Ice cream, Cakes and Pai

746 turns later, we nauseously  arrived in the quaint Northern Thailand town of Pai! We checked into our cute Darling Guesthouse, where our charismatic hostess explained we were sleeping in a 6 bed dorm but would only charge us for 3 (how sweet and what a great deal!!). Once we opened the door to our room we saw just what she considered a 6 bed dorm... 2 king size beds and 1 queen crammed into one room with 1 foot pathway to the bathroom!

The first night we walked around the walking street, checking out all the hippie crafts and cute shops. We discussed how we needed to plan the next leg of our journey to Laos, and prioritise what to do and where we wanted to go, decided to figure it out after dinner. We were craving non-Thai food and enjoyed a venison burger from PP Burgers, where we met the nicest Thai-American owner, Poole. Poole has lived in Thailand for a long time, originally from Georgia, but started living here by becoming a tour guide in Laos! How convenient, we were just trying to figure out what to do in Laos! Poole was extremely helpful and knowledgeable about Laos, writing down great places to go and eat and travel to (even hand drew us a map!). 

After dinner we did some shopping and met the entertaining Jack Sparrow Thailand. We took some photos and picked up some goodies around the town before heading to bed earlyish.

Monday, we woke up and leisurely walked across the small river to the town and scoped places to eat brunch. We enjoyed sandwiches at a cafe, and headed for the post office. Our packs were starting to explode after our shopping extravaganza in Chiang Mai, we needed to ship some stuff home. That afternoon we enjoyed some cookies on the street, refrozen gelato followed by cakes in a ridiculous floral bakery! Such fat kids! And then we took a nap.

We enjoyed a few drinks that evening, walked around the market, bought some postcards and made it another lazy early night. Pai is so chilled out, you truly are exhausted from doing absolutely nothing. Shops don't even open until 5pm! The town is known for its leisurely vibe.

Tuesday, we had brunch at the Witching Well (where we'd been trying to eat every meal because of so many recommendations - always closed or full!) and it was delicious! We spent the afternoon taking photos, enjoying more cookies and writing post cards to our loved ones! We chilled at the guesthouse before having another venison burger then hit the road for our trip to Huay Xai!

Pai was a much needed laid back couple days, especially after all the activity in Chiang Mai! If we weren't on such a rigid schedule, we could have easily spent a couple weeks there! 

Having a blast, of to Laos now for the Gibbon Experience!

Much love,

Laura, Katy & Lex

Temples and Tigers and Elephants, Chiang Mai!

Lex and Katy parted ways from Laura at 4pm on Sunday in Bangkok to meet up the next morning in Chiang Mai. Katy and Lex took the sleeper train and Laura took the night bus. 

Laura walked to booking agency for pick up, and immediately met world traveller, Kelsey, from San Francisco. Laura's bus ride was relaxed, but ended up getting in two hours earlier than planned. Laura arrived at Deejai hostel at 5am, and they informed her that check-in was 2pm. Luckily, Beulah and Lindsey were up at 6 for a visa run and offered their beds for the morning! Once again, Beulah and Lindsey save the day! 

Katy and Alexis took sleeper train, which was pretty cool. Both girls slept for about 10 hours which was nice. They made friends with Jim from Colorado, who had just recovered from Dengue fever in southern Thailand. Alexis and Katy quickly coined the nickname, Dengue Jim - or DJ for short. DJ informed us in the morning that our train had stopped for about an hour and a half around 4am and he got up to check it out. Upon inquiry, DJ gathered from the train attendant that, "There is not enough power to get over the mountain." Thankfully, we arrived in Chiang Mai around 11:30 (two hours late), and caught a taxi to Deejai hostel. We had a nice lunch reunited with all of our friends - old and new!

That afternoon we went to Tiger Kingdom, to see TIGERS! We paid 650B or $20USD, to hang out with baby tigers. 

All over Thailand are shirts that say, "SAME SAME - BUT DIFFERENT" on them. Laura, Kerri, Lex - and now Katy, all use this phrase in conversation and try to make as many jokes as possible about it. Our favorite usage was this: (insert pic of house cat/tiger). 

