Thailand, Anna and “Sanuk” – Part 2
On the 3rd of March our love affair with Bangkok came to an end. After visiting Ayutthaya we came back to our hotel, grabbed our stuff and took a cab for the local airport. We had a flight for Phuket and a room booked in Phuket Old Town Hostel. As we were backpacking, it was nothing fancy or expensive. I am a firm believer in non fancy holidays! I like to get as much as possible from a travelling experience and being in a fancy hotel just doesn’t do it for me. I like to go local, use buses, eat street food or in local restaurants, sweat, find reasons to complain like a true Romanian, and at the end of the day go to bed with a satisfied grin, marking another adventure.
The flight was a bit of a weird experience for me. I normally love it, especially the take off and the landing, but this time I don’t know. We flew Orient Thai Airlines and it was all great, but during the take-off I kept thinking about dying. And I tried to think about something else but I just couldn’t. I mean, they were really nice and professional, no turbulence at all, everything went smoothly. However, I just kept looking outside the window, and it was dark, and the city lights were all pretty and in my mind the only recurrent thought was what if we crash… I blame it on watching “Flight” just a few weeks before our trip, although our captain didn’t sound anything like Denzel
It was good we booked our hostel in advance because we arrived late at night and the place was full. We walked around a little bit looking for a place to eat and we ended up buying fruits from the next door place. Fresh and delicious! The rooms were comfortable, we had internet, and next day the breakfast was really nice. All in all, we were ready to move on to Ko Phi Phi, and so we did
Of course, not before checking the local market and almost loosing the visa card in an atm machine… more like forgetting about it. I know, very stupid of us. Thank God we stopped for pictures and the machine started yelling at us. The local people were so so nice. Everybody in Thailand was just incredible nice.
So from Phuket we had our second boat ride in Thailand. This time it was a big boat, full of tourists, water splashing everywhere, the sun was shining and the SPF 50 was doing its job. Delightful
I call Ko Phi Phi a party island because it’s crowded, full of tourists and stray cats and not exactly what I was looking for. It was beautiful but at the same time not my thing.
Once we left the boat we stopped and looked for accommodation. We didn’t book anything in advance and I am not sorry. There are plenty places and next time we will try going from door to door. I think here we spent the most for accommodation in the entire trip, or maybe Bangkok was a bit more expensive. (400 THB for person) I like the fact that they had picture of the rooms available everywhere and you could just choose and they would take you there but if felt rushed and overwhelming. We were tired and wanted to go to the beach so we chose something fast. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t awesome either. And I like to go for awesome sometimes
After we settled in our new place we hit the beach… and no surprise here, it was full of people. Alex and I managed to find an emptier corner with very little people, no “sezlongs” and tourists; just a few boats and some locals that started getting friendly after a while. The water was transparent and everything just breath-taking. I could not believe my eyes where I was and how good it felt to be there.
Later in the day we joined the others, ate banana pancakes with condensed milk, had vanilla ice cream and just enjoyed life. Of course, we checked the local markets and while I am writing this, I have my Ko Phi Phi green sarong wrapped around me. I know I sound crazy but it smells of summer and sea and sand and holiday so I am going to hang on to it a bit more
In the evening we “enjoyed” the fire shows present all over the beach. We first had drinks from small “buckets”, had dinner at a local place, walked around counting the cats… ok, just me… but they were so so many, and I never thought I will say this about cats, but they were kind of ugly. I did not like them, felt badly as most are strays. The locals have places where you can give money for their care but I think they would better invest in keeping their expanding population under control.
We headed to the beach bars, all of them promising the best time of our lives but for me it was just meh. The music was too loud and crashing on my ears in an uncomfortable way, the smell of gasoline wasn’t doing anything for me and the crowd of people felt suffocating at times. I am just not a party girl, never was, never will be.
One thing I loved in the 2 days we were here was the food. Yes, I know I talk about food a lot but I am a huge foodie and in Koh Phi Phi we had some of the best street food, from barbecue to Phad Thai and soups and pancakes and fried bananas and fresh fruits and the list can go on
Did I mention the fresh juices? Ok, I am stopping now
Next day we took a boat ride to see the area around the island; we saw Maya beach, did a bit of snorkelling, worked on our tan, climbed to the Ko Phi Phi View Point. The view was breathtaking, one of the highlights of our trip. Sitting there and watching the place… Definitely one of those moments when I could honestly say “I am very happy and it’s tangible and real”.
Me happy
Next week I will write about Krabi, Thai cosmetics, stray dogs and Anna


















