Look, It's A Monkey! And She's Carrying A Primate!

We left Samui as planned on Wednesday morning for what was explained as a simple 45 minute boat ride, followed by a 3.5 hour bus ride across the country and we’d be in Krabi!  Krabi isn’t really much of anything; it kind of reminds me of Glen Burnie.  It’s got a few restaurants, a river and a couple of hotels.  However, being that we’re taking the 12:45 train, we’ll be there by 5:30 at the latest and will be able to decide if we’re moving on to Ao Nang (a small coastal town), Railay Beach (site of some of the best climbing adventures in the world) or move on to Ko Phi Phi (taping of the movie “The Beach”) or Ko Lanta (another island).  Ahhhhh, plans….

We were picked up from the hotel by the boat company’s taxi at 10:30, which is REALLY early considering it only take a half hour to get to the pier.  After a maniacal death ride to the pier, we were there 1.5 hours early and had to find a place to get a beer while we waited.  We boarded the boat on time and took off.  After landing in Don Sak (that’s really the name of the town), we immediately boarded a bus that we thought was going to drive us the whole way.  Little did we know we’d actually get off the bus and wait for about 45 minutes for another bus to get us.  Only, this bus never showed.  We instead hopped in the back of a pickup truck and drove about 10 miles to get dropped off at the commuter bus, you know, the one people take home from work.  But, being that we got there at about 3, we had to wait until 5 for people to actually get off of work.  We proceeded to make roughly 40 stops where people (including school children) got on and off.  We finally made it all the way across the country at roughly 9pm and it had become evident that going anywhere other than Krabi was out of the question.  We instead grabbed some dinner, beers and went to bed at a local hotel. 

We decided the next morning to go to Ko Phi Phi, an unreal island about 2 hours away by boat.  Upon arrival we were absolutely awed by the beauty.  Limestone islands jet straight out of the water 300 yards tall and are packed with vegetation.  It combines the best of all islands we’ve been to. 

Our first night here, we got a room in the White House, a hotel in town.  We felt like we couldn’t make a long term decision on a place just yet, so instead decided to just get one night there and walk around and check out our options.  We checked in, went to dinner, met a bunch of people and had a late night.  Around 4am we got back to our place, which was completely quiet.  No one was at the front desk and there were barely any lights on. We got up to our room and Molly searched her purse for the key.  A look of sheer panic crossed her face for a moment and she said “Oh my god, I think I lost the key on the beach.”  Knowing the chances of finding said key were between slim and none, we though it best to simply find another room for the night.  We found another hotel that was open right down the street and got another room for the hours of 4:30am to 9am.  We woke up at 9, left hotel 2, went back to hotel 1 and ended up finding the key right where we left it, on the bed. 

We finally settled on a nice bungalow up the hill and have agreed to stay here long term.  It’s a refreshing feeling not having to move your belongings every 24 hours.  After moving in we decided to go and get lunch down by the beach.  On the way down there, I was convinced I had been drugged the night before when I saw this small mammal running up the street with arms twice as long as his legs and waving wildly in the air as he ran.  I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things and then realized, “Yeah, that’s a freaking monkey!”  I only wish I were face to face with you to demonstrate how hilarious this run was.  Putting it into words doesn’t do it justice at all, but just imagine running as a child, only as scared as you could possibly be and running with a slinky in each hand.  Arms are above the head and waving WILDLY.  We realized that this hilarious animal, Peter, was actually owned by a local Thai.  Molly immediately found Peter’s owner and asked if it was alright to take a picture.  Peter’s keeper said “You look but no picture.”  I knew negotiations at this point weren’t far off because anything you want here is for sale, for a price.  After a heated battle, Molly gave the keeper 100 baht and we had broken the 1 main rule we had coming here – “STAY AWAY FROM MONKEYS!”  You see, shots to travel are very expensive.  Japanese Ensephalitis shots were $600 per person.  That’s a mosquito born illness that makes your brain hemorrhage until you die.  Sounds lovely, right?  We obviously paid for that one.  We did, however, choose to go against the travel clinic’s recommendation and opt out of the rabies shots.  At $1000 per person, we just couldn’t justify this.  It’s not like the shots prevent you from getting rabies, they just give you more time after you’re bitten to get to the hospital for treatment.  We promised each other that if we were to encounter a monkey, possibly with rabies, we’d just walk the other way. We weren’t counting on how incredibly cute and hilarious they’d be.  Thankfully, Peter bit neither of us, but did have his way with my water bottle.  After a few pictures we were off.