Katy, Lex and Laura decided to spend time with the babies, while Jim and Kelsey chose to hang out with the big tigers. Tiger Kingdom is set up with multiple cages for the different age groups and you wait in line to go into the pen with a guide. Natural, we all squealed a lot as we cuddled, played with and had a photo shoot with the little (big) kitties! Alexis was in kitty heaven. We concluded that the tigers were definitely not drugged, however like any animal in captivity, it was sad to see them contained in such small spaces and so used to humans and being touched. The babies slept through most of the prodding, clearly entirely accustomed to it. At one point, there was a tiger fight (roaring and growling - two large tigers on hind legs in the cage next to ours) and alllll of the babies became alert to check it out (photo of Katy w baby tiger). Overall it was super cool to see them up close but definitely a little bittersweet to see them living in unnatural conditions. 

That night, Alexis, Katy, Laura, Dengue Jim, Lindsey, David and Kelsey walked to a nearby night market. Although the company was nice - the food really wasn't. Katy and Dengue picked up a bunch of random foods for taste experimentation - no real successes.   We all went to bed at a reasonable time for our cooking class early the next morning!

Wednesday morning Alexis Katy and Laura were picked up at the hostel at 830, then taken to a nearby market. Our instructor showed us around the market and explained the basics of Thai cooking and ingredients. Then our "class" hopped in the truck and were taken to a farm about 30 minutes away. We were shown around the garden, smelling and tasting some thai herbs and vegetables. 

Then we picked a station in the kitchen classroom and began! Our instructors were funny and helpful and it was SO FUN! We wore red aprons for cooking and "the hats just for fun." Alexis first made coconut milk soup and Laura and Katy made Tom Yam soup - then we ate it! We all then made a curry paste from scratch that we would use in our curry later.. Which consisted of using a mortar and pestle to turn dried chillies and fresh herbs into a paste.   Alexis made red curry, and Laura and Katy made yellow. We also made a stir fry - Alexis and Laura made chicken cashew nut and Katy made sweet and sour chicken. We ate all of that, then made dessert - Alexis and Laura made mango sticky rice and Katy made bananas with coconut milk. Although we were completely stuffed, Laura and Katy made pad Thai and Alexis made spring rolls to take home. It was amazing! Not only was it incredible to learn how make all the food we have been eating, we spent the day on a beautiful farm in Thailand and made some great friends with the other people in our class. We went home stuffed and had a lazy night at the hostel booking and doing research for Laos!

The next morning Dengue and Kelsey joined us for a temple tour in Chiang Mai! We walked to a few nearby temples and checked them out first. Check out a few photos from the day! 

Name of temples - baby monk school

Then oldddd temple 

The americans had a nice lunch then took a wind-y taxi up to the Golden Temple, with an incredible lookout over Chiang Mai. We checked it out, were blessed by a monk, where he chanted and sprayed us with holy water then gave us white string bracelets and signed the "skirt" for the agoda. It was super cool!

That night Alexis, Katy and Laura all went to the night bazaar and did tons of shopping! The stalls seemed endless. After our long day and the exhausting of bartering, we were all very tired!

Already having an incredibly busy week, we were all reluctant to get up early on Friday... But despite being tired we got so excited for elephants!! 

DJ joined us and we were picked up at 8am. We took an hour bus ride to Thai Elephant Home where we were debriefed about our day and given attractive denim on denim mahout (elephant trainer) outfits. We went to meet the elephants, learned some basics commands and fed the elephants sugarcane and bananas. We hopped on, did a walking tour around the stable and then got ready for our adventure!

We rode our elephants on a beautiful hilly ride for about an hour to a spot where we had lunch. After lunch we fed our elephants pad Thai, gave them a mud rubdown then went back down the trail to the river. The best part of our day was washing the elephants in the river. Laura was picked up by ---   Alexis had a legitimate watertight with her elephant, ----. And Katy cuddled and washed ---. On our way back we fed them more snacks, then rode for another hour. When we got back to Thai Elepgant Home, we bid farewell to our elephants and went and met a baby and her momma. Then had snacks and saw all of the amazing photos taken from the day! It was a dream day, so amazing and perfect. Thanks Sarah Bon for telling us about it!

That night we scoped out a local music festival with everyone and had a relaxed night. 

