Fearing Death and Other Good Times at the Backpacker Bungalows 3/31/11

Woke up in Phi Phi and headed for the ferry to get off the island. I love it how no one really knows if there's a ferry or not. Two out of three for yes so we're going for it.

We took a ferry to Krabi, met two gals from Canada and a dude who burned the shit out of himself. He was really red after laying out for 20 minutes, I can't imagine what kind of damage he did to himself. We then took a minibus to Ao Nang which led to a longtail

to Railay and finally another longtail to Tonsai (a rock climbing community). Railay and Tonsai are on the same island but a cliff (when the tide is in)/sharp rocks (when the tide is out) separate the two. I wasn't quite ready for that hike so we took the easy route while we could.

It was dumping rain (42 inches in two days) so we had a beer and decided to stay in Tonsai for 200 Bhat where we stayed in a bungalow with only a thin mattress and a mosquito net. We then walked over to Railay and I hurt my foot on the razor-sharp rocks. I told Andy I didn't want to walk back after dinner- he said sure we’ll take a longtail back. We had fried mushrooms and chicken satay and beers for apps then continued to dinner where we had a fresh seafood dinner- several tiger prawns, clams (Venus Shells), and seabass. The seafood was good but for some reason the apps were better. Maybe all the fried food I had been eating lately?? Walking back after dinner,

there were no taxis so we had to hoof it. As we were walking back to Tonsai, we saw a local who was also walking back with his son. He asked Tonsai? We said yes and were very happy to have a guide. He asked if we had a light and luckily Andy’s camera had a semi-light- an LED feature used for macro shots. We didn’t go the ocean route as it’s very dangerous to cross the high tide against those extremely sharp rocks. Instead he took us up and over. Up as in scaling large slippery rock in the dark, hardly knowing what I was putting my hand on unless Andy was illuminating my way- which he did very well because he knew I would kill him. It was pretty hairy. When the son paused up ahead I knew we were in for a treat. I thought we were in the clear and then we hit a waterfall. We had to shimmy down a crack and across a waterfall and slippery rocks in the dark. After we walked across the “beach” against the rocks because of high tide, we had to cross a “river” over a log. All was well once again.

We stopped at the first bar we found as we needed a drink ASAP. I kicked Andy's ass at some Connect 4. The bar was playing reggae and we hung out with two Americas (she was from VA and he was from TX) who were both teaching English in Bangkok. They were cool, we drank and I played with the tennis balls on a string thing. I did OK- no major damage; Andy on the other hand was doing well until he smacked himself in the throat (which I unfortunately missed) and that was it for him. We had Thai whiskey shots (not too bad) and Andy beat the Tonsai Jenga champion. During the first game the dude asked Andy if he knew architecture taunting him- the second game they played very well, the tower was tall, then Andy won. We smoked in one of the local’s bungalow. The girl spoke a little Thai so she and the local hit it off. She had a spliff and then the local unwrapped it so we could smoke out of his bong. She tried to tell him there was already tobacco in it, but it apparently didn’t believe her because he put more tobacco in it. I could not take a huge bong hit of tobacco- it was small but I still got a buzz. We went to bed around midnight. The bugs were out in full force making the loudest fucking noise I’ve heard in nature. They didn’t stop all night. It was a little hard to sleep but I was exhausted from travelling and our little adventures.