Flied Lice Wit Wej-ta-boas

We arrived in Bangkok's charming airport and took the first available flight down to Krabi on Thailand's Southern Peninsula. We ended up staying four nights on the white sandy beaches of Railey at the Railey Bay Hotel and Spa (highly recomended!). It was stunning. Pool, private bungalow, beautiful grounds. $20 a night.

Railey Bay Beach (in front of our hotel) - Krabi, Thailand


Our hotel in Railey by day


View from our hotel in Railey by night


While in Railey we opted to skip spending several nights on Koh Phi Phi since all the research as to whether the island was completely torn apart after the tsumani totally varied depending on which Thai person/Farang/internet site we checked. Intstead we took a day trip out to Phi Phi on a speed boat with some random Euros, an unlucky Canadian and the awesome Team Intel - a group of Intel employees from all over Asia who decided to work on their tans down south before heading back up to Bangkok for workshops on synergy and team strategies.

The boat ride to the first island was only 45 minutes but Jen and Ande can now recount the worst 45 minutes of our lives. It was beyond awful - huge waves, no lifejackets, some 14 year old Thai boy at the wheel. Jen barfed. Ande looked like a key lime pie with curls. Of all the third world refugee boats we have been on throughout our travels, this was by far the roughest ride.

This boat had Jen barfing within the first 20 minutes of our 6 hour tour


But once we arrived at Koh Phi Phi, it was gorgeous. At least the parts that were not affected by the tsunami.

Beautiful Koh Phi Phi


Jen at Koh Phi Phi Don


The tour continued with stops on neighboring islands and beautiful coves where they dumped us overboard for an hour or so and told us to look at some fish.

We shnorkeled here - cove off the coast of Krabi


Bamboo Island


Jen puts on her Thai fisherman pants


Deep thoughts


Cool view of some island


Someone does not want to get back on the speedboat


After the boat trip, we had dinner with one of our trip mates Jeff, also known as Canada's unluckiest guy. All of Jeff's traveling stories ended with him in total misery. Once he was riding a baby elephant in Chiang Mai who insisted on lifting mud up by its trunk and spraying it all over Jeff's face. This was right before the baby elephant decided to go off track away from the rest of the crew marching through unmarked paths so that Jeff's dirty mud face could get clobbered with every tree branch and limb they passed. On another trek, Jeff walked 2 feet off some path and ended up in a wasps nest. The funny thing is, as he was telling these stories, a GIANT cockroach landed on him causing him to flap around screaming and squacking till the beast FLEW off. Poor dear.

After Railey, we took the bus/boat route to the other side of the peninsula to the island of Koh Samui. In typical Thai fashion, what should have been a 3 hour excursion took all day. The Thais piled loads of Farang into mini-busses, then deposited us at random pit stops along the way. At each pit stop we were forced to wait for the next mode of transport to come and get us. Conviniently, there was food at every stop. At one stop, which consisted of a thatched porch and two spaced out of their minds Thai guys behind a counter, every farang went up and ordered fried rice with vegetables. The two Thai guys took turns screaming out their orders and giggling. "Flied lice wit wej-ta-boas!" When the orders stopped coming, a cute Israeli and Ande went up to see what the delay was in receiving their rice. The Israeli scanned the menu of rice, noodles, ham and cheese sandwiches, and a huge sign declaring NO SOUP. "Eh, why no soup?" asked the Israeli. This sent the Thai guys into convulsions of laughter and repeats of the word, 'soup' over and over until one of them looked at Ande and in his most swuave manner asked, "Lady - you wan cigarette?" "Uh, no thanks. Just the fried rice with vegetables I ordered." Sure enough, five minutes later, "Flied lice wit wej-ta-boas!" was screamed out and Ande and the Israeli finally got their food.

Two busses, one ferry, and one cab ride later, the Noodles finally arrived in Koh Samui. The place has become almost unrecognizable since we were here in 2001. Shops were being built on top of shops crawling over the already crowded sidewalks. McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza Hut are all competing for space amongst the heavy traffic of motorbikes and taxi cabs. One thing has stayed the same though - pasty white pervert guys with Thai girlfriends on their arms are everywhere. The beach too is still beautiful and there's still some good shopping, but after one night we decided to take off again for the nearby island of Koh Pangan.

On Koh Pangan, we checked into a perfect little bungalow (Sun Cliff) that hung over the side of a mountain peering right onto the beaches of the Sunset side of Haadrin (Koh Pangan's main hub). We spent our days lazily wandering from the beach to little cafes, catching up on the latest summer blockbusters - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, War of the Worlds, etc.

The merpeset in our Koh Phangan treehouse


We're back on Samui now. Anxiously awaiting the arrival of our next Guest Noodle, Jen. In a few days we'll go back to Koh Pangan, to Hat Tien beach and spend a few luxurious nights at the Sanctuary. Can't wait!