After an eventful and awesome week, we slept in for Lex's birthday and had a lazy morning. We went to lunch, Katy and Alexis went to a crazy local bug museum and then Laura got a pedi/mani and Alexis and Katy got a couples Thai massage. It was awesome! That night everyone surprised Alexis with a pie and candles :) Then we all went out to the walking street market in Chiang Mai for food and shopping! Alexis was iced (good job Lindsey) and then we all went dancing at a local bar. We stopped by to get snacks from 7-11 on the way home, then had a high kick contest. We laughed and chatted until our hostel told us to go to bed! It was a blast!

On Sunday we said goodbye to Lindsey and Beulah :( our favorite travel companions. Although hungover, we had a nice lunch before we caught our bus to Pai!

Bangkok FAIL

Bangkok

No matter how well we plan and organise our itinerary, we still STRUGGLE to get most things done efficiently... Including our Thai visa run. We were coming up to our 30th day in Thailand and needed to do a quick run to Burma to receive another 15 days in Thailand (when arriving by land). When we went to the booking agency in Koh Phangan, we were quickly informed we could not leave the island, do the visa run and get to Bangkok in the next 3 days, it was going to be impossible. Bottom line was that we needed to be in Bangkok to meet Katy by Saturday evening. After weighing a myriad of options we threw money at the problem and booked flights from Krabi to Singapore and then from Singapore to Bangkok, giving us another 30 days in Thailand (when arriving by air). 

We ventured a long journey from Koh Phangan to Krabi (taxi, ferry, bus, minibus, minibus, taxi, taxi) FINALLY arriving 8 hours later... We randomly bumped into our friend from home, Sarah, and her two travel friends Abby and Lauren! Talk about small world! We enjoyed a nice "Nova" evening in Krabi, it was great to see people from home! 

After an overnight in Krabi we flew to Singapore and during our 4 hour layover decided to double check our accommodation reservation in Bangkok as we'd be arriving a day later due to the visa run. Once we spoke with the hostel we learned that they cancelled our reservation because we did not show up the night before and they were fully booked. We scrambled to find another place to stay but because it was Friday, most places we called were booked through the weekend as well. We expressed our frustration and panic to Lindsey and Beulah (who were already in Bangkok) asking if their accommodation had any availability. They found out that their hotel was ALSO fully booked, but Lindsey and Beulah walked around found us a place - which we are STILL so thankful for, as we arrived on Kosan Road at approximately 1 am!

Saturday, Struggle Cityyy got up and moved hotels because Katy was arriving tonight!!!!! That afternoon, Laura, Alexis, Kerri, Beulah and Lindsey went to JJs market, the biggest market in the WORLD!! We spent a long time shopping and did some budget damage but had a great time bargaining for new items. Around 5pm Struggle Cityyy headed to the airport and Beulah and Lindsey caught the train to Chiang Mai. We excitedly met Katy at yje airport and went back to the hotel to get ready for a big Saturday night out in Bangkok!!

The four of us showered and dressed up before heading to dinner, when we were informed that after 6pm there was no serving or purchasing of alcohol until midnight on Sunday because it was Election Day... Awesome. We had a mediocre dinner and were all a bit tired, so went to bed early. 

Sunday we attempted to see some temples but we struggled with the taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers on negotiating a reasonable price. The answer was clear when it began to rain and we agreed to go shopping at the MBK (a massive indoor marketplace). There we enjoyed an international lunch and Kerri finally got the screen on her iPhone fixed for cheap! We decided to have dinner in Chinatown - which was surprisingly delicious seafood (AND they served us beer before 12!) We went back to the hotel and dressed for a proper night out, and hopped around some bars on Kosan Road - met some ridiculous people, ate a scorpion, danced in the street and may or may not have attended a ping pong show! 

Hungover on Monday, we struggled to the Royal Palace and admired the temple and Emerald Buddha for the afternoon. We had a tearful goodbye to Kerri who headed back to Australia and Katy, Lex and Laura started the next leg of the journey to Chiang Mai!!

Much love,

Laura, Kerri, Alexis and Katy

Shoulda Woulda Coulda - Koh Phanang

Koh Phangan - Shoulda Woulda Coulda

We write as we our trekking from Koh Phanang to Krabi, as our Thailand visa runs out tomorrow and we are flying to Singapore to fly back into Bangkok! Had we done this properly (as in booked this visa run when we first arrived in Koh Phanang, we would have saved a lot of money and time, as it is - here we are.)

