05.10-15.10: 'Welcome to my paradice'

We got up early the next morning, and got picked up by the shuttle bus that took us to the harbor at Padang Bay. We had a quick breakfast there, before boarding our fast boat. 2 hours later we jumped off in Gili Trawangan. We decided to leave our backpacks at a restaurant so we could go in search of accommodation without too much hassle. We found a quiet and decent place up in the ‘village’ that offered free breakfast until 11.15. Hehe. Jono wanted to check out the waves on the east side of the island, so we went out exploring. Later on that evening, due to the overcast weather, we found a restaurant where you can sit in a private hut and watch pirated DVDs of your choice while you eat dinner. AwesomeJ

The next day we walked down to the beach for some sun tanning and snorkeling. Maja snorkeled for the first time with Jono as her teacher, and loved it. The conditions were perfect; crystal clear blue water on top of white sand, beautiful coral and loads of brightly colored reef fish. After realizing we were about to get seriously sunburned, we headed back for a shower. Back at the room we met a French girl who was staying in the room next to ours. She was travelling by herself and since we were both heading out we asked her if she would like to join us. Jono was set on eating wood oven pizzas that night, so a couple of minutes later we found ourselves eating amazing mushroom (no magic) pizzas. We had been discussing heavy topics like religion, politics and eating disorders for a few hours before we realized that we didn’t even know each other’s names. The typical backpacking introduction has more to do with ‘where are you from?’, ‘how long have you been travelling?’ and ‘where have you been so far?’, rather than names and age. Now we know that her name was Alex, so we’ll try to not refer to her as ‘that French girl’.

The following day was a lazy one (again). We mostly sat around on the beach, Jono snorkeling and Maja bargaining hard for a Lombok pearl necklace. We were only planning on staying on Gili Trawangan for two nights or so, but we really enjoyed the place, and couldn’t see any good reason to move just yet. This island is supposed to be the ‘party island’ out of the three Gili Islands, but that is only one side to it. This place is so laidback and chilled, with no cars or motorbikes (the transportation consists of bicycles or horse and cart). There is a great selection of restaurants and accommodation, but without much hassle. The locals are lazy but friendly. We’re battling to understand what a lot of them do for a living, since many of them just sit on the side of the street all day with a guitar singing made up songs that basically go like ‘Hellooo… where are you goiiiiing? How are yooooooou? Have a good holidaaaay’. We have heard rumors that the song ‘Welcome to my paradice’ was written about Gili Islands, and it’s easy to believe.

On our fourth day on Gili T we decided to rent bicycles and ride around the island. It was more dragging the bicycles through the sand more than riding, but worth doing anyway. The island is quite small, and it only takes about two hours to ride/drag around it. This day was actually a bit rainy with a cooler temperature something that was greatly appreciated since the last couple of days have been insanely hot. We haven’t invested in air con in our room, and the one fan that we have doesn’t really reach all the way to the bed, so we are now longing for a good night sleep. We have now developed a system which Jono calls strategic sleeping. Every night we buy two solid frozen water bottles. Jono takes an ice shower before going to bed, while Maja soaks her sarong in water and tries to fit her whole body underneath it. We then cuddle the ice bottles until they melt (which usually takes under one and a half hours). We have also established that it helps to move around in the bed so that you don’t sleep in the same spot and warm it up where the mattress absorbs the heat. It is obviously also essential to not let any body parts touch each other. After a few nights like this we had to ask ourselves if it is all worth the effort to save 60-70 rand/kroner on not having air condition.

On day five Jono went on a snorkeling trip in a glass bottom boat, which visited the three Gili Islands. He was accompanied by Alex and her friend from Germany Carina, who is also staying next our room. The diving was exceptional, and the boat stopped on multiple dive sites around the islands. We saw lots of coral, giant clams, lots of turtles, sea snakes and fish of all colors, shapes and sizes. That night we went out to dinner with Carina at one of Gili T’s biggest party places Rudy’s pub, and evening turned out to be quite magical…

