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  • Tag: island

    • island hopping in el nido: part 2

      Posted at 8:19 am by jasminedesirees, on April 28, 2015

      Continued from Part 1.

      After our morning of frolicking and getting pretty sunburnt on Hidden Beach, we loaded back up on the boat and headed to Matinloc, which was about a 20 minute boat ride away.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      Matinloc is an absolutely stunning island. It has an abandoned mansion and religious shrine built on it, although the mansion is in decay and has been looted. It’s pretty mysterious, and if you feel like doing more research, there are some theories about buried treasure on Matinloc that are kind of cool.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      We had about an hour there to explore and take pictures. There is a set of stairs carved into the side of one of the hills, and you can climb up to the top to get a vista view of the turquoise bay and the emerald green cliffs.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      It is one of the most stunning views I’ve ever seen, but you take your life into your hands a little bit. The cliffs are made from very sharp rock, and you have to climb up a little bit to really get the best view, and if you slipped, even just a little bit, it would have been agony.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      After Matinloc, we headed to Talisay to relax and have lunch. The beach was gorgeous and the water was super clear, I went snorkeling and chased fish around for ages.  Our lunch was really good, our tour guides caught and grilled fish on a BBQ right alongside the boat, and one of the Swedish girls that was in our group had a portal speaker, so once we finished eating we just lazed in the sun and listened to reggae. It was perfect.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      The last stop on our tour was Secret Beach. When we were about 1/2 an hour from Talisay the driver stopped our boat right in front of a solid cliff, and told us to jump out. We all kind of looked at each other, and then did what we were told, and our guide led us to a hole in the cliffs under the water.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      We had to swim up through it, and on the other side was a circular lagoon type beach with towering cliffs all around it. One of our guides showed us that right when you come in, you can actually swim underneath the rocks that make up part of the lagoon floor in tunnels, and go almost to the other side.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      It was the stuff of my worst, most claustrophobic nightmares, but he took our go pro with him, and it’s a pretty cool video.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      El Nido, and especially this tour, was my favourite part of the Philippines. I know there are so many pictures in this post, but I honestly couldn’t choose, the whole day felt like magic.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      Next time we’re in Palawan, I’d like to go diving at the Tubbataha reefs, and check out the Underground River, but I will definitely make time to come back to El Nido.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      Posted in Philippines, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged el nido, Hidden Beach, island, matinloc, palawan, philippines, secret beach, tour c, travel
    • island hopping in el nido: part 1

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 16, 2015

      We only had a couple of days to spend between El Nido and Coron, so after taking the night bus from Puerto Princessa to El Nido, hunting aimlessly for our hostel, and then getting 3 hours of sleep, we were up at 7 am to take the El Nido Island Hopping tour the next day.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      There are 4 tours that take you to different beaches and coves, but we were told tours A and C were the best, and they looked like the ones we would enjoy the most. We ended up choosing Tour C, which included stops at Secret Beach, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach, and Talisay Island.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      There were about 10 people in our tour group, from all over the world, and they were all pretty cool. We spent the initial boat ride chatting about the Philippines, places we’d been, and places we’d like to go. Our first tour stop was Hidden Beach, and that’s where most of the pictures in this post are from because it was absolutely awesome.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      Our captain parked the boat, and encouraged us to get off and look around. We got off the boat onto a shallow little rock ledge, and weren’t sure exactly what we were looking at, the cliffs were pretty, but nothing amazing. I guess that’s why they call it Hidden Beach? Cleverrrr…..

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      He directed us to walk to the right towards an opening in the cliffs, which we did, with some difficulty, as the waves were crashing against the rocks, and people kept losing their balance and falling over. It was actually pretty funny, except most of us, including me, were a little scraped up by the time we got to the opening. Do not attempt this journey without some kind of shoes, you’ll be sorry.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      Once we got through the opening, we were faced with one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The towering cliffs loomed overhead, hundreds of feet in the air, almost completely surrounding the beach except for the openings at each end. The water was crystal clear turquoise, and it was so peaceful and serene inside.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      We spent about 40 minutes there, taking pictures and then swimming and relaxing and just enjoying it. Once we were back on the boat, we set off for the Matinloc Shrine, more pictures of that in my next post.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      The Island Hopping tours are an absolute must if you are in El Nido, it was one of the best days of our entire trip. The tour only makes 4 stops, but there are so many beautiful beaches and rock formations in that area that the entire day on the boat feels like part of it, you don’t feel like you are just commuting from sight seeing point to sight seeing point.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      To Be Continued…