Our time in Koh Phanang was fun for sure - but also quite the ordeal. We stayed in the northern part of the island, far away from the party - but we had no idea just how far. We were under the impression it was about 20 mins away - in realty it was about 45.. For 200 Baht per person each way. It adds up. Well we arrived on Satrday, caught a taxi (which is benches in a truck bed) and got to our bungalow at shiralea backpackers resort. It was really nice (aircon and hot water!) but sefinitely a journey to get there on where hilly and windy roads. We napped in the afternoon and had an early night as to recover from our time in a Koh Tao.

Sunday we woke up and walked to Salad Beach (up and down two massive hills), hoping to snorkel - but the water visibility was not great due to rain the night before. Salad was pretty but it was overcast so the water looked more murky then bright blue. On our way back to our bungalow we stopped to get a coconut shake and enjoy the lookout view. That night we had a nice dinner on the beach then hung out in the lounge area of Shiralea and booked our hostels for Northern Thailand.

The next day we got up and caught a can to Haad Mae Haad, the most northern part of the island to go snorkelling and check out a bridge sand walkway to Mae Haad island. Thankfully the weather was beautiful! We ventured out on the sand bar walkway to go snorkel, but once out far enough we realised how bad the visibility was and how awful sea lice are. Literally feels like hundreds of tiny jellyfish stingers. We swam in and spent the rest of our time laying out and in the shallow waters - away from the sea lice. We wanted to see Salad beach on a sunny day and caught a cab there - we enjoyed a late lunch, took a few photos and trekked back home. That night we took a taxi down to meet up with Lindsey, David and Beulah for dinner and then to go check out the Jungle Experience - a giant dance party in the woods the night before the full moon party.

Although we made it fun - the night was kind of a bust. We read that if you get there before 11 it is free and after 11 it is 500Baht. We got there at 10, sober, to find out the reason they weren't charging yet is because it had not started. We also quickly learned that Monday was a Buddhist holiday and they could not start serving alcohol until midnight - AND! The buckets were 450baht each. We decided the most cost efficient thing to do was to send two people to go get alcohol and then everyone splits their entrance fee. Laura and Beulah volunteered to go and ...

While they were gone, Lindsey, Alexis, David and Kerri hung out at a meeting point playing word games until they began to get worried. The girls had been gone a long time - are they okay? What happened? Of course neither of them had a cell phone on them (#fail). We were all veryyyy relieved when they arrived back.

We then chugged some drinks and danced! The music was not great and we were determined to have fun but overall it was a little lacklustre. Laura, Kerri and Alexis decided to go home around 4 and caught a packed full taxi for our longggg ride home - the nightlight being snacks from 7-11.

We slept in the next day, dyed Kerris hair and then met Lisa at the pier that afternoon. We got some neon t-shirts, had a snack at the market then went to Lindsey and David's room for drinks and body painting!

We had a great time with the body paint and dancing in our room, got to the full moon party about 12am and danced our asses off til the sun came up!

-Wednesday slept all day, adventure to get our stuff, struggle Cityyy figuring out visa run, dinner crave again
-Thursday taxi to 7am ferry

Koh Tao

We arrived via ferry to Koh Tao on Valentines Day! Although we woke up late and had a nice morning scramble we made it to Koh Tao around 11am. We checked into our lovely hotel, Sairee Sairee Guesthouse (air con!! Hot shower!!) and had a relaxing afternoon. Kerri and Laura popped out to say Hi! to their good friend Lisa from Sydney, while Lex took a nap. That night we went out and had a great time with Lisa at the bar she works at, Fishbowl (part of Ban's Diving Resort)

Kerri Lisa and Alexis being silly

Next day we recovered and had an amazing lunch with Lisa at Zanzibar (delicious western sandwiches), that took an unexpected turn with an hour long torrential downpour rain storm. We had a laid back afternoon and then got ready to go out Friday night! We wore our nerd glasses, drank 4 buckets (ouch) and definitely encompassed "obnoxious Americans." We partied late night with Lisa, Lex fell down and bruised her knee (those who witnessed it yelled "Ohhhhh!") and we all sat outside of 7-11 eating Cheetos and Toasties at the end of the night. Success.

Toasties & Cheetos!

Outside 7-11 haha

The next day the weather was not great again and we spent the day relaxing. We had a lovely dinner with Lisa and some of her friends at a nice steak restaurant up in the mountains.

