Ko Phi Phi

I haven't figured out how to put the pictures where I want them yet, but I haven't really tried all that hard to figure it out either. I'll start with the monkey. There is a Monkey Cliff on Ko Phi Phi. All the monkeys do is hangout in these trees and eat. Our boat pulled right up next to them and we tossed pieces of banana at them and they caught it. Pretty funny. The weirdest thing I saw was when the someone from the boat next to us gave a monkey a little 7-Up bottle. The monkey jumped onto the ship. Grabbed the bottle took a sip and jumped back onto the land with the bottle. I never thought I'd see a monkey drinking a 7-Up.

I went cliff jumping! I have no clue how high it was, but it was high enough. I was a little scared. It was a blast.

The picture with me with the Ao Lo Dalam Bay in the background. "Bay" may be redundant because I believe "Ao" means bay. It was low tide and a group of us played soccer for a bit on the beach. Yeah me playing soccer. Only for the second time in my life.

Ko Phi Phi

Alright. I'm so sorry to anyone who actually checks my blog. I haven't updated it in awhile.

Ko Phi Phi is definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far not just because of the beautiful scenery (the is where the move The Beach with Leonardo DeCaprio was filmed). I decided to go to Ko Phi Phi the second night I was in Thailand. The way my program is setup is that there are two groups: the first group showed up a week before my group (the second group). The second night I was here I met some people from the first group and heard about the trip. I said great I'm in. This was probably the best decision I've made sense I've been here because I've been the only person to really get to know both groups because during the week one group had morning class and the other had evening classes.
So I jump on this boat with 18 other people I don't know and we are off to Ko Phi Phi. Sense we had so many people we chartered a private boat for the day for about $30 each. I had no clue what I was getting into. I knew there would be beaches and snorkeling involved. I didn't have the vaguest idea how long the boat ride was going to be. For those of you who don't know I get sea sick. I knew it would be a long ride, but I wanted to see the island. It took us about 5 hours to get there because we stopped to snorkel and sight see on the way. I was feeling sick for about the last 3 1/2 hours. I puked about 3 hours into the ride. Let me tell you getting sick in front of 18 people you don't know (at this point I think I knew 2 names) is humbling. Even when we stopped to snorkel I didn't venture too far away from the boat because I thought if anyone was going to be left it was going to be me.

Eventually we made it to Ko Phi Phi and I was so relieved. Now for a little background about Ko Phi Phi. In December 2004 an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a massive tsunami and Ko Phi Phi was one of the hardest hit. The island was flattened. The government didn't have the money to rebuild many parts of Thailand including Ko Phi Phi. The burden fell upon locals, relief workers and investors. Now Ko Phi Phi is back to pre-tsunami condition.

Ko Phi Phi is a beautiful island. There are no cars allowed on the island. You will see Thai men pushing over-sized shopping carts carrying tourist/backpackers luggage's to various hotels. Our boat dropped us off in the town of Ao Ton Sai. Me and about 8 others spend a few hours there and decided to take long boats (refer to the picture of the boats) across the bay to Hat Hin Khom also known as the best beach I have ever been too. I split a bungalow right on the beach with another guy for 150 baht each. That is about $5. This was a really basic room. No A/C, but we did have a fan. One room with a mattress on a raised concrete slab with a bug net. A bathroom that you had to flush manually and a shower that was more like a 6 feet of PVC piping. Oh and no hot water, which isn't a big deal because cold showers feels way better.

Had dinner with with a bunch of people. Didn't even have a beer because my stomach couldn't handle it at that point. Paid about $10 for a 60 minute massage 20 yards from the beach. Absolutely amazing.

The next day the guy I split the room with, Dan and I walked to the end of the beach and had breakfast. We ran into 4 or 5 other people and played cards on a shaded deck overlooking...you guessed it, the beach!. I had a really good time. All of the pictures I posted were from other people because I was way too sick to take picture.