The next day Maja woke up sick. Carina was puking in her room as well, and since Alex had been sick the day before, we blame her:P Jono had to spend the day nursing Maja back to health. The next morning she was almost as good as new, the only exception being a strange rash that had taken over her arms and back. It looked pretty freaking and itched like hell, so we decided to seek professional advice. After visiting two clinics, gotten Maja’s blood pressure measured twice and argued the doctor blue in the face about whether or not she had diarrhea, we found ourselves back in the room with a whole lot of funny creams and different colored pills. Maja decided to skip the diarrhea pills (since she never claimed to have diarrhea in the first place), and ate the allergy pills instead. Later that morning Jono walked down to the harbor to ask when the Island Hopping boat leaves for Gili Air. The guy selling tickets could inform him that the first boat in the morning leaves at 10.30 and the next one leaves at three. Since it was already midday we had no choice but to wait for the three o clock boat. Down at the harbor at three o clock however they could now tell us that no, there are no boats at three. The second departure is at four. This wasn’t too big of a deal since we were hungry anyway, and we decided to sit down for lunch. When we came back to the harbor at four however, the boat had already left. We asked if there were no other departures before next morning at 10.30, and they told us that it wasn’t and that the morning departure was not 10.30 but 09.30. Irritated about this asian perception of time, we took our backpacks back to our room and booked in for another night. The next morning we thought it would be better to be extra early, and met up at the harbor at 09.15. This morning the boat had decided to leave at 09.00. We started to get second thoughts about this whole project. Were we not supposed to go to Gili Air? We managed to get on the four o clock boat however, but only after stubbornly sitting at the harbor more than an hour in advance.

The boat trip to Gili Air took about 45 minutes. The wind here is pretty crazy, and the waves banged against the side of the boat, wetting everyone and their possessions with salt water. One unhappy traveler sitting in the front of the boat was particularly soaked, he became more and more miserable with each splash. Maja thought this poor guy was so funny that she even took a sneaky photo of the guy. On Gili Air we walk quite a distance to check into a little bamboo hut, where we were promised we could see the surf if there was any. Maja decided to take a nap while Jono went for a jog around the island to see if there was anything worth seeing. The island is very small and can be walked around within two hours. Along the way Jono spotted the place he wanted to take Maja for dinner. It was a cool chilled little place on the beach, with a projector screening a movie. We were amazed by the excellent service, delicious food and the fact that we even got free pop corn. The next morning the wind was still howling, which ruined any chance for a surf. However, the main beach was pretty protected, so Maja had her second snorkeling lesson. She was very excited to see her beloved box fish, even though it was behaving (as she described) ‘like a nerd’, hiding underneath the coral. Jono saved the day by chasing him out, making Maja a lot happier than the poor harassed box fish. That night we went back to our movie place. Once again the food was amazing, and just when we started to wonder where our free popcorn was, the waiter came with lollipops. No complains! We decided to have an early night so that we could head off to Gili Meno the next morning, but when the alarm went off at 06.30 Maja quickly decided that it would be perfectly acceptable to catch the afternoon boat instead and Jono didn’t need much convincing. We killed a few hours at the beach before we jumped on the boat, and 15 minutes later we arrived at Gili Meno. Here we followed Lonely Planet’s advice (for the first time in Indonesia) and took into a nice bungalow on the beach. Jono fell madly in love with Meno within minutes, and claims it is his favorite island so far. It is the smallest one of the Gili Islands, so there are not many tourists around. The locals are very laidback, and since there is only a handful restaurants and ‘resorts’, there is nothing much to do here except relaxing. Jono is convinced that each reef he dives on is better than the next, and it’s been hard to get the goggles off of his face since the minute we stepped on the island. The only complain we have about this island is the noise. There seems to be a constant noise competition going on between the toke-geckos, the roosters, the cats and ‘that dude’. The toke-geckos are quite tolerable compared to the roosters that sound like they have a throat infection. In addition to that they have no sense of time, so even though their main show goes off at five in the morning they keep the screaming up more or less 24/7. The cats basically own the island since there are no dogs here. Their tales have all been broken or cut off by the locals, due to some strange Asian superstition. We don’t know if this is the reason, but the cats keep moaning like their dying, and it all sounds pretty disturbing. ‘That dude’ is in a league of his own. Allah only knows why he feels it is necessary to scream at the top of his lungs through his distorted speakers at twelve minutes past three in the morning. Or whenever else he feels like it. Usually 6-8 times a day. For about half an hour each time. We have now spent two nights here on Gili Meno, and tonight will be our final night. We plan to catch the ferry early tomorrow morning (that is if Maja can wake up in time) to go back to Gili Trawangan, and if all goes as planned we should be back in Bali tomorrow afternoon.