Sunday we met with Lisa for breakfast and bumped into Beulah and her friend Lindsey. We invited them to come with us to a small island off the coast called Nang Yuan. We had such a great day snorkelling, tanning and walking up to the look out. It was amazing! We finished up by enjoying a lovely Italian meal with the girls and prepared for our move the next morning!

At the Look out at Nang Yuan

Snorkelling!

Feeeesh!

Kerri, Lisa, Lindsey, Lex & Beulah

We moved to Ban's Diving Resort in the morning, hung out with Lisa as she worked at the Fishbowl cocktail bar and then began scuba theory with our incredible Canadian instructor, Krista.

Ban's Diving Resort

We went over classroom materials and then spent the afternoon in the pool getting used to our scuba equipment and basic skills. Although Alexis spent an hour in the pool, scuba was not for her. That evening,
while Kerri did homework, Lex and Laura met up with Lindsey and Beulah for a drink. Laura went home as she had to get up early for diving, and Alexis spent the night dancing with Lindsey.

Wednesday was our first day diving in the sea!!! The first dive was pretty scary, Laura and Kerri were getting frustrated with the buoyancy and weight underwater, really felt like diving may not be for them. But the second dive was ABSOLUTELY amazing!! It was the coolest thing we've ever done, you truly feel like you are on Planet Earth haha. We could not wait to get in the water on Thursday morning!
While Kerri and Laura were diving, Lex snorkelled and had relaxed day. The scuba and snorkel is amazing in Koh Tao!

That night we had another delicious authentic Thai dinner at Su Chili for with Lisa and one of her best friends Luca. To prepare for an early rise for the last day of scuba, Kerri went home to sleep and Laura and Lex went on night walk on the beach and then met up for a drink with Beulah and Lindsey at Lotus Bar.

The second dives were just as amazing as the first two! We swam around coral, saw a ton of fish (trigger fish, puffer fish, angel fish, butterfly fish), and practiced our buoyancy in "buoyancy world" swimming in and out of rings and hoops. Lisa accompanied us on our dives as well because she is working on completing her PADI Dive Masters Course. We LOVED the diving so much, wanted to continue with our PADI Open Water Advanced course so we could scuba at 30 metres, however we didn't have enough time or money to do it this time. It is something that Kerri and Laura definitely want to complete in the future!

Scuba!

We're READY!

On Thursday, while Laura and Kerri were diving, Alexis slept in then was invite on a motorbike adventure with Lindsey, Beulah and David. They rode down to the southern part of the island and had a delicious shake at the beautiful and charming Freedom Bar on Freedom Beach. Then they drove around, got a little lost but was tons of fun. Then went and had an amazing lunch and hike up in the mountains. It was a great day, and Lindsey was such a champ to drive all day!

The next morning we booked tickets to Koh Phanang then Laura, Lex, Lindsey, Beulah and Kerri rented a long tail boat to take us around the island snorkelling. It is a contender for the most Struggle Cityyy experience yet. Our first stop was at Freedom beach where we had coconut shakes. Then we went to shark bay and did some cool snorkelling, it was overcast so not amazing - until on the way back to the boat Lindsey took off and we swam after her and saw a shark! The water was deep but it was reallllyyy cool. On our way to our next snorkel spot, the boat jerked forward and the engine gave out. The driver began calling his friends and we knew it couldn't be good. There was another Thai man on the boat sitting in the front, who came and sat between all of us and then reached under the bow of the boat looking for something. After shuffling around for a minute, he pulls out a bamboo bong and proceeds to smoke sitting in between all of us in the small boat. He only offered it to Laura and she politely declined as we all giggled hysterically. After getting properly stoned, he walked up to the front of the boat and began to change into a sarong bathing suit - which essentially is a cloth diaper on a grown man. All we could do was laugh. About 20 mins later, another long tail boat arrived and towed us - rope around the front of the boat - to shore at Shark Bay. We all donned our snorkel gear and got in the water. In about 5 feet of water, Alexis spotted an octopus and called everyone over to check it out. We watched as two fish tried to mess with the octopus and it changed colors about 10 times trying to get away - it was so cool! We also saw massive schools of fish and some really cool corals close up as we were in shallow water. Heading back to the boat, the engine was fixed and we were off. Well at this point the sky was dark and wind has picked up and the rest of our trip was a Bamboo Island flashback. We got soaked and cold and all considered wearing life jackets as we went over waves and watched water splash in the boat. Needless to say, we were happy when we finally got back.

