Thailand and Laos Part1: 40 Hours of Travel and Koh Phi Phi
We both want to tell stories about Thailand and Laos, so we’ve decided to write this together as if we’re retelling our story together. We are going to write in different colors. Nick in Orange, Luke in Blue. We have no idea what we’re doing. Let’s see how this goes. Godspeed. Peace out.
Nick: Based on the title, hopefully you can guess that this is about our trip to Thailand and Laos. This part covers the shit-show that was getting there and the first stop, Koh Phi Phi. This was my first trip with someone since India in 2017/2018. Going into it I wasn’t sure how our dynamic would work, considering our different personalities and that we would be together for 3 weeks.
The trip started at 3 AM with my alarm going off after about 3 hours of sleep. From there, my dad dropped me off at the airport and after a couple minutes waiting in line for my boarding pass, Luke arrived. From there it was a nice 6.5 hour flight from Newark to Seattle for a 3 hour layover. We got some breakfast then boarded our 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo….fuck that flight, (mostly becasue of the length, but also the “snack” that Luke brought for me didn’t help all that much,). Two hours in Tokyo, then another 7 hours to Bangkok. Yeah, it took a long time to get there, but my preference is to tackle it all at once as quickly as possible if there isn’t an opportunity to hang out in a city for a 7+ hour layover.
Luke: After 28 hours of flying, I had fallen asleep for a total of maybe 4 hours. I was desperately looking forward to a real bed. I was so happy to be in Thailand that I raised my hands in joy once we made it past baggage claim. Then, in my head, I made the following realization:
“Wait! I shouldn’t be able to raise BOTH of my hands! WHERE’S MY OTHER BAG?!“
Luke lost his 2nd carry-on bag… After all that travel, I’m really surprised I didn’t do the same. We tried going back in to grab it and after waiting for security to clear us, the bag wasn’t there.
As you can imagine, this led to just a tiny bit of frustration. We lost about 2 hours of potential sleep at our hostel and didn’t recover the bag that night. But on the brightside, I had 90% of my valuables in the other bag, which was securely attached to my back.
Eventually we give up and head to the hostel. We get there, it’s 2 am local time, Luke doesn’t have luggage, and we have to be up in 3 hours to head back to the airport…yep, we’re not done flying.
My alarm goes off after 3 hours of what I guess is considered sleep, so we get up and call a cab to the airport. At the airport, the luggage is still missing and we have a flight to catch…fuck us. We catch our quick flight to Krabi, and get a taxi to the mall. The mall doesnt open til 11 AM, so decide to wander a bit. We find a cool temple and Luke does some shopping at some small knock-off shops and gets a relatively good wardrobe for pretty cheap.
In hindsight, I should have done all of my shopping there. I found some decent quality clothing for lower prices than anywhere else we went. I was even able to bargain for some shirts and a pair of flip flops. You can get pretty decent flip flops for $3 if you look hard enough. After shopping we searched for a taxi to take us to the ferry to Koh Phi Phi.
Koh Phi Phi is pronounced “Koh – Pee – Pee”. Nick and I pronounced it “Koh – Fee – Fee” for the first 24 hours in Thailand. Can you imagine two white kids wandering around Krabi asking taxis to take us to the ferry for Koh “Fee Fee?” You bet your ass they ripped us off! (Still only cost us maybe $4 for a 10 min taxi ride.)
The only way to get to Koh Phi Phi is by boat from either Krabi or Phuket. We opted to go from Krabi due to flight costs from Bangkok that day. It was about a 1.5 hour ride on this ferry from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi. We got to the island and meandered our way to the hostel. Our first impressions were that the island was touristy. Not many Thai people unless they were working at the shops and restaurants. The hostel, Blanco City Hostel, was about a 15 min walk from the boat. The island is tiny, with no motorized vehicles allowed on most of the streets.
The hostel was pretty cool. The staff was good, with clean and comfortable beds. My only criticism was that it seemed essentially empty. Our room was empty 3 of the 4 nights we were there, not a complaint, but it does alter the social situation of the place.
After a quick nap, we met some people in the hostel and our trip had “officially” begun. We got some beers from the hostel bar, and hung out for a while.
Luke: We made friends with two guys from Manitoba and a girl from Germany. That night we went to “Garlic 1992” , a local restaurant which was recommended to us. Garlic 1992 is one of those streetside, hole-in-the-wall joints you’d see on an episode of Anthony Bourdain…
I had some amazing green curry that night. The phrase “Phed Maak” sticks in my head today. It means “very spicy”. Tell someone you want your food “Phed Maak” if you want to experience extreme amounts of capsaicin.
Nick: That was one of my favorite meals of the trip. Christmas Eve dinner with Canadians, a German and Luke in a Thai restaurant. I’d recommend it. That night we went to the beach with our new friends and drank at the multitude of beach bars. There were people twirling fire, limbo, jump rope (Luke needs some practice), and a bunch of free shots. If this was an introduction to Koh Phi Phi, my liver was going to be in for a long trip.
The closest thing I could compare it to is summertime at the Jersey Shore at D’Jais, but the bars and clubs are literally on the beach.
The next day, technically day 3?…Christmas Day…what’s better then celebrating Jesus’ birthday then getting trashed on a party boat in Koh Phi Phi? So yeah, we got drunk on a boat.