30.09 - 04.10: Bali romance

We arrived in Denpasar airport at around nine in the evening, and realized that we had no US dollars (or rupiers for that matter) to pay for the Indonesian visa, we needed to get through the passport control. We were however allowed to go to the ATM if we left our passports at the visa counter. We were standing at the ATM mocking it saying how ridiculous it was that it only wanted to give us 50.000 notes and that the fees were so high to draw money. The machine obviously heard us, because not only did it refuse to give us money, but it didn’t feel like giving us the card back either. At this point you start getting nervous, because you find yourself stuck between a grumpy machine and unfriendly Balinese people in the passport control, without money OR passports. After five minutes of pushing different buttons (Maja) and banging the machine (Jono), Jono decided to go and get help while Maja hang around the machine in case the card would miraculously come back out. And it did. Now how often does that happen? In the meantime Jono had sneakily taken our passports from the unguarded counter, deciding it was better to just walk the border post now and deal with it later. By the time he came back however, Maja had already taken money out in another ATM (a more cooperative one), and we could both wipe our horrified expressions off our faces, and go through the passport control. Legally. Now we just had to cross our fingers that no one and snuck any drugs into our backpacks, since that most likely would get us into even more trouble than an eaten credit card. Death penalty for example.

Half an hour later (plus a few fights with come crazy taxidrivers) we found ourselves in our beloved Kuta – Bali. Walking down Legian Street on an ordinary Wednesday night we were met by no less craziness than Kuta had offered us one and a half years ago. Drugs (“Ephedrine? Shrooms?”), prostitution (“Hey, you like young girls?”) and absolutely horribly drunken Australians in Bintang wifebeaters going completely mad. We were very late for dinner, but managed eventually to find a place that still served food. The guest house that we had booked into in Poppies Lane 2 was very close to Legian Street, and as a result to that we didn’t get much sleep the first night. We were repeatedly woken up by drunken idiots shouting “fuck”, “fuck you”, “fuck me”, “fuckety fuck” and the occasional “I’ll fucking kill you” with an Australian accent. So the next morning we got out of the place as quick as possible and started searching for a better one. We found a nice, chilled place (with a pool!) in the middle of Poppies and decided to stay there for a few nights. Since we had more or less skipped breakfast we felt it was acceptable to go out for pizza before we started our day. After, we walked down to check out Kuta beach, before we missioned off to Discovery Mall. We were both really excited to be in Kuta again, and for a long time we managed to fully enjoy the city without getting too irritated with the locals. It was fun to see that not much has changed since last time; all the same fake surf brands, copied dvds, bottle openers shaped like giant wooden penises and the slightly insulting stickers you can buy everywhere. An example of such a sticker is: ‘Stick ya &%!#ing %&¤ in a ØÆ#”ing dogs &%¤Æ!’ We are both unable to imagine who would buy a sticker like this, but we’re suspecting that the people who were keeping us up the first night might be in the target group.   

Next morning we woke up with not many plans, or so Maja thought. Jono however had big plans in mind. The day started with pizza for breakfast (again), followed by a swim on Kuta beach. Then Jono took Maja for a full body massage at a spa. We then headed back to the hotel room and while Maja got ready for the afternoon ahead, Jono went to ‘organize a scooter’ telling Maja he wanted to go and check out the waves at Uluwatu. The scooter was already organized, Jono’s real plans were to make special dinner reservations at a very romantic restaurant where Jono and Maja had their first date together one and a half years ago. A couple of minutes later we were on our way on the scooter heading for Uluwatu. Jono suggested that we stopped at some nearby cliffs overlooking a deserted beach and the ocean. On our way there the weather was starting to turn overcast and it looked like a storm was coming. But the moment we got off the scooter up on the cliff, the sun came through the clouds and showed off the most beautiful sunset. Some special words were shared between Maja and Jono, before Jono got down on his one knee and pulled out of his pocket the ring he had been carrying around in his backpack the entire trip, and proposed. Afterwards we headed off to our restaurant ‘Ketupat’ to celebrate with an engagement dinner. This place has beautiful little huts which had been decorated for the occasion, full of candle lights, placed around a lit up pool. This plus amazing food, great wine and lovely service made this dinner absolutely perfect. The celebration continued at a club where our friend Svein was DJing that night, and several toasts to the happy couple was made before we went back to our hotel to sleep.