Freedom Beach Bar

We had a nice dinner with friends then went to a Ladyboy show, which was ridiculous. We had a few drinks at Lotus and Ban's and enjoyed our last night in Koh Tao. Laura and Kerri finished the night out right getting in the pool and making friends who ladyboys who they taught how to do the no-lip face.

Of course the next morning we hd a hungover struggle cityyy transport going to Koh Phangang - but we made it! Now we are resting up as the fool moon party is on Tuesday!

Overall Koh Tao was amazing! We had the best time with Lisa who took such good care of us and we made tons of awesome friends. Lisa has an amazing close circle of friends who were so sweet to be so inclusive and show us such a great time. We all agreed that Koh Tao was our favourite of the Southern Thailand islands and can see why it would be easy (and dangerous!) to live there. We ate the best food, Laura and Kerri discovered a new awesome hobby and nothing like making some new amazing friends to make it feel like home.

Xoxo,
Laura the baby whisperer, Kerri the fish whisperer and Alexis the kitty whisperer

It's Fee Fee and We Know it!

After a long recovery period of illnesses and food poisoning, we are finally ready to party on Phi Phi Island! We woke up Thursday morning, February 7th, had breakfast in a taxi and took the ferry over to Phi Phi. Of course we arrived at the hottest point of the day and per Struggle Cityyy usual had difficulty locating our accommodation and not a single person at the pier was of assistant, but only laughed and pointed in a general direction.

It's Phi Phi!

Phi Phi town - shops, restaurants, dive centers

Phi Phi is a small island with only foot traffic and bicycles. We quickly learned it was peak season and found it challenging to navigate the tiny streets with 40 lbs on our backs... Asking every booking place where "Golden Hill Bungalows" was, again to be pointed a general "that way". After a gruelling 30 minutes and up a mini mountain, we found our accommodation to be the furthest away from anything. It has Great views (minus the trash and water runoff lake in front of us) and a pool, but is inconveniently located. This worked to our advantage though, because it was so far away we never were there except to sleep, and were undisturbed by the loud bar music. Not to mention our room had a single fan with one speed: slow.

Golden Bungalows

Treacherous climb to our bungalow 

Our messy messy room (3 beds in a row)

That afternoon we wandered back down to the town to find the #1 restaurant by Trip Advisor - Anna's Restaurant. Whilst stumbling around, we bumped into a mate from Australia who gave us some good suggestions of things to do while in Phi Phi, which was great! We found Anna's and had a lovely afternoon lunch then trekked back up and spent the day at our pool overlooking our trash lake. We discussed what we wanted to do while we're here and planned out the next few days including booking a half day tour for Friday. Per our mate's recommendation, that evening we went and saw some bad live music and an Ok fire show and called it a night because we were all tired and still on antibiotics.

Fire Show

Friday morning we got up ate a quick breakfast on the steps of 7-11 waiting to be collected for our tour. We took a Thai long boat to some awesome spots including a cave, a gorgeous swimming cove, some sweet snorkelling, Maya Bay (where "The Beach" was filmed) and monkey beach (that was covered in trash). It was a really great tour, we got some wicked photos and funny videos (like how much we hate Thailand and love Phi Phi - pronouncing it "fee fee"). After the tour we were pretty tired so got some shakes, postcards , sat at the beach and took naps. When we woke up, the tide was so low you could walk way past all the boats it was really cool!

Maya Bay

Phi Phi at low tide

Low tide

Beached Thai Boats

Now that we were all 100% recovered and it was Friday night we agreed to have a big night out - but only wanted to stick with beer. We decided to go to the Thai restaurant, Lemongrass that we ate at the previous night because it was delicious, but it didn't open till 6:30 ... so we got fresh donuts and beer instead. We enjoyed our healthy dinner at an Internet cafe where we struggled to get anything done, then got ready and partied with beers at the loud beach bars - Slinky, Woodys and Stones.

Struggle Cityyy night out

We woke up Saturday morning with awful beer hangovers and agreed that Leo beer wasn't a good choice. We grabbed lunch in town and took a boat taxi to Long Beach, quickly realising once we got there that we should have brought our snorkel gear.. Oops! So we just hung out on the beach, sat in the water with lots of fish and got tan on our ma'ams.

