We had another early start today (8/11/2010) to get our boat to Phi Phi Don, we got picked up from our hostel about 6am, and got into a crammed minivan, off to the harbour, and then on to a pretty sweet ferry for the journey across. Free breakfast! Always goes down well! Arrived on the island around lunchtime, and had booked 1 nights accommodation on the boat through a guide.We were originally planning to spend 1, maybe 2 nights here, but we didn't want to risk booking 2 nights in an awful place so played it safe.As soon as we got on the ferry we loved it. The harbour was just full of all kinds of boats, showing it was pretty popular, and there were wee beaches surrounding it.After we got on the harbour and properly on the island, we were greeted by a woman from the hostel, and she had a wheelbarrow type thing to transport our luggage to the place. Result! It was sunny and hot which makes carrying those stupid bags even worse than normal! There are no cars or motorbikes here, just wee sandy roads/paths; you can just walk everywhere, it's such a nice atmosphere!

Our room was right at the end of Loh Dalum Bay, a gorgeous beach, in an area that had been totally destroyed by the Tsunami. It was down a wee jungle path from the pier, and there still was some debris about from the tsunami on the walk in.our room was really nice, and had a shared balcony overlooking the beach! But we had some noisy neighbours…a family of monkeys that came right onto the balcony and nicked food from the place next door! It was funny to watch them run off with a mans nutella jar and lays crisps, and watch him chase them, but when they came on the balcony, right in front of us we panicked a bit and ran back inside! We decided to book an extra night, it just was so lovely!

After settling in we got our beach gear ready and headed down to relax in the water, it did not disappoint! The water was so clear and calm, and we got a spot on the beach that wasn't packed! After chilling on the beach we walked through the town to explore a bit, the town is so cute, just loads of wee roads covered in shops and bars.The lack of traffic makes such a difference! We then had lunch in an Irish bar before heading back to our room for a nap before going out that night.

When we were walking out that night, a local man who lived just beside our place stopped us and said hello, ask us about our visit, and then explained to us that he used to live here, and that everything was wiped when the tsunami hit. He told us that our hotel was completely destroyed and the new one had only been there the past two years. He was cleaning up the sand as we spoke and he explained that some of the clean up is only happening now.His brother and he were trying to rebuild their boat trip business and house.He was so lovely, so friendly and positive, yet he has been through something most of us probably couldn't have coped with.So many people we meet out here, who are so poor, are the most positive people we've ever met. It's incredible, and kind of makes you think.

I decided to not take my 500 tablets (slight exaggeration) that day so I could have a few drinks that night.The girls from our Gap tour were in Phi Phi at the min, and we arranged to meet up that night and head out to the beach parties.We met up with them in one bar for happy hour, then headed to the beach for free buckets of drink, (see photos- these things are class!! - again see photos of the outcome!) Dancing, meeting loads new people, and watching Lauren get a bamboo tattoo at 4am while drunk! Was great! I had such tattoo envy!Met an Irish guy who had 'Roy F**kin' Orbinson' tattooed on his arm!! We asked was he a big fan and his reply was 'aye he's alright'!he originally wanted Roy O's face tattooed on ( he got this while drunk) but it was too expensive so he settled for that! Some pretty funny people out there! We had such a good night, and walked back along the beach home at 5.30am, just because we were too tired to stay any longer!

The next day we got up to meet the girls for breakfast at 11am. Both feeling rather dodgy, wonder why??Said goodbye to them, again, and consoled ourselves with a fry and some episodes of The Inbetweeners! It worked ok!! We had to go back to the room in the afternoon for another nap, and slept until dinner time! Headed out for a bite to eat and a beachfront café, was pretty nice, and then had another wander around town, before buying 'The Beach' DVD to watch in bed to remind us for our camping trip to Maya Bay the next day! May not have been the best idea as after all the tsunami talk and the evacuation signs on the island, and then the shark attack in the movie, I got quite scared of, well, everything and Craig had to sit and reassure me that I wasn't going to die the next day!We eventually got to sleep tho!

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and dumped our bags into the travel agents before heading off to the beach for one last dip and lie down in Phi Phi Don!Later that day we got our boat to out to Phi Phi lei, about 20 of us doing the trip, and everyone seemed lovely.We stopped off for snorkeling- there were a ton of fish, and the guides thought it would be funny to throw food in beside you so that hundreds of fish came right round you! Craig loved it, me, not so much, that was the end of my snorkeling for the day!We arrived at Maya Bay with the weather ok, it was getting near sunset and was a bit cloudy, and there were so many boats and people around! Not what we imagined after watching the film last night!But it was beautiful the way the beach was so isolated and the water so clear!We hung around the beach for a while, watching all the other boats leave till it was just our group left, then got drinks and sat around a campfire. It was good craic and we were fed some pretty tasty food.The guides found all these wee small crabs and people were racing them around the fire, and then our guide whose nickname was Chocolate ( I loved him for this reason) brought in a huge crab that climbs the cliffs and just left it above us! Was scary!We all got in a circle after dinner and played Kings! Was great fun, and I had it pretty easy, being the only one drinking sprite! Afterwards the guides walked us into the woods to see the local farmers and more of the huge crabs!The toilets were pretty far from the beach which was a scary walk at night, through the bushes. We all walked as a group to them as we were all too scared!

We came back to the beach once it was completely dark for some night swimming.It was unreal! The water wasn't cold at all (we stayed in it until 1.30am), it was the most starry night either of us had ever seen, we seen shooting stars aswell, and if you've seen the movie you'll know that theres plankton in the water that lights up at night when its disturbed - this really happens! We didn't believe it at first but it was incredible.The water was so clear that even tho it was so dark we could see our feet in the water, and whenever we splashed about in the water, or when the tide washed up on shore, there were just hundreds of wee tiny glowing lights everywhere. It really was the most amazing thing to see, and the best night we've had since leaving.Some of the guides got their guitars out and were just sitting on the beach with candles playing while we chilled out in the water. At about half 2 we decided to try and get some sleep, as we were getting up at half 5 to see the sunrise.We originally tried to sleep on the beach with just sleeping bags, but after a while it started to rain so we ended up in a shelter behind the beach.Neither of us got much sleep!The next morning, by the time we got up and tried to find the bay the sun rises at, it had already happened, so we just dandered back to the beach and chilled out before the 1st day tourists started arriving (at about 8.30am).Just before we left Maya Bay it started to rain really heavy, good for us, but we felt bad for the people that had paid money to come and spend the day here! We realized in the morning that our camera wasn't working - gutted - don't know who broke it but can I just point out that I was the only sober one on the trip! Alcohol, saltwater sand and a camera don't mix well it seems!

When we got back to Phi Phi Don, we jumped straight on the boat to Krabi, where we were going to spend a night before heading to Koh Samui!We were so wrecked from a few days of little sleep and felt gross being covered in sand and insect repellent from the beach that we took the 1st accommodation we found in Krabi.BAD BAD idea! It was absolutely disgusting.Dirty walls, bed sheets, ants literally everywhere - you could not avoid these things! The water from the sink just drained back on to the bathroom floor, and it wasn't a flush toilet, just one of those toilets where you do your thing and then use the pot of water with the pan in it to flush it away yourself! We dropped our laundry in, got food, and then went back to the room were I sat and cried for a while, too scared to get into bed, eventually giving up and getting in our liners (which supposedly are designed to keep bugs out) with socks on, leggings tucked into them and tshirt and bug spray.We got very little sleep and woke up with more bites!! Disgusting!! We went out for breakfast to get out of the room and then waited in the street for our transport to Koh Samui!

Craig and Laura :)