Health and Medicine

Sawat dii!

Flew out from Kuala Lumpur to Krabi, Thailand – Wahoo! Met Alex, a Brit from London, also in the queue for immigration. Semi-shitting our pants as we have no proof of onward travel whatsoever. Made it through safe and well with no questions asked – phew! Alex convinces us to come with him to Koh Phi Phi and seeing as we have no plan or idea where to go yet we decide to jump on board.

Many a chang beer later we approach Ko Phi Phi Don by boat, a breathtakingly beautiful tropical idyll on the Andaman Coast. White sandy beaches aplenty locked in by dramatic karst limestone cliffs, lush jungle and surrounded by clear turquoise waters. In the midst of it all a gentle sweeping curve of perfect powder sand – Ton Sai Bay. This place is truly postcard material! Little did we know that its reputation as a tropical paradise enjoys fame worldwide, bringing vast crowds to its shores every day to party it up – looks like the place to be!

We settle into our guesthouse, a place in the heart of the village near Ao Loh Dalum. Our luggage follows soon thereafter in its own purpose built box trailer – nice. We head off to the centre of village activity and buy a few vodka buckets from the many stalls that line the streets. A toxic mix of home-brewed vodka, industrial strength Red Bull and a splash of Coke, served on ice in a sand bucket. We wander around picking up flyers of tonights specials while steadily sipping from the many straws of our buckets. The waterfront is lined with seafood resto’s, people drinking on the street, sheepishly carrying their buckets from bar to bar – Party Central it seems.

We end up at “Hippy’s Bar”, who’s offering free buckets of Sangsom, a cheap and particularly nasty Thai Whiskey, Coke and ice – we get one each – lethal stuff! We sit at a table, listening to the tunes blasting, people dancing and drinking, scoring, buckets everywhere, competitions and even, yes, a live Kung Fu show – gotta love this place. Walking back we pass an Irish pub with oodles of noodles on offer outside and drunkenly scoff plat after plate of this heavenly (free) food to satisfy our munchies. Off to Tiger Bar next to get another free bucket – in the space of just ten minutes the bartender lines up ten sand buckets and fills them up in one flow – smooth operator. Lost Alex along the way somewhere – he was trollied big time. Stumbled home, after stopping in for more noodles of course. Huge night and great vibes. Didn’t spend a cent after our first round of buckets and had an absolute blast! You can get fed and pissed for free night after night if you time it right – this is the life. We can get used to this!

Awoke at noon – ravenous and not even the slightest hangover (thanks to them noodles). Headed down to Cosmic with Alex for brekkie. After a mighty feed we hit the beach at the other side, where the isthmus is so narrow both beaches almost meet. Overcast but the temperature is pleasant enough to sunbathe and read on the beach, sipping on cold watermelon shakes and digging our toes into the warm soft sand – bliss!

Time to get ready for yet another big night - everyday is Friday here so we’re confident we can find some fun. “Hey sexy boy, sexy girl, you want massage?” the girls from the local massage parlour wail in unison. We stop off at another Cosmic Bar (how many does this tiny island need? Really) and order Panang Curry for only 80 baht – the meanest curry we’ve had so far. One of the bars screens movies and tonight “the Beach” is on – a story about a bunch of people who seek the ultimate paradise (safely assuming everyone knows about this one =). This flick is particularly popular here as most of the beach scenes were filmed at nearby Maya Bay, on Ko Phi Phi Leh – an uninhabited sister island of Phi Phi Don, a mere 20 minutes away by longtail boat and focus of a great many day trips here. The widespread controversy this movie has caused among many Thai greenies is less well-known as extensive parts of the Phi Phi Leh jungle were effectively refurbished to make the location look more “natural” for the movie, despite the island being under marine park “protection”. A recurring theme in Thailand we find out later.

Between bars we pass a man hand in hand with a gibbon monkey dressed in funky beach shorts and a wifebeater shirt – incredibly random. Slightly bemused by this strange sight we ask if we can take a photo of the cute couple as a memento. But the guy wants hard cash for this favor and by the time we realise which way the wind blows the monkey is sitting on Guido’s shoulder. Not all that keen to encourage this sort of animal profiteering we kindly decline but by doing so clearly upset the monkey. Mr. Gibbon promptly jumps off & runs away crying, and climbs into his shopping basket at the front of his get-away bicycle, furiously gesturing to the man to take him home. Talk about monkey throwing a tantrum!

Another day at the beach. The sun has finally broken through the cloud cover and we feel an intense heat – welcome summer! We forego our usual beach spots and walk past Hippie’s Bar on Ton Sai side and crawl around the rocks to Long beach, aptly named because it’s indeed quite long, lined with fine powdery white sand and blessed with azure blue clear water – simply a stunner compared to where we came from. We go for our first snorkel of the trip, lovely warm water, friendly tropical fish with the likes of many parrotfish and butterfly fish, and lots of dead coral. A bit further the scene changes remarkably however, Shark point – a rocky outcrop with resident blacktip reef sharks and some very good coral. Jelly fish are so omnipresent and we swim through a thick soup of them, getting stung like crazy. Nothing better than a 40 baht ice, cold fruit shake to temper those stings and burns as we make our way back as the sun sets behind those immense limestone cliffs.

Home to refresh, then out for all you can eat buffet dinner ($220 baht) – prawns, tuna steak, pad thai, sashimi, tempura, vege, Tom Yum soup, chicken kebabs…washed down with a giant Chang beer. Time for a movie at the 007 movie bar – Casino Royale this time round, not bad. A minimum order of 100 baht applies to help out with their electricity bill (which must be up there with all those plasma screens), but we do away with a fruit shake. Hippies Bar for free buckets & bar snacks while the DJ works his magic as the night comes alive. A fire show comes past with fire poi’s, fire sticks and the works handled by some of the best performances we’ve seen so far. The smaller the island the more time they have to practice =). “Firestarter” and other great tunes spur the guys on to go faster, harder and better… “Blue Moon Bar” tops the night with free vodka buckets and we watch him pour it – shitloads of vodka, ice and rocket fuel Red Bull – a potent one! We share, while sitting on the beach chairs in the sand, singing along to Billy Jean and other great tunes, while getting nicely toasted. Enjoy a good boogie to our trip theme song “destination unknown” amongst the Tiki torches in the water – sensational! Another groundhog day in paradise!