After getting our accommodations all set, we hit a nearby restaurant for a late lunch and a few tropical drinks! Meredith went with the nacho platter...
Meredith was sick and tired of being cooped up with crabby me and so around 7pm she decided to go for a walk on the beach. When she hadn't returned after four hours, I started to get a little worried. When she finally got back, she explained that after walking on the beach for hours, she was completely unable to find our resort (they all look the same from the beach) and when she finally found a road, she had no shoes and no money and had to find someone who she could convince to take her back to our hotel and then get money to pay the guy. Needless to say, by the time she got home, she was grumpier than me. We pounded a few Bacardi Breezers (which made everything better!) and then called it a night!
We had to hike about 10 minutes down a super-steep mountain in order to get to where the waterfall basin was supposed to be. Before heading back up to our scooter, Meredith decided she needed to rest a bit...and then she FELL ASLEEP ON THE ROCKS. Hahaha.
We left Chaweng and drove about 40 minutes to Lamai Beach to see Hin Ta and Hin Yai (Grandpa & Grandma). They are two natural rock formations that are supposed to look like male and female genitalia, respectively!
The place even had a tv and a mini-bar (the first we'd seen in Thailand) that was stocked with reasonably priced drinks and snacks! As soon as we got there, Meredith was like "Let's stop traveling and just stay here until we have to go home."
...and Meredith was stoked to get Squidy with some "crisp and delicious baked cuttlefish. Mmmmmm! (Anyone who shuddered reading this that also eats beef jerky, needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror.)
We sung along with the band and clapped after all their songs, they were pretty solid. When the band took a break, the singer came over to talk to us and was excited because we were from New York. After we talked for a while, I asked her if I could sing some songs with the band and she said yes!
After the movie, we went back to the vegetarian restaurant we'd eaten at the previous afternoon and had ourselves another epic feast for less than $2 USD. Man, was that place tasty.
...you don't even imagine the stuff she buys for people she doesn't like. Hahaha. (Actually this shirt is, quite possibly, the best shirt EVAR!). The giraffe's all "What happened to Boo Ya? I'm totally gonna bring Boo Ya back."
Phuket is famous for its vegetarian food! As soon as we'd finished dropped off our bags and freshening up, we headed out to get our veggie lunch on at one of the many local restaurants reviewed in our guide book.
We got out of the rain and into a restaurant that was right on the beach. After we'd finished our lunch, it was still raining. So we hung out and drank coffee...
We woke up Sunday morning and it was still overcast! But by noon, it started to look like it might turn into a nice day. While the clouds were disappearing, we hailed a longtail boat...
We walked around Long Beach for thirty minutes or so, but Meredith was feeling really crummy (just in case you couldn't tell from the face she's making in this photo...hahaha) and it looked like it was about to start pouring soon. So rather than risk having to do the long walk back over slippery rocks in a downpour, we opted to hire a longtail boat to take us back to the beach near our part of the island.
On Friday morning I got up bright and early and sneaked out real quiet so that I could go on a two-dive trip that I'd booked the previous day. (PS - Sweet sleep-bandana, Axl).
When you get into the shallow water, it's very dangerous because there are huge waves rolling in off the open ocean and they can knock you off balance throw you into the huge, sharp coral-covered rocks in the bay!
The next day we were SO. HUNG. OVER. that we didn't really managed to get showered and out of the room until around 3pm! We decided to take it easy and hired a local guy to take us on a three hour longtail boat tour of the surrounding islands.
Meredith and Peter (the other German dude that our new friend Daniel was traveling with) decided to go for a late night swim in the wonderfully warm water.
While the swim was fun, Meredith realized that spending the rest of her drunk night in soaking wet clothes probably wouldn't be all that awesome and we decided to stumble home in search of dry clothes and a bed to pass out on.
If I remember correctly, Meredith was giving Daniel girl-advice and I think it actually escalated far enough that Meredith got on his GSM phone and actually tried to get her on the phone so she could tell her what a great guy Daniel is. Hahaha. (If you want to know the kind of shape we're all in at this point, check out Daniel's eyes. Hahahaha. He can only keep one of them open!)
For those of you that have never been to Thailand, the party drink of choice where ever foreigners congregate in-country is THE BUCKET. Here's an overview of how they make THE BUCKET from another entry from the first time I visited Thailand:
How They Make THE BUCKET:
Take a plastic beach pail with a little ice in it, then dump in two bottles of Red Bull (and keep in mind, this is the original Thai version of Red Bull that feels like it actually has amphetamines in it), a can of Coke, and an entire pint of Thai whiskey. They they throw in 7 or 8 straws in the hopes that you'll share it with strangers and not die drinking the entire thing by yourself. Any where you go on the beach, someone has a bucket and they're only too happy to share it with you. Cost per bucket? $3. Ooof.
We went up to the bar to get a bucket, and to my horror we discovered that the bar was offering a TWO BUCKETS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE special! Doh! I told the bartender that we only wanted one and she was like "Well, you're gonna get TWO! Give it away if you don't want it!"
That sounded like sensible advice to me, but Meredith wasn't having any of it. She was like "Let's EACH drink a bucket! WOOOOOO!" Here's her getting started while I show my reservations about solo-bucket-consumption. Ooof.
The ferry to Phi Phi Island wasn't leaving until 1:30pm so we had a little over three hours to kill in traveler's purgatory (which you spend a lot of time doing in Thailand if you're traveling around a lot).
Every time Meredith would start to put her tube down and get in the water, Crookjaw would start furiously barking at her! He didn't want to be left alone!
After lunch, we arrived back at our fantastic hostel a little before 3pm. Kraisak, the man who runs the place, had a bunch of people over and when we asked what the occasion was, he told us that it was Thai Mother's Day
Then he told us that a bunch of his friends and relatives were going to go tubing down the riving in the rain and asked us if we'd like to join them! Of COURSE we did! So we ran and got tubes...
After we got back to the camp, our trainer asked us if we wanted to feed our elephant and thank her for the ride! When we said yes, he walker her around a little fence thingy - so that she would get over excited about the food and accidentally trample us to death..
Here's a quick guide to elephant eating: First you reach out and grab the bananas...
If you guessed "a monkey" (which is what Meredith was hoping the gift was) are not correct. However, if you happened to have guessed LEAF HAT, congratulations! You are correct, sir!
After we'd finished cooling off, we went back over to the riding platform and we got to play with the elephant a little bit. She was so friendly and curious. She kept sending her trunk up to grab at our hands and sniff around. Getting touched and groped by a sniffy elephant's trunk is genuinely one of the weirdest and wonderfulest things I've ever experienced!
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