18 February 2009

Today we got up and went to catch the ferry to Ko Phi Phi Island. We had decided to book our accommodation with a travel agent who was a friend of nicks so we had a very smooth trip. After being picked up by 'our driver' from the bottom of the road we were escorted to the ferry which took about one and a half hours to reach Phi Phi. The ferry was very busy and when we arrived at the ferry port everything was rather hectic with several thai people trying to take you for a ride in their taxi boat or persuade you to stay in their hotel. Thankfully we had that all sorted so we found the guy with a sign to our bungalow and followed him towards the town. There are no roads in Phi so when the guy came back with a cart and gestured towards it we were unsure whether he meant for us to get in. We decided to walk ourselves and were glad when we later realised the carts were meant for bags not people! We had walked for about 10 minutes in the 40 degree hit when we found our bungalow. Its name was 'uphill cottage' so we should of really guessed it would be a bit of a trek. When we arrived we collapsed on the beds for a while and then went in search of the beach. We spent the afternoon on the beach and having a look around the town. Later in the evening we ventured out to the beach side bars which were very traveller orientated! We started chatting with a Danish boy and girl who were sitting by us and talked about our travels so far. They also gave us a leaflet they had been given for a free 'bucket' of cocktail which seem to be all the rage in thailand. You had between 10.20 and 10.30 to retrieve your free bucket from the bar and as the time approached there was a stampede up to the bar. We manage to fight our way through the crowd but in the end wished that we hadnt as the cocktail was a weird mix of thai whisky, red bull and coke. We did'nt last much longer than that and decided to head back uphill to our cottage for a good nights sleep.

19 February 2009

We initial planned to spend today relaxing at the beach but after realising that you can't really sunbathe when its 40 degrees we looked fro a new plan. We decided to take a tour of Phi Phi on a longtail boat which several of the tour operators were selling around the island. The tour started by visiting Monkey beach which is inhabited but lots of cute monkeys eating bannanas and posing for photos with the tourists. They seemed very happy, much happier than the monkey who had to work all day picking cocunuts on Phuket anyway. The next stop was Shark Point (No actual Sharks) for snorkelling which we really enjoyed once we got over our fear that the fish would try and eat us. The boat then travelled past a Viking Cave and Pileh Bay where we got out for a swim in some beautiful coves with pure green water. The final stop was Maya Bay where 'The Beach' was filmed which has now become quite a tourist attraction. We stopped for about an hour to relax on the pure white sand. We were later told that this beach was actually manufactured for the film and wasn't really there to begin with and that the pure white sand had been flown in from saudi arabia! It was still lovely though. To end the tour the longtail boats stopped out at sea just as the sun was setting. This was obviously a daily occurence as all the boats stopped at exactly the same time to enjoy the sunset and take some photos. After our day of activities we relaxed on the beach in the evening and went back for a rest before our trip to Ko Lanta tomorrow.