'A Room With A View...'
Anadi and I are sitting in the dark on a terrace overlooking a beautiful bay... Something was lost in translation when I said earlier that we would like something more to eat later on...!
We have come up here, where we were welcomed earlier and it is completely deserted. There is a rocky path to the beach which leads to the main part of Phi Phi island, we might still investigate, otherwise it is chocolate for our dinner, if it has survived the trip!
As Anadi has just said, 'it's either going to be alright or it isn't'…!
We left Phuket at 12pm today and arrived here at our new home at 4pm.
We had woken early and went down to the sea for a swim, the beach was nearly empty, there were two other people swimming and a man practicing on a paddle board; he fell off a lot, but was getting better at it even in time we were swimming....
After breakfast we travelled for an hour on a bus to the port....
There was a man on the bus with his wife and small boy, he was working on his computer and he and Anadi struck up a conversation. They started discussing Java script and the amazon cloud and other such things... a fellow computer programmer...
They were inspired by our story as they are just setting out to create a similar lifestyle, they are in the middle of a seven week trial run...
Chatting with them also demonstrated to us, the leaps we have made, since we set off to Costa Rica on Dec 6th last year having gone some way then towards being full nomads....
The boat ride across took two hours; the sea was calm and we spent all the time on the deck; I used it as an opportunity to stretch!
I was recounting to Anadi about our six week long boat trips back on leave from Africa, where we lived when I was little. My father and I spent a lot of time on deck as I was sea sick a lot..!
One memorable time was when my mother was pregnant with my little sister, and she had morning sickness, so my Dad was in charge of me!
I can remember the look on his face to this day, even though I was only two years old, when I was sick all over the breakfast table...
He took me up on deck and the waves were huge - twenty feet high...
'Great hills of water'... I am reported to have exclaimed!
It wasn't like that today...
The sea was calm and Phi Phi island welcomed us with lots of activity and vibrant life as we docked...
The place was bright and noisy, we followed Lim who had met us to show us the way to our new home, he raced through the streets, we nearly lost him at one point...
Then we reached the beach
He pointed to a little blue and white boat that was heading across the water towards us ...
'Your boat' he said... and then squatted down on the sand to wait and I did the same, but he leapt up and found me an old plastic chair to sit on!
The boat master, another boy and Lim piled Anadi’s and my luggage on board, even though it is all that we own, it still seemed a lot to be taking in this little boat!
We motored across the bay, looking around in wonderment... A new adventure, we didn't know where we were going...
'We could be going anywhere'! I said to Anadi, we were wet from spots of rain and the spray coming up from the bows of the boat...
We clambered out and climbed up a winding very steep path with long steps to where we are now…
The two boys - young and slender carried our cases as if they were a feather... The pace they set up the steep path was fast and we were out of breath at the top…
The boys seemed unfazed!
We were shown to our little home; we love it... it is just a room set into the rocks...
We then ate a late lunch of Tom yum soup, on this terrace bar...
They asked us if we wanted the soup spicy... 'Yes please, we like spicy'
We got spicy!
Later...
We decided to venture down the steep path to investigate the possibility of supper....
The path wound down and past buildings which looked like they serve food in the day... Not a soul about...
Trees curled and wound their branches above us... There was a voodoo energy in the air, an undercurrent all around; it felt like anything could happen...
We could hear the beat of a beach party and see flashing lights and fire dancers...
Soon we emerged into a little street with people about, and then a bar right on the waters edge....
They were still serving food, so we ate delicious Thai curry with beer... A little grey cat made friends with us....
The beach party was happening just across from us, so after we had eaten we made our way to party land and the reason many people come to Phi Phi....
A wander through it was enough for me....
But the people there were embracing the whole experience and loving it…
I have never liked that kind of experience or the energy of it, even when I was a teenager and in my twenties, but it was good to do a 'walk through'…
We wandered continued on, through the streets, which are like dirt tracks, lined with bars, and massage rooms and tattoo parlours, thronging with people who had been drinking a lot.... to find an ATM as the people we are renting our room from would like us to pay in cash...
We found it, bought a big pack of water and made our way back along the path and up our steep path to our little 'room with a view' high up looking over the beautiful bay....
