Once I returned to teaching in Saikeaw I knew that my
next weeks will be calmer as I will stay here until the end of my volunteer
program. The third work week passed quickly. Days at school were busy and I was
focused on getting to know my students better. In my free time I searched for
lessons’ materials that will be both informative and interesting and planned my
weekend trip to the “famous south”. My friend Javier was visiting Thailand and
we tried to match our travelling paths at least for a weekend. What a cool idea
to meet up on the other side of the world and explore the unknown together. :) Due
to adverse weather the trip was different from what we expected, but still it
was a memorable weekend.
The trip was quite long. In order to get reach Bangkok I
had to take an overnight bus on Thursday evening. A bit hesitant on that, but
left with no other choice I left Prasat around 10pm and quickly fell asleep in
a comfortable chair with massage… Around 4am I arrived to Bangkok and took a
colorful taxi to the airport – taxis in Bangkok have all colors of the rainbow
– starting from standard yellow to orange, flashy pink or green. J My flight was comfortable
and around 8:30am I arrived to Krabi. I was welcomed by rain… That’s not
exactly what I expected, but as always I tried to stay positive. We met with
Javier and Felipe at their hostel and took a boat to Koh Phi Phi island. We
planned to stay one night in Koh Phi Phi, take a morning boat around to see Phi
Phi Leh and spend the next night in the mainland, in Ao Nang.
So how was the amazingly beautiful Koh Phi Phi island? Not
too impressive under the rain I must say… Due to weather conditions boat trips
were cancelled and we didn’t manage to see the Phi Phi Leh with the paradise
beach. Also the day after, when we were supposed to leave the island we learned
that due to wind and high waves there are no boats today… Some people scared us
that last time it happened it lasted 5 days, but luckily for us the day after
everything was working. After we heard that one boat sank in the morning we
haven’t searched for alternative ways to leave the place…
So what do you do when stranded on an island? Thai people
took care of that – along the streets were dozens of tiny shops offering
souvenirs, clothes, tattoos, Thai massages, beauty treatments etc. During our
two days on the island we walked around those, bought some gifts and enjoyed
the massages. Thai people we met there had a real entrepreneurship spirit and
would try to sell you as much as possible… You could feel that they were very
friendly, but not because of their hospitality, but because we brought them
money. What would I expect? Some decency I guess… I was especially disappointed
with restaurants. Not only we paid at least two times higher price comparing to
what I’m used to pay in the north, but the portions we were served were very
small and not very tasty… Adding to that service of poor quality didn’t make
our restaurants’ visit very successful. The last night was the only exception –
even if weird waiter served us the meals were delicious and we even received a
free lesson of Thai language – a printed page listing a few basic expressions
to communicate, so called survival vocabulary.
Luckily, the night life on the island didn’t slow down in
the rainy weather and this saved our weekend J While walking in the rain in the search of
pancakes ;) on our first night we randomly found a bar with a ring and Thai
boxing fights. It appeared that anyone interested could fight, even the
tourists – for what they would receive a bucket of alcohol. And the later in
the night the more tipsy tourists would try their luck fighting on the ring. I couldn’t’
believe in it, especially because just before we entered we saw a young man
knocked out – carried outside by a few other guys who put him on a small rickshaw explaining him
and his terrified girlfriend (as I assumed) directions to hospital… But still,
people were very courageous and watching the fights was a lot of fun for us. A
special show was when we saw two girls fighting on the ring. One of them was
pretty good, while the second one did kind of dance / attempt to fight... Once midnight struck we started birthday
celebration for Javier and the night was a lot of fun.
The night after just before heading home to get an early
sleep we went to the beach which was supposedly a place to be in the evenings… And
there the real Koh Phi Phi opened its door to us welcoming us to a crazy night…
People were dancing everywhere along the beach, each of the bars played its own
music styles and offered a different atmosphere. But most of the crowds were
focused at the entrance, more explicitly where crazy fires games where –
burning ring, bar, jumping rope were the main attractions! I’ve never seen
something like that before J
On Sunday the sun finally shined over the island, but for
us it was the time to leave… We enjoyed the various attractions Koh Phi Phi
offered to us and will certainly go back once again to appreciate the nature
wonders we would missed on this time. I was going back reflecting if the atmosphere
in all tourist places in Thailand is similar… Although I had a lot of fun I had
a feeling that I didn’t experience any real culture during the weekend. I was very
happy to return back “home”, where people were naturally friendly, the food was
spicy & delicious and my lunch costs less than one euro ;)
A few pictures from the weekend:
The adventurers!
View from my bungalow
Koh Phi Phi pier on a windy morning
The famous beach as we don't see it on postcards...
Leaving the island
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