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      Posted in Philippines, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged beaches, el nido, island, island hopping, palawan, philippines, tour c, travel
    • lombok: senggigi AKA how not to renew your indonesian visa

      Posted at 10:10 am by jasminedesirees, on December 18, 2014

      After Gili T, we took a boat ride over to explore Lombok for a couple of weeks. Our first stop was Mataram, which is the main city, where we stayed for 3 days while we were trying to get our visas extended to stay in Indonesia another month.

      I didn’t love Mataram, it’s very busy and crowded, and everything is kind of far away so it’s not really walkable, and the traffic is so crazy that I didn’t feel comfortable renting a moped either, but there was some beautiful architecture and an amazing mosque that was being erected near our hotel.

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      DSC_3981

      There are agencies in Gili T, and Senggigi that will renew your visas for you, but we figured we could do it ourselves, so we went into the main government building to try. If you are going to do this, make sure you dress very conservatively. Lombok is a Muslim island (as is most of Indonesia, except for Bali) and covered shoulders, closed toed shoes, and covered legs are required.

      I don’t think it would be very hard to get your visa done this way, in retrospect we should have just waited and tried to figure it out, but there were so many people, and the language barrier was too much, we just felt overwhelmed so we decided to use an agency in Senggigi instead.

      senggigi lombok

      senggigi lombok

      It seemed like a good idea at first. We dropped off our passports and paid the money (about $60 each) and they told us our passports would be done within 4 days, with the new stamps. So we rented a moped and did some exploring, hung out by the pool, and enjoyed our few days in Senggigi, it’s a really cute area with lots of beaches and good restaurants.

      We went back on Thursday to pick up our passports, and nobody was at the office, even though it was well past the opening time. Sometimes things work a little slower over there, so we thought that was fine and kept coming to check in every few hours, but nobody ever showed up.

      senggigi lombok

      senggigi lombok

      I had taken down an email address and phone number, and given them my email address in case anything came up, but we never heard from them, and when I tried them, both the email and phone number were out of service.

      We decided to check back again the next day, but there was still nobody there, and when we asked the neighbouring business if they had any contact info, we were told that he was almost positive they had packed up their business and moved back to Bali. So that was fun.

      senggigi lombok

      senggigi lombok

      We ended up going to the tourist police station which was quite nearby, and they couldn’t have been friendlier, or more helpful. They eventually tracked down the guy and called him for us, and he told us we would have our passports back on Monday (5 days late) and was confused about why we had contacted the police.

      We were supposed to be leaving for a 3 day trek up Mt.Rinjani (more on that later) so we had to push that out by a few days. On Monday we went back there to pick up our passports, and still nobody was there. Finally someone showed up, but he had no idea what we were talking about.

      senggigi lombok

      senggigi lombok

      senggigi lombok

      We refused to leave without talking to someone, eventually another guy came, an Australian, and he told us that our passports were in Senggigi, ready to go, and they would be there any minute. We waited another hour, until finally the guy we had originally given our passports to called him, and told him that our passports were still at the renewal office in Mataram (where we had originally gone to renew them ourselves) and we’d have to go there to pick them up in person.

      We did that, we were super annoyed, but we would have done almost anything to get our passports back by that point. Once we got back to the renewal office, it took about 20 minutes, we went upstairs, got our photos taken again, and got our passports with the updated visas.

      senggigi lombok

      senggigi lombok

      I’m not saying you should definitely renew your visa yourself, but it’s more expensive to go through an agency, and you will likely end up having to go get it yourself anyway, since most of the time they need to redo your fingerprints and photographs.

