Sunday 2nd August 2009, Koh Tao - Koh Phi Phi

The journey from Koh Tao to Phi Phi was long but thankfully not too stressful!! We left Koh Tao at 9pm on the overnight ferry to Surat Thani. The bed situation was lots of thin matresses layed out with pillow after pillow under your specific number. It could have