Ko Phi Phi - Jan 25th

In Ko Phi Phi today. The boys and I had stayed in Ko Lanta for a few days at a place called 'Lanta Long Beach Resort'. It was nice - clean rooms for the most part, an outside bathroom with hotwater...that was interesting.

The resort, actually much of Ko Lanta, is very relaxed. The atmosphere is a bit of an older crowd - families, couples, and a few single people. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves here as the general feel is to just do your own thing and be left alone.

The common area was good (best Greek Salad I've ever had!!) but if staying here, be prepared for your order or bill to get messed up in some fashion. Almost everytime, Arnies order would get forgotten. No love for him from the kitchen. That and we got in trouble at lunch time for not paying a bill at breakfast - we found out then that the servers had given us someone elses bill and we had overpaid. All worked out though we did end up wagging our fingers (not the middle one) at the server who apologized profusely.

Koh Lanta wasn't hit as hard during the Tsunami as some of the other islands.
The bartender that we befriended (everyone is super nice here) mentioned that a 1 meter wave had washed in about 200 feet or so. There was a huge retention area near the internet cafe where we could see some of the aftermath (still here). For the most part, this retention area (about an acre in size) was the only evidence we could see of the damage...everything else seems to have returned to normal here. The bartender staff were all pretty kewl. They were practicing their fire throwing practice on these long ropes they would swing around and we were lucky enough to get a private showing. I got some video capture and will post once I'm back home (the net here is reeeeeeeaaaaaaalllly slow so trying to post pics is driving me bonkers). I'll update after I'm back in Van with links to my picture and video galleries.

We also met up with the Kamloops girls we met on Bottle Beach. We got together for dinner and hit a bar on the beach (a place called Nik's) where we got to see a Canadian band playing Irish music. Torontonians, living in Thailand pretending to be Thai, who want to be Irish. Go figure. It was kewl all the same though the lead singer kinda looked like Billy Idol/Joe Dirt all in one.

One thing I'll say for sure - if you ask for a taxi, expect anything!! A taxi can consist of ANY motorized vehicle. It could be a:
1. Taxi Cycle - just your basic scooter that someone else drives and you hold on for dear life.

2. Taxi Cycle with a sidecar - just your basic scooter with a jittery metal contaption welded to the scooter. You still hold on for dear life!

3. A Tuk-Tuk - a 3 wheeled scooter. If you take one of these in a busy city like Bangkok, you take your life in your own hands. You have been warned! Chaing-Mai not so bad but Bangkok...ohhhhh.....

4. A Pickup truck - a jitter old pickup truck with a bench, just a bench, that you sit on that spans across the length of the truck bed. You sit over the tire wells and again, hold on for dear life ('cause these guys fly down the streets, dirt roads, moutain ravines, you name it!)

5. A Pickup truck with a bench and backrest - just like the above except you get a backrest that sits above the truck bed. You feel a little better but I'd suggest that you HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE!!!!

6. A pickup truck with a cage - all of the above expect the entire bed is contained within a cage. Be careful not to crack your head.

7. A real live Taxi - with the added benefit of AC and no seatbelts. These guys are crazy when they drive, especially in Bangkok, so the theme of HOLDING ON FOR DEAR LIFE continues.

Where am I going with this? After we left Team Kamloops at 2/3am, we took a Taxi scooter with side-car back to our guesthouse...at night...on a manual scooter...at night....where there are realatively no rules of the road...other than the fact that the bigger the vehicle you drive, the better chance that you'll win on the road. I miss my car...

Ko Lanta was nice but, getting squirrely once again, we moved on to Ko Phi Phi.
OK, this place is hopping a bit more!!! A good mix of young people as well as the more mature crowd.

Though a good portion of the main tourist area has been and is continuing to be rebuilt (like nothing ever happened), there is some significant signs of the Tsunami damange still around.
There are areas here, starting from the dock, where we can see that a 12 meter wave (had to be) took out roofs and the like. There is a hotel being rebuilt were there was once a beach.
As we moved into the tourist area, things look like nothing ever happended until we moved to the outskirts of the area (we were hunting for accomodations and with this being high-season, almost all of the guesthouses we found were booked full).
It's like shanti town in some areas; a war zone. Tents, broken down buildings, areas of earth that are bare except for the fact that you can still see tile flooring on the ground were a building used to be. I felt a little sombre seeing this. Got some pics of the area with tents open in front of a guest house that they are now using for accomodation. With the cost of tourism being so cheap, I think it'll be sometime until they can recover. Then again, seeing how far they have come within a year, maybe I'm too pessimistic.
All this said, the Thai people have an amazingly good attitude and are happy to see us (no victim mentality). Very welcoming and friendly, as if nothing ever happened.

Once we found a place to stay (and it's a nice place...I'm recon for rooms remember - I'm so anal), it finally started to rain. It was funny, Arnie went in to the bathroom to take a shower and no sooner did Dan and I hear the water from the shower hit the tiled bathroom that we looked out the window and heard the torential downpour outside the hotel. Arnie was shocked when he came out and saw what was happening outside - it's been literally over 3 weeks since we've been here and it's only been sunshine and good weather...'knock on wood' that it continues!! I heard Vancouver hasn't been so lucky with the rain. That's because I put a hex on the city...mmmoooohahahahahahahahaha!!!!.

Oh, we met up with our neighbor Robyn here in Phi Phi. It was funny, we didn't here from her or her boyfriend via email on where they were staying but ran into them at a convience store. Robyn and I are like travellers...can't handle dirty rooms, don't want to go near a squat toilet, both shook our heads at the overnight boat from Koh Tao (ick!!), and are both the designated recon for rooms because we're the only high-maintenance ones in the group. Hahaha...she can travel with me anytime - "Resorts only Girl!!!".

We'll be here for a few days before we move on to Phuket and eventually Bangkok. I'm looking forward to the hiking and kayaking while we're here.

Harvey (in Ko Phi Phi).

P.S. Tim Tams are the best cookies on the planet!!! What??...I'm still on the EDGE! Try running with Arnie, he's hard to keep up with! Hobbits can really move!!
At least my running time is improving.