Sitting around the pool over looking stunning blue waters and the majestic rolling cliffs that surround them nothing could ruin this scene. Then two Americans who introduce themselves as from Wisconsin like that is supposed to mean something suck all of the love and beauty out of the day requiring the oxygen to talk absolute bullshit about things they know nothing about. God bless their souls, maybe time to put your backwards flat peaks back on and protect those burning onions.
With the boys slugging it out back home I like to spend the Saturday's close to the wifi so I can keep up to date with the scores. I also can't listen to this garbage anymore so perfect time to write a blog. Everything that comes out of their mouths is a lie!
So for the second time in this trip we were greeted at the accommodation by the always charming Alexia and Ash. The customary drop of bags was followed by a walk to the beach to get some vitamin beer into us. We haven't had a great deal of sun so far but this was going to change in the coming days.
A quiet night was followed by a day on the beach and full sunshine that hasn't left us. Thanks to free wifi and modern technology we were able to listen on the beach to Warner and Smith carve up the Blackcaps all over Canberra. While the four of us loved it (not so much Kate) the other tourists from Europe and Russia were HATING IT and we quickly found ourselves with a section of beach all to ourselves.
There are cats everywhere here, and I mean everywhere. They each seem to have their own small patch of territory and coexist. They seem too, like all cats, spend a great deal of time sleeping but are for some reason very friendly and open to a pay. Some appear much healthier than others, some even look like pets. We worked out they are on the island to catch the rats and mice. The more mice you catch, the more your owner feeds you on top. We of course all went straight to the most pathetic and mangled looking ones and have been making sure they can live to fight another day.
It was also one of the days Kate and I made one of our 'life decisions'. Those that know us know these are generally a walk that leads to us buying a house or a coffee that turns into an overseas trip. While not as extreme this time we revisited what we really wanted from the next phase of the trip. Chiangmai and Bangkok were on the agenda, but as discussed neither of us are massive fans of the region. Phi Phi Don (town/island) is stunning, it's cheap and the sun never goes away. While we agreed we'd need to upgrade our prison cell to something a touch nicer meaning no booze, we decided this is what we wanted. Hostels were canceled, extra nights booked, train rides refunded and planes missed. We are now staying put until the 17th December, and then catching a flight from Krabi to London to hug Jack and then punch him because we are off him. I'll no doubt hug him again tho can't wait to see him.
There isn't much I can write about here that you can't see on google images. The beaches are stunning and the sheer cliffs that surround the island are hard to take your eyes off. Off the shore it reminds me of Ios - small streets that wind and intercept each other in a gridded maze all have bars and pubs and alcohol you can buy when ever you want. At every bend there is a poor tourist trying to earn a nights sleep offering you this party cruise or that drink special because "you look like you can party" - please champ I look like a grandad these days. Speaking of grandad, there was a gentleman pushing well past retirement age selling passes to the booze cruise. He had a yarn or two and was just living the dream. It was quite extraordinary.
In our two nights out we discovered the joy of the bucket. Imagine a sand bucket on the course, double it, fill it with enough alcohol that you have to be careful lighting a dart around it and drink it. Night one we learned the kamikaze wasn't the way to go and moved to strawberry daiquiris the next night. I continued my dominance over the pool table destroying all comers who wanted a crack at the title and on the second night with a record of 10-1 (the 1 being me fouling on the black) we went to a pub - again called Reggae Bar - where people, generally mates, who would jump in the ring and go 3 x 1min rounds of Muay Thai with each other received a medal and a free aforementioned bucket. While it got a bit long in the tooth after 7-8 fights, at the start we were into this. You pay more for your beer but God it was entertaining. My favs as I mentioned on the gram were these two chavs who thought they were as fit as all get up, throwing punches that would wound a bath bubble, getting upset and cracking the shits at each other and throwing gloves at each other. Hilarious and pathetic at the same time. Now you may ask was I man enough to get in the ring? Well of course I have 13 years defence training from rugby, 17 years 'putting Nick Frayne in his box' training and 20 years watching WCW/WWF/ECW experience so it was a no brainer. But Kate said she didn't want me to ruin some other guys trip which I thought was noble of her and I left amateur to the amateurs.
Lex and Ash left to a few tears from the lovely but those wounds were healed by the room upgrade. Lex and Ash you are bloody amazing people and I can't wait for the future planned adventures to NZ and Torquay! Since then Kate has been quite ill. Luckily we found some antibiotics and while a few days later no longer 'sick', her body is removing all the crap and she has no energy. It's fine. There really isn't much to do here apart from sunbake and swim and get our energy back for London and Christmas time!!! I won't be in touch via blog until after we land in London. We honestly especially when Kate is better are just beaching and walking and enjoying some rest. So in other words being boring and no one wants to know if they are hotdogs or legs - the are fkn legs!!! We have an Airbnb for our first 7 nights in London. We are catching up with Jack and the great man Raff and I'll write when I have some stories and 'plenty of surprises' to share.
Until next time, Mighty out.
