Golden Week in Thailand

Yes, this update is rather late. And yes, I'm lazy so I'm anticipating that this is going to be a rather weak post, gomen ne.

Aaron and I went to Thailand for Golden Week/our last jaunts through Asia for the forseeable future. We wasted no time in getting to our final destination, Ko Phi Phi. Phi Phi is a small island located about 35 km off of Phuket. It is accessible only by a 2-hour ferry from either Phuket or Krabi. We took a morning flight from Bangkok to Phuket then a taxi to the pier and finally the ferry to the island where we were met by an employee from our hotel who put our bags into a pushcart (there are no cars) and led us through the maze of restaurants, travel agencies and souvenier shops that is Phi Phi Village to the Viewpoint Hotel. (Holy runon sentence batman!)

The island was gorgeous; the hotel was airconditioned and came with two giant beds (thank you Kat, for the recommendation); the weather was great (despite the one-hour rain showers we got for the last few days); the food was amazing and the ubiquitous Eurotrash were... well, Eurotrash. It was a very relaxing week involving many hours spent by the pool or on the beach, a couple of novels, daily banana shakes, massages and awesome meals for cheap. Oh, and cocktails in buckets (the verdict is still out on whether thats gross or amazing).

We did manage to take a boat trip out for one afternoon to see the other (non tourist-ridden) islands in the Phi Phi chain and to go snorkeling on the reef.

Oh, and on our last day in Phuket, I spent all my leftover money on clothes at Lacoste and Levi's for cheap-cheap (yes, it's all real!).

And now, a few pictures in no particular order (the rest are up on my fotopage; the link is on the left):

That's Aaron

On the ferry coming into the harbor

Thai Longtail Boats

Sunset view from the balcony of our villa

Daytime view from the villa

Buckets! Oy!

We hiked up to the Viewpoint (our hotel's namesake, perhaps?), and this is what we saw

At our hotel bar, home of the laziest bartender on earth

Maya Bay (This is where The Beach was filmed; Thai authorities have attempted to prevent this beach from getting rundown by tourism by charging $5 to go onto the beach. This doesn't stop the overwhelming traffic from boat/snorkeling tours in the bay, but it's an effort nonetheless.)