Final day on Phi Phi

Today was our last day on Phi Phi Island, which is kind of sad because it's so beautiful. We spent the day at the pool (again) after getting up around half 10. It was quite sunny and we are both now sunburnt.

It clouded over around half 4 so we packed up and returned to our accommodation around 5 to shower and change for dinner. Then we went to an all you can eat BBQ place where I got tummy ache after a couple of bits of potato and some chicken and completely failed in eating my money's worth. It was probably the most expensive meal we have had in Thailand. What I did have was really nice though. There was mash potato, potato salad, chips, pasta salad, corn on the cob, other various salad items, and then a whole range of meats. You could have had a feast.

After dinner we returned to the hostel and packed our bags, for what seems like the first time in ages, and relaxed.

Bamboo Island Boat Trip

This morning we had a lay in, getting up around half 10 and getting ready for an afternoon boat trip. We went out for brunch and then went down to the pier. The boat trip we joined was an afternoon session of a full day trip, meaning we joined a boat full of people who had already been out for the morning. There was about 30 people on the trip on a double decker boat. We went an sat upstairs and off we went.

Our first stop was a Monkey Beach that was not as good as the other monkey beach. There was only about 4 monkeys, you couldn't feed them and they were quite aggressive. We kayaked from the boat to the beach and then decided we wanted our snorkel stuff so I swam back to the boat to get them.  We snorkelled for  about 5 minutes before we had to go back to the boat.

Our next stop was Bamboo Island (last picture), which was the main reason we decided to do the boat trip, as we hasn't had time on our last trip. We ended up spending the whole time snorkeling, seeing exotic rainbow coloured fish and corals as the island wasn't actually that interesting.

Our third and final stop was Shark Point, the same shark point as the previous post. We didn't see any sharks but we saw some amazing coral and fish. It was fab!

We got back to the mainland around 6:30pm and went for dinner then headed back to the hostel. At around 9pm we went out just to see what's what. We didn't really have any plans but we ended up in a bar playing beer pong (with water).  After playing a couple from Ireland/Thailand and winning,  we played each other and I won, and then we were joined by a girl from Surrey against some guys from Alaska/South America and beat them. We played a few of different games against different teams and won all but one. The around half 12 we called it a night and went back to the hostel to sleep.

Chilling by the Pool

Today, as you can guess from the title,  has been a very relaxed day. We found a pool near where we staying that belonged to another hotel and asked if we could use it. They said we could for 200 baht each, which is less than a fiver. We got there some time after ten and stayed all day. The pool had a view over the bay and we watched as the tide went out and the sun went down. People came and went through out the day. It was quite a small pool so it got quite full at one point but was fairly quiet in the morning.

At lunch time Lauren had some chips and I had some wontons from the hotel restaurant. Then around half 6, after the sun had disappointingly disappeared being a cloud, denying us a nice sunset, we went for dinner. We were both still quite full from the food before. We both got small plates of nachos and then headed back to the guesthouse we're staying in for the evening.

Visiting the Viewpoint

Today we had a lie-in, getting up around ten and then going for breakfast. We each had a toastie and then hung around at the bar for ages, too lazy to move. It was very hot and we had a nice view, lying on benches on an old wooden boat that had been turned into a little seating area at the bar, with the front end hanging over the sea.

Around half 1 (maybe) we decided to make a move to the viewpoint. The viewpoint is also the evacuation point in case of a tsunami. I got up and started edging out the boat, watching where I was going so as not to fall down any of the holes in the floorboards, and promptly smacked my head really hard on a wooden beam. It was really painful. After sitting down for another 5 minutes until it stopped hurting we set off up the hill past our guesthouse. It was one of two routes to the viewpoint, and we had assumed both would be the same kind of path. However the one we had chosen was like a dirt track ad we were scrambling over rocks as tree roots up a steep hill. It was very hot and we were sweating loads. It turned out not to be very far from the top which we were grateful for, and we also discovered this route avoided the steep and long set of stairs.

We paid 30 baht entrance fee, which is about 75p, and went up to the look out point. 

The view was incredible. You could see the thin stretch of land with a bay on each side connecting the two larger chunks of land. The one we could see consisted of limestone mounts covered in trees surrounded by blue sea. The tide was out on one side of the thin strip but you could still see the sea. It was beautiful. We stayed up there for a while, taking photos, cooling off and admiring the view.

Eventually we decided to head back down and we took the other route. It was paved all the way and brought us out in the centre of the town. We went back to the hostel where we put the airconditioning on turbo and laid on the bed to cool off.

At around half 6 we went out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Garlic. Lauren had pizza which came with garlic bread and it did the restaurant name proud. I tried a Thai Green Curry which was really nice but quite spicy. Then we had ice cream (not freshly made) and headed back to the hostel to chill. 

Playtime on Phi Phi

Today has been so awesome! We got up early-ish and went down to the pier to meet 4 other girls, 2 of which we had shared a room with in Phuket,  and two of their friends. We had between the 6 of us hired a long tail boat to take us round the sights of Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh.

