THE Beach

The movie "The Beach" was a favorite for Jorie growing up, and it shaped what she has pictured as Thailand's beaches. With massive flooding in Bangkok and rain covering most of the country for our last 4 days in Thailand, we decided to fly down to the west coast area of Krabi so Jorie could see "the beach" in real life.

Dumping more than half of our possessions on to my mom to take back to the states, making our bags go down to a weight of 12kg each, we caught an early flight south to Krabi. We were in Krabi by 7:30 AM, but didn't reach our hotel until well after 10:30 AM due to some key details lost in translation with our taxi driver. Communication in foreign countries can be tricky and very unpredictable. We spent one day at a remote beach resort (resort is a lose term in Thailand) about 45 minutes down the coast from Krabi Town. Although the views were spectacular most of the beaches are covered in trash. After 8 weeks of travel we took our first intentional rest day; napping, watching movies, and walking the beach. It was well needed and a great place to recharge.

We took the ferry out to the island of Phi Phi Dom, where "The Beach" was filmed, and spend 2 1/2 days enjoying the island. The clear turquoise water surrounded the steep jungle covered cliffs and the occasional lagoon with white sandy beaches. Phi Phi Dom and it's sister island Phi Phi Lay have breathtaking landscape and according to Jorie it looks just like the movie. Phi Phi Dom, the inhabited island, has what I refer to as a trashy tourist scene with more westerners than Thai people. The nightlife is booming, probably because it's too hot in the daytime to function, people wearing clothing is rare, sunburned people are part of the landscape, and there are more tattoo parlors than restaurants. Around the island the slogan seems to be a bit different from most places in the US; Phi Phi Dom island tends to live by no shoes, no shirt, no problem. Over our trip Jorie and I have found people watching to be a great source of entertainment, and we are constantly trying to guess peoples' nationalities or to find the weirdest haircut. Phi Phi was a Mecca for people watching for us; there were more lady boys and mail order brides than we could have ever counted, the crazy haircuts we saw were award worthy, men in weird speedos were more than common and there were so many Chinese people doing amazing poses for photos. Lets just say we were entertained.

We stayed in a bungalow perched on the hillside that overlooked the major bay- it was beautiful. We spent one morning exploring Phi Phi Lay's bays and beaches in a long boat. Our guide, Boy, took us to all the famous spots, and so did the other 100 guides who brought their boats full of tourists. Despite the masses of people, Phi Phi Lay was beautiful. We enjoyed swimming around 3 bays with steep cliffs covered with green jungle, and the water was so warm and salty. After seeing the famous Maya Bay we snorkeled along the steep cliffs and saw sea turtles.

We attempted to hike to the tip of the island but had difficulty finding the path a Swede told us about- all the locals we asked did not know of said path. It was so incredibly hot that we were dripping of sweat, it was like Hansel and Gretel but instead of bread crumbs our sweat dripped in a steady trail. My fear of jungle creatures kicked in and we turned back before heading too deep into the jungle. On our walk back past where the locals lived a man stopped us pointing to a massive jungle snake. It was clearly poisonous and so big it could have done some serious damage. The Thai man killed it with a rock and we went on our marry way thankful we had not continued in the jungle.

The words "Thai massage, Thai massage" ring through the streets of just about every Thai city as the people try to get customers. After turning down hundreds of offers we final got massages at our hotel. Jorie, going for the true authentic experience, got a Thai massage which probably made her more sore after than she was before. I had a facial and a back massage for about 1/3 the cost it would have been in the US.

On our last day we rented kayaks and paddled around to the nearby Monkey Beach. While on the water it poured rain which cooled us off from the heat and was refreshing. Monkey Beach is just what it sounds like- a beach with monkeys running all over it. When we arrived in the rain there were no monkeys to be seen, but as the sun came out so did the monkeys and then the beach lived up to its name. The monkeys did there own thing but were not scared of us. Kayaking was both beautiful and a fun way to see the island from the water.

We spent lots of time reading on the beach, but the sun was too hot to sit in without an umbrella. I also made a monkey friend named Peter... He held my hand, sat on my shoulder and would drink smoothies from a straw. He was so fuzzy, playful and cute, too bad I can't bring him home.

Being on Phi Phi made us think back to the 2004 Christmas Tsunami that devastated this part of Thailand. Over many of our meals we pondered what we would do in the case of a Tsunami and to be honest we didn't come up with many good ideas, the islands are incredibly vulnerable.

We thought we had made it out of Thailand unscathed but last night food poisoning or an allergic reaction to shellfish hit Jorie. We were fortunate to be able to fly despite all the flooding, but unfortunately we have to fly all day today while Jorie feels terrible.

We have enjoyed our two weeks in Thailand covering from the mountains in the far north to the sea in the southwest. Now we are off to Vietnam for yet another adventure.