The next day started with amazing sushi at Discovery Mall, before we found an internet café so we could share the good news with our families. It warms that everybody is so excited for us!! On our last day in Kuta we went to get Jono an engagement ring down in the art and jewelry side of Legian Street. This day there was a celebration in Kuta, so on our way back we got to see a big parade coming through Legian. Later we went to book boat tickets to Gili Island, before we went to eat dinner at Kuta night market. This place has about 20 restaurants placed around an eating area. When you walk in there all the enthusiastic waiters and waitresses starts shouting and screaming, holding up menus, crabs, lobsters, fish and any other live animal they can get out of their tanks, to make you come and eat at their place. Jono the vegetarian was not so interested, and settled for vegetarian Nasi Goreng and morning glory (that’s water spinach if anyone was confused…). Tomorrow morning we head off to beautiful Gili Trawangan.

25.09-29.09: Still chilling in Koh Phangan

The next morning we still had the scooter for a few hours, so we went to eat lunch at a cool spot by the lake. The food tasted even more amazing than it looked (it looked really good, we added a picture of it), and staff there was super friendly (they even let Jono feed their fish). Back at the resort we basically just got back to what we’ve been doing for several days now; Jono snorkeling on the reef just off the private beach, and Maja reading books in the hammock.
One early evening our Icelandic friends popped up out of nowhere while we were having dinner. We had a nice meal together and they decided to move over to our resort for our last night. We decided to have an early night to make the most out of the following day. We didn’t really manage to make the most out of the day, but we did take a walk to the nearest liquor shop (which is pretty far away) with the ’Icies’ (Jono’s word). On the way there we walked along the road, so on our way back we decided to find a more scenic route, and ended up walking along the beach. The only problem about doing that is that the beach comes to an end and at the point there is a collection of big rocks separating the beaches. There was no turning back at this stage of the game, so we climbed (some of us carrying bottles of wine and rum) our way over the rocks and onto the next beach, which we soon enough realized was not our beach. Again we had to climb through another collection of big rocks. Thorbergur had had enough and through himself to the ocean, convinced it was the easier route, although Maja, Jono and Haukur beat him to the beach. We finally reached our resort, drenched in sweat and with some cuts on our legs, but with both the alcohol and a positive attitude intact. We arrived just in time for the guys to have a quick dive before sunset, and ended the day with a long dinner accompanied by beer and rum for the guys and Thai wine (surprisingly good!!) for Maja.
The next morning the four of us jumped on the ferry, the Icies going to Surat Thani (then catching a bus to Bangkok to see if they could locate Thorbergurs passport which he had left there at the beginning of the trip) and Maja and Jono going back to Koh Samui for one night.
In Koh Samui we took into a hotel close to the pier and went in search of dinner. We ended up eating at a bakery and discovered to our great pleasure that the people there knew what dark bread was, and they even sold it! We bought ourselves a big round bread, and (feeling a little bit extravagant) got ourselves some Philadelphia cream cheese from the grocery shop (expensive, but so worth it). Here, we must also mention the amazing selection of juices. Some examples; spinach juice, broccoli juice, aloe vera juice, purple carrot juice and beetroot juice. We got up early next morning to catch the bus at the harbor which was parked next to the ferry so that we could drive the bus onto the ferry (Asian Logic again). We were allowed to get off the bus to go and sit upstairs at the ferry, and when we got to mainland the bus took us down 4 hours to Hat Yai.
At the bus station in Hat Yai we managed to escape the harassment and abuse from the local tuk-tuk drivers (who seems to be convinced that if the shout and pull you, you will want to catch a ride with them….A.L!). Hat Yai is a pretty cool city with very few tourists. We found a nice (and super cheap) guest house, with a really friendly staff. We took the time to help the staff with some signs they wanted translated to English. With Jono being dyslectic and Maja being Norwegian, we can’t be quite sure if the signs came out grammatically correct, but we are pretty sure they will be more understandable the most of the English signs in Thailand. Anyway, for dinner we decided to go for pizza and found it quite amusing that our vegetarian pizza came with carrots and pies on it. Later we walked around in some of the bigger malls.
The next morning our pre-ordered tuk-tuk picked us up, and took us to Hat Yai International Airport. Having checked in for our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we decided to sit down for breakfast. Whilst enjoying our coffee a long line of little Thai school children walked past. Maja made the fatal mistake of waving back to one of them, not knowing how long the line was. Yip, it turned out the entire school was there, and a few hundred school children later we were still waving, smiling and blowing kisses, wondering if the line was ever going to end. After breakfast we jumped on our two hour flight to Kuala Lumpur where we had a two hour wait (we killed the time with starbucks and episodes of ‘according to Jim’), before we caught our final flight… next stop; Bali, Indonesia!

