Coming from Phuket town, I thought that Koh Phi Phi must be a paradise by comparison, so I was pleased to look out of the boat window as we approached Ton Sai beach to sea white sandy beaches and crystal clear green water. First challenge after getting off the boat was to find some accommodation, so I immediately got a couple of quotes from a tout at the end of the pier and then toddled off to the resorts to haggle them down from the travel agents price direct with the manager. That would work at home right? Ask for less that what the travel agents are offering so that they don't have to pay commission etc.. As I keep having to remind myself, I'm not at home ow and these people are primative when it comes to business sense. The resorts lowest price for a room was a good 800 Baht (10 pounds) more than the travel agents. They advised me that if I wanted that room at that price I would have to book through an agent as they couldn't lower the price any more - that's exactly what I did and for the second week I got it even cheaper still! There must be a method in their madness somewhere, but it escapes me. Phi Phi is a medium sized island with a skinny bit in the middle which is probably about 500 metres wide at the thinnest point. All the posh resorts seem to be on one side, the affordable stuff on the otherside, and the backpacker places up in the hills! I stayed on the 'affordable' side although it was the most expensive place in Thailand I have stayed in to date (by far!) There are lots of beautiful deserted beaches all around the island and you can ask one of the numerous long-tail boats to take you to any of them and they will pick you up later. The problem with that is (as I discovered), that some of them are so remote there is nowhere to buy water or food! I was on one of these beaches and had to hike over a flipping mountain to get back to the resort because I was hungry and thirsty and the boat wasn't coming back for me for 3 hours! Phi Phi is where I learnt to dive, in fact I did my OPen Water course and my Advanced course too. I loved every minute of it and dived almost every day as some incredible locations, too numerous to describe on this site without boring you. I did however dive a few times in Maya Bay (shown in the photo above), which is the remote little cove where they filmed "The Beach" with Leonardo Di Caprio. I was lucky enough to see the bay as it is in the picture as we got there very early for the dive, however by lunchtime this whole bay is full of day trippers from Phuket, Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta. It's such a tragedy. Fortunately from 18 metres under the water, they don't disturb you too much. After not drinking for a whole 2 weeks (because of the diving), Daniel and I went out to celebrate passing the Advanced course with a couple of Singha Beers. We got chatting to some lovely English girls and spent the rest of the night getting drunk with them. Candice wrote to me a couple of days later telling me a whole load of stuff that I don't even remember doing or saying, so there's nothing new there then - still can't handle this Thai drink. I barely recall seeing the sun rise before collapsing on my bed. Awoke to realise that I had missed the ferry to Krabi by a good 2.5 hours and overstayed the hotel check out by an hour! Rushing down to the ferry, still drunk from the night before and having no idea when the next one would be, I bumped into Gabriella and Sandra (young Swedish girls) from New Zealand. A complete shock to the system as I had no idea they were even in this part of the world! I couldn't stay and chat (sorry girls), but I didn't want to miss another ferry that day. I also bumped into Johnny from Vietnam several times in the street and we kept promising to go out for some beers, but because of my laclustre social life and early nights the promises did not realise themselves. Sorry Johnny - may see you at Bangkok airport. An Irish couple that I'd met in Cambodia (originally) advised me not to go to Lo Lanta as it was really quiet, convinced me to change my plans and so I was off to Aonang in Krabi for a couple of nights before going to do some islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Back on the ferries for me until the next time I can update you. Home in less than 3 weeks now! Much love to you all. Stephen xxx