acting funky earlier, but we thought the manager had fixed it, I think he thought he fixed it to. No one from the hotel was awake, so there was nothing we could do. We fiddled with every single switch and breaker and finally we got the air conditioner and the hot water heater to turn on, but still no lights. For some reason the only plug that was working was the one to the refrigerator so we pulled it out and plugged in a lamp. Good enough. It was time for bed anyway.
The next morning we ate our complimentary breakfast and decided to take a walk to Railay East and West. Both are nearby beaches that can be reached by scrambling over rocks on the shore of the ocean or by climbing up into the woods and back down again. We didn’t know about the forest trail until the last day, so we took the hard and wet way. After the short trek we were rewarded with the view of Railay West. It’s a beautiful long beach with white sand and small waves. Dozens of long tails were already coming and going with passengers from other islands. We decided to take the short walk across the island to check out Railay East. Another shore, but not one fit for swimming. It’s crowded with mangrove trees, mud and more long tails. We walked even further south and back across the southern tip of Railay to discover another smaller, yet more populated beach. It’s snuggled right in between a cove of rocks that hang over the ocean. It is definitely the most beautiful beach of the four. Dave and I sat and watched the rock climbers for a little bit and then decided to head back to the villa, check out and make our way to Koh Phi Phi where we would be spending our New Year’s Eve. We planned on meeting all of my good friends from orientation there. After snapping a few photos of the villa and checking out, we walked into the tourism office to see when we could catch a ferry. Apparently there is only one each day and we missed it by two hours. Plan B. In Thailand there’s always a plan B or C sometimes even D. We walked to the end of the beach to charter a long tail, but unfortunately we needed eight people in order to leave and there were only two of us. We hung out for nearly an hour until enough people showed up and then we scooted over to Ao Nang pier. Once at the pier I got all different kinds of information from everyone. First, we could get on a boat in ten minutes, then the boat already left, then there was another one coming, then there wasn’t. Finally after every single plan was talked out, phone calls to captains and bus and van drivers were made and I shelled out enough money for two pricey tickets we had a spot on the 2 p.m. ferry to Koh Phi Phi. I walked away from the counter a little mad at myself for not checking things out the night before. We could have already been in Phi Phi and for half the price. I went and collected Dave from his seat in the shade and we waited for a taxi. A song tow came first so we got in and made our way to the Krabi town pier. We ate lunch and drank Leos at a restaurant there. The menu had the funniest typos I’ve seen in Thailand. Items like yegetable friend rice and tosc and jem and many, many more things misspelled over and over and sometimes spelled wrong multiple ways. I wish I would have taken one home, but like most Thai restaurants they only had three menus. After lunch I went to the bathroom while Dave sat and drank his beer and on my way I ran into Jill and James, some of the peeps from orientation that we were going to meet up with in Koh Phi Phi. They also had travel troubles, so we were all in the same boat…literally. Josh, Alice and Kara, more orientation friends, were also on board so what started out as a bummer of a boat ride turned into a meet and greet for Dave and a catch up session for myself. We all sat on the very front of the boat. With beers in our hands, wind in our hair and friends all around, the moment could not have been any better.