      So it all worked out in the end, our time in Senggigi was great, except for that minor hiccup. I’ve never seen so many palm trees in my life as on Lombok, and if you are there and looking for a great place to eat, check out Cafe Alberto, it’s right on the beach, has an amazing view for sunset, and has the best mushroom ravioli I’ve ever had.

      senggigi lombok

      Posted in Indonesia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, lombok, mataram, passports, senggigi, travel, visa renewal
    • gili trawangan

      Posted at 9:51 am by jasminedesirees, on December 16, 2014

      From Amed, we took a boat across to Gili Trawangan, the most populated of the Gili Islands. We bought our ticket the day before, they are sold all over in Amed, and just showed up that morning to get on the boat. It was about $5 USD per person.

      The boat ride was about an hour, and would have been lovely except for the wind. The waves were massive, and everyone on board was getting soaked. The woman sitting right in front of me had a brand new baby, he couldn’t have been more than a week old, and they were both getting drenched so we used our towels to make them a fort.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      We didn’t have a place to stay booked on the island because most of the smaller homestays don’t have an online presence, but we found a cheap, clean room within a few minutes just by walking around and checking a few places out.

      The very first thing we did once we dropped off our stuff was make a bee-line for the fruit smoothie carts, it was similar to Sanur in that you could get almost any kind of fruit smoothie for about $1 USD.

      I got mango and dragonfruit, and just laid on the beach pinching myself. These photos have not been edited or filtered, that’s just what colour the water is.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      There are no cars on Gili T, just carts pulled by donkeys, so it’s a lot of walking, but the island is so small that it doesn’t matter. There are bikes for rent all over the place, and you can ride around the whole island in like an hour and a half.

      The night of D’s birthday we took a donkey to the other side of the island to the Ombok Sunset resort to see the sunset, which is where the swing-set in the water is.

      There were a bunch of people lined up to get their picture taken so I kind of didn’t want to do it, but then a cloud came and covered the sun so everyone thought that was the end and started leaving, and right then the sun popped back out, and the sky was gorgeous.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      The donkey carts aren’t made for very big people, D kept hitting his head every time the donkey took a step, so we just ended up walking back.

      The main area in Gili T where the boats drop everyone off is actually pretty crowded, we were there in late October, coming up on the rainy season, and still it was very busy.

      There are lots of good restaurants on that side (try the butterfish!), and if you walk down to the Ombok (there are 2 on the island) on that side they show movies on the beach every night, and it’s pretty much perfect.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      But if you leave the main area, and head either way on the island, it’s a lot more chill, with some awesome beach bars, and a much quieter vibe.

      We had four days on Gili T, and honestly, that was enough for me. It really was so busy, and the diving wasn’t that great. I kept hearing that it was amazing, but then I was told that a lot of the people diving in Gili T are just getting certified, and so they don’t really have anything to compare it to, so of course they think it’s amazing.

      It definitely had nothing on Flores.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      I was talking to someone a few days ago who had been to Gili T 20 years ago, and he was telling me how unpopulated it was, how there was only 3 restaurants on the whole island, and they shared a generator, so only one of them would be open on any given night. I wish I could have visited back then.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      I would love to go back to the Gili’s though, there are two other islands, Gili Air and Gili Meno, which are much less busy, and more laid back, so that will be my next visit.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      One word of caution though, the Gili’s get their power from Lombok, so power outages there are not unusual, and wi-fi is kind of terrible, which is fine because that’s not why you are going to Gili anyway, but just something to be aware of.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 4 Comments | Tagged beach, Gili Islands, Gili T, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, island, scuba
    • nusa lembongan

      Posted at 12:34 pm by jasminedesirees, on December 1, 2014

      The island of Nusa Lembongan is about a 45 minute boat ride from Bali. We only went there for the day, and spent the whole time on the moped looking at all of the amazing beaches, including Dream Beach, and also took a trip over to Nusa Ceningan, a neighbouring island that is accessible by a slightly terrifying bridge.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      We took a boat there from Sanur, and got a magnificent deal because of our amazing haggling skills (or maybe they just wanted to fill up the boat) but we paid 600,000 rupiah total, round trip for both of us, when they were trying to charge us 500,000 rupiah each initially.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      Neither of the islands are very big, one day is lots of time to cruise around to all of them, there are some mangroves up in the northern part, and lots of beaches in the south. Nusa Lembongan is by far the more developed of the two islands. Nusa Ceningan was gorgeous, but pretty rustic, and the time driving those roads on a moped is not something I’ll soon forget.