20.09-24.09: A.L

On our last day in Koh Samui we walked to pier in the morning to hire a scooter from there. We went to a travel agency to get ferry and bus tickets, before we headed off to check out the most popular beach in Koh Samui; Hat Chaweng. We are really enjoying the scooter missions. Jono is an excellent driver, and Maja is a backseat cameraman. At Chaweng we had a drink on the beach, entertained by all the flash expensive resorts and the sunburned, overweight, speedo wearing jetsetters. We also made a mission to the mall to eat dinner and so Maja could satisfy her craving for Dunkin Donuts. The next morning we were going to the pier to catch the ferry to Koh Phangan. Jono made trip number one with his backpack and the surfboard and then drove back to fetch Maja. In the mean time Maja had gotten a phone call (a guy knocked on the door and without a word just handed me a phone) from the travel agency that inform us that she had written down the wrong departure time for the boat on our tickets, and that we basically had 10 minutes to make it to the pier and get on board. Running out of the bungalow with her big backpack, Jonos smaller backpack, the computer bag, and her own bag with a crazy poodle running after and trying to bite her feet (not wanting us to leave) she met Jono coming back from the pier. We almost forgot to pay for our last night in all the chaos. On our way to the boat there was a road block with some typically difficult looking policemen. We pulled ourselves together and did our best to look like decent people (overloaded and speeding), and were luckily not pulled over. Not so lucky were the two westerners on the scooter in front of us who were not wearing helmets. Fun fact: In Thailand, if two people are travelling on a scooter only the driver needs to wear a helmet. We find this (and a whole lot of other things in Thailand) difficult to understand, and instead of getting upset and frustrated we blame it all on what we call A.L (=Asian Logic). Examples of this can be thinking that they are not bad people for screwing a customer over as long as the customer didn’t realize that he was being screwed, adding meat to your food as a bonus even though you specifically asked for the vegetarian dish, putting a fried egg and a handful of chips on every single meal you order (this includes pizza), decorating your sundae ice cream with cornflakes and raisins and laughing at people who are angry (this one is especially frustrating) .

Anyway, we made it to the pier and luckily for us the boat was delayed. We even had time to sit down for breakfast before jumping on board. In Koh Phangan we found a really cool resort on a private beach (yes, again). The bungalows here are dirt cheap, and come with a beautiful swimming pool! We are especially grateful for this since the ocean here has bathwater temperature. We have spent some very relaxing days here, not even having to leave the resort! Today however we got a bit of a cabin fever, so we decided to hire a scooter to check out the island. We had been driving for about five minutes when (going steep downhill) the back tire blew out. Maja screamed thinking someone was shooting at us (we think this only proves that the innocent and naive Norwegian has spent too much time in South Africa), while Jono was struggling to keep the scooter on the road and we just avoided crashing the whole thing. We then had to drag the scooter back up the hill to the nearest ‘motor bike service-restaurant-accommodation-massage-place’. Jono lent another bike there, took Maja back to the resort and took the owner of the scooter back to sort out the situation. These kinds of situations are always uncomfortable since the owner of the scooter is holding your passport as a deposit and thinks it’s perfectly reasonable that you pay for the damages since you were the one on the scooter when the worn out tire blew out (ah, another good example of A.L). We are sure we make it quite clear that we aren’t paying a single cent, but of course you never know. Suppose it will just have to be a surprise when we later go to settle our bill. Anyway, we hired another scooter and had a beautiful drive around on the island.   

15.09-19.09: Skål to Iceland!

