Phuket - Ko Phi Phi Island

All I can think about right now is that I can’t believe I’m here in a hostel room with 4 guys.  I’m lying on the top bunk of my bunk bed and can see into the second floor of what appears to be another hostel across the street.  I don’t feel unsafe.  I just feel out of my comfort zone.  It’s been years since I've done this!  One is from Australia, another is from Holland, and I haven’t yet spoken to the other two, even though they are lying in the bunk beds within arm’s reach of me. 

My day was made special by an Indonesian family I spent the day with on a tour of Ko Phi Phi Island.  The mom, Nita, and I chatted the whole way from Patong Pier to the island.  I was really happy to ask her questions about Indonesia since I plan on going there in a couple of weeks.  I told her one of my favorite parts of traveling was food and asked what dishes I should eat while in Indonesia.  She wrote them in my notebook: Ayam betutu, nasi jingo, sate ayam, and babi guling. 

She has a spa just outside of Bali, and owns a store in Jakarta, where they live.  During her stay in Bangkok before coming to Phuket, she bought several women’s items for her store.  I was trilled to ask her about Bangkok.  She told me what I should see, and I should go to the ticket office near the Grand Palace to get cheaper tickets.  She told me not to pay more than 300 bhats to take a tour of the Floating Market.  At the markets of Chachuta, she said to bargain until half parice.  She also told me about Siam Ocean World, where you put your feet in a fish tank with fish.  I’ve seen it on Samantha Brown travel shows!

We got to Maya bay where we anchored to go snorkeling.  I wore a life jacket, and secured my camera in its water proof case though one of the buckles of my jacket.  I was a little nervous to get into the water even with the life jacket!  

Of course, once I got in, it was great.  I put my head in the water and hundreds of fish were swimming right below me!  I started hyperventilating!  I've never swam around so many fish!  The people on the boat threw bread into the water to attract the fish.  It took a couple of minutes to feel relaxed snorkeling around so many fish.  Most were about 6 inches long, and a few were about 1 foot long.  I saw sea urchins on the bottom of the ocean floor, 4 meters below. 

 

Huge limestone formations enclosed the bay.  Several boats and kayakers were enjoying the water with us.

  

As an aside, Maya Bay was the location of the movie The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

We got back into the boat and went to Ley Island where we had a buffet lunch!  I scooped mounds of rice, curry chicken, noodles on my plate, and got a bowl of soup with prawn meatballs.  I was grinning ear to ear.  The setting was so beautiful.  We could see the mountains rising out of the sea, with lush vegetation and houses, trees with yellow flowers, and of course the sea.  It felt like Paradise.

Nita told me one of her life’s motto: “If you want to travel, you have to pay.  But when you come back, the memories are priceless.”  I told her I was going to write it in my blog.  So for the rest of the day, I would smile and say, “This is priceless”. 

After our lunch, we went down to the beach.  Nita's husband and her daughter went swimming while Nita, her mother, and I sat chatting and relaxing on the lounge chairs.

I told Nita I stayed with a couchsurfer in Japan.  She said, “Oh!  I’ve wanted to do that!  I love meeting people from other countries but I live so far from the center of Jakarta.”  I told her how a friend told me that her friend thought that there wouldn’t be many couchsurfers in Malaysia because a lot of them are conservative.  She said, “Well I’m Muslim, but my best friend is a male who has a male partner.  We eat dinner together.  My religion is between God and me.”  She told me she has a friend in Jakarta who is an actress and a couchsurfer.  I will try to find her! 

I also loved her sense of humor.  I told her how orderly people are in Japan.  They wait for the train to come in single file lines.  She said it was the same thing when there was a tsunami warning issued for Japan.  “In Indonesia, people go, AHHHHHH!!!!! TSUNAMI!!! And there are stampedes.  In Japan, people go, “Okay, a tsunami.”

She said that it is almost impossible for Indonesians to get visas to visit the United States.  Isn’t that something?  And they don’t ask us for visas.  The US will ask for money, proof that you have a house, and then they still won’t grant a visa.  She also told me that President Obama went to school in Jakarta and everyone celebrated when he won the reelection. 

When we got back to the Pier I gave them hugs goodbye.  We both said it was really nice to have met each other.

I still haven’t had luck yet finding a host in Bangkok.  One girl said she can’t host me but is free to hang out.  I will for sure take her up on that offer.  It it’s a popular time of year to travel to Thailand and I’m contact people at the last minute so it makes finding a host very hard.  The problem is, I’m so indecisive on where I want to go!  When I left Osaka, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be in Malaysia or Phuket.  It was at the airport that I booked my hostel in Phuket and almost everything was full for that night!  I nearly had a heart attack!  I ended up booking a double room in a hotel for $30 for the first night and then my current hostel for $8 for the rest of my stay. 

High travel season really takes the spontaneity out of travel.  After today’s trip to Ko Phi Phi, I was satisfied with my experience in Phuket and would have flown to Bangkok tomorrow but my flight is already booked for Saturday. 

I don’t know any other experience I have here will top the one I had today.  And it wasn’t really because I was at Ko Phi Phi, it was because I learned so much about another culture and got to share some of my own.  I told myself when I set out, “Nisha, make a new friend”.  Its great, but then its really sad to say goodbye!  I bond with people too easily!   Who knows what tomorrow will bring or what other amazing person I will meet.  I hope I don’t have to spend tomorrow by myself.