I made it to Asia

It was an incredibly long journey. I spent half a day waiting in various airports, about 24 hours in various airplanes, and most of an afternoon at the Phuket ferry pier. Once the ferry arrived at Phi Phi island, I wandered around the island with all of my gear in search of my sister. I found her and the two days of sitting and waiting and traveling was suddenly worth every minute. We stayed at a wonderful little bungalow on stilts called Phi Phi Villa. The next two days were spent sipping mango drinks and eating rice dishes and sitting on the beach. The first night we caught the sunset from the shore and then had a fabulous meal with her travel-mates: Maureen, Kaitlin (Kay-Mu), Al and Peter. I was impressed with their Thai language skills and thrilled to hear about their time living in Isaan (Northeast Thailand).

The next morning Cath and I took a long-tail boat over to Ko Phi Phi Leh, which is an uninhabited nearby sister island. After the half hour boat ride we were teary-eyed from the saltwater splashing into our eyes, but we put on snorkeling gear and jumped ship toward the little hole in the cave that we needed to swim through to get to the island. Then we hiked a short distance and found the most amazing beach I could imagine. We call it The Beach The Beach, as it's that same beach from the movie The Beach. Right when we arrived the tour boats and tourists started to head out to have lunch so suddenly the beach was completely empty. It was like a dream.

Upon returning to the main Ko Phi Phi Island, we didn't have quite enough, so we sat on a different beach which is equally as beautiful. My favorite local on that island was a sweet old Thai woman who would stand behind her cart and yell "Yoo hoo yoo hoo yoo hoo! Pancake Pancake! Pancake!" in every tone and inflection you could possibly sqeeze into a short phrase. She fries pancake batter at her little station on the street and puts fruits and chocolate and cream (my poison of choice was bananas and chocolate) and she gives you a toothpick to eat it with. Yum.


The last morning at Ko Phi Phi Cath and I got up extra early and went for a hike to the peak; a place called View Point. It's pretty tricky to get there, and we were almost convinced we took a wrong turn. Once we passed a herd of goats and a small chicken farm, we thought we were really off track. We went just a bit further and found a small wooden sign for View Point, as well as a young man from Austrailia who was heading in the same direction. We hiked the last 200m with him and he kept pointing out monkeys in the trees. Once we got a closer look at the bushy-tailed monkey, we realized it was just a squirrel. The peak is beautiful, despite the sweaty climb. This is the spot where all the post cards are photographed, and it's also the only spot where video footage of the tsunami was taken. It's chilling and beautiful at the same time.

That was the perfect way to leave the island. Paradise doesn't have to twist my arm too hard... I'll be back very soon.