June 17th, 2023
Phuket Island, Thailand (Hey that rhymed!)
Okay, let me try to say this correctly for once. Pee pee island— BRUH!
Take 2: The next day, we went to pee pee— Please stand by
Take 3: The next day, we went to Phi Phi Island. Oh, nice! I did it!
Alright, after a quick breakfast, we got on a taxi and began to drive to the other side of the island. From here we’d take a boat to the island, and along the way visit a few other notable locations with a variety of activities. Since we had a big group, we had to move around on a few vehicles. The person driving usually played some music quietly throughout the van which a lot of kids started humming to. (and when I say music, it was just Flowers and Senorita over and over again) The wall of the taxi also had this huge sign that basically said, “Wear your seatbelt or you will be charged 500 bhat!!!” (500 bhat is less than 20 bucks in $USD) If that sign had any gravity at all, it didn’t show. Nobody, not even the parents, wore their seat belts. In fact, the entire trip was generally just a break in which I could do a bunch of things that were illegal in the US.
We arrived at the dock in which we would take a boat to reach the islands. The adults went in to buy tickets or do whatever while us kids sat and waited. Some of us took advantage of the time to storm the slipper store (in which Casey obsessed over everything) while some quickly took the seasickness pill as we would have to travel over the turbulent waters on a speedy boat. I ended up not taking the seasickness pill despite being weak (I mean all of part 3 and 4 was basically me being sick) probably because I thought I could handle the chaotic waters. (Or maybe my swim skill just made me arrogant)
Whatever the reason, we soon went out onto the dock with about twenty other people and took our seats on the boat. The boat consisted mostly of people from our group, but it also several parties that didn’t acquaint with us. Along with passengers, there was a crew of about six or seven who drove the boat, maintained it, and there was also this one guy (whose name I forgot, I’m writing this six months after it happened) who gave us a briefing through the activities of the day. After a few minutes of ranting, he told us the first of three islands we’d be heading to that day was the Phi Phi island itself (He actually pronounced it as Pee Pee Island, so I guess I can stop with the retakes) , about an hour away. After he finished speaking, the boat began to accelerate…. And I admit, I really underestimated the speed of this thing. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly did not expect to be traveling at 50 miles an hour. This felt… probably more turbulent than even a plane takeoff because we didn’t have seatbelts and I was sort of on edge. The waves made it feel like I was falling a lot. It wasn’t really weightlessness, but it was intense nevertheless.
Don’t ask me how, but a few kids in our group were able to fall asleep while riding that roller coaster. They took a nap for the hour it took to get to Phi Phi Island. I stayed up through most of it because once again, the ride was very intense. The hour passed very slowly, and upon research later on, I figured out that Phi Phi Island is actually quite far from Phuket Island (Several dozen miles away).
Finally, nearly an hour later, we were coming up on an island. It was large, green, and had a docking port for the boat. The turbulent ride was nearly over…
The boat didn’t slow down and went right past the island.
Then two seconds later another island appeared. We entered a beach on the island and finally docked for real. The island was very mountainous and was blanketed with lush green plants. The shore where we had docked featured a small village filled with stuff as well as a small area for us to swim around. The water wasn’t the dark colored and cold waves you’d find in America. This water was a lighter shade of blue, had a tint of green, and was much warmer than America. Me, Adan, Casey, and the others all ran into the water as soon as we could. We mostly just splashed around and swam a bit but before I knew it we were being called inside for lunch. The lunch consisted of mostly Thai food which was particularly stimulating to my digestive tract.
After lunch, we went back out to splash in the ocean. Before I knew it, we were back in the boat, ready to head to the second location of the day. According to our tour guide, this island was known for its monkey population and we were told there was a chance that monkeys might appear on the island. If not, there was still a good island and view to enjoy. Just like before, it was sort of like a mountain sticking out of the water with greenery and plants (still in the same island)
I quickly found out the Monkey thing was kind of a scam. Not a single monkey showed up on the premises of the beach, despite it being called “Monkey Beach”. We mostly just took the time to take pictures of the area, which was a small beach available near a cliff dotted with plants. It was a fairly nice area— much like the first beach, only smaller and with less water since most of the water was occupied by boats.
After the monkey beach, we headed to our second island, which had the unique feature of no beaches— this island included a small area where we could go snorkeling. The trip was about five minutes long as we had passed by this island just moments before reaching the first one. The snorkeling experience was short but very enjoyable. I dipped my face into the water to take a look at what was below and I was stunned to see what I saw.
Below me was a sizable coral reef with fish swimming everywhere. There were rocks and creatures of every hue… it was wild. The fish swam together in packs or individually, and I spent the next several minutes looking down at all the wildlife below. This snorkeling experience was a great experience in general and it ended too soon (it only lasted a handful of minutes!)
By this point, it was getting to the late afternoon. Our group briefly went to another part of the island where we hiked through for a short several minutes and enjoyed the beaches and mountains. We went to our last island, about forty minutes away near the main Phuket island. This was another good time for napping, which several kids took. Again, the boat ride was as turbulent as ever, with the boat rocking one way and another. I seriously do not understand how anyone can fall asleep in this environment.
The last island was quite different from all the previous ones. The previous two we’d explored were all mountainous and towering. This one had a lower elevation, more beaches, drinks you could buy on the side, and an abundance of activities. I was running out the boat as soon as we docked, heading straight for the beaches and activities…
And then our parents told us that we couldn’t swim. Seriously, why go to a beach and island without swimming? Instead of swimming, we got another activity on the island. There were a few jet skis on the island we could take a ride on for a small price. The ride wasn’t too intense but there were certainly moments I felt I would fall out, so it was probably the closest thing on the trip to a real roller coaster ride. From there we didn’t do much; just played in the sand, had drinks, and enjoyed the early evening.
After this, we began the 10 minute long trip on the main boat back. It was, as I stated before, filled with movement as we headed back to Phuket. Once we arrived back at shore, we got on another taxi and drove back to the main towns of the island in order to get dinner. We ended up getting dinner in a large restaurant a short distance away from the hotel we were staying at. I don’t remember what we ate that night but I do remember it was particularly luxurious. After this, we began the 20 minute walk back to the hotel. The town was fairly crowded that night with hundreds of people walking up and down the streets. It would be really easy for one of us to get lost as me, Casey, and my mom all walked down the street to the hotel.
As we walked, Casey used the only phone with cellular data (my phone) to navigate us towards the hotel using google maps. About halfway through the journey, Casey started running ahead (I don’t remember the exact reason, but he had made a bet with one of the kids on the journey named Nathan and was excited about it or something) leaving my mom and I lost in the city without a navigator. We thought Casey would just appear within the crowd after a few minutes, but he didn’t appear. My mom was pretty worried about Casey running off on his own in a foreign country, and was also worried for us too, since we didn’t have a navigator to take us back to our hotel. Great job, Casey. Another dumb action. We basically relied on our knowledge of the city (the night before I basically uploaded the city map into my mind, so we were fine) and found our way back to the hotel with relative ease. Our dad ended up getting to the hotel before we did and we eventually cornered Casey at the hotel where… actually, not much really happened. They were just slightly pissed for a short time but not much really happened beyond that. We forgot about it pretty much instantly and spent the next couple hours hanging out before going to bed.
The next day would be our last full day in Phuket before we moved on to our next Thai city.