Hi everyone,

Well, what can we say!! We're now on our last night here in Ko Phi Phi and what a place!!! It is absolutely gorgeous, one of the most beautiful places we've seen and one of the favourites! When we got here, it was a bit chaotic, everybody was pushing and shoving at the tiny pier to get off the boat and get their stuff; though after an hour delay on the boat I wasn't surprised.

We stayed at a place called The Ivory, the rooms were very small but absolutely spotless, which was perfect!! The guy that ran it was really friendly and helpful, which we found a bit weird at first as they are all a bit lacking on the customer service front in Thailand! We just went for a walk about the island (not very big) to get our bearings and as soon as we stepped outside the hotel, we were immersed in Thai food markets and stalls, it was nice to see but it stank!! Buckets of freshly caught fish sitting that you picked and they cooked for you then and there!! Shame I'm not a huge seafood fan :(

We took a walk down to one of the beaches on our first evening and seen the most amazing sunset we've ever clapped eyes on. The sky was bright pink and orange and absolutely amazing as you can see from the photos; also it was the only evening the sunset was like this so we were very lucky!

We just bummed about on the beach for the first couple of days as we knew we would stay here for a while so we didn't have to rush anything. Our first few days here were roasting, which made you appeciate the crystal clear sea even more! Then we decided to do one of the trips and see Phi Phi Leh (where they filmed The Beach!). The scenery was just stunning, straight off a postcard, and when we got to Maya Bay (The Beach), we realised just what all the fuss was about. This was a REAL beach, powder white sand, crystal clear blue water, giant cliff surroundings, just perfect. We stayed there for a few hours before we left for some other sights, mainly Monkey Beach. When we pulled into here, there were loads of monkeys everywhere; they obviously knew people means food. Some brought bananas and fruit and threw it to them or crept up and handed it to them. Some people never thought of bringing fruit and were feeding them Pringles!! But they seemed to love them! Someone else was holding a bottle of Pepsi while the monkey drank from it!!! So they aint fussy!! It was pretty cool to see but we kind of kept our distance a lot, imagining one going nuts and giving us rabies!! Although we went there twice and I fed a monkey a bit of pineapple the second time!

We did some snorkelling too, the water was perfect for it and the fish just swam beside you! On one of our snorkelling trips we went to Shark Point and seen about 6 black tip sharks!! They were close enough you could see their eyes!! And I saw one of them eating, it was amazing!! Most people are lucky if they see two, so we were happy with that. To top it all off, later that day at a different snorkelling point, we saw a turtle, finally!!! The snorkelling here wasn't great as it was very deep so the water was dark and we were kind of swimming in circles but Matt pointed at something and I turned round and a turtle was swimming right beside us!!! After all the diving we did in Ko Tao and hoping for a turtle there, we see one snorkelling! So we just swam alongside it for a while until it went deep. It was an amazing looking creature up close, possibly cooler than the sharks!

A lot of the rest of our time was spent on the beach and cooling off in the sea as it was so hot!! It was the most relaxing we have done since we got here, and where better to do it!! I would highly recommend getting your asses to Phi Phi!!

The food was a lot better here than in Ko Phangan and we found this place called HC Andersen, where we pretty much ate dinner every night. The food was nice and cheap and the owner, a guy called Alfie from Singapore was the most helpful person we've met out here!! He sat down with us one night and wrote us a list of decent places to stay in Malaysia, as he's from there and even offered to show us around! We are just going to do it ourselves but it was nice of him to offer, and he gave us the tip about going to see the sharks!

So we are now on our last day in Phi Phi and we decided to go to viewpoints on top of the island, about a half hour walk, at a 90degree angle!! Holy god, it took it out of us! It was another amazing day and the sun was blaring. We started off great but after about 5 mins, we had to stop and rest, then 5mins later again etc etc. It was just a really steep staircase the whole way up but the views from the top were pretty spectacular!! It's actually the islands tsunami evacuation route, which made me wonder how the hell everyone is supposed to get up there that quickly!! We got some cracking photos of the top and it was a great way to end the visit! And on the way back into town, a monkey followed us on the electric cables, and when we stopped to take a picture, it pee'd off it!! Charming!

We met a few random people when we were out having a drink. We met 2 guys in a bar, one from Australia and one from Bangor. They were absolutely full and had been out for 3 days at this stage. They were drinking the Thai red bull with their drink, which contains amphetimines out here!! So they were a bit lairy, then the guy from Bangor says he is a policeman back home (he had the barcode moustache of one), and started saying that people get their knees shot where I live and he wouldn't tell us his name; and we just thought aye see you after! Taking that the whole way to Thailand with you, we're not here to carry on like that you fool. We have actually met a wile pile of weirdos out here, some real daft eejits, some real tools and a lot of scroats!!

All in all, we really enjoyed out time in Phi Phi. Every island so far has been different from the other. There are no roads here, so there are no cars, everybody rides bikes, so it's great not choking on fumes but not so great jumping out of the path of them!

We're heading on to Ko Lanta tomorrow for a bit of luxury, cos we're not good enough to ourselves already!! We splashed out a bit on 2 nights in a resort (still dirt cheap), and it looks gorgeous, so our last beach stop until Australia as we're in Malaysia after that! It feels like we've been on Phi Phi forever so change of scenery will be great!!

Lots of love

Nicola & Matt x