When we got off the ferry at Koh Samui our plan was to get a taxi and head off to Lonely Planet’s favorite beach Hat Mae Nam, since we were looking for some peace and quiet. On our way from Krabi we had met two guys from Iceland who were also heading to Koh Samui. Walking from the pier, we saw the two of them at the tourist information desk. We walked over to see where they were heading, hoping we could share a taxi. The thai lady at tourist information recommended this beach, ‘Lipa Noi beach’, that was not even mentioned in our beloved Lonely Planet. She told us that the place we had picked out had waaaaay to many people, and that we would be better off choosing her beach. Usually this is when you know you’ll be better off choosing any place but that, but since the Icelandic guys were going there and we didn’t have any plans we decided to give it a chance.

Now, four days later, we are still sitting here at Lipa Noi beach. What a place! We are staying in a huge bungalow with aircon, fridge, tv, hot shower and free internet, right on a stunningly beautiful beach which we have all to ourselves for R 100 a night! There is no traffic here and there is barely anyone around, except for the Icelandic guys, a few locals and a little white puppy Maja has adopted. The first day we were here we hired a scooter and drove around the whole island. Koh Samui is so chilled and beautiful, and the local Thais are the friendliest we have met so far. The third day here was one of the Icelandic guys’ birthday, so we had a little celebration with big beers over at their bungalow. The two of them had been travelling for almost two weeks and they were showing brutal scars from the tropical climate. They explained that in Iceland the warmest day they’ve experienced was 24 degrees. On the ferry trip to the island they fell asleep shirtless on deck, and now they’re fair skin was peeling off in big pieces. To add to the discomfort the mosquitoes had savaged their feet properly and it all looking quite uncomfortable, although you would never be able to tell from their constant grinning faces. They knocked on our door this morning to say goodbye and exchange email addresses as they were leaving for Phuket. They have invited us to Iceland, and we can’t wait to visit! Perhaps next year? Anyway, apart from this we have just been relaxing 100 %. Sun tanning, swimming and taking long walks is all that’s been on the itinerary. We are going to stay here two more nights (we’re not quite done with the chilling just yet), before we check out some of the other islands on the east coast.  

12.09-15.09: Railay beach

Sunday morning we got up early and rented a kayak. Destination being Maya Bay, where ‘The Beach’ was filmed. Two minutes into the paddle Tyron started whining, convinced that we were not going to make it.  It was a beautiful paddle along the towering cliff face in the deep blue water. Once we had come out of the bay we were paddling hard against the current straight into the wind over the chop, all whilst dodging speedboats, longtails and cruiseboats whose Asian captains drive worse than they do scooters. Tyron was now certain we were all going to die, but still claims he held it together as not to scare Maja. Despite all the chaos we eventually made it to the island, and paddled into the calm and beautiful Maya Bay. Having spent the two last hours paddling, our plan to get there before all the other tourists had failed. To the left of the main beach was a smaller, deserted beach which we claimed for ourselves. Crystal clear water, coconut trees and white sand, just like something out of a postcard. We pulled our boat to shore and Tyron headed straight for the water with his fishing rod, and within seconds he pulled out a magnificent species which we couldn’t identify. Then the boys got out their masks and dived straight from the shore. The dive was amazing; beautiful coral, reef fish and even two baby black tip reef sharks. They dived up against one of the cliff faces and found a deep cave under the surface of the water and being able to see light on the other side they decided to swim through it. They were amazed to find that on the other side of the cave was the open sea, and that they had swam right through the cliff with only one breath of air. Later when the main beach looked quieter we paddled across the bay to check it out, but didn’t spend long as we had a long paddle back. Coming out the bay we found that the wind had died down and most of the tourist boats had passed so the return trip was very chilled and enjoyable. Jono decided to fish off the back, while Tyron and Maja paddled. Almost home we decided to check out some of the beaches in the bay of Koh Phi Phi. Once again Jono and Tyron dived on the shallower coral where Jono got attacked by what he claims to be a savage, man eating packet. As he surfaced, eyes fixed on the coral below, the plastic packet covered his snorkel and wrapped itself around his back. Still not knowing it was just packet and unable to get it off, he thrashed around in the water, half choking and freaking out, much to Maja and Tyrons amusement. The beach next to this one is called Monkey Beach, and we decided that we wanted to film some swimming monkeys. We paddled close to the monkeys sitting on the rocks and Jono coaxed one into the water with a slice of bread. Not so confident when he saw how fast the monkey came swimming towards us he started shouting to Tyron who was standing in the water next to the kayak; “Tyron! Pull us out! Pull us out!” Tyron pulled (as fast as he could backwards with flippers on his feet) but the monkey was still faster than us. He caught up sooner than expected, so Jono tossed one slice in the water thinking it would keep him occupied while we made our getaway. The slice was gone in two seconds flat and with his eyes glued on the loaf of bread sitting on Jonos lap he decided to board the kayak. Jono was having none of this and decided to give the monkey a beat down with the end of his fishing rod. When the monkey then grabbed onto the rod  Maja started shouting “For god sake Jono! Just give him the bread!” to which Jono replied “but I still want to make myself a cheese sandwich!” One more hiss from the monkey who was now showing his teeth, he ended up throwing the entire packet of bread into the water. The monkey swam away victoriously. Tyron managed to capture the whole thing on cam.