Long Beach (isn't very long..?)

Long Beach

Checking out the rocks at Long Beach

When we got back to Phi Phi, we were hungry (as usual) and bought more donuts (double fisting) as the Thai donut shop man laughed at us and offered us free donuts if we came back tomorrow. Since we didn't make it to Lemongrass last night, we ate there Saturday and were sorely disappointed - especially because it was so good the first time. That night, we did not drink Leo's but red bull vodkas, played beer pong and had a photo shoot with a monkey in a diaper. We went to the beach bars again (with loud music) danced and drank the infamous Thai redbull buckets. It was a fun night, ending in bottles of water and cookies in our beds.

BUCKETS!

BUCKETS!

Sunday morning we were thankful for the lack of beer hangover, but the redbull hangover was a whole nother story. We struggled to lunch at Anna's again and did not move for nearly 2 hours, then crawled to the beach where we continued to feel bad. kayaking was not happening today.. By early afternoon we agreed we should just start drinking again!

We sat at a beach bar for the afternoon getting weird, enjoying Singha beers and not the rubbing alcohol coconut shakes. We stumbled back to our pool and drank more beers while we got ready to have another night out. We heard the fire performance at Stones bar is the best on the island, so we posted up there around 8:30 and enjoyed a Stones treat and watched the show... Kerri was even invited on stage!!

Monday morning we wandered down the pier to try to hire a boat taxi to Bamboo Island for a half day. We were advised that the weather was too windy, so it would be extra expensive to get out there. A bit peeved, we walked around a bit but it was too hot to hike or kayak so eventually we found a boat taxi that would take us to Bamboo Island! Yay! We got in the long boat and as soon as we were out of the cove we discovered just HOW choppy it was! The boat driver took the long way around the island as we giggled in terror, white knuckled for the hour long journey to the island. Again, arriving at mid day - we waded in high tide water covering the gorgeous beach around the island. Definitely the most beautiful beach we have seen on this trip. Due to the big waves, our boat driver instructed us to meet him on the other side of the island. Little did we know we would have to clamber over treacherous rocks to get there. Barefoot and with two large bags, the three of us scrambled over the rocks, laughing and cursing at the same time. We laughed about how this was supposed to be a relaxing day that turned into death boat ride and shoeless "rock climbing." We found our boat and set off for the journey back, which was shorter however much more terrifying as the waves were white tipped and Alexis had to sit backwards as she couldn't watch. At one point a giant wave crashed into the boat, which inspired an emergency plan we concocted, "we can totally swim, there's the life jackets!" Our Thai driver who had been stone faced all day cracked up at our scream and duck from the large wave that came into our boat. Later looking at a map, we realised that toughest part of our journey was actually right over "Shark Point" - which many day trips are advertised that if you don't see a shark then you get your money back. Needless to say, we were veryyy happy to be back on land. Despite our efforts to make this a pain free leisurely day trip - it was absolutely out most Struggle Cityyy moment to date.

Bamboo Island

Thai Boats in Phi Phi

Struggly Cityyy at Bamboo Island

Struggle Cityyy at the Look Out

We had an adventurous afternoon climbing to the Phi Phi look out, enjoyed a nice dinner and went out for one last night on Phi Phi. Although we had an incredible time, we were all ready to leave and really excited to get to Koh Samui and Koh Tao!

Xoxo
Laura, Alexis & Kerri

Koh Samuai

Koh Samui

Leaving Phi Phi early in the morning, we took a ferry to Koh Samuai, the biggest and most populated of the southern Thailand islands. Samuai reminded us of Bali, very built up and many resorts. We arrived in the evening after a long day of travel.



Once we arrived we caught a cab to our hotel on the other side of the island and had a relaxing evening. We walked around and enjoyed the night markets. We tried to book a tour for the next day but were unable too as they were completely full due to the influx of tourists for Chinese New Year. So we slept in then explored in our own. The waves were much bigger on Samui and the beach was pretty packed. After some exploring and beach time we went to the night markets again and did some shopping! Overall the 36 hours we spent in Samuai was fun, but because we had a great time not because we did anything fantastic there. We were pleased with our planning as all we needed was the day there. The next morning, off to see Lisa on Koh Tao!!