      I even took a 20 minute GoPro video of the experience because was pretty sure we were going to end up driving into the ocean, and I wanted there to be evidence to help find our bodies.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      There are a lot of seaweed farmers on both islands, so you see large tarps with piles of seaweed drying in the sun on the side of the road. On the far side of Nusa Ceningan there is a little cove with a beautiful hotel called Secret Beach. We stopped in there for a swim in their pool and an iced coffee, and had the whole place to ourselves.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      Nusa Lembongan had lots of hotels and dive shops. We didn’t end up diving there the first time we went, but we went back about a month later in search of the Mola Mola. We didn’t see one, but we did a dive at Manta Bay, which was a bit murky and we didn’t see much, and also at a spot called the Mangroves, which was fantastic.

      The diving itself wasn’t that great because the current was pushing you so fast that you could barely see anything, but it was so much fun, like a 35 minute underwater rollercoaster ride, that I pestered our dive guide to see if we could do it again.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      I’m glad we got to go back and spend a few days there, because I was devastated when it was time to leave after our first visit. If you have time when you’re in Bali, definitely make the trip over to Nusa Lembongan.

      There are a ton of hotels and little homestays, we just showed up and found somewhere to stay there, since lots of the smaller, cheaper places don’t have an online presence.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan7
      nusa lembongan

      Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, nusa ceningan, nusa lembongan, scuba diving
    • koh samui

      Posted at 7:42 am by jasminedesirees, on July 21, 2014

      Not much to report from Koh Samui, we were staying on the East side of the island, on Chaweng beach, and we pretty much settled into our beach chairs and didn’t move for three days.

      Chaweng beach was so gorgeous, the ocean was crystal clear, and the beaches were white sand. We had amazing weather (it was so hot the polish was melting off my toenails) so we weren’t feeling very ambitious to do anything that didn’t involve the water.

      DCIM100GOPRO
      DCIM100GOPRO

      We went stand up paddle boarding one day, which is one of my favourite things to do, they have hover crafts and jet skis that you can rent, and there is an inflatable obstacle course with trampolines, rock walls and sea-saws that is pretty fun whether you’re a kid or a grown up.

      Chaweng is the most popular beach on Koh Samui, so if you are coming here during the high season, December to February-ish, it would be pretty busy, and maybe somewhere you’d want to avoid. The whole island is beaches so you definitely have options, but because we were here in July, there were not many other people, and it was still really relaxing and peaceful.

      DSC_1009
      DCIM100GOPRO
      DSC_1007

      There are lots of fun things to do on Koh Samui itself, there is some really great shopping and restaurants, they have an English language movie theater which we checked out on a rainy Sunday night. It was three dollars per ticket for us to go see a movie on opening weekend, I’ll probably never be able to go to a movie in America again, just on principle.

      DSC_1006
      DSC_1005

      They also have tours to nearby islands, Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngan, both of which are supposed to be totally gorgeous. We absolutely meant to go, I swear, but our beach chairs were just. so. comfy.

      DSC_1004
      DSC_1003

      Koh Samui was probably the most expensive Thai island we visited but it was definitely one of my favorites. I’d visit again, anytime.

      DSC_1002

      Posted in beach, Thailand, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged beach, island, koh samui, Thailand, travel
    • railay

      Posted at 7:16 am by jasminedesirees, on July 17, 2014

      We spent a few days in Krabi, near Ao Nang. It had a nice, long beach, lots of good restaurants, and shopping, and some fun bars, but unfortunately, it absolutely poured rain for most of the time we were there.

      We did get one nice day, and it completely made up for the others. We took a boat to Railay, about a 15 minute ride, and it was absolutely gorgeous there. The boats dropped us off on the west side of the island, but we were told to walk across the island to the other side, and then back across to a hidden beach on the southwest side, where there is a massive cave, and a lookout point.