 

The next morning we packed our backpacks and jumped on the ferry to Krabi. At the pier in Krabi we didn’t waste much time. Within half an hour we were on a longtail boat on our way to Railay beach. The longtails have a minimum price, so the more people travelling together, the cheaper it is. At the travel agency there were three other girls who were going to Railay beach as well. They were bargaining like mad with the thai lady to get a discount on the longtail trip, but weren’t too interested in sharing it with us. When the thai lady explained to them (for the third time) that it would be cheaper for them to go with us, they, very reluctantly, agreed and payed, still not even turning around to greet us. These girls weren’t just rude, they were also ‘huge’ (I’m now quoting Jono… I was going for something more like ‘rather chubby’, but Tyron would back Jono up on this one since he asked politely if we were going to Railay beach or on a hippo safari). Anyway, when we got to the boat the girls battled to board because when they stepped on the side the boat threatened to take on water. After some rearranging of the position of the boat they managed to get on board and claimed one bench each. There are only four benches in a longtail boat. Jono and Maja hurried to claim the last bench, leaving Tyron to choose between the first chicks lap or the nose of the boat. He sat down in front and this turned out to be a wise decision when one of the girls started blowing her nose, and Jono and Maja, who were sitting down wind, were no longer sure if it was only saltwater spraying in their faces.   

Half an hour later, and irritated with the fatties, we reached Railay beach. We found ourselves some cheap bungalows high up, close to the tsunami evacuation point. These cute little cabins were a steal for R 57 a night, and the resorts restaurant had a fantastic view accompanied by amazing thai food. After dinner we walked down to the beach. Railay east has a beautiful beach, and since it is now the low season there are very few people here. We’re not complaining! Railay is famous for rock climbing, and nearly everyone there were walking around with climbing gear. We didn’t do any rock climbing, but we enjoyed the beach, and the guys went for a walk through the forest and explored a cave. They also managed to find a beach with what seemed to be a hippie colony, where they were invited to come and see live music at a bar. The invitation was written on a leaf, and handed out by a guy wearing only a sarong and dread locks.

We only stayed at Railay for two nights, since Tyrons stay in Thailand is coming to an end. We caught a longtail to another bay where we were supposed to find our bus to Surat Thani. This all of a sudden seemed a bit difficult since no one could really tell us where to find the bus station, as it turns out they really don’t have a bus station. We bumped into a guy from the Netherlands who was running a travel agency in the middle of nowhere (Jono was convinced that he was actually a serial killer hiding from the police). He informed us that the bus companies have a pickup service but it was a bit difficult to say where they picked people up. Jono and Maja went on a mission to get food, but had to return defeated with only a packet of chips and a bottle of water. Then, out of nowhere, one of these truck-made-in-to-a-bus vehicles pulled up and insisted that they were the pickup service. The serial killer was persistent that this was not the right shuttle and that we should not get on it. Still, we jumped in and hoped for the best, all except Tyron who pointed at a Thai sign at the back of the car and made a guess that it actually said ‘Fuck you guys, we are taking you to the bush’. After about 45 minutes (and Jono guessing that they we’re actually going to drive us all the way to Surat Thani) the car finally stopped at the bus station. We had just enough time to buy some breakfast (Tyron, that lucky bugger, ended up with congealed pork blood), before we jumped on the bus to Surat Thani.