Nai Harn Beach

My two of my roommates, Bryan (bald guy) and Ryan (blond buy). This is a little pad thai gai (chicken). Cost about 60 bot ($2). On the hill is a real nice resort. This beach is about a 10-15 minute walk from my hotel.

My Place in Thailand!

Here is a video of the place that I am staying in at for my first month in Thailand. The hotel is called Nai Harn Villa. It is about a fifteen minute walk from Nai Harn beach. It is way better than I expected. The key is that the air conditioners in the bedrooms are amazing. There is also a great pool that is plenty big enough to do laps. The location of the villa is great because it isn't in a huge tourist spot in Phuket.

Yosemite Marathon

I went on a long backpacking trip through Yosemite. I hiked for 6 days and stayed 5 nights in the back country. The "back country" makes it sound like I was in the middle of nowhere. I had great well defined trails to follow. Anyways...I started at the Valley Floor and went north past Yosemite Falls. I wasn't surprised that Yosemite Falls was dry, but I was a little surprised that most of the creeks were dried up. I didn't refill my water on the first day. I was carrying 3 liters of water, but I was a little dehydrated. On my second day of hiking I made it to Ten Lakes and it was amazing. I really enjoyed that area because there weren't many people around. I went two days without seeing another person. From Ten Lakes I went east towards Glen Alun and Tuolumne Meadows.

Grand Canyon - Day 4

I hiked out of the Grand Canyon on the fourth day. It was such a great trip. I felt like Frodo from the Lord of the Rings hiking next to the huge walls. This was definitely on the of the coolest things I have ever done. The next time I go back I want to go rim to rim. I really want to see what the North Rim is like. It is not suppose to be nearly as popular. For anyone who has not been to the Grand Canyon it is a must!

Grand Canyon - Day 3 Video

Here is the Colorado from Plateau Point. I spent sometime just sitting here and admiring this view. I had a longer video, but it was too big to post.

Grand Canyon - Day 3

From Bright Angle Camp I hiked to 4.5 miles to Indian Gardens.  This was a pretty easy hike. This is where I probably did the "stupidest" move of the trip and climbed up the side of a smaller canyon to checkout a cave. The cave doesn't look real high, but it was at least 25-30 feet up. Not the smartest thing to do when backpacking alone.

From Indian Gardens I hiked to Plateau Point (great view, I'll post the video on the next post) and to Horn Creek Campgrounds. Hiking to Horn Creek Campgrounds was nice because I was hiking along the main canyon created by the Colorado River. At the end of the day I hiked about 11-12 miles.

Grand Canyon - Day 2 Video

Every view when you're in the Grand Canyon is a 360 degree view. That is one of the main reasons pictures don't do the the canyon justice.

Grand Canyon - Day 2

I woke up at 4am to pack my camp up and to catch a 5am shuttle to the South Kaibab trail head. I couldn't believe how packed the shuttle was. It was standing room only. I started hiking about 5:30am and it was already 70 degrees outside.

Hiking down the South Kaibab trail was my favorite part of the trip. After about half an hour of hiking I was able to see the depth of the canyons. There were all hundreds of smaller canyon spurring off of the main canyon. The sunrise was by far the best one I have ever seen in my life.

I got to Bright Angle Campground around 10am. It took me 4 1/2 hours to go about 6.4 miles. By the middle of the day it was 107 degrees in the shade. Way too hot. That evening I tried to hike to Ribbon Falls, which was about 6 miles from my camp, but I decided to cut the hike short after 5 miles. All in all I went about 15-16 miles in the first day. Not bad.

Grand Canyon - Day 1

The Grand Canyon was breathtaking. I've seen pictures of it before, but the pictures do not capture how big the canyon really is. 288 miles of the most beautiful/amazing hole in the ground.

After seeing the canyon for the first time the first day was really uneventful. I got a little lost in the South Rim Village and missed the sunset. The best news of the day was that I was able to get a backpackers permit right away. I was expecting to have to spend at least two nights on the south rim instead of one.