When In Thailand, You Have to Phi Phi

After the trek back from Cambodia and a short rest in the Phuket airport we headed off on a ferry to the phi phi islands. Contrary to the spelling, phi phi is actually pronounced pee pee.  But dont worry, the name is not descriptive of the place, but this picture will give you a little taste...of Phi Phi.

On an island like this we did everything you should do - boat rides, hiking around the island, drinking fresh island juices, snorkeling, cliff jumping in the dark, swimming in the water..which was actually so warm it was barely refreshing in the 90 degree heat and humidity!  But the color is so alluring, the clear greenish blue shades that light up brilliantly when the sun hits the water.

While we were there we did a boat tour around the island where we rode all the way around the island on this cool long tail boat as they call them.

Along the way we stopped at a place called monkey beach.  Not sure where the name came from but it could be due to the monkeys swarming this place, they own this part of the island!

Monkey and baby!!

Cousins??

Monkey takeover!!

Passing by some caves where they collect birds nest that are made by the birds saliva and many Asian countries believe it to have healing powers.  They make millions of dollars on this because it can sold for $2,500 per kg!  They sell birds nest soup anywhere from $30 to $100 a bowl.  Nuts! Im thinking of getting into the industry.

Then we went to the maya beach which is the famous beach over there where 'The beach' was filmed with our good old friend Leo. 

After the maya beach we watched the sun set over the ocean with these crazy shaped islands in the background.

Seriously how do islands take on those shapes??

We finished up the boat tour with one of our favorite parts- swimming with the plankton! In this bay there are a bunch of plankton and so we jumped out of the boat in the complete darkness and as you swim you see these lights dance around you like little fire flies.  If only pictures could capture it, it felt like an under water rave.  

***side note about Phi Phi for anyone planning to go there.  Very touristy and the food is terrible (unless you get seafood) everything else is definitely the tourist version of everything, which means a wide variety of bland food.  It comes with the territory when you have restaurants everywhere offering a menu of Italian, thai, Israeli, Chinese, american, and basically everything else.  But it's still a very beautiful place - I just stuck to the most basic of food so I wouldn't be disappointed.  And it's all pretty cheap (not as cheap as northern Thailand though) so what can you expect!

After phi phi islands we took another ferry to krabi. Krabi is a beach city that has a total local feel to it due to it's awesome markets with some of the most unique and colorful fruits we have ever seen and it's lack of tourists. We spent a couple days exploring krabi and even had crab on krabi! Not only did it seem like the right thing to do in Krabi, but it was only $7!

Krabi!! Just as us would suspect. 

When is asia, Eat this.

Not this:

Yes that's a hot dog wrapped in the pizza crust!! I mean, not even America has taken it that far!!

Trying all sorts of authentic fruits they cut up and wrap for you right on the spot!

Checking out the local markets and trying new foods there was our favorite!

Oh the mangos in Thailand...better than anything!!

Krabi was an awesome place to find your own authentic adventures, since there isn't a whole lot laid out for you to do due to the non-tourism place that it is.  And a great place for elephant riding - which was a highlight of our lives!!! Sooo much fun and sooo cool to trek through the jungle on this bad boy.  We each got to take turns in the captians seat! Our elephant was the best and in honor if Thanskgiving we named him Mr. Mashed Potatoes. And after much thought and consideration decided we would not eat him for our thanksgiving meal.

We got to feed him leaves and bananas!

One of our favorite authentic adventures we did was finding this place called the Tiger Caves.  Although surprisingly there are no tigers there (real ones), there is a gigantic 1,257 stair climb (but who's counting) you can do to the top of a mystical mountain where they have a golden temple built that monks come up to worship. Im guessing only the most dedicated and physically fit monks dare to do this.  We did, and it was worse than we thought! The stairs aren't normal stairs, no, each stair is a climb and probably about 2-3 feet high at times!! But the top has an amazing view that made it worth it.  And the eerie jungle sounds coupled with chanting monks down below us made for a cool atmosphere. 

This is normal decor in thailand...awesome

Proof!!

These were steep and high stairs!! Not even the stairmaster can compare.  I promise it looks and is worse in person!

The climb above the clouds 

At the top! So rad! Try to imagine crazy echoey jungle sounds as you look at this 

The daunting way back down 

Another thing that made the hike worth it was the fact that it was Thanskgiving and although we knew most Asian food was a far cry from succulent turkey and mashed potatoes, we knew of a McDonalds we could hit up to truly show our national pride!  We planned to pig out, and the long, strenuous hike beforehand made us feel that much more justified and ready for it!

Thanksgiving feast!!

Aww yeah!! Happy Thanksgiving!

On our way to our next destination we stopped off for a stroll in au ngong. The drive over there is so incredible as you go through this jungle forest right along the ocean and pass these awesome rocks that have jutted out of flat land high up into the air and are completely out of place making them look all the more radistical. 

We were heading back to Phucket, but on the way is a Phang Nga which is by a cool national park and the closest place to leave for a tour to James Bond island.  Not sure which James bond movie it's in or even if it is in one - maybe its a good gimic to get people to go to an island that's no where near anything else ;) perhaps someone out there will recognize it.  

Anybody anybody?

We were headed off to Myanmar/Burma next but before we headed off to that magical place, we had to hit up something that we had heard rumors of. What were these rumors, well, let me tell you, they involved can-canning elephants and that is all we needed to hear to make sure that we did not miss out on 'Fantasea', the show of the century. So the day before we flew out we made it back to Phuket purely for the fantasea show and hit that up all night. Were there can-canning elephants? Well, we were strictly not allowed to bring cameras in so I guess it will be hard to prove. But kind of. And the show was alright, things got a little weird, but the music and ambiance around the theme park reminded us of being in a tiny, weird, Asian themed mini-Disneyland. So we felt at home :)  Besides the big show they had mini stages outside that they had dance performances on.  Well after one had finished they still had music playing so we decided to jump up on stage and start dancing around...sometimes synchronized and sometimes doing cartwheels and whatever felt right.  Well it was hilarious because I don't know if some people really thought it was an actual show being put on, but we started to draw an audience and even had a couple people recording us like it really was a performance! Haha it was hilarious, but pretty sad if they really thought we were an act they had paid money to see.  

