An paradise island (?)

I try to write briefly about an island called Koh Phi Phi located in southern Thailand, between the large island of Phuket and Krabi on the mainland. This was my second time in this island and the first time was just weeks before the Indian Ocean tsunami vanished all most the whole island. Koh Phi Phi w

as devastated by the tsunami of December 2004, when nearly all of the island's infrastructure was destroyed. This time when I arrived in Phi Phi I remembered some places like the beach but could also really see how much they had started to build concrete houses instead of bamboo ones. I wasn't fascinated about these new buildings and how rugged-looking they were but I understand why they are building them.

What comes to the reputation of Phi Phi is quite funny; two weeks holiday travellers with suitcases come there to party from Pukhet or Krabi, heaps of westerns especially English and Swedish people (yes I hanged out with them mostly) gets fucked up by drinking rum or vodka buckets and fighting towards each other in reggae bar's Thai boxing stadium. It was so funny looking when both of the foreigner fighters didn't have any idea how to Thai box correctly. They were kind of hitting each other like little girls and running in a row. But yes, of course you got a free bucket from that.. !

I haven't been drinking anything after I got out from hospital while I'm still taking two different medicines for my liver because of dengue fever. I'm totally fine with that and save so much money for other things.

At night everyone goes to the beach to party, there they got maybe four nice places which of two are clubs and two chilling places (one of them is called Stoned and is really chilled you can lie on the beach and look at the starts and enjoy good vibes). Fire shows start at the evening and are pretty good but when these young Thai guys courage the drunk audience to go jumping on a fire rope it just keeps giving people burns until midnight when dancing begins. It's unbelievable that I have met several people with burns on my travels and when I ask them what happened they all say I got it from stepping on a fire rope or jumping through a fire circle. I secretly wanted to try fire limbo but either burning my face or hair weren't on my to do list, nor going to spend more days in hospital again.

I liked lots of things in Koh Phi Phi, but the most maybe its beautiful scenery I saw from beaches and viewpoints. One day there turned into a six in a blink of an eye. I enjoyed every day the sun, walking long tiny roads to little beaches and meeting wonderful and crazy people from all around the world. I got bunch of new places to go and stay when travelling. It was hard to leave but I knew that going next to Malaysia was something so cool and I couldn't be more excited.

 

I survived from the hectic, expensive and touristic party island by eating again with locals (good tip to keep in mind if you are a backpacker). I found this one plastic chair alley where with 1 euro you got better Thai meals than in "real" restaurants where you spend 4 to 10 euros for the same meals. At these little plastic chair places they cook much more delicious food as well. Of course I have a tight budget but I also love to do things inexpensively. I didn't buy anything else than one bracelet which I want to do in every place I travel. I went to stay in the cheapest dorm room but totally with the best people on the whole island called The Rock. It had graffiti and texts written by people who had stayed there all over from its walls to beds and ceiling. That place really had good vibes in it. After leaving Phi Phi I just got one thing in my mind.. will I visit the island again for the third time one pretty day ? Who knows, this girl has a wild heart and seeks for new adventures so let's see.

Ko Lanta, Christmas and dengue fever

Lots of things have happened. After flying back to Thailand from Vietnam I've been volunteering on an island in south Thailand near Krabi called Ko Lanta. Work included all things what has been done in a hostel and bar as being in the reception, taking care of customers, cleaning, being a bartender at the evenings, painting walls and sights, hosting open mic nights and parties, singing and playing or performing in any way in the bar, photographing and downloading them to hostel's Facebook page and promotion for the parties on the beach. First twelve days went really well I liked my job and the beach one minute away. We had quite much work so there was not much time to see other places on the island. The other volunteers were great and I bet I'm going to see them again one day. I loved our little crayzy family with dogs, cats, chicken and a rooster (they weren't so nice waking me up 5am in my room), frogs and one damn long black snake. I was quite used to spiders and snakes in the north Thailand, but this one really was long and scary because you couldn't see that at night because of the black colour. And how nice it would have been stepping on it while I always walked barefoot everywhere.. To the beach, shops, loundry, and it goes on. Speaking of which, I'm glad I haven't still step on any glass, just one little nail. Using shoes or even easy flip flops isn't for me. In Thailand you take them off anyway when you enter to a store. I turned out to be a hippie kid already in Pai so Ko Lanta is a safe place to continue that. Christmas went a little bit different than in Finland. We had really nice dinner but after that a huge parties on the beach and I had so much fun dancing the whole night long with my new Latino and French friends. And we had two Christmas days with Vera because when we celebrate it on 24th, the other volunteers were from countries where they celebrate it at the next day. So we continued partying, easy choice. What was really sweet and what I enjoyed a lot was our secret Santa game, where everyone picked one name and had to buy a gift for him/her. I got Max, and Alaskan nice boy who I made a seashell bracelet for. I got earnings and a secret gift from another alaskan, Grace. Christmas was great, of course I missed my family, but not the cold that much. + 30 was OK for me. ;)

So what happened next ? Well I somehow ended up getting a dengue fever from one bloody mosquito. I should have wore long pants and shirt but no, dresses were more nicer to put on and enjoy the sea breeze and sun, cause dengue mosquitoes bite on day time. Well, I should have, because now I've been in two hospitals for 7 days. It started on the 29th evening when I felt like my bones were going to crack and eyes just burn. I was working in a bar and all I could do was to say that I'm really sorry but I feel like dying. So I went to sleep, which wasn't that easy as two bars plus Thai boxing stadium were playing music all st the same time. No earplugs helped. I started to feel more and more sick in my muscles and bones, my skin was burning but I was freezing. I put all the clothes I had on and went inside of my sleeping bag and two blankets. It didn't help at all. I started to cry because I was hurt so much. It just made my fever rise and when I checked it it was 41 degrees. I knew I was not going to have an easy night.
I'm not going to explain what I did the whole night because it's unnecessary, the necessary thing is that when Vera woke up, or I woke her up by yelling I feel like somebody's cracking my bones and my brains and explaining to her if I don't go now I'm gonna die maybe, we left to hospital. There I got a drip in my hand again, they took a blood test to make sure it was dengue and put me to sleep in a room. I stayed there for one day and night, because on the next day I was transferred to a bigger and better hospital in Phuket with an ambulance. That was certainly my first ambulance ride and in Thailand !
I arrived to Phuket after 4 hours and they took another bloodtest (have to take everyday when dengue) and took me to my room. My platelets were really low from the normal ones which usually couses anemia and bleeding. So my days here went quite same, nurses checking on me and taking tests and giving about 25 medicine in a day. Dengue fever wasn't really my only worry because I somehow had got stomach infection to make things worse.

Now I'm laying here, taking my time to recover and hoping to get well soon. I want to get on the road again and travell. It's what I do best and it's what I love the most. I don't know how many days I need to stay still here but the most important thing is to stay positive and be strong. And I will.