Our first stop, around 8:45   was at Maya Bay, the setting for the 1999 film 'The Beach'. It was absolutely stunning. The sea was turquoise green/blue and it was surrounded by rocky mounts, with a covering of trees.  We spent an hour here swimming and floating about in the sea, but I could have stayed all day. We went here first and early to avoid the crowds. When we left it had started filling up and there was so many people. 

After an hour we moved onto Loh Samah bay for some snorkeling.  The water was really clear and the fish were everywhere. They were mainly small-ish yellow and black striped ones but we saw the odd larger rainbowy/bluey one. The fish came so close to us they were probably within touching distance.

After this we went to Pileh lagoon for a short stop. This was again another beautiful place. We took it in turns jumping off the front of the boat into the water before heading off to Shark Point.

Shark Point is, as the name suggests, a good place to snorkel and see sharks. Not the dangerous attacking kind,  but docile black tipped sharks. Before we got in the boat driver told us 'sometimes you see loads and sometimes there's only a few'. Luck was not with us. I saw very very brief from a distance one swimming off but that was it, which was a shame.

Around 12:30 we arrived at what the driver told us was Monkey Beach, only it wasn't a beach, it was a cliff face with monkeys on it. We hopped out the boat into the water to get a closer look and managed to find some peanuts that other people or the monkeys had dropped so we were able to fed them. They were really cute, and compared to the next place we went, very calm and tame.

We pulled up at actual Monkey Beach round the corner after asking the driver if we could instead of mooring in the middle of the sea for more snorkeling. These monkeys were a lot more aggressive. They were walking along the beach,  and at some points swimming around. Ingot off the boat with a stack of pringles in my hand to feed to the monkeys. I was immediately approached by a large monkey so I retrieved a pringle from the stack and attempted to hide the other out of sight behind my back. The monkey was not fooled and started climbing up my leg. I panicked a bit and gave him the whole stack and he jumped off and ran away. I was basically mugged by a monkey.

Thankfully we had some pineapple on the boat. We fed the monkeys and managed to get them to climb up on us (without panicking) which was pretty cool! Lauren was hiding food in her bikini top to stop them stealing it all in one go but one money figured it out and climbed up her to help themselves which was funny.

After this we headed back to the pier for 2 as we has only hired the boat for 6 hours. We hadn't made it to all the places we had wanted to go but we had had an amazing day. As we got off the boat Lauren stood on something sharp and got a little cut on her foot. I asked her if she was alright and then promptly stood on the exact same sharp thing, also getting a small cut. It couldn't take the shine off the awesome trip though. We said goodbye to the other girls, headed back to the hostel, showered and collapsed on the bed.

Around 6pm we decided to make a move and started getting ready to go out for dinner. We went to a restaurant not far from the hostel where I had fried rice and Lauren had carbonara.  My food came out so fast it was unreal. After dinner we got freshly made ice cream, made in front of us. It was pretty cool. Then we headed to a beach bar to watch a fire show (men swinging around poles that were on fire) and have a drink. We headed back to the acommodation around half ten, absolutely knackered.

A Long Walk to Long Beach

This morning we got up around half 9 and went for breakfast at little cafe just along the road. Just before we left there ahd been a brief thunderstorm with the loudest thunder I have ever heard. It was still spitting a little as we left but it was not raining as heavily as it had been earlier. We wandered into town after breakfast to sort some things out for other days and just had a bit of a mooch about. Then we came back to the hostel to relax and cool down for a bit.

Around 2pm we set off for Long Beach which we were told was a 30 minute walk away. The beach directly in front of the village is not really that great as it's where the pier is. We walked throughe the village, across the beach, round the rocky outlying bits through the sea and kept on walking. We walked for way longer than half an hour and eventually just settled on a small beach called Viking Beach. By this time the sun had gone but it was still warm. We got straight in the sea and not floated about for a while before lying down on the sand.

Around half 5 we decided to head back. On the way we discovered a path that ran along the back of the beach all the way back to the village. It cut a considerable amount of time off our journey. If only we had found it earlier....

When we got back we showered and headed out for dinner. After dinner we got our nails painted and then came back to the hostel for the night.

Phuket to Phi Phi

Today we had a lie in, got up at 10, checked out at 11 and were picked up around 12 by a minibus. We drove for an hour to a harbour where we got on a huge boat to Phi Phi Don, one of the Phi Phi Islands, the only one inhabited. It took over 2 and a half hours to get there but the boat was fairly comfy.

When we arrived we were greeted by a man with the name of the guesthouse we are staying in on a wooden board. It was cheaper to have a private room in this guesthouse than a bunk bed in a dorm room so we have our own room for a week which is nice. The dude loaded our stuff onto a trailer and guided us to the guesthouse. He was walking so fast we had to almost jog to keep up! It was about a 10 - 15 minute walk through the village.

We checked in and lay on the bed for a bit doing some research into what to do while here and where to go after. Then around half 6 we went for dinner. We just stopped at the first place we came across. I had Pad Thai with beef which was really nice, and Lauren had a toastie and chips. We sat next to the ocean watching the light fade. It was pretty nice.

After dinner we wandered round the village for a couple of hours seeing what's what and looking at tours. Then we returned to the hostel to cool off with the aircon.