Two hours later we pulled up to Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Co P P). It was a beautiful island of green surrounded by water that looked to blue to be real. Dave and I wanted to make it to the lookout point for sunset so we hurried off the boat and into town. A couple English guys that owned a dive shop asked if we needed help finding anything so we quickly told them our hotel and our plans to hike up to the point. They gave us a map, explained where to go and we were off. We stopped at Dave’s Bungalows, but when we went to check in the owner told us, “I may have sold your room, but don’t worry.” So we didn’t, we just dropped our stuff behind the counter, told Saleem to come along and hiked up the hundred stairs to the lookout. To be honest, the lookout depressed me a little bit. Yes, the island was beautiful and the surrounding sea was especially gorgeous, but on the skinny stretch of land in between the large northern and southern landmasses was an area crowded with hotels, restaurants and tourists. From above it was almost appalling. Thailand has this beautiful natural island, but once word got out it became over populated with people from all around the world and here I was standing above it all, part of the problem myself. Joe Rogan has this theory that maybe human’s purpose on earth is to ‘eat the sandwich.’ Basically he looks at humans as mold growing on a sandwich; we are eating the earth. Every time you fly on a plane and you look down and see a city instead of thinking about how pretty it looks, because it does look awesome, I’ve taken many photos of just that, think of the city as cancer on the earth’s surface. This theory really resonated with me, now whenever I’m on a plane at night and I look down I see cancer, mold, humans. When I was at the viewpoint I kept trying to avoid looking at the middle of the island because all I saw was mold and I was sad that I was there contributing to chewing up all this natural beauty.
By the time we walked back down the stairs and east to our bungalows it was dark. We went up to the check-in counter where we were told they did indeed sell our room even though we made and paid for a booking reservation over three weeks in advance. I was pissed. So pissed. Definitely the maddest I have been in Thailand and coincidentally Thai people didn’t own the place, some old grouchy guy named Dave from England did. Since I’ve gotten my revenge by posting an epic review on HostelWorld.com, I’m not going to go into it, but basically we had to find a new hotel and the only one that wasn’t full was more than DOUBLE the price we had intended to pay and here’s the kicker, we had to share it with James and Jill. Their room was also sold even though they too made reservations. On any other night I would have taken the situation with a little more stride, but this was New Year’s Eve, my boy that I hadn’t seen in three months was visiting and you’re telling me I have to pay double the price to share a room? A room that didn’t have electricity all night, meaning no air conditioner or hot water? Yeah, that was definitely the worst $70 I spent in Thailand. We should have slept on the beach and spent that money on another four-hour spa treatment. But, like I said, I’m over that, does it seem like it? Dave and I bitched to the owner and his main man for a while, just for the sake of annoying them since they screwed us over and then we dropped our stuff in Alice’s room, took a shower and got ready to go out.
Josh, James, Jill, Alice, Kara, Saleem, Dave and I enjoyed a delicious meal at a Thai restaurant, drank some drinks, and headed to the beach. It was relatively empty of people, but all the bars were blasting music so we made the rounds. By the time we all had a few more drinks in us a couple hours had passed and the party was started. Dave found a bottle of neon blue paint and did us all up. Half way through the night I noticed I had a blue mustache, classy. We bar hopped, danced everywhere we could find a good tune and then we jumped rope for a few rounds. By that time it was 11:30 p.m. the general consensus was to head to Slinky’s another beach bar. Slinky’s was bumpin’. When we got there we ran into more friends from orientation. We all got our groove on and at midnight fireworks were blasting off literally right over our heads. Everything was perfect. I was surrounded by amazing people, both friends and strangers, and Deadmau5 was on blast. Josh’s mom sent him candles in the mail so at midnight he thought it would be cool if we all lit them, just for the heck of it. One minute he was hanging on Dave and I saying, “Happy New Year’s you two beautiful people, let’s light these things,” and the next he was gone, so we lit them without him, but in his place was a new group of Thai friends. We didn’t have a lighter and they did, so we tried to have a conversation, which turned into a candle lighting and photo shoot. At the same time we ran into Saleem and Megan who were also lighting their candles, it’s funny how things like that work out. After our wicks burned for a few minutes we made our way back into the crowd to dance with everyone. There is nothing like dancing in your bare feet on the beach. Even though that sounds like a cheesy quote from a poster that a teenage girl would own, it’s true. You feel a certain weightlessness and carelessness that lets you forget about everything else except for the music and the people you’re with. Since the music was good and the people were great, I can’t think of any place in the world I would have rather been. I thought last year’s New Years celebration couldn’t be topped, but now I’m certain I won’t have another New Years as epic as this one. I’m always up for a challenge though…
