jd – To Infinity & Beyond!

This is a post by Jenny.

Island hopping and beach going every day has been great, though a bit tiring to go somewhere new or travel every 2-3 days. Oh the woes we face!

We took two ferries from Ko Jum to get to the island of Ko Phi Phi, which became very famous in popular after the 1999 release of Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie The Beach. Ko Phi Phi was also severely damaged during the 2004 tsunami. We were a bit hesitant to go, as what we’d read and heard made it sound like it would be an island packed full of partying bros. In fact, it was. Despite Ko Phi Phi’s party atmosphere, there are some amazingly gorgeous things to see and do around the island.

We went on a half day snorkeling tour, visiting 4 different sites and seeing water the color I have never seen it, as well as chasing after a sea turtle. We felt like we were watching a Discovery Channel special through our very own eyes!

We frequently got around while island hopping on long tail boats. These boats look beautiful in pictures, but they are actually quite loud and give off a lot of pollution.

While island hopping, we felt like we ought to enjoy some of the plentiful seafood, which included getting fried fish multiple times. For me, it tasted reminiscent of the fish my grandfather used to catch and my grandmother would fry up outside on summer weekends. But instead of sitting in her back yard, I was sitting under a coconut tree on a beach in Thailand.

After Ko Phi Phi, we headed to Phuket, another notorious tourist area that has no Thai culture and is an overdeveloped island. We, however, did not see or partake in any of that since we just used it as a one night stopover en route to the airport to get to Bangkok. I opened a Marriott credit card last year that earned me a free night stay and a bunch of bonus points, so we “splurged” and stayed somewhere fancy, for free!

The Marriott Phuket was the fanciest hotel either of us have ever stayed in, ever. It had a separate living room from the bathroom, 2 tvs, a stand up shower, a stocked mini-bar, free fresh fruit, a bed with a top sheet, comfortable pillows, free beach towels, and quite the pool set up! We felt like high rollers, and out of place in our smelly clothes and dirty backpacks 🙂

Off to Bangkok for a few days, before heading to California!