Ko Phi Phi

Firstly, I had a great time traveling in Melaka, Malaysia. I met my new best friends Jason and Swiss who were travelling around the world, which I am highly jealous off. They are graduates from Purdue University and I wish them the best in their travels. It just proves it is never too late to go out and do what you want no matter where you are in life. I got to spend a decent few days with them in KL and Melaka, which made for an enjoyable time. However, I did not get to spend a proper amount of time in Malaysia, and I hope next time I'm there I would be able to tour the whole country. Malaysia has quite the cuisine and beautiful cities, and maybe one day I can take my Mom and Dad here, I think they would quite enjoy it. Nevertheless, I had to be on my way to Thailand!

Finally after an un-nerving 2hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket, I have finally settled in to write a quick blog post. I caught the red-eye flight from KL to Phuket on the 19th, which was perhaps not the best idea. I got into Phuket, Thailand at almost midnight and having never been to Thailand before and having no place to stay, I was a bit nervous coming in. I managed to find a place to stay for the night in my Lonely Planet manual, which told me to go to the Phuket hostel somewhere in old town. Obviously, I had to get the taxi driver that was completely new to the area and had literally no clue where to go. Although I had the address all written down, he still stopped at 5 different locations to ask for directions. At one point I thought he was going to drop me off at the side of the road and leave me to fend for myself. Thank god the latter didn't happen and eventually I arrived at the hostel at close to 1am. There were lots of people at the hostel to make me feel less nervous about being in a foreign country and having no idea what to do and look forward to. I felt a lot better after reaching in the hostel, there were other travellers to make me less tense.

I got in and bought my one-way boat ticket to Phi Phi island, which is where Blair was staying and I desperately just wanted to go there and meet him. My boat left at 7am in the morning, which proved to be far less dramatic than other boat rides in South-east Asia. The boat took a tad longer than expected, but reached Phi Phi nevertheless. I ran into Blair pretty fast, and he had already gotten us a room set up. Phi Phi island is considered one of the resort islands and therefore is a bit more expensive than the rest of Thailand. We have our room for 400bahts which is equivalent to 6-7$ us dollars each per night. This is my 3rd night on Phi Phi and so far its been amazing. Still trying not to catch anything after my Typhoid fiasco, I have been more careful with what I eat and drink. However, the food is quite pleasant and proper overall, quite spicy though. I plan on taking a cooking class when I reach Chiang Mai, so friends and family back home beware, Johnny Wu will be moving his new skills into the kitchen very soon. Tomorrow Blair and I are making our way to Railay, which is another beach in Southern Thailand. We look forward to rock climbing and snorkeling adventures when we are there.

As far as my Typhoid fever goes, I am nearly 100% and feeling much better than before. God it was miserable when I did have it. I'm glad to be out of Indonesia and into the last major country of my trip. The Thai people have been very nice and hospitable and overall we are harassed far less here than in Indonesia. The beaches here are stunning and there are plenty of holiday goers here. However, southern Thailand is quite expensive and we should be only staying here till the beginning of November, and moving our way to the North. Accommodations are not expensive in general, but food is, and we do eat a lot so its good to save when we can. Anyways, I will post again soon, I hope everyone back home is doing well. I got mildly home-sick for the first time awhile back and do look forward to coming home at the end of November. I miss clean beds, home-cooked meals, and the general conveniences of being back home. Until next time! bye for now.

Love,
JW