That night, we met a few more people that were very cool and interested in going on the banana boat the next day.  The banana boat is a large, inflatable banana that gets dragged through the ocean by a speed boat.  This banana has 6 handles that 6 passengers hold on to.  Our group decided it best to pack 7 people onto this inflatable fruit, having 1 person use another’s waist as a handle.  I’m not sure if our ineptitude or the banana was the bigger problem.  We fell off the first time about 10 seconds into the ride, well before we even got to the speed boat area.  Getting back onto an inflatable banana, particularly with 7 people, is VERY difficult.  Every time 1 person tried to pull themselves aboard, they’d capsize the vessel and flip every one that was already on, off.  After a shuffling of bodies, I ended up in front.  This may sound fun, but you end up taking a ton of water in the face as the banana cuts through the water.  I took my pole position very seriously though and shouted out orders to our boat not unlike a drill sergeant.  As the speedboat would turn left, I’d scream “LEAN LEFT!!!”  Towards the end of the ride, we had this down to a science and were very proficient in taking turns, handling out-of-water total boat launches and especially knew how to fall off without wildly flailing your limbs and bashing the person behind you right in the face.  After an initially promised 20 minute ride that was more likely 40 minutes, we had been thrown off roughly 15 times and were battered.  It was, however, an awesome time and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. 

We headed home shortly thereafter and got cleaned up for dinner.  We decided on going to a Mexican restaurant that would be showing the movie “Hangover II.”  The movie was hilarious and we never got our dinner, but had a couple of buckets and a great overall time.  After watching yet another fire show on the beach, we decided to head to the Reggae Bar in town.  The reggae bar is a very interesting place in that they have a Muay Thai boxing ring right in the middle of it and encourage crowd participation in fights.  If you agree to take on another crowd member and win, you win a free bucket of booze.  Molly’s been itching to participate, but until now, hasn’t had the right mixture of adrenaline and liquor to attempt it.  She decided to go for it right around midnight and was matched up against a girl that was about 2 inches taller and probably 10 pounds heavier.  Molly got dressed in her boxing shorts and we stepped aside to discuss strategy.  She climbed into the ring confident, but with a good amount of nervousness.  She put on her sweaty, smelly headgear, gloves and leg pads and got ready to go.  3 rounds – 1 minute a piece with a 3 minute break between. 

The fight started with some nervous slapping and dancing around.  After about 20 seconds, Molly took over and beat this girl like a rented mule.  While the girls had agreed earlier to try and avoid head shots, that was quickly thrown out the window in the heat of battle.  She landed punch after punch coupled with a few leg kicks to take the other girl off her guard.  It was a demolition and Molly won the decision (though I’m certain it would have been a knockout had it gone another round or two) easily.  We celebrated in grand fashion and as I write this, she’s standing over me flexing and generally trying to intimidate me.  I think we’ve created a monster.

Tomorrow we’re off to the booze cruise -  a 6 hour voyage around the whole group of islands that includes snorkeling, kayaking, cliff jumping, sailing and drinking a couple of beers.  We hope to have some awesome pictures to share from that, but unfortunately my underwater camera broke in the pool yesterday when it inexplicably took on a bunch of water.  If anyone knows someone that works at Olympus, please speak up.  I have a major bone to pick with the company as now we don’t have anything to use to take pictures in the water. 

Phi Phi had been an awesome island and we’ve met some great people from Quebec and London.  We love it here so much that we think we’ll be staying here for a few more days.  Unfortunately, our friends will be leaving tomorrow to head across the country to the full moon party.  But, we’re going to try to rent a Long Tail boat and explore some of the nearby islands on foot.  More to come soon!

Dancing at the Beach Bars

Molly Limboing 

Molly Posing for the Pre-Bout Press Pictures

Support Crew

Discussing General Strategy

Right Before the Start of the Fight

Post Round One Massage

Fists of Fury

Post Fight Partying

Wait, WHAT?!?

View From Our Deck

Peter and I

That's MY Water, Peter!

Watch Those Hands, Peter....

2.5 Liter Bucket

Banana Boat!

Jump Rope