What kind of character is this?!

We are in there somewhere!

Now off to burma we go!

Angkor My Wat - Cambodia

Something about street food in Bangkok AFTER an eight hour bus ride then FOLLOWED by another six hour mini-bus ride on a windy, bumpy road just don't mix.  Keep in mind that mini-bus means a smaller bus, but they tend to try and cram the same amount of people in it as they would a large bus. We learned that the hard way.  At this stage of our trip it was my turn to be sick...and it was horrible timing!

Atleast the night bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok looked like a club.  The mini bus didnt even try to look good, I don't have pictures unfortunately!

So after the six hour mini-bus ride that majorly sucked we made it to the Thai-Cambodian border.  Coincidently enough the mini bus drops you off at this "office" where there are Thai "unofficials" telling you that you have to buy your Cambodian Visa there and that it's your last chance to get it.  Totally not true and they try to charge you $50 for it! Luckily Robby was Onto them and we told them to shove it.  And  so we walked to Cambodia and purchased a $20 visa there :) 

Borderline! The Kingdom awaits!

The border at Cambodia felt like olden days. People pulling carts and oxen all over.  And a lot of people were just wandering around barefoot.  Such a different world!

From the border Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is) was another two hours by taxi. But we made it! I had never felt more exhausted/disgusting/sick in my life.  Or at least if I have I blocked it from memory.  We got to our hostel and immediately crashed.  Although it was probably in the 90s outside with 100% humidity I slept with full blankets on - I had major chills from a fever!  Robby took care of me though and some how in the morning after lots of  sleep we woke up feeling a little better.  It was a good thing too because we only had one full day in Angkor Wat and we needed to make the most of it!

Siem Reap was absolutely incredible!  You could bike around the whole day looking at all the ruins and temples but due to our current state we opted to have a Tuk Tuk take us.  This guy chauffeured us around the entire day by carriage! It felt like the good ole days in our previous life when we were King and Queen of Malaysia.  

Three major temples/areas make up the temples of Siem Reap.  This one temple area Ta Prohm they also call Tomb Raider now because that's where much of it was filmed.  Another temple called the Bayon (our favorite) and then the massive Angkor Wat temple itself.  We wandered around all these places in awe - I totally felt like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider.  Except totally different. And just ignore the fact that I hadn't showered that day, we were both covered in sweat, I had a massive fro from the humidity, and we were just straight up nasty.  Between being sick and the fact that Cambodia makes Thailand feel like a cool summer breeze with it's heat and humidity - this was full on brutality.   But Who cares how we looked - we were just happy to be able to move that day considering how we were feeling.  As we were exploring there were multiple times when both Robby and I would say to the other "hold on I think I'm gonna throw up" and then have to walk away and prepare for the worst.  Miraculously neither of us did and we were able to see everything we wanted to see!  

Cool ruins in Ta Prohm

Trees grew straight out of the structures, so cool!!

The was all the tomb raider area, then we headed to Bayon.  My favorite!!

Bayon! This temple had cool statues and faces carved inside.  It had almost an eerie and super ancient feel about it!  Definitely unlike anything we've seen. I feel like I keep saying that but it's true!

We look how we feel! ;)

Then there was the huge Angkor Wat temple.  This all probably looks the same to you, but each place had a little bit of a different feel! 

Angkorwat!! Disclaimer: this one isn't our picture, one of the spires in the front was under construction when we visited - not as picturesque so I stole this one.  But this is it!

From the inside looking out

Robby thinking he might puke

They had these huge lion/guard dog statues...with great butts!

They say the best time to see Angkor wat is at sunrise!

At night there are a ton of night markets and some actually really cool streets with a ton of restaurants and bars.  We could see how this would be a backpackers paradise! We roamed around and were able to shop for a while and even tried to eat our first meal in two days (I hadn't eaten anything but crackers and soda since we left Chiang Mai! And Robby was keepin it light too since he was starting to feel sick).  My favorite spot in the night area is this street that has a ton of umbrellas tied to one another going all the way down! It looked so cool!! I Love little creative things like that that makes a city stand out :)

So cool!!

After that full day in Cambodia, the next morning it was time to take a bus BACK to Bangkok.  I know, this was the fastest we had to travel the entire trip! But we were really able to see all we wanted to see there in one day.  This time back we went on a big bus and after taking some drowsy dramamine and knocking out it wasn't too bad ;) we got to bangkok where we were supposed to take a night train to Phuket.  Well, once we got to the station we were notified that due to high water all trains that direction were canceled!!! They didn't even know when the trains would be up and running.  Both of us shuttered at the thought of having to book a twelve hour bus to get to Phuket now.  I would've paid a lot more than $100 bucks for a direct flight from Bangkok to Phuket that night, but luckily that was all we had to pay for some last minute flights.  And just like that our travel time to Phuket went from twelve hours to two.  Although, we were actually really looking forward to the night train! It had beds and everything! Once in Phucket it was about one in the morning and since we planned to take a ferry to Phi Phi islands that morning at 8am you better believe we slept on the third floor of the Phuket Airport that night.  This airport was my least favorite of all airport accommodations, but what kept us going was knowing that the next day we would be frolicking on a beautiful island!