Motorbikes, monkeys, mosquitos, and more

By guest contributor Kumiko. Photo captions by Gabe.

It’s the end of day 5 of the Haley/Gabe/Kumiko adventure on the islands of Southern Thailand in the Andaman Sea. We arrived to Koh Phi Phi on Thursday after spending 3 days in Koh Lanta, which has a more hippy, laid-back vibe than the mainstream but absolutely stunning Koh Phi Phi.  We’re in our beautiful bungalow/tree house, lit by light fixtures resembling lotus flowers and hanging bamboo lanterns and cooled by 2 ceiling fans and two floor fans.  The music catering to the hedonistic crowd in Ton Sai Village can be heard faintly in between our own music playing from the room’s stereo.

It has truly been such a treat to travel with these two, hearing what they’ve done on their amazing journey thus far and getting to share part of that in person, even if it’s just for a brief  time. Every day has been a reminder of how incredibly open-hearted, fun-loving, and kind they are, and I go to bed every night feeling extremely lucky that we are friends.

 

Here are highlights of what and how we’ve been doing as we island hop, fend off mosquitos, and feast on delicious Thai food.

Number of shakes* consumed by me in the first  5 days of traveling with Haley & Gabe. *Shakes are fruit juices blended with ice.

– Ten. 7 of them were watermelon shakes, and the others were pineapple and mango. These are heaven in a glass, esp. in 90 degrees / 100% humidity heat, and it’s become my ritual to have one at almost every meal.

Best attraction on Koh Lanta

– Khao Maikaeo Cave. After a 30 min trek in the jungle, our guide took us into a cave dripping with stalactites, small pool, bat cave, and an exit so small that we had to get on all fours to squeeze out.

 

The two English word/phrases our guide for the cave knew

– “Slippery” and “step on big bamboo.” For the record, this is basically all that he said for the entire 150 min trek/exploration, and absolutely nothing about the cave itself.

Biggest disappointment about the cave

– That we got headlamps instead of torches, like it said in the guidebook. I was anticipating a cave exploration experience with individual fire torches in hand. Haley was smart enough to understand that it meant headlights a la British English. How was I suppose to know that parts of the guidebook was written in British English??

Shared duties

– Camera man and directing the photos. Whoever wasn’t carrying the camera could boss the person on camera duty through subtle hints (“wow, that’s a gorgeous view,” “take this picture now”). Obviously, Gabe is the bossiest. I just take a lot of photos that end up getting deleted by the editor (a.k.a. Gabe).

Best monkey sightings

– At Koh Lanta Marine National Park.  There were easily about 50 on the park grounds. Gabe walked in with sweet empanadas in hand and was immediately surrounded by 3 aggressive monkeys who wanted a piece.  Even after Gabe slowly backed away and safely put away the snacks into his dry pack, the aggressive leader of the pack went after him AGAIN! Gabe barely managed to get away but not before I captured him getting bullied by these monkeys (check out the pic).   Then we came upon a group of monkey moms with their newborns. Those babies are so weird looking, with their defined features on their tiny faces no bigger than eye cream containers.  Of course, Haley thought they were adorable and tried to get closer while cooing, seemingly forgetting that their male counterparts had attacked Gabe moments ago.

 

Most thrilling chase on motorbikes

– Being chased by wild monkeys on the main road in Koh Lanta. Twice. This brings Gabe’s monkey attack rate to four.

Maximum speed on a motorbike clocked by me

– 60 kmph! While Gabe must have done the same, this was a big deal for me since I got off to a rocky start with the motorbikes.

 

What it took to get me to be a kick-ass motorbiker

– Three lessons by Gabe. 1. How to start the scooter, 2. how to make turns on the scooter, and 3. how to speed up without doing a wheelie.

Maximum people we managed to get on one motorbike

– All of us three.  Gabe was impressive with his command of the scooter, maneuvering equally smoothly through paved roads and mud paths, tacking up steep sections to make it up, all the while putting up with the back seat chatter of Haley and me. My attempt to drive with two passengers was a dee-zas-tah, summed up by this convo. Kumiko: “You guys, lift your feet up so I can get my balance.” Gabe: “Kumiko, watch what happens when I put my feet up. (Scooter starts to fall over). See? You drive, and I’ll do the feet.”

 

Number of mosquito bites that I got after 24 hours in Koh Lanta.

– Thirty two, mainly on my back and arms. The count is up to 45 now. Thinking about getting a tattoo from the many tattoo shops on these islands that connect the mosquito bites as a memory of my trip.

Best moment by the waterfall

– Haley and I posing for our first ever Sports Illustrated cover! It will be on the stands in June, but here’s a sneak peak for you all.

 

The most unexpected visitor while sunbathing on a private beach (onto which we boldly walked through a resort)

– Cows. Six of them! They came up so close – they were standing 3 feet from where I was laying out – that when I noticed them, I literally screamed and jumped up, to the laughter of Haley and Gabe.

Breakfast of champions on this trip

– A (small) bag of seaweed flavored potato chips. Don’t judge.

Number of gauze that Haley has gone through to cover up the slow-healing burn on her calf

– 24

The most populous animal on these islands

– Cats. They are everywhere.  The Koh Lanta breeds tend to be fatter, furrier, and unfriendly, while the Koh Phi Phi ones are totally opposite. Haley being the animal lover that she is, has cooed at/taken a photo of/petted/picked up numerous cats along our journey, much to my dismay (I’m allergic to cats).  Haley and Gabe are convinced I hate them. I don’t. I just don’t really care for them or want to be around them.

 

Number of rain showers we have seen this week

– Two. The one on Koh Lanta was weak sauce, while the Koh Phi Phi shower was crazeballs (that’s Haley’s variation on my amazeballs expression). But neither of them lasted long. It’s supposed to be the rainy season now, but we have been extremely lucky with weather.

Haley/Gabe/Kumiko adventure card game

– Elevator. Mark my words: my goal is to beat them sometime during this trip before I leave.

Moment with the most laughter

– 3 minutes of laughing attack.  I swear, we were not intoxicated or anything, but couldn’t stop laughing.

 

 

What Gabe has reaffirmed after spending 5 days with Haley and Kumiko

– Girls just wanna chat

Best conversation with Haley (and there have been many)

– Retrospective into our twenties, which is the first 10 years of our friendship.

The blog writing has been an experience unto itself, which brought on certain dynamics between the 3 of us.  I had a vision for every aspect of this blog entry, including the photo captions, and was providing unwanted commentary to Gabe for each caption much to his annoyance (the first time I annoyed him in the 14 years that we’ve known each other). FYI all the captions by Gabe have not been edited. Haley served as editor/spelling and grammar police, and backing me for full control of the blog.  In reality, it’s been a very collaborative experience (while I get rushed by Gabe to finish this up).

I want to thank them for letting me be part of their special trip as their friend, personal photographer, contributing blog writer, and wobbly scooter driver.