Three and a half hours later the bus stopped at ‘the final stop’, and we were the only people on the bus not knowing it was the final stop. We got off when the old bus driver shouted rudely at us, but only after Maja had told him “Shh! Relax!!”

Tyron had to stay one night in Surat Thani since his flight to Bangkok leaves from here, but the city is actually a bit of a dump, so Jono and Maja said goodbye to Tyron and jumped on the first ferry to Koh Samui.   

09.09-11.09: Koh Phi Phi

On our last morning in Patong with got up early to take the scooters and the backpacks AND Jonos surfboard (we’re already getting a bit tired of dragging that thing around, although it does come in handy when we need to put our smelly wet stuff somewhere) back to Karon beach. There we got picked up by a minibus which took us to the pier. We had just enough time to grab a cup of noodles before we jumped on the boat and were on our way to one of Thailand’s most beautiful islands; Koh Phi Phi. Getting closer to the island we could see just how beautiful it is. The limestone cliffs raises straight from the turquoise ocean towering meters and meters above our boat. In the centre of the bay lies the beach with fine, white sand and swaying palm trees. As we jumped off the boat we were herded like cattle along the pier to the frenzy of locals trying to sell accommodation, taxis (taxi-boats that is) or a trolley to put backpacks in. We dodged every single one, fighting our way through the crowd, before we went on a serious mission to find the cheapest accommodation on the
island. Cheapest accommodation turned out to be 150 B per person… in a 16 bed dorm room (thanks, but no thanks). We ended up in a room with a moldy bathroom, and with neighbors who shared the same floor planks as us which made our beds jump up and down every time they missioned around. Later we walked down to the beach. Maja enjoyed sitting on the rocks and the guys jumped in the water to snorkel. Tyron had forgotten his mask and Jono got bitten in the face by a clownfish (served him right after sticking his face into the anemone) so they came back quite quickly. Koh Phi Phi has quite a backpacker vibe, especially now in the low season. That obviously results in pretty crazy beach parties with fire dances and free buckets of strong alcohol given out hourly. We chilled it this night though. We ate dinner and jumped into our jumping beds.

Next morning we checked out of the moldy room and missioned down to a place called HC Andersen (hehey to all the Scandinavians). We are only paying R 50 more here, but we have a big room with air con, fridge, tv and a dvd player. Today we decided to walk to another beach called ‘Longbeach’. It was quite a walk through the jungle and it took even longer because Jono insisted on photographing of all the creepy crawlies and Maja tried to avoid them. ‘Longbeach’ was worth it though. I was a beautiful, chilled beach with very few people. The boys snorkeled with sharks and Jono got bitten again, on the finger this time (my question is why the vegetarian keep tormenting the fish?). That night after dinner we decided to make use of our dvd player and the choice of movie was simple; ‘The Beach’ with Leonardo Dicaprio, which was filmed on the neighboring island.

Friday morning we checked out again. HC Andersen was awesome, but a little out of our price range. We checked into a little place called October where we decided to stay for three nights. The guys took a walk up to the viewpoint where Jono (while playing with a baby monkey) got attacked in the face by a vicious praying mantis (again, why the vegetarian? Jono here is saying it’s because the animals no longer fear him, but to me and Tyron it still remains a mystery). Anyway, he gave the locals up there a good laugh, since he started hitting his own face, screaming and jumping around, behaving worse than the monkey. Jono and Maja managed to squeeze in a quick suntan before dinner, while Tyron walked miles to find water deep enough to swim in. It was low tide and the water was far from the beach. This particular beach, called twin beach, was hit badly by the tsunami and there are signs to the evacuation routes on all street corners. On the 13th there is going to be a evacuation drill here.
When we later walked out to find somewhere to eat a random Scottish girl managed to convince us to eat at a place called Paddys. This place had a Friday special on; half price cocktails and a free shot after the meal. We blame the Scottish girl for the fact that we made it to our beds late, and only after fire dances and free alcohol buckets.
We fixed the damages quite quickly the next day with coke and pasta for breakfast. Jono and Maja went to get thai massages, and Tyron missed out again. It really is one hour of heaven for R 40. After, the guys went snorkeling again, where they found a sea snake. And decided to harass it. I reckon it was a bit of a stupid move since this snake is supposed to be one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. Still, I am pleased to inform you that both of the boys are still alive.