We got drunk on a boat. The boat had loud music. Kayaks. Rent-able snorkel gear. You could jump off the top of the boat. Our Canadians and German friend were there too. I highly recommend the experience.
We went on our boozy boat bash with our hostel’s sister hostel, Blanco Beach Hostel. They took us around the outskirt islands, making stops along the way. The first stop was Monkey Bay, which was exactly what it sounds like.
The next stop was at Loh Samah Bay National Park, where we could swim, kayak, and snorkel. Then we sailed by the famous bay from some DiCaprio movie. The scenery in the area was gorgeous, and the water was perfect. Drinking, music, and sunny weather made the day go by real quick.
Eventually we started to head back and got to experience sunset from the water. It was my first sunset of SE Asia, and the first time I realized how quick the sun sets in that part of the world (the sun actually sets at the same rate as home, but twilight is much quicker because of the earth’s circumference). After the boat, the hostel had free dinner and beer to cap off the day. Even though the experience was pricey for Thailand, I think it was worth it (except for a shit ton of douchey Austrailians). Luke pretty much agrees with me on this.
Waking up the next morning, Luke and I decided to take a relatively relaxing day and hang out with one of our new friends, Sin.
We started our day with breakfast at “Aroy Kaffine”, a small cafe owned by my friend Ja! (The food was amazing!) I met Ja while I was in Portland over the summer. She was doing a small American tour of her own at the time. As I like to say, it’s a small big world out there. Kind of amazing how things come together sometimes.
That day Ja gave us the idea to kayak through the main bay to Nui Beach. We were able to rent the kayaks from some locals right on the beach. We probably got ripped off, but that’s the story of every white person in Thailand.
We paid about $10 for a double Kayak for 6 hours. Overpriced for Thailand, but good luck finding the same deal for $50 in America.
After about 1 hour of paddling, we made it to Nui Beach. The trip took us past some cool rock formations in the bays and through the hot afternoon sun. When we got to the beach, there were a few people there already, but we were able to find a shady spot along the cliff walls, and cracked open a couple of beers.
After some chilling Luke and I took this small trail to an adjacent bay, Loh Lana Bay. Sadly it was low tide, but we were able to walk out into the bay and appreciate the difference in the amount of people between here and the main bay we were staying near.
I probably would have rented a Kayak for another day as well. The kayaks allow you to explore a lot of the other normally inaccessible parts of the island, and at your own pace.
After the paddle, we decided to go to the island’s overlooks for sunset. The overlook provides a beautiful, wide-open view over the island and bays. There are 4 outlooks along the trail. The first two are easily accessible, the other two a little more difficult to make it to. Luke woke up for a sunrise hike to the further two overlooks, I didn’t want to.
They’re set up so you can hit all four of them in one outing, but most people only go to the first two because they are set up along well-established paths. Beyond the 2nd viewpoint, it was very jungley, which probably deters most tourists. There was a small path though so I persisted and found my way. The 3rd viewpoint was actually a small restaurant. The old lady that i guess ran the place insisted on the 10 baht (30 cents) entry fee and I had literally 0 baht on me. I offered American change. 25c? 50c? 1 dollar in quarters? NOPE. Lighter? No trades. This lady was basically telling me to f- off because I was a dumb American with no Thai Baht. Gotta love humanity sometimes.
Anyway, the overlook was cool, except for the fact that we got lost on our way there. We walked about 20 min out of the way before finding the right way.. We rushed up the hill, and made it in time for the sunset. Sunset #2 of the trip was definitely worth the effort.
Later that night we went out to some bars with some of the kids in the hostel. We started at a sports bar type place, from there we ventured over to a very “fratty” type bar, one of those with pong tables. After we got tired of the “frat” scene, we went over to this bar that lets tourists fight each other in Muay Thai. That was an experience, I never thought I’d enjoy watching drunk people beat the shit out of each other for a bucket full of alcohol.
At one point, I met a girl from the UK who was probably 5’ 7”, 130ish lbs. We got into this deep political conversation about Trump and Boris Johnson, and then her friends convinced her to get in the ring. The results were outstanding. Watch this video!
Additionally, one of her friends was a barber back in the UK. He took one look at me and said “You need a cut, mate.” The next day, I got my hair cut. Thanks @Sherrystrimz!
Our last full day on Koh Phi Phi, we switched over to the Voyager’s Hostel. When we planned this trip, we thought our stay at Blanco City Hostel might tire us out with a party-like atmosphere… we didn’t encounter that, so the hostel switch was for nothing, but we did meet some cool people and got free elephant key chains. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and wandering around the island with some of the new people we met at this hostel. We hung out at the beach for most of the day, sipping drinks and shooting the shit.
We had one of our final meals on the island at the Banana Bar. Order a “banana” when you go. Make sure you ask for a lighter for your banana 😉 That night we went back to the beach, and only a few of the beach bars were open. Sin and I obtained another banana and consumed it on the beach. We made friends with a cat too. Meanwhile, Nick had made friends with some Finnish people. After hanging with the cat, we found Nick, who also had made friends with a Saudi Arabian guy and i think Ukranian guys? They were all trashed, except for Nick. At one point, the Ukranian guy looked like he really wanted to punch someone so we dipped outta there and ended our night.
We woke up in the morning and we went over to the ferry to head back to the mainland. This time we were flying out of the Phuket airport. The ferry was a 1.5 hour ride from there it was a 1 hour bus ride to the airport. From there we hopped on a flight to Chaing Mai.
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