Ko Phi Phi... thanks to Raman and Ben for pictures!

UPDATE: Thanks to Raman and Ben who sent me pictures of the time we spent together on Ko Phi Phi so you can all see the awesomeness of it. (There was an accident on a Thai computer and it wiped all of my pictures.)

 Both bays on Ko Phi Phi.

 These are traditional long-tail boats used by locals mainly to ferry around tourists. Each has a 10 foot long pole on the back with a propeller on the rear. They are super loud, like most Thai taxi vehicles.

 Definitely what people think of for Paradise.

On a whim, I decided to stay on Ko Phi Phi for an additional night after the Maya bay camping trip. This was probably one of the best choices I could have made for this trip. I had such an amazing day and night as a result of it. First off, I found a pretty awesome Hostile with air conditioning called Mr. Local. Almost immediately I met some fabulous Brits (Ram, Bobby, and Ali) and a South African (Harry). Ram has been traveling around SE Asia for 6 weeks now. He told me how his travels have changed his life, and I can understand that! Doing this journey solo (and it's day 5 as I write this) has taught me a lot about planning, smart choices, competence, human connection, and an open heart. I could tell right away that these guys were quality.

After exploring the town during the day, I met up with them to go out on the town at night. Ko Phi Phi is a crazy party town at night, and what a blast I had. First we went to the Banana Hut, which is basically an upstairs tree house style open air bar with screens of music videos and movies. That was fun, but we were really killing time until the Reggae Bar picked up speed. The Reggae Bar was hosting Thai Fight night, where tourists could be trained and fight one another for buckets of mixed drinks. The bar was open on all sides, with a boxing ring in the center and grandstand style mixed with bamboo table seating.

We spent most of our time dancing on the table with some girls we met while screaming for our favorites.

The two Thai trainers got up and gave us a show of a traditional Muay Thai fight. Even though I had a feeling that it was more like the WWF of Thai fighting, it was very well done and had me yelling and screaming!

Here's me and the guys. After the Reggae, we walked to the beach opposite of the pier, Long Beach. Long Beach is a neon strobing club party strip with open air clubs one after the other. There is drinking, dancing, pumping music, and all around debauchery. Some people were trying their skill at swinging around an impromptu pole in good natured fun. Even I had a go! I managed a few cool moves resulting in a scuffed knee that was totally worth it.

Walking back to the hostel I got us lost (haha!!!!!!!!!!) and I ate a surprisingly good slice of pizza before falling into my bunk to sleep soundly and wake up without a hangover YESSSSSS! The next day we lounged on the beach for a few hours, recovering. I ran out of sunblock so I bought some that was expensive... yikes! They sure do hike up that price. It costs the same to buy sunblock as it does to buy a hotel. AND it didn't work. So now I'm a lobster, horray.
Tune in next time for the next adventure... off to Krabi.