A Journey to Thailand and Japan: Day Five
May 20th, 2008My friends Siam and Meow went off to Bangkok to get married. A group of us decided to go to the ceremony and get a chance to see a part of the world we’d never been before. So, we bought the plane tickets and set off on our grand adventure!
PHI-PHI: PRONOUNCED ‘PEE-PEE’
It’s another early morning for us. I don’t think we ever actually get to sleep in late during the whole trip. But today is pretty exciting: We’re going to Phuket! It’s an island off the west coast of Thailand. We go to the airport and board our plane. Today we’re flying Nok Air, “the Southwest Airlines of Thailand”. Well, it’s almost like Southwest Airlines. There’s no free peanuts or soft drinks, so that’s a minus. However, the flight attendants are all young, female, and attractive. So, that’s a plus.
It’s only an hour and a half to get to Phuket. We land, and it’s raining. Not good! The whole point of being here is to enjoy the beach and soak up the sun! Note meets us at the airport, and we’re off to get some lunch. We stop at a restaurant and Note orders up the food.
I’m going to stop right here and say this is one of the best meals I’ve ever had. We’re on the island, so you expect the seafood to be fresh. It’s fresh, and fantastic. First up is Tom Yum soup with seafood. It’s freaking amazing. Also on the table is some fresh fish, some gigantic prawns, and various other dishes. They’re all unbelievably good, not to mention spicy. This is the first meal I’ve had in Thailand where I’ve had to take a break from the spice. But it’s so good that it’s hard to stop. I’m in love with Phuket already.
The rain seems to be letting up a bit, and we continue onward. We’ve been informed that there is a typhoon heading toward Myanmar (which is pretty close to where we are), but we’re not in the path. Whew!
We’re not actually staying in Phuket today. We’re taking a ferry to the Phi Phi Islands. This is the most touristy place that we’re going on our trip. Note loads us up on the ferry and takes off — she has to work! It’s an hour and a half to get there by boat, and it’s full of tourists. In particular, there’s a group of women from England being pretty obnoxious. Nobody likes them, and they singlehandedly make me never want to go back to England for a long time. Plus, I’ve been surrounded by Asians for so long, it’s kind of shocking to see so many white people. You almost start to forget that you are white. But then, you run into people like these women, and that illusion goes out the window.
We catch sight of the main Phi Phi island, and it’s really spectacular. The island seems to explode from the sparkling green water. It’s mountainous and lush. We arrive on land, and our resort is about 50 feet from the pier. We all check into our rooms and immediately head out to the beach. The tide is out…. really out. You can walk for hundreds of feet before hitting water. We hang out and take pictures. Kids are clam digging. It’s very peaceful.
Once we’re done with the beach, we explore the island. There’s only one walkway on the whole island, and it’s full of restaurants. We walk the full path in about ten minutes, and decide on a nice-looking seafood restaurant (what else?). Siam and Meow order food for us, and it’s pretty good. The only thing wrong is that we’re surrounded by tourists. Oh well, what can you do?
After dinner, we walk back to the hotel. Meow makes us stop by a Rotee (”Thai pancake”) stand for dessert. These are pieces of dough flattened out, fried, then doused with sweetened condensed milk. Man, they’re good! I think I like them more than Thai tacos.
We’re all pretty tired by this point. Once at the hotel, we hand out in Alex and Neff’s room for a bit and eat some fruit. My favorite is mangosteen: it’s sweet and juicy. A pretty good finish to the day. We retire to our rooms and pass out immediately.