Koh Phi Phi***

It was barely 7a.m. and my thoughts were cloudy from a self induced storm of the previous night. I was questioning on what side of reality and further more what side of the planet I had landed. I could hear some commotion coming from the bungalows that surrounded us but the language was not one that I could easily make out, possibly German. The only thing I could remember of the previous night was sitting in some pub at a table of travelers that seemed to span the planet and drinking countless buckets of a Thai whiskey called "Sangsom". Accompanying these buckets of belligerence was the ever so potent local beer called "Chang". "Chang" was a brew that you could never quite tell what you were in for, apparently the brew masters would fill the bottles from whatever barrel was closest. Some bottles tasted like water and others tasted like they were filled from a barrel that had started the fermentation process during the time when Jesus was feeding fish and turning his own batch of wine. Some of the labels on these brews were different as well; they showed elephants facing each other and others the elephants would be facing opposite directions. It was like playing an intense game of hopscotch. Some you win and some you lose but if you can make it across the board by the end of the night, you definitely lost!
I remember having to scream to be heard during conversations of the previous night because the pub in which we had stumbled just so happened to double as a Thai-boxing club. This made for an bountiful evening, cheap booze and free entertainment. It was now seven the next morning and my body felt as though I had been performing the waltz with an elephant and he just waltzed all over my ass. I was intrigued to see what the sun had brought the new day and decided to crawl out from my slumber bag. I stumbled out to the porch. It was true, I was still in Thailand. From our porch I could see an iridescent lagoon surround by lush mountain peaks and below was the hustling of the beginning of a business day in a small fishing village on an island off the coast named Koh Phi Phi. Apparently the night before I had been in rare form and had volunteered to compete in one of the Thai-boxing matches and had taken my fair share of licks from my Canadian opponent. My recollection of the match was I had been given a sweet pair of boxing shorts with a dragon across the butt, some gloves and head gear. Upon the first round bell, I quickly realized that this was not a Canadian boxer but someone who had studied in the art of Thai. While I went in protecting my face, my opponent went straight for the body, kicking my ribs and thighs to earn points. About half way through the first round I had enough and took a few kicks to get inside and laid a blow that would have surly shaken head of the all mighty Muhammad Ali. Ok, that was a small fabrication but in all honesty I had been floating in a river of Thai whiskey and beer and just to land a blow was enough to awaken my Viking spirit. Down the Canadian went, knocked out but in Thai boxing it's not a K.O. it's just the end of the round. Round two came and here he was with all that kicking my ribs crap. Enough was enough; I took a few to work inside again and laid another blow from the bowels of hell. Down he went. Third round was basically the same, him landing kicks for points and me trying to get inside. The final bell rang, points where tallied and my opponents hand was raised in victory. Upon the announcement, the crowd booed, my opponent offered me a hug and another bucket of belligerence as a peace offering.
Aching from my conquest of courage, surly not wit I decided to treat my self to an hour long Thai message costing 300 bhat, less than ten U.S. dollars and worth every penny. Later that day while walking the island we ran into some guys we had seen the previous night who just so happen to own the only tattoo parlor on the island. Though this was not a typical tattoo parlor, all the art work was done in the traditional way using ink filled bamboo stalks and the quality of work was amazing, in we went. After two sessions each lasting about 6 hours we both left with a permanent reminder of that secluded little island of the coast of Thailand.
As you all know from previous post by now in the trip we had developed an obsession for scuba and we where both anxious to get in the water for our first dive in the Indian Ocean. In speaking with a dive shop on the island we found that there had been a spotting of a group of Whale Sharks off the coast, we knew there was slim chance in seeing this rare migration but we crossed our fins and out we went! We did a few dives while on Phi Phi Dom but I have to say the best was a current dive we did around the island of Phi Phi Lay. This was the smaller island in the Phi Phi chain and just so happened to be another island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Our entry point of the dive was the opening of the famous lagoon in the movie and our ending point was about half a mile down the coast. The point of a current dive which is pretty self-explanatory is to remain motionless and ride the current as it wraps itself around the island. Unfortunately we did not see any whale sharks but what we did see equaled as rare or so our guide informed us. About 15 minutes into the dive we saw a stir in the sand below and from it emerged a huge Moray Ell with a Bamboo Shark about a foot and a half long in its mouth. We watched the struggle while floating with the current and finally witnessed the Shark ripping itself free from its captor and swam away. After the dive our guide informed us he had been on over 5,000 dives and that was only the 2nd Bamboo shark he had ever seen. It may have not been it's larger cousin, the Whale Shark that can swallow a car if it chose but equally as rare and I will save that memory until I pass to the next!
Our time in Phi Phi was amazing but our Visa was running out so we had to make our way south to the Malay border. We ended up arriving a day late and had to pay a fine. Another funny story about the gov't and how they view a white American traveling is when crossing the border you have empty all items off the bus and slide them through an x-ray machine. My bag got caught on something inside the machine and with 8 guards armed with machine guns watching me I climbed up in the machine and ripped my bag free. I climbed out, put my pack back on and starting heading for the border when I was stopped by one of the witnessing guards and was asked for a tip. When I ask why, his reply was "your American". Wow, that's how they perceive us? I found it strange but he had a machine gun so I still gave him and few Rigit and caught my bus to Pe Nang which was another island off the coast of Malaysia but still in the Indian Ocean.
Pe Nang was not really what we expected, we had gotten used to this secluded island type of lifestyle and Pe Nang was everything but, similar to Phuket in the hustle but without the Luxury. We quickly tried to catch the first bus to our next destination of the Perhentian Islands but it was Ramadan and we where in a Muslim country. We weren't going anywhere for 3 days. We made the most of it, settled in to a beautiful old guest house, enjoyed good food and one day while out exploring, we stumbled in a "fish spa". A really cool concept that had huge aquariums of feeder fish in which you placed your feet in and the feeder fish made a meal of all your dead skin. It really tickled at first but after a while it felt like a massage that leaves you feeling like you just got a pedicure, I guess 8^) Anyway we were ready to get back to seclusion and diving so we booked our 12 hr over night bus ride and the next morning awoke to sun rising over the South China Sea and boat to take us to the Perhentians. Until Koh Tao I had never heard of the Perhentian Isles but the dive masters of Sunshine raved about it being one of the best scuba spots on the planet and if you had your advanced cert. you could do a wreck dive that was supposedly stellar. In traveling you kind of get caught up where you are and where ever you stand seems to be the most amazing scene that has ever blessed your eyes. Another part of traveling is you start off with only the knowledge you posses about places in the world you should visit but somewhere along the way you become a part of not only your immediate travel companion but all those who have dreamed before you and want nothing but to pass on where the best spot is to be. I have always been a here and now is the best spot to be kind of guy but pulling up to the Perhentians I had to be sure of it! It seemed every island we arrived at got smaller and smaller with less and less people and here we were arriving on Perhentian Kicil where the island was open to travelers 6 months of the year and no one on the island even owned a peddle bike, they didn't really need it. The island was so small, the village even smaller and everyone knew everyone. It was Pj's turn to find a guest house so I stayed on the beach with our belongings and off he went. Turns out he had found a group of 5 or so bungalows about one hundred yards off the beach up a small mountain with a view and a mosquito net for about 7 dollars a day, we booked it for two weeks, done and done!