Partying (sort of) in Phi Phi

For many people Koh Phi Phi is a hedonistic party island with buckets of booze and fire dancers, for me it was an exercise in learning to love and occasionally hate solo travel. My first day there I wanderd a lot but most of my human interaction was speaking with the people at the nearby dive center who'd talk to me whenever I walked by. I felt a bit lonely while also feeling antisocial, a perplexing combination for me. I'd walk around seeing groups of non solo travelers and be jealous but then I ran into someone I'd talked with a bit on Koh Lanta and had I really desperately wanted company I could have tried to latch on to his plans but instead I said hi, made small talk, and left. I had bigger plans for that night: I was going to watch The Beach in my shitty dorm as the noise of partying tourists filled the air and then I was going to bed early. It was magical and antisocial and selfish and exactly what I wanted to do. Solid pro in the category of solo travel. Also how does The Beach make people come here and visit Maya Bay?? A movie about a crazy cult, deadly shark attacks and deadlier marijuana farmers would not pull me to this side of the world.

The next day I walked. And walked. And walked. I started by heading up to the Koh Phi Phi viewpoint that was supposed to be a grueling 30-45 minute hike and while it was steep it was by no means a difficult hike. The view at the top was stunning as you could see both beaches and the mountains on either side and I ended up sitting on a rock reading there for nearly 2 hours till hunger hit and I decided to walk to Long Beach and find some Pad Thai along the way. A decent priced pad thai is 60 baht ($2 CAD) however it is an expensive island so sometimes it'll be 150 baht. Well stupid me I trekked to Long Beach without stopping and when I got there a pad thai was 400 baht. So I starved, swam, then walked back to town and ate there.

After more beach time and having a swarm of mosquitoes fall in love with me it was time for dinner where I ate in the street at this one stall with the cheapest food I'd found on the island and damn delicious too. I met a Quebecois couple who laughed at how my response to where are you from in Canada was "OttawanearToronto" but to be fair, very very few people know Ottawa or that it's the capital. So far the frontrunner is Toronto with Montreal as a close second. I confessed that I had not yet seen the firedancers or had a bucket and they told me I could not leave the island without doing so. Then they told me that by soing so I would not be making my 9am boat the next morning. Now a heavy con of solo travel: I wanted to go out, party, see firedancers and hang out with people but I had noone on the island and after waiting for some time in the area outside the dorm and bungalows to see if I could meet people I gave up and decided to go it alone. I am fine being alone but when you want to be with people and you are surrounded by backpackers partying together it can be a pretty depressing thing. It can also be an empowering thing, that moment when you say 'I am not waiting around for people, I am going to put myself out there and make something happen'. I made my way to the beach and walked back and forth between the four fireshows that were happening. It was surprisingly hard to meet people and since people were watching the shows in rows of chairs it wasn't the easiest to approach a crowd. Again I found myself waiting for something to happen and realized I wanted a damn bucket. So I went back to the main road and for 150 baht I got a full mickey of...rum? whiskey? that came premixed in my very own blue bucket with a single can of sprite and a small bottle of sketchy thai redbull thinking that if I were anywhere else walking around drinking a bucket of booze by myself this would be a sign of alcoholism and a cry for help. Instead walking with a personal booze bucket here is just a sign that you're in the Thai islands. Back on the beach I continued watching the firedancers who seemed like fiery cheerleaders and while I was desperately wanting to learn how to do the firespinning another solo traveler Chris from Scotland approached me and for the rest of the night I had someone to hang out and drink with. Also the miraculous thing? I made my 9am boat the next morning.

Fiery cheerleaders

My own bucket that contains an entire mickey (375ml) of booze

Lesson learned: Okay Universe, I get it! You clearly have some magcal plan so I will stop trying to force things and make stuff happen. Instead I will sit back,  watch fireshows or whatever else you present me with and trust that good people or things will come.

Last Day in Lanta

I had one last amazing day in Koh Lanta before leaving for Koh Phi Phi. A group of 10 of us got scooters, I was paired up with Diego since I'm still too chicken shit to drive a bike, and toured around the island visiting Old Town and a cafe owned by Sal's friend who ised to work at Jackie Bamboo. At one point we lost Joy and Esteban when their tire blew but someone magically they were able to find us on the other side of the island. We ended our day with hitting up one of the markets and grabbing fish and veggies so that we could have a beach BBQ. Something that is extremely illegal and difficult to do on Lanta (several locals watned us) but we stubbornly did anyways. Armed with a metal grill, a knife, and some bottles of whiskey we made our way to the end of Long Beach and even though it was extremely late when the food was finally ready it was so worth it and was such an amazing night with a great group of people.

Joy, Herbie, Charlie, Diego, Sal, me, Ben, Esteban

 The next morning we realized multiple people had lost multiple items of clothing or other things but again, still worth it an my pack is now lighter! By 12:30 I was saying my sad rushed goodbyes with Esteban, Joy, Luisa and all the other amazing people I had met and soon I was on a ferry solo again and heading for Koh Phi Phi.

A goodbye selfie with two amazing people

Lesson learned: You can change first impressions. I arrived in Koh Lanta as a feverish hermit that people didn't see much of and probably thought was a recluse and when I left I had one friend (the wonderful Esteban) saying I was one of the craziest travelers he had met. He's been traveling 7+ months.

Tropical Diseases and Bamboo Needles

I left Langkawi sick as a dog and in complete denial about it,  convinced that the burning fever, nauseau, and aching everything would quickly pass. After a bit of googling I'd found I matched a lot of dengue symptoms but dengue is a tropical mosquito borne disease that doesn't happen in the western world. Yes four months in and my stupid brain still thinks like that. Then the missing symptoms (dengue rash and burning itchy palms and feet) appeared and my denial got a lot tougher. I barely remember my night in Trang and my first 3 nights in Koh Lanta I was miserably healing and severely antisocial. In between the endless hours of feverish resting and nappinh I unfortunately had time to think and that led to extreme bouts of homesickness for my parents and sister. I don't know how some people go for years without seeing their family...I thought I'd be immune since I've been living on my own since I was 17 but I didn't even move cities so I'm now realizing that it prepared me for nothing. Luckily the dengue did finally end, I regained strength, joined people again and the busyness pushed the homesickness down. The one saddest part was that I didn't even see the beach till my 3rd day in Koh Lanta.

My dengue rash 

In Koh Lanta I was doing another volunteer thing where this time I was working at the Clayzy House which was this funky place practically on the beach with little huts on stilts. The work for male volunteers was hard stuff but us girls definitely got the easy work there, something I was extremely grateful for my first few days of work when I was still weak. All yhe work was pretty decent except my last day of work...I had to clean the shelf the chickens have been shitting on seemingly for the past 20 years. Through helpx I have now been covered in worm poop at the Layog Country Farm and now chicken shit at Clayzy. How did I go from working a 9-5 at a desk to knowing that worm excrement smells better than chicken?

The other volunteers there are fantastic and I've spent so much time with Ben, Esteban, Luisa, Joy (who pretty much lives there) and so many other great people. Together we've taken motorbikes around the island-no still haven't worked up the courage yet to drive one myself- seen beautiful waterfalls, trekked together, drank buckets (literal buckets) of booze together at Jackie Bamboo, and sang off key karaoke with a crazy awesome girl from Alberta for free shots.

One more notable thing! I went with Esteban and 2 french girls and while they got tattoos I finally got mine retouched after saying I'd do so for 3 years. The homesickness is still there and since I was missing my sister it seemed like time to finally fix it since it was a sister tattoo. To retouch it in Canada - $100+, to retouch it here - $18. My one retouch took more time than all 3 tattoos since the guy wanted to make sure it would not fade so easily. I can now say my tattoo has been done with a tattoo gun AND bamboo and fuck does bamboo hurt! My sister and I got tattoos in Sweden and she said it was the most painful tattoo she's gotten...well I hope to god she never retouches it with bamboo!

Before it starts...

Yup. Finger tattoos and bamboo hurt.

Lesson learned: Dengue sucks. Wear mosquito repellant

Goodbye Malaysia

Nearly three weeks in Penang have flown by and while it felt like I blinked and it was gone, I'm pretty sure my waistline would beg to differ...Near the end of my stay I gave up any pretense of seeing the city and focused entirely on food and I am proud to say I ate pretty much everything from my list of places to try. There were a few times I'd walk a half hour or longer and arrive to find out they are closed on that specific day or worse they had just closed or wouldn't open for hours and hours but persistence or stubborn food obsession nearly always won out.

Clockwise: Nasi kandar (takeaway), char koay teow, nasi kandar, oh chien (oyster omelette - greasiest thing ever but damn good!)

By the time I left Penang I'd gotten to celebrate Mid-Autumn festival with mooncakes and lighting lanterns at a Couchsurfing BBQ hosted at the hostel, I'd somehow blinked and realized I really knew my way around and rarely needed a map and best of all I'd made an amazing friend through Asha. I still never saw Danny (the only staff!) More than a 15 minute period total but Asha will now be working at the hostel so when I come back next time it will be great.

Char koay teow, nasi lemak, char koay kak, fish head - didnt try this but only due to price 

After Penang I headed north to Langkawi island where I met my new couchsurf host who I'd be staying with for 3 days. The first day we hit up the beach and then hung out with this great Swiss couple at the guest house. Unfortunately I was a downer for the first while since I had a bit of a fever/bug. We still managed to rent a scooter and see the waterfall, northern beach, and river but sadly it was pretty cloudy and cool most of the time. My last night in Langkawi there was an awkward/uncomfortable moment with my CS host so I followed my intuition  (and my friend Amber yelling get out!!) And checked into a nearby hostel. Its odd that at times while traveling I can feel very lonely but then at moments like right now as I type this in that shitty hostel, I am in love with my antisocialness. I'm starting to think couchsurfing is like durian. People keep saying it great but when I try it it goes badly (except with my awesome filipino host), however I will stubbornly keep trying it. Thats how I've ended up trying durian, durian ice cream, durian coffee, durian chocolate....good god what is wrong with me?!

Lesson learned: Alone time is a necessity.