      DSC_0977

      muddy path to the lagoon

      DSC_0975

      as close as I could get to the lagoon, you can just see the water mocking me for being a chicken

      It was not very hidden, as most of the people on the island find their way over the the cave beach eventually, but it’s definitely worth a visit. It isn’t huge though, so if you come on a day where it is really busy, come check it out, swim in the cave for awhile and then when you’re ready, go back to the main beach where you get dropped off, it is just as beautiful, and way less busy.

      The real story about our trip to Railay, is our struggle up to the viewpoint. I’d heard about it from a few people, and it’s mentioned in every description of Railay, so I figured it would be pretty easy to access, maybe up a set of stairs like the viewpoint in Phi Phi.

      It wasn’t.

      DSC_0964

      the start of the climb up to the viewpoint

      DSC_0965

      view from the top

      DSC_0993

      The viewpoint is just off the path to the cave beach, and it is a really intense climb. It is very steep, up a jagged rock face, with just a few areas of plateau where you can rest. There is a rope running up to the very top, wrapped around various tree trunks, but it is the same rope all the way up, and if anyone else is climbing (and it’s about 20 minutes to the top) and grabs the rope, it throws you off balance.

      Ordinarily, it would be a bit treacherous, but likely doable for anybody in even semi-decent physical shape, but when we visited it had been raining for 4 days straight, so on top of being steep, it was also very slippery.

      DSC_0986
      DSC_0984

      They actually rent mountain climbing equipment at little shops all over the island, which I obviously declined. Instead I wore flip flops and a backless Brandy Melville sundress, which was slightly annoying on the way up, but was actually a deathly nuisance on my way down, as it flared out whenever I moved so I couldn’t see where my feet were stepping.

      I ended up finishing the climb down in my underwear, with my dress tucked up into my bra. You’re welcome fellow climbers.

      DSC_0981
      DSC_0982

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      DSC_0946

      The view from the viewpoint alone is worth the climb, but there is also a lagoon in the mountain crater at the top, although it is another, more dangerous climb to get there, it’s supposed to be gorgeous.

      Unfortunately, the rain that had turned the viewpoint climb into a sloppy mess had turned the lagoon climb into a suicide mission. We passed group after group of people who had tried it, but ended up turning back.

      DSC_0941
      DSC_0939
      DSC_0938

      Since I can never take anybody’s word for anything, we had to go too, and after slip sliding our way to the bottom of the first hill on hands and knees before we even reached the rocks to climb down, we realized that we weren’t going to make it.

      By the time we got to the bottom I was barefoot, and so muddy from head to toe that when we reached the cave beach, I just threw myself in, clothes and all. You can see my muddy little rat feet here, the rest of me was even worse.

      DSC_0929
      DSC_0936

      Posted in beach, Thailand, travel | 6 Comments | Tagged beach, island, railay, Thailand, travel
    • viewpoint

      Posted at 6:01 pm by jasminedesirees, on July 11, 2014

      On our last day in Phi Phi, I finally mustered the energy to climb up and see the viewpoint. There are signs for it all over the island, but it was so. damn. hot. every day we were there that just getting up out of your lawn chair was a real physical effort.

      We found our way there, and started climbing, for some reason I didn’t think it would be that far to get to the top, probably because I was in denial.

      DSC_0864
      DSC_0858

      It was all cement stairs, and there were a lot of them. I could see the top from the bottom, so I concentrated all of my leg muscle and determination into reaching that point, only to realize that that wasn’t the top at all, just a layover along the way. That happened to me about 4 times.

      When you finally drag yourself to the top, you have to pay 20TBH for each person (not a lot but still, it would be devastating to get up there and not have any money and have to turn around and go back down). There are two view points, the bottom one is pretty nice, but the top one, another 5 minute hike through the trees, is truly spectacular.

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      DSC_0851

      You can see the entire island, both bays, and it is breathtaking, absolutely worth the climb.

      DSC_0847
      DSC_0842

      The climb really isn’t even that bad in hindsight, or should I say, once I’d clawed my way to the top of the Railay Viewpoint in Krabi (more on that later) where you are literally taking your life into your hands climbing up there, the stairs up to this viewpoint seemed quite lovely and relaxing by comparison. It’s all relative.

