Buckets and Beach Classes

Hello again everyone! We just returned from Koh Phi Phi and as usual are exhausted from taking the cheapest travel options available. Last week we had a little change in our teaching schedule. With an abundance of volunteers for the schools we looked around to see where else our services might be needed. Surprisingly we didn't need to look much further than our favorite beach bars. So we trotted on down to the beach with a paper that had thai writing on it stating our FREE english teaching services. We ended the day with four groups of eager new students, including bartenders and masseuses. The next day we returned with a pink plastic briefcase (We will be sure to include a photo of it soon) that was full of homemade language flashcards. Our day was exhausting but glorious and hilarious. Our beach students are just as eager and fun as the kids at the schools. Bonus is that they give us free food, drink, and hand massages while we teach. Pretty sweet gig. We were jazzed to semi understand some thai spoken by our student Joy's adorable son. Very impressive. We had to say goodbye to two of our beloved fellow volunteers, Sarah and Barbara. We sent them off with a fun night of eating and dancing and lantern lighting. It is now safe to say that no matter how hard we try we will never be as sassy as Barbara. We will miss the ladies but are sure we will see them again in the future.

This past weekend we ventured out of Khao Lak by bus and boat to Koh Phi Phi Island. We met up with our fabulous Canadian friends who had already checked out the aggressive bucket situation and found the best street food vendors. The first hour on Phi Phi was distressing to say the least as it was more difficult to find accommodations than we had anticipated and Lauren had low blood sugar and we were both taken aback by how touristy the island was. Kind of felt like Nassau Spring Break 2003. But once we had found our beautiful beach bungalow and gotten some pad thai in our systems we were good to go. We spent Friday night gallivanting around the island, slurping buckets, dancing with underage European boys, and eating copious amount of street food, including chicken legs that HAD to be bought at 3 am, and Nutella Banana Pancakes with a touch of Peanut Butter. Yummmmmm!!! The highlight of the night was when we left our friend Jamie alone for an hour and when we found him again he had a fresh tattoo on his chest. Clearly it was a night to remember and now that Jamie has Bruce tattooed on his chest he will never forget it and neither will we (Parents we did not come home with tattoos in case you were wondering......). Saturday the six of us hired a longboat with a cowboy hat wearing driver to go beach-hopping and snorkeling. Our first stop was Monkey Beach which was obviously covered in monkeys and we watched some girl get a little too close to the monkeys and, after getting bit, probably walked away with rabies.... Glad we didn't try to pet them!! The highlight of the outing was going to Maya Bay, otherwise known as "The Beach" from the film of the same title. We snorkeled, sunbathed, and floated in the gorgeous waters. It was truly breathtaking and we enjoyed every second of it. Saturday night we were all worn out so we feasted on the most delicious massaman curry at Papaya (You must eat there if you go to Phi Phi, huge yummy portions). The restaurant was amazing once we got over the cats sleeping in the food and drink refrigerator!!! T.I.T (This is Thailand. Then we curled up with buckets of popcorn and candy to watch bootleg 30 cent DVDs and surprisingly we were able to go to bed early despite the fact that our bungalow was literally shaking from the beach party next door. All in all an epic weekend and we can't wait to meet up with our Canadian friends again, either in North or South America.

We can't believe that only a month ago we were indulging in Maher's divine lasagna at our going-away Family Dinner and have now been in Thailand for almost a month!!! It will be weird saying goodbye to Khao Lak and the beaches but we are very excited to venture north to Laos. If anyone has any must-do tips for Laos please let us know ASAP. We will post pics this week and try to do another blog before we leave. Hope all is well and we miss you all!!!
xoxo
T&L