today i woke up and despite the horrible pain of my sunburn, i caught the ferry to kho phi phi. upon arrival, i was bombarded by people trying to sell me a room for 1000B. what??!! 1000 baht for a room? unfortunately, after searching around i found out that all rooms on this island are ridiculously expensive. after searching long and hard, i was able to find a room for 400B (10$) which is more than i’ve paid for other rooms i’ve had… and this room doesn’t even have it’s own toilet/shower! you have to use a communal one down the hall!
after securing the room, i explored the island. honestly, i’m not too psyched on it. out of all the places i’ve been in thailand so far, this one is by far the most touristy. the beach is completely lined w/ shops trying to sell cd’s, plane tickets, or internet time. also, the people staying here seem more like either the “i’m here w/ my family to stay at a fancy resort” or the “i’m hot and am here to work on my tan” type. luckily though, this island has great scuba diving so i signed up to do some dives. tomorrow i get to dive though a wrecked ship on the ocean floor. that sounds like it’ll be really trippy.
i spent most of the day chilling on the beach hanging out, and when it came time for dinner, it was a tough call as to what to get. one one hand i feel like i’ve spent too much $$ today and should just get a super cheap meal, but on the other hand, seafood is really really popular here, restaurants all have huge fish and lobster displays out front, and having a seafood dinner just sounded really good. so i caved in and got grilled shark. it sucked!! it ended up being super bland and was not good at all. what a disappointment!
-v
Vlad, i loved kok phiphi… that place was the best. Check out the thai kicking boxing and also go to the Rolling Stoned bar. Also you must walk up to the vista point…. oh and get a tattoo =)
-joey
heh, didnt mean to diss your island! maybe it was different when you were here during the off-peak season? also, probably part of it is that i went from phang-nga which is a tiny untouristy town, to here which is the opposite.
no tatttoos for me though!
-v
doood…
It has been only a few days since I saw you, but it seems like forever. All kinds of stuff seems to happen everyday.
Chaing Mai may be my favorite Thai city. The night market is crazy. You have to do mad bargaining. I bought a ‘Rolex’, the person wanted 2300 and I got it for 1000.
Too bad we don’t have more time to chill in Thailand.
I look forward to following your journey.
-Tom