Friday, December 21, 2007
A hammock, Ko Phi Phi, kayaking, 'White Christmas' and the awesome...the fabulous...the one and only...FULL MOON PARTY!
3pm Thu 20 Dec: My hammock, slung from a lolloping branch above the sand, is swaying gently as I admire giant limestone cliffs planted opposite a sheet of light green and turquoise water.
This spot is familiar to two potential blog readers - Andy Worden and Graham Caygill - as we're outside the thatched Mao Prao cabins on the famously-beautiful Ko Phi Phi Don island, off west Thailand. Andy, Cago and I stayed here three years ago.
Nati is sprawled on a sarong in the shade of another branch, and, if there was ever a spot to take time out and write a blog wishing everyone a truly Merry Christmas, a fun New Year and a sensational 2008...this is that it. We both wish you a really great one!
I'm feeling festive after a kayak shop played 'White Christmas' last night as I jogged down an almost-white sand beach under a 3/4-full white moon. Thought that was quite cool - and decent blog material - so maybe shouldn't mention Cliff Richard's abomination 'Mistletoe and Wine' followed to turn cool into cheese.
For the big day, we're heading to Koh Pha Ngan (Xmas Eve Full Moon Party...is that great timing, or is that great timing?) and a cabin plonked ON the beach - then Sydney for New Year fireworks and, after midnight, a massive, classy Hed Kandi house night.
Back to the hammock...I'm fantistically happy to be here in Phi Phi; but also very sad, as what touched me most about the 2004 Tsunami was the terrible loss of life on the island I had visited three months earlier.
700 people died on Phi Phi that Boxing Day morning.
At Mao Prao, I recognise a Thai man from our previous visit. He tells me his friend was killed when the restaurant was destroyed.
The main town suffered far more damage, as waves swept over the 100m-wide sand spit (backed by beaches on both sides) on which the town is built. Photos, screen-grabs and videos at http://www.issuespotter.com/
Most of the town has been rebuilt but the scars are still there. There are still piles of twisted wood, barren land between battered palm trees, and people sleeping in rough wooden shacks which double as daytime fruit stalls.
Despite the reminders, and the daily invasion of 6ft red lobsters from package-holiday-and-sleaze hot-spot Phuket, Phi Phi is still unquestionably beautiful.
This patch of Thailand is famous for sea-kayaking, and Nati and I have had some super paddles: around Phi Phi Leh of 'The Beach' movie fame; into the shallow, pale blue, cliff-wrapped lagoon of Hong Island near Krabi (absolutely awesome for 'helloooooo' echoes!), and; up against the strange finger (or a ruder protrusion) shapes of sculpted limestone at Railay.
Nati, with her cute doggy swimming style and fear of deep water, has been surprsingly calm and hardly screamed at all.
We're two weeks into our Thai journey, which started on the southern island of Ko Lipe. We were fortunate to have a cabin above a breathtaking hook-shaped swoop of white sand; to tuck into a record-size coconut ('procured', not purchased) large enough to excite the late Norris McWhirter; swing on dangling vines from rocks onto a beach, and; relax on a picture-perfect wooden swing with a classic beach-palm tree-sea-sky view.
You may know Nati and I are crazy about food, so we've loved trying every different cuisine possible in the three months of our trip. Thai curries are just incredible...I can (and do) eat them every night. And Nati still starts salivating if I mention a sizzling seafood platter she had a fortnight ago.
We arrived in Thailand after a couple of weeks in Singapore and Malaysia, both home to the best hawker/street food I've ever tasted. Aside from skyscrapers and colonial buildings, Singers also has: quayside aerobics featuring free Yakult...ok, the temptation was too great; a superb zoo with performing elephants, polar bears and orangutans (see pic above); and a tremendous overhead thunderstorm with gunshot bangs echoing off tower blocks.
Delved into history in Malysia - Nati wasn't TOO bored - tracking Portuguese, Dutch and British colonisation in museum-mad Melaka (only place I've ever heard a flower-filled tourist tricycle play AC/DC...Nati was more impressed with Nando's) and colonial architecture-filled Georgetown.
And...had an awesome time at our pal Adam Cooper's fantastic 21st-floor pad in downtown Kuala Lumpur. The gym and pool were great - but the Petronas Towers (of 'Entrapment' film fame) and views of them over a SkyBar cocktail and on a Petronas park jog were something else. Ad somehow managed a quick 5ks the day after finishing in the top 150 of the Singapore Half-Marathon. Congrats and thanks again! Also great to meet the very fun, food-and-party-mad Julian & Honey (http://juliansi.blogspot.com/).
