Lost in Translation...

Dear Friends and Fam,

After Bangkok we counted our cards and decided it was time to get the hell out as it was so insane there! We hopped on a cheap flight down south to a little port town called Krabi. With Will, Jay and myself we got on a 2 hour ferry the next day and headed to Ko Phi Phi, the main island near the location island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We met three other Brits on the ferry, a super cute girl named Lucy, and two hilarious blokes Joe and Richard as well as a canadian girl named Zoey. We found some bungalows on the hillside and bargained to get a room for about 5 bucks a night, not bad. That day we went to the opposite side beach and chilled out for the day looking out at the massive lime stone cliffs and incredible surrounding. We got lunch at what would become "our spot" and met some gorgeous Spanish girls who we met up with later that night at a little bar on the beach called "ciao bella." Really fun night as we talked story and that's where we were introduced to our future captain, Ricky Ricardo or as he would be later known as, "captain ron!" Ricky was an Italian guy who just got up and moved to the island about ten years ago and bought a boat and runs day trips through the surrounding islands. So we arranged to go out with him two days later. He told us some pretty disturning stories of the Sunami as he was in the water when it happened and you canonly image how e found out, floating bodies. The next day we went back to our beach and found a volleyball net and played with some German guys who were super cool, but very terrible at volleyball but it's all good haha. That night we met up with some of Will's Irish mates who were an absolute riot, learned a wicked new pool game called killer and started off with a bucket of whiskey and red bull, the standard. We ventured to our new night spot called "apachee' where we caught the fire dancing show to start off the night than danced for ages to all various types of music. I met a Portoguese girl named Filiba who was out of this world beautiful and hung out with her for the night as I ventured home somewhere around sun rise,which would become a reaccuring theme the following 2 nights!

The next day the 7 of us took off on Ricky's boat which was about 60 ft and an old fishing boat, great boat though had lots of class. We first went to Bamboo island and had the whole strip of vibrant white sand to ourselves. We did a bit of snorkeling and found many florecent fish. The next island we ventured to monkey island where we fed monkeys bananas as they came litteraly up to our feet! PS, monkeys have gigantic balls! We then headed for the island ko phi phi lea, or now universally known as "the Beach." It is actually seperated into differents parts and was filmed in different locations so it doesnt look exactly like the movie but the surrounding cliffs don't play tricks on you, they're incredible. We sat inside the bay completely surrounded by these enourmously tall limestone cliffs with viking rocks drooping off the side of them, the heigth of the surrounding cliffs would be somewhere around 1000 ft! A storm started to rush in so we had to call it a day and head back to the main island and go to the beach where it was actually filmed on the sand the following day. The rain came in very heavy so what better thing to do when it's cold and raining than to jump in the ocean off the boat which is what I did. Than I realized it probably wasn't the best idea as storms bring in jelly fish and I got stung quite a few times but nothing serious. It was still worth it! That night we ate our new spot, ciao bella and conversed with our Spanish girls, who once they found out how young we were didn't seem as interested anymore haha. That night we went to our thai boxing bar and started the night off with what else, a bucket! I met up with Feliba at the Appachee club and had another super fun night with her as she was an extremely sweet girl and loads of fun. Will hooked up with her other friend so it made for a fun night and Jay ended up meeting a beautiful Isreali girl. I am not exaggerating when I say that I've never been to such beautiful place with such beautiful people, every girl was out of this world. Note to self, go back to Ko Phi Phi before I die!

The last day hung out on "the beach" and watched a Tai boxing match that night and hung out with our girls for a bit. The next day we all had funny stories but I'll keep you to the best one. Joe, one of the english guys came stumbling back in the morning while we were eating breakfast and I said to him "how was the lady boy" completely joking and I think I sparked a bad memory that he had forgotten. He met an english girl and was with her most the night but prior to that we all think Joe might have accidently hooked up with a lady boy as he was content to keep it to himself but would laugh when we brought it up! A memory surely to not forget. We all were a bit lagging that morning and we had this horrid soung stuck in our heads by a guy named Akon called "beautiful girl!" We sang that bloody song all the way to where we are now, it won't leave us!

We hopped on a ferry back to the port town Krabi and then got a bus to Surat Thani which is the port town on the opposite side of the island which is where we caught a ferry to where we are now, Ko Tao. Sorry I think that might have been a run on sentance! I met a really cool girl from Isreal on the bus ride to Surat Thani and will definately keep in touch with her as she wants to come to America and I told her I'd show her around of course. She offered the same, but I don't think I'll be journing to Isreal any time soon. We had to wait at the port town Surat Thani for 7 hours before our ferry and ate some really good Italian food at a little hole in the wall restauranta. The ferry ride was the most misserable and narly ride of my life. There was just a room full of mattreses for people to sleep and the boat looked like it was built in 1960! I woke up from the rain pouring in the windows in the middle of the night as we trekked right into an intense storm as we towered over the most massive swells in the open ocean I've ever seen. We were told to keep life jackets next to us for obvious reasons which wasn't very assuring but we made it to Ko Tao alive! Definately thought about death once again but hey I'm still breathing!

The island we're on now is a divers paradise and I'm still a bit weiry of diving but I think I'm going to give it a go! We just found a mexican restaurant and I'm stinging to grind a burrito and they start surving any moment so I better be off! I'm sorry I've been MIA as I've been lost in translation and the last thing I've wanted is to get on the internet! Oh ya one more thing, my freakin camera broke when I took it under water and it's suppose to be water proof so I am super bummer still about that as it happened the first day on Ko Phi Phi but I'll get Lucy and Will's pictures so it should be all right I hope. Anyway off for now...

Cheers,
Grant