Hello Peeps!!

We arrived on Phi Phi Island by ferry on Friday 18th June. The journey took 1.5 hours and was pretty uneventful but for the mad scramble on deck when it started to rain and everyone ran to retrieve their baggage. We hadn't booked any accommodation on the island so decided to "wing-it". As we stepped off the boat we were inundated by touts at the pier trying to get us into their hotels and guest houses. There was only one thing for it.......find a restaurant, grab a beer and surf the internet for hotel reviews. Just about every review we read was average at best or the hotel was way too expensive.

We finally came across Phi Phi Banyan Tree, which looked good. The waitress in the restaurant told us the hotel was a few doors down so Lisa did a reccie. The rooms looked nice enough (although a little bland and dated), the pool and gym looked good too. At £34 a night including breakfast (which we never had) this was it. So we stayed here for 3 nights. We never saw the gym but did a fair bit of due diligence at the bars and restaurants.

Phi Phi is a really lively resort full of backpackers. We thought it was going to be a relaxing island with not much to do. We were wrong! At night the bars become lively, the clubs on the beach are full of party people and the restaurants are busy too. It isn't even high season.

The first night we went for a walk to check out what was going on. We watched a fire show, which took place in one of the beach bars. This show was amazing; we have some great video footage to upload.

After the show we walked to the main beach and found the club scene. We stayed at a club called "Apache", which was full of young party people having fun (we clearly fitted in!!!). We stayed here for a couple of hours drinking the local Chang beer! To be honest, we were waiting for the England v Algeria game to start (1:30am Thai time). Anyway, we watched the match in a Sports Bar and met a few friends who were travelling and a couple of guys that had been in Phi Phi for a few months visiting their sister.

The football was very poor..........frankly it was a bit embarrassing to admit being English. We wished we had stayed at the Apache club. At least there was more effort on the dance floor than the football pitch.....all except one girl who appeared to be dancing to totally different music (has there ever been anyone with such a lack of coordination we asked ourselves).

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to find our neighbours were really loud. A couple of guys were in the room banging and shouting to their friends on the other side which kept us awake. Fortunately, they moved on the next day otherwise we would have probably switched rooms!

The following day (Saturday 19th June), we decided to sit around the pool. We were lucky to get a sun lounger as there were only 6 around the pool! The pool was pretty but so badly designed that you couldn't actually fit any more loungers in. It wasn't busy so the lack of loungers wasn't really a problem. The weather was vey overcast but felt that we needed some chill out time.

During the afternoon we went for a walk to the main beach which was strewn with rubbish. There were glass bottles, paper, crisp packets etc which spoilt the view. It was a real shame. Part of this debris was probably due to the previous night's beach parties.

Cars don't seem to exist on this island. We didn't see any vehicles other than the local (maniacs) riding their bicycles at break-neck speeds on the walkways. You felt like the ski-posts on a slalom course at times. The island does however have a lot of long-tail boats and a few ferries as this island is busy with visitors arriving from Krabi and Phuket daily. Phi Phi is where the film "The Beach" was filmed. We didn't bother going to see it......we may have done with a bit more time and if the weather was a little more predictable.

That evening we went to "The Reggae bar" which had a Thai Boxing ring out the back; a bit of a novelty. Tourists could challenge each other to Thai boxing matches, which they did. Some weren't bad either. But the real highlight was when the local Thai boxers fought each other. They are as tough as they come......thankfully there were no tourists v Thai matches otherwise we would have to have ordered a few ambulances!!! We sat and watched this for a few hours with our buckets of vodka and Sangsom (a Thai whisky) cocktails. It was great fun.

The following day it rained so hard that we only had one option - visit a cafe and surf the internet to catch up on news, emails and to Skype family. We also took the opportunity to book our 2 hour boat to Phuket for Monday 21st June (only 250 baht each - about £5 apiece) along with flights from Phuket on Wednesday 23rd June to Koh Samui.

Later that evening, Mark had a nice Thai massage with Lisa deciding on a French manicure and pedicure. Is this what backpackers really do? The manicure proved to be a bit of a wasted effort as the nails got chipped while repacking for our Phi Phi island exit. Packing was finished in the early hours and we were ready for an early ferry departure to Phuket where we will meet Ali Flint (one of Mark's ex-work collegues).

Ali left banking about a year and a half ago so she could travel the world. She has settled in Phuket for a time and has kindly offered to put us up for two nights. She seems to have a hectic life of chilling out and relaxing. It's all very taxing for her we hear. We shall find out more when we arrive!!

That's about it for now. Take care all !!