That's it...festive saludos to everyone again from Nati and I...going to Koh Pha Ngan and Sydney now so chat in 2008!
If you'd like to comment on this blog, click on the 'COMMENTS' tab below.
All the best
Ali & Nati
This spot is familiar to two potential blog readers - Andy Worden and Graham Caygill - as we're outside the thatched Mao Prao cabins on the famously-beautiful Ko Phi Phi Don island, off west Thailand. Andy, Cago and I stayed here three years ago.
Nati is sprawled on a sarong in the shade of another branch, and, if there was ever a spot to take time out and write a blog wishing everyone a truly Merry Christmas, a fun New Year and a sensational 2008...this is that it. We both wish you a really great one!
I'm feeling festive after a kayak shop played 'White Christmas' last night as I jogged down an almost-white sand beach under a 3/4-full white moon. Thought that was quite cool - and decent blog material - so maybe shouldn't mention Cliff Richard's abomination 'Mistletoe and Wine' followed to turn cool into cheese.
For the big day, we're heading to Koh Pha Ngan (Xmas Eve Full Moon Party...is that great timing, or is that great timing?) and a cabin plonked ON the beach - then Sydney for New Year fireworks and, after midnight, a massive, classy Hed Kandi house night.
Back to the hammock...I'm fantistically happy to be here in Phi Phi; but also very sad, as what touched me most about the 2004 Tsunami was the terrible loss of life on the island I had visited three months earlier.
700 people died on Phi Phi that Boxing Day morning.
At Mao Prao, I recognise a Thai man from our previous visit. He tells me his friend was killed when the restaurant was destroyed.
The main town suffered far more damage, as waves swept over the 100m-wide sand spit (backed by beaches on both sides) on which the town is built. Photos, screen-grabs and videos at http://www.issuespotter.com/
Most of the town has been rebuilt but the scars are still there. There are still piles of twisted wood, barren land between battered palm trees, and people sleeping in rough wooden shacks which double as daytime fruit stalls.
Despite the reminders, and the daily invasion of 6ft red lobsters from package-holiday-and-sleaze hot-spot Phuket, Phi Phi is still unquestionably beautiful.
This patch of Thailand is famous for sea-kayaking, and Nati and I have had some super paddles: around Phi Phi Leh of 'The Beach' movie fame; into the shallow, pale blue, cliff-wrapped lagoon of Hong Island near Krabi (absolutely awesome for 'helloooooo' echoes!), and; up against the strange finger (or a ruder protrusion) shapes of sculpted limestone at Railay.
Nati, with her cute doggy swimming style and fear of deep water, has been surprsingly calm and hardly screamed at all.
We're two weeks into our Thai journey, which started on the southern island of Ko Lipe. We were fortunate to have a cabin above a breathtaking hook-shaped swoop of white sand; to tuck into a record-size coconut ('procured', not purchased) large enough to excite the late Norris McWhirter; swing on dangling vines from rocks onto a beach, and; relax on a picture-perfect wooden swing with a classic beach-palm tree-sea-sky view.
You may know Nati and I are crazy about food, so we've loved trying every different cuisine possible in the three months of our trip. Thai curries are just incredible...I can (and do) eat them every night. And Nati still starts salivating if I mention a sizzling seafood platter she had a fortnight ago.
We arrived in Thailand after a couple of weeks in Singapore and Malaysia, both home to the best hawker/street food I've ever tasted. Aside from skyscrapers and colonial buildings, Singers also has: quayside aerobics featuring free Yakult...ok, the temptation was too great; a superb zoo with performing elephants, polar bears and orangutans (see pic above); and a tremendous overhead thunderstorm with gunshot bangs echoing off tower blocks.
Delved into history in Malysia - Nati wasn't TOO bored - tracking Portuguese, Dutch and British colonisation in museum-mad Melaka (only place I've ever heard a flower-filled tourist tricycle play AC/DC...Nati was more impressed with Nando's) and colonial architecture-filled Georgetown.
And...had an awesome time at our pal Adam Cooper's fantastic 21st-floor pad in downtown Kuala Lumpur. The gym and pool were great - but the Petronas Towers (of 'Entrapment' film fame) and views of them over a SkyBar cocktail and on a Petronas park jog were something else. Ad somehow managed a quick 5ks the day after finishing in the top 150 of the Singapore Half-Marathon. Congrats and thanks again! Also great to meet the very fun, food-and-party-mad Julian & Honey (http://juliansi.blogspot.com/).
That's it...festive saludos to everyone again from Nati and I...going to Koh Pha Ngan and Sydney now so chat in 2008!
If you'd like to comment on this blog, click on the 'COMMENTS' tab below.
All the best
Ali & Nati
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