Long Travels to Koh Phangan

Dear Mom and Dad,

A quick update to finish off the Phi Phi islands. Everyone seems to have bandages on the island, and now Charlie fits right in. His foot slipped out from underneath him when we were walking down steep steps, and his elbow caught his fall. Thanks to Andy's dad, HP, we had the perfect tools to bandage him up. 

Charlie's last dinner on the island. Best fish he said he's had thus far. The red snapper cost $9 with salad and potatoes.

I was the unfortunate one to get food poisoning first. Our original plan was to leave yesterday and go rock climbing in Krabi, but there was no way I was leaving the bathroom or my bed. After two.days of not eating, all I wanted was saltine crackers and watermelon. I have the best boyfriend because once he's on a mission, he doesn't give up. I'm more thrilled than I actually look in the picture. I really wanted some 7up too, but we haven't seen that since we left the states. Staying an extra night wasn't too terrible because in rained in Krabi, so rock climbing would have been out of the question anyways.

Our ride to Koh Phangan took forever. First we had a ferry that I unfortunately got sick on. Then we had a bus ride that didn't have air conditioning and seemed to take forever, but thankfully i slept the entire way. Charlie's seat was broken, so his back is sore now, and Andy was down right miserable the entire time sweating bullets. Our next ferry seemed like a refugee boat that crammed one hundred too many people on it. That's the last picture. All in all twelve hours later, we arrived. This hostel is a bit more expensive with us each paying $40 a night. Hopefully, it's worth it.

I'll update more later.

Love,

Los tres amigos

Phi Phi Island Tour

Dear Mom and Dad,

Yesterday, we took an island tour for $13 each. We left at two and returned at eight. It was awesome. Twenty of us sat in these little boats that were propelled by motors that looked like car engines. The motors stuck so far out behind the boats. I doubt they would have passed any regulation tests in the states. 

The three of us on the boats. The girl in front of us was miserable with sea sickness. It was a long ride for her. 

Our first stop was at Monkey Beach. It wasn't much of a beach though because the tides were so high. We weren't supposed to feed the animals, but when has charlie ever followed the rules? Monkeys were everywhere and sooo cute!

 View from the boat. It was very obvious that many people have never ridden on a kayak or canoe because the guide would point and say look in one direction. Everyone would smush to that side and the boat would almost tip over before the guide would start screaming "balance boat. Balance boat!!" That was the best english he had. Everyone would look at him dumb founded, so we would have to direct people on where to sit. It happened an obnoxious amount of times. Idiots.

This is a working cave where people live and work. I don't know how they get there or get things out of the cave. Something tells me there isn't a walmart in it either. 

We got the chance to snorkel in a bay for 30 minutes. We saw clown fish, sea erchins, barracudas, and a long skinny thing that looked like an eel with fins. Thankfully no sharks. At night we snorkeled in the dark and looked at glow in the dark plankton. I stayed in long enough to say I saw them but staring into a black abyss is not for me. Too scary. 

We stopped at Ma Ya Bay Beach. It's in a little cove with the finest white sand I have ever experienced. 

 Andy said this was a picture of him and Monte Tao's girlfriend. Whatever that means.

This was taken on the back side of the beach. 

 The three best friends, who haven't killed each other.

 More cove pics.

 We watched the sunset from the boat. Beautiful!

 Andy has turned his shirt into a collared bro tank. I'm sure the ladies will be flocking to him now.

Our hostel has a pool, so today we are relaxing there. The three of us got into an argument about what day of the week it was, and none of us were right, so I guess our vacation is going pretty well!

Love,

The sunscreen appliers (no more burns yet!)

Christmas Part II

Dear Mom and Dad, 

Hope you all had a great Christmas! For our night, we went out and celebrated with the Australians from the hostel. Our Christmas meal was Mexican food that was surprisingly really good. No free chips and salsa though. We met up with Patrick, who is Helly's friend, and he owns the bar we were at. Charlie, Andy, and I bought matching Hawaiian shirts for the special occasion. Patrick saw how sweet we looked, so he put his on too. The first picture is of us and Lewis (a guy from Manchester).  

Large group picture.

Charlie and I choose our favorite colors for the shirts. Andy picked his to coordinate with his blue swim trunks

Four locals

Awesome live music! They played Sublime, Sweet Home Alabama (our request), Jack Johnson, and more.

Trying to get a good picture with the boys, but they more concerned with singing to the music. 

Santa grooving to the music. 

Eating a piece of corn for my late night snack. You can take the girl out of Iowa, but not the Iowan out of the girl. Comfort food.

We are planning on staying on the island for a couple more days, but we have to switch hostels tomorrow because ours is completely booked. We also plan on going on a boating tour tomorrow at 2pm. Options include snorkeling at shark point, visiting monkey island, watching the sunset, and seeing glow in the dark plankton. 

Hopefully, we can take some great pictures!

Love, 

Matti Jo, Charles Dale, and Andrew Paepcke

Christmas in Phi Phi

Dear Mom and Dad,

We made it safely to the Phi Phi island. Our boat ride was pretty windy; however, we had a lot of fun because we met some great people. We are staying in the same hostels the group of Australians that we met. The New Zealnders were not so great. They ranted how much they hate Americans for talking down to others but then proceeded to shit talk us and Americans for 45 minutes straight. All we could do was laugh at them when they weren't looking. They drank too much and wiped out three times. I mean legs flying in the air, and the only thing that caught their fall was their behinds.  Quite the entertainment. Guess they don't have natural sea legs like us. Boating all summer has paid off! Here is the three of us in the front of the ferry. 

The islands we are staying on and next to us

This is the yacht Charlie wants to buy someday to sail the world. I'm okay with more traveling :) this might mean we will have to get jobs first.

Here we are out for lunch with the Australians

The water is a gorgeous blue and the Sandy beaches are white. I'm in heaven here.

Andy making friends.

Loving the sun!

Maybe too much sun for Andy? Or too much fish pails (the island's version of a fish bowl)

Our friends for the day. The boys in the back are from Sweden.

The view on Christmas Eve

We went out for some celebrating. This is one of many bars on the beach.

Not as great as the 4th of July fireworks in Boji but fun to watch regardless.

Santa waiting for the next Christmas wish.

Wishing for a new yacht.

Today for Christmas we have been relaxing in our room when it rains, and when the sun comes out, we go to the beach. I'll update tomorrow to share about our night. We are all missing home cooked Christmas meals. Cheap Asian food doesn't quite cut it. All Andy can talk about is the prime rib he missed (he's literally drooling over a picture his dad sent), and Charlie's disappointed he couldn't have his mom's homemade oyster soup. I just want some desserts like the better-than-sex cake my mom was making! 

Moms when we get back, you have some cooking to do! 

Merry Christmas!!

Love, 

Hungry for homemade American meals....I mean they are the best (not to talk down to anyone)

P.S. give Ellie and Boji lots of kisses. I hope Santa comes. They both have been well-behaved puppies this year ;)