We got in in the afternoon and grabbed some wifi lunch at Italiano, and found a place to stay for a couple nights. En route, we ran into Colin, Zach and Devon. We hung out with them all day, but it was that night that was truly awesome.

Reggae Bar

800g of awesome

So Reggae Bar has a food challenge: triple decker, 800g burger with like three roasted potatoes, cut into wedges, and a ton of onion rings. Oh and coleslaw.  It costs 500 Baht (4x the price of your average meal) but if you can eat the whole thing in the allotted time, it’s free. Well I was hungry so I went for it. The burger was easy but the fries and onion rings were tough as hell! There was a time limit of 30 minutes so all contestants started at the same time (there were 5 of us). I killed the burger in 13 minutes but suffered for the next 17. Luckily the boys were blasting Skrillex for me, so I was able to keep eating. As we got closer to the thirty minute mark, three of the contestants had given up, and the other skinny Swedish dude was done! He finished it all in about 23 minutes. I was very impressed. At this point, I don’t have very much left at all, but I’ve slowed down to a crawl. It’s just as much a mental challenge now as it is physical. I was down to the wire, 10 seconds left, half the bar counting me down. Every eye was on me. I could feel all the focus in the room centered in on my plate, on those last two fries. I shoved them in my mouth and tried to hide the fact that I still had a mouthful of starch. I literally couldn’t swallow or I surely would have ralphed. When the lady looked away, I spat my mouthful into my hand and hid it. The boss came by in time to watch me puke all over my plate yet win the challenge! 🙂 Would I do it again? Probably not. Was it worth it? Probably not.

Knockout Left-Hook

Shortly after the burger challenge, Ryker suited up for a Thai boxing fight in the ring. He was fighting a Thai guy who apparently fights weekly. I won’t go into detail about the fight, but Ryker knocked him out cold in the second round. It was really intense to watch. Luckily the guy was fine and got up a minute later. He and Ryker hugged it out and we all partied hard that night to celebrate our two wins: the fight and the burger.

Cliff Jumping and Snorkelling

Parker and the lads

We went on a boat ride with Zach, Colin and Devon. We cruised out to some little islands, did some snorkeling, did some cliff jumps, and crushed some Changs. It was an extremely amusing time. We also went to Maya Bay (from the movie ‘The Beach’). It was really nice, but not as surreal as the movie made it out to be. We also had to pay 20 Baht to hang out there, so we said ‘forget it’ and left. All-in-all, great time on the boat. On the way back up the beach, I cut the bottom of my foot on a rusty piece of metal sticking out of the sand. By the next day, both of my feet were swollen from the cuts getting infected. If I’ve learned anything:

“STAY OUT OF THE WATER WITH OPEN WOUNDS!”

Unfortunately, this includes shower water… Gotta love South-East Asia.

Zach Does the Hot Wing Challenge

It was Zach, Colin and Devon’s last morning, so we went to Banana Bar and cheered on Zach while he did the hot wing challenge. He crushed it in six minutes.

Challenge: 5 wings, 1 shot of Tequila/Tobasco mix, 10 minutes. Then it was goodbye for good.

The following morning, however:

Just as we were packing up our stuff to check out of our rooms, we hear the wonderfully obnoxious howl of one: MAX GATFIELD!!

Waaahooooo!!! So stoked!!! We all dropped our bags and ran outside!

We three have become four!

The Four Musketeers

First picture of us together

We lost the rambunctious energies of Zach, and acquired the rambunctious energies of Gatty. Tragic loss, but hell of a trade!

We also happened to meet up with a large handful of friends from Vancouver here, so Phi Phi was an intense adventure.

Later that night, I did the wing challenge. I teared up a bit but I did it with style and aplomb. No problems, then free bucket. Spicy food is kinda my forte, so that was the easiest bucket I’ve ever earned. Ryker faught his second fight that night and won that too. Phi Phi in one word: #Winning

The worst thing was having cuts on my feet that got infected. I wasn’t too worried about it at first, but once both feet got swollen, and it hurt to walk, I decided it was time to go to the hospital. The nurses dressed my wounds and put on iodine and stuff then gave me some pills to take. Aside from that, my instructions were: no drinking, no swimming. Later that night I went swimming drunk… IDIOT! Did not do any good for my feet.

Later that night a group of us ventured up to Phi Phi’s view point and hung out until sunrise. It was beautiful but I found Koh Tao’s view point to be nicer. We went for breakfast later and shortly after, I passed out. For the whole day.

The rest of Phi Phi was a big combination of chillin and partying.

My Fight

So it was our last night on Phi Phi, so it’s now or never if I wanna fight. And I want to fight. I got paired up with this skinny, tall Frenchman named Thomas. I chatted with him and his buddy for a bit so we were on a friendly basis when we entered the ring. Ryker warmed me up a bit on the pads (bare hands), and about 30 minutes later, my time had come.

Round 1:

I came out with ferocity in the beginning. It didn’t take me very long to realize he had some experience.  This guy was good with his kicks. He got me with a few good hits, but I got him too. Ryker claims I won the first round.

Round 2:

Ryker told me if I get him against the ropes, to just start teeing off on him, so I did. I was definitely the aggressor, but he had a good defence. Better than mine at least. By the end of the second, I was brutally exhausted. I knew I didn’t have much left for the third.

Round 3:

The last round was slower paced. I was gassed, and Thomas wasn’t attacking all that aggressively either. We played shot for shot for a little while longer and the bell sounded, signifying the end of the fight. We hugged it out and stood center ring, awaiting the decision. And then it happened, up goes Thomas’ hand. I would have liked to win but in no way was I upset about my loss.

I got my free bucket and carried on drinking and dancing the rest of the night. As a morale booster, there were many people (strangers included) who told me I should have won it. After reviewing the footage, I would probably have to agree with the judges.

I’m sorry I can’t find any images or footage of my fight. Not that you’re missing much.

Goodbye Phi Phi, Goodbye Thailand

We said goodbye to all our friends this morning,  and we got on our boat to Krabi. Then we went on a nice long bus ride. The movie today was:

CONAN the Barbarian

We got to Bangkok (round 2), shopped for a couple hours at MBK mall, then grabbed a cab to the border. We got there at 7:58pm and the border closes at 8. We didn’t make it. To make matters worse, we were already two days over our welcome. Our Thailand Visas had expired. So we booked a room for four and stayed another night.

Russia bought an iPad2 as well. It’s his new favourite toy.