      Definitely make the effort to climb up and see this view if you’re ever in Phi Phi, you will absolutely not regret it.

      DSC_0839

      Posted in beach, Thailand, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged beach, island, koh phi phi, phi phi, Thailand, travel, viewpoint
    • phi phi

      Posted at 6:02 am by jasminedesirees, on July 10, 2014

      This post is going to be part love letter, part rave, so be prepared.

      As soon as we decided we were going to be going to Thailand on our way to Australia, I started getting excited for Phi Phi. I’ve seen so many pictures of it, I had a friend visit the island a few months ago and she totally loved it, and let’s be honest, if it’s good enough for Leo, it’s good enough for me (in case you don’t know, the movie The Beach was shot here).

      So there we were a few months later, on the crowded ferry to Phi Phi. We rounded the corner of another little island and saw it for the first time. And it is beautiful. Like awe-inspiring, stop what you are doing, kind of forget to even take pictures beautiful.

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      DSC_0748

      The cliffs are massive and green, the beaches are snow white sand, and the water fades from turquoise to deep blue as you head out to sea.

      So here we are, all of these people on this ferry completely blown away by the beauty of this place, and as I’m sitting there gaping and trying to figure out how many of my worldly possessions I would need to sell to come live here permanently, out of the corner of my eye on the deck below where I am standing, I see a man pull out a packet of cigarettes, open it, take out a cigarette, and pull out a random piece of paper from the pack and THROW IT INTO THE OCEAN.

      I almost couldn’t believe it, because it was unbelievable. I took a deep breath, and tried to calm down and give him the benefit of the doubt because, accidents happen right? Then, just as my blood pressure started to sink back down to a regular level, his buddy came up to him, presumably asked for a cigarette, and the guy gave him one, pulled out the extra piece of paper (no idea what kind of cigarettes these were) and THREW IT IN THE OCEAN AGAIN.

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      DSC_0759
      DSC_0772

      The left side of the ferry was completely packed with people, so I couldn’t get to him, but if I have learned one thing from my sister over the years, it is the effectiveness of a vicious death stare. It took a few minutes for him to notice me staring at him, but as soon as he did I gave him a look that would have most certainly killed him if I possessed any magical powers whatsoever.

      He at least had the grace to look a bit embarrassed, and quickly made his way to a different part of the boat.

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      We made it to Phi Phi, it’s such a fun island, there are no cars so everyone walks and bikes everywhere, and you are never more than 100 yards from the beach. It has lots of great restaurants, and probably more bars than anything else on the island. At night every single beach bar becomes a dance club, and there are fire shows and lots of booze, and then even more booze, which leads to more fire.

      The first thing we did once we dropped off our stuff was hit the beach, we ordered some drinks, got a table, and then waded out into the water.

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      I didn’t make it three feet in before my foot hit a beer bottle. I picked it up, carried it back up the beach, and left it there, planning to grab it after my swim. I started back into the water, took two more steps and found a beer can, and then a large piece of broken beer bottle.

      Everybody knows that there is garbage in the ocean, that we need to do more to keep it clean, but seeing that just made me so, so angry. Phi Phi is probably one of the most gorgeous places on the planet, and people are just ruining it.

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      It might seem like I’m overreacting, but I had just come from Phuket (which I didn’t really care for) and had the same thing happen at two different beaches, I’d wade into the water, only to find a plastic bag wrapped around my leg.

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      Most of our time in Phi Phi was so much fun, and it really is gorgeous there, despite a few pieces of trash in the water, but it just seems like if we can’t even see the benefit in not completely destroying someplace that looks like this, there isn’t a lot of hope for anywhere else.

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      Posted in Thailand, travel | 11 Comments | Tagged beach, island, phi phi, Thailand, travel
    • cast away

      Posted at 5:13 am by jasminedesirees, on June 24, 2014

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      Arrived at Phi Phi today. Noticed quite a few job postings for bartenders.

      In unrelated news, I can open a beer like nobody’s business.

      If I go missing, no need to come find me.

      Posted in Thailand, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged beach, island, koh phi phi, Thailand, travel
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