On the morning of October 24, Audrey and I finally arrived at our first Southeast Asia destination: Phuket. Ironically, we had left Seattle hoping to escape the Pacific Northwest rain and catch some sun, but the exact opposite became true: Seattle was clear and sunny, and Phuket was raining. The rain didn’t bother us too much, though, as we donned our rain coats and walked out of The Neighbors Hostel, where we were staying for one night, to roam the streets and find our first dish in Thailand.
As day turned to night, and the rain started to subside, we found ourselves with wide open streets and hardly another soul in sight.
After catching up on some much needed quality sleep in a proper bed, we woke up the next morning and had a few hours to see more of Phuket. We did another circuit on the streets around our hostel and eventually picked a breakfast spot away from the touristy restaurants.
From our hostel, we caught a taxi bus to Rassada Pier, where we caught a ~2 hour ferry to the Phi Phi Island. Not wanting to waste anytime, we quickly checked into Coco’s, dropped our belongings off, and hit one of the hiking trails around Phi Phi.
Hiking in Phi Phi was no joke. Audrey and I hardly gained any elevation before we were drenched in sweat. The hot weather and humidity - about 85F and 80% - with little breeze on the tight, tree-covered trails were completely different from the wide-open, alpine environments we both are used to. This made for a very foreign trekking experience.
After making our way down a tangled-root covered trail, we popped out on the other side of the main Phi Phi Island and found a secluded cove with vacation bungalows where families and couples seeking a more private getaway could stay at. As we made our way down the beach past the kids, both tourists and locals, playing football, we quickly noticed a drastic change. On our right, the water washed ashore with a constant rhythm. On our left, the pristine bungalows fell into the distance and were replaced by ramshackle seaside huts. Back on our right side, the well-kept longtail boats used to transport vacationers became well-weathered fishing boats, whose cages I thought were surprisingly resourceful in repurposing groups of plastic water bottles as floatation devices.
Throughout the trip, but especially at the beginning when visiting Southeast Asia was still new, I found myself curious about the impacts of tourism. While I still don’t know where I stand on tourism bolstering the bulk of local economies like the Phi Phi Islands, I do remember how morose I was seeing the bungalows change to shacks. Just a couple hundred feet up the beach, there were better homes that seemed untouchable to the locals…
Seeing this drastic contrast, I vowed to lessen my impact as a tourist by buying from the local-owned restaurants and stores (versus foreigner-owned bar-restaurants, for example) and ensuring I wasn’t straining local resources any more than someone who lived there.
Audrey and I took a quick water break, then headed back up the trail towards the main part of Koh Phi Phi Island. Along the way, we passed by a viewpoint. We stayed for the next hour, catching one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.
The next day, Audrey and I had joined an afternoon and evening longtail boat tour. We spent the morning wandering the beaches, admiring the color of the water and the softness of the sand.
The first stop on our tour was Monkey Island. Having been to a few “monkey islands” in the past that didn’t have monkeys, I didn’t expect to see any (nor have I ever actually seen one). However, as our boat slowly drifted closer to shore, I peered and my jaw dropped. Many groups of 3-5 monkeys each were roaming around the beach and in the trees while others were chillin’ on the rocks helping each other clean.
We had about 45 minutes on Monkey Island, so after taking photos of the monkeys, Audrey and I walked further down the beach, fascinated by the sand, the lush greenery, and the detailed layers in the rocks.
We finished our walk and headed back towards the boats. We arrived just in time as our boat tour guide/captain was just about to launch off. We cruised around the islands some more, stopping every once in awhile to admire the soaring limestone structures and swim around the coral reefs.
As the sun began to set and we waited in the boat for darkness to fall so we could swim back into the coral reefs to catch the bioluminescent plankton, Audrey took a rare portrait of me :P
Audrey and I had overheard a local guide earlier in the day say to some tourists they tossed plankton into the water for tourists to see, though we couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking. Regardless, when night rolled around, we hopped into the water with snorkels and were pleasantly surprised to see the bioluminescent plankton everywhere and figured the guide we overheard was joking around.
Unfortunately, the next day, Audrey picked up a stomach bug from something we had eaten, so we spent most of the day resting and getting to our hostel next to Phuket International Airport. Even though she was feeling weak, Audrey wouldn’t let the stomach bug hold her down from doing something that day. She trooped out of The Luna Hostel and down the road to อุทยานแห่งชาติสิรินาถ (Sirinat National Park) where we caught yet another breathtaking sunset.
We both wished we had a little more time in Phuket and definitely could have gone without the stomach bug, but we will never forget those blazingly beautiful sunsets we caught on the beaches in southern Thailand. The next morning, we were off to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.