A tough hike and a few Jägerbombs
Since my days after a night out usually consist of me in a fetal position on the cold, hard bathroom floor, hugging the toilet and occassionally crying for my mom, who isn’t there, I take it relatively easy on our first night in Phi Phi. Relatively. Sara and Tori don’t.
We have breakfast around noon, several naps and no drinks at all the next day. Sara and I don’t want to stay at Flower Bungalows anymore, so while she is hungover and I dizzy from the blazing heat and excessive sweating, we go to virtually every hostel, hotel and guest house, trying to get a good deal. We see many nice ones, but most are around 1800 baht per night, which is out of our budget. We eventually decide on Tara Inn at 700 baht, and move there the following day.
I love having a proper bathroom, a nice bed, and a place to put all our shit. All my clothes are at the very bottom of my backpack, so I have to get everything out of there all the time, and I can’t be bothered to repack unless we’re leaving, so four months worth of crap is spread out on the floor at all times.
We basically just drop our stuff at the room and decide it’s time to actually see something while here. Tori wants to take us to this beach that is supposed to be half an hour away and much nicer, but she ends up showing us the wrong way to the wrong beach. I’ll tell you why we don’t mind in a bit.
It’s around 40 degrees, and the humidity is the worst I’ve ever tried. You can’t possibly keep yourself hydrated, as the sweat is running down your back and your face at an impossible pace. We walk a bit out of town, Tori and I barefoot, up some incredibly steep hills, that seem to go on forever. At one point, we see a nature trail with signs pointing to the viewpoint and beach, so we go that way. The trail is obviously just dirt, pebbles, dried, sharp leaves, and twigs. It’s uncomfortable, painful even, to walk on.
After about an hour of walking, we find a trail down to Rantee beach. It is steep, extremely painful and hard to climb down from, and we all get separated from each other because of our individual paces and pain tolerances. We end up at the beach, around 2 hours after we’ve left Tonsai pier, our feet red, black and ultra-sensitive from the trails and burning concrete we’ve walked on. Tori’s never seen this beach before, but she promises it’s way more beautiful than the one she intended to take us to. It’s a fairly small beach, not even a kilometer long, and only a few people are around. The sand is white and the water green going on blue, and very clear. We immediatly drop everything and jump in the ocean.
We stay here for an hour, maybe more, before we are bored of lying in the sun, turning red. 200 bahts later, we are on a longtail taxiboat back to Tonsai. I am so happy to see our shower, which only has cold water, but that’s alright with me. We have a great dinner at Papaya, where the waiter is so sweet, my heart melts when I think of him. I also have my first Pad Thai!
After dinner, we go back to get ready, supposed to meet Tori at 9 at Reggae Bar. She doesn’t show, but her friends, Brooks and Pak do, so we hang out with them, a guy from Switzerland, and two from London.
After a quick drink at Banana Bar, we head to the beach, and I meet Spencer, a guy I worked with last year at The Pink Palace! What a small world.
I am at one bucket, two Jägerbombs, and one beer before I switch to water, because I feel more sick than drunk. Thai Jägermeister is basically amphetamine, I hear.
I have a great time just talking to people and dancing, even though I’m not my usual sloppy self. I walk around for a bit with Pak, and we end up walking the streets, where we meet up with Lotion, the guy in the picture above. He’s always hanging around by Reggae Bar, and now he’s sitting by the ATM next to the bar with a group of friends. We join them and start harassing people walking by, yelling things like “BLACK TAR HEROIN! CHEAP PRICES! COME GET YOUR BLACK TAR HEROIN RIGHT HERE!”
We then sit down at a tattoo shop and have a breezer with the Thai guys working there, but they start getting a bit creepy, so we leave. Like, they think I am the owners girlfriend and he’s showing guys that talk to me his gun kind of creepy.
At around 5 in the morning, I want to go home with a burger instead of a guy, so I buy one at one of the stands by the beach and I eat it on the bed while talking to Sara, who’s been asleep for a few hours. It’s the best burger of my life. Maybe because it’s 5 in the morning, but it really is amazing.