This is the last night of the Haley/Gabe/Kumiko adventure. One last time to chillax on our beautiful balcony with the nice ocean breeze and the sounds of waves breaking onto the shore. Tomorrow we’ll have to part ways – Haley and Gabe off to their new adventure in Vietnam via Krabi and Bangkok, while I sadly start my journey home with one last night in Bangkok.
Instead of brooding over the nearing end of this wonderful trip, I’ve been thinking of all the fun things we’ve been doing together. In light of our new favorite activity, Elevator, I decided to structure this blog entry around the # of rounds we have played the last 2 evenings, to Haley’s dismay (she thinks it takes too long to play to 17 – it’s true).
1: # of jellyfish stings that I got on our snorkeling tour today. This was my first sting ever, and I didn’t even see the jellyfish. It still stings a bit and it happened 4 hours ago 
2: # of Koh Phi Phi islands we visited. Koh Phi Phi Don is where we are staying (where everyone stays) with the touristy main village, and Koh Phi Phi Leh is the uninhabited smaller island of the two, known for Maya Bay where “The Beach” was filmed.
3: # of people we got on a kayak, the Tri-Yak. It was the best kayaking of my life – I sat in the middle and was in charge of taking pictures while Gabe and Haley did most of the paddling. Along the way, we saw tons of monkeys on little beaches that we’d pass and colorful little fish in the emerald-colored water. We ended up stopping at a beautiful tiny beach that had a small opening between two tall imposing karsts cliffs. We set off to explore the mini landing and got caught in a rainstorm that Haley, the worry wart, thought would never end. It cleared up after 20 min and we returned safely to shore.
3 peas in a tri-yak
waiting out the storm on our beach
pretty
haley says: "hi monkeys. where you guys going?"
4: # of liters of gasoline that we bought for our scooter adventures in Koh Lanta. They are sold in old glass and wine bottles by the liter. How I miss those scooting days.
no lines at the pumps on lanta
5: average # of (small) bowls that we each went through during the free daily tastings at our awesome resort. For whatever reason, the resort chose to do the tastings at 7 pm, and we’d show up starving. We shamelessly stood there eating bowl after bowl while “sampling” the food. See #12.
6: max # of showers that Gabe has taken in one day during the Haley/Gabe/Kumiko adventure. So fresh and so clean clean.
7: # of hours it took to complete my previous blog entry. Even though I had been an avid reader of the haley + gabe blog, I didn’t realize how much work went into producing each one. But it’s a great collaborative process where everyone pitches in and that enables us to revisit many of the fun things that we did together.
8: # of days we traveled together. I couldn’t have asked for better friends with whom to do this trip. It was simply amazeballs.
team photo after dinner at viking
9: # of boats, both long tail and speed, that were at Maya Bay during our tour. Basically, this place was a shit show. The beach itself was surreal – a huge cove with towering cliffs on both sides that was shallow for about a quarter mile with jade water. But the tour operator didn’t give us a heads up that we’d be swimming to the other side of the bay where we had to jump off the boats, swim to a coral-filled shore with strong currents (everyone was getting cut up), climb up a very steep broken ladder with protruding nails, and hike over to the beach, where it was packed with people and strewn with visible trash. What the boat captain did say when we got there: “Maya Bay. One hour. Jump here.”
haley and kumiko out in the water at "the beach"
shit show central on the way to the beach. here just crawl over these sharp rocks, then climb up this janky rope and wood ladder, but watch out for the rusty nails. you'll love it.
looks nice from here
10: # of Thai words we know between the 3 of us and managed with to get around Thailand. Sa-was-dee-ka to you, bitches! (please excuse the profanity at the end – it’s an ongoing joke between us on this trip)
11: # of rambutans I’ve eaten since arriving to Koh Phi Phi. Yummers.
love those hairy balls... err rambutans
12: # of dishes that are served and savored by us at the free daily tastings. Some of our favorites were the fried (it’s actually stir-fried) papayas, fried pineapples and bananas, tom ka gai, massaman curry, and green curry. Just ridic. See #5.
tasting buffet. but as the nice worker explained: some people (us) don't know what tasting is... so it becomes dinner
13: # of ideas from Haley and Gabe that I vetoed for this blog entry. They don’t quite seem to understand that this is an individual endeavor and should know better than trying to insert their opinions. I was actually lying about the collaborative part in #7. (Ironically, #13 was their idea 
)
14: max # of people allowed on long tail boats.
15: # of people who were actually on our long tail boat for the snorkeling tour. Welcome to Thailand, yo.
16: # of pieces in which Thai pancakes are served. Gabe tried both savory (egg & cheese) and sweet (banana & nutella), and both were delicious. The only mystery is the orange colored butter-looking thing they use at the end to brown these crepes a la Thai.
17: # of cards that each of us had in the last round of elevator. As Haley says, that’s too many to see all of your cards and slows down the game. To date, I have not lived up to my words and have yet to win a match.
I can’t believe it has only been a week since I met up with them at the Blue Andaman in Koh Lanta on Monday. That encounter itself was surreal, as we emailed and skyped to decide on our meeting location 24 hours before we actually met up. And the rest is now history. Thanks Haley and Gabe for letting me join the last portion of your Thailand trip and creating the best Thailand memories. I will miss you two and will eagerly be looking out for the next blog entry (which I know Gabe will appreciate having full control once again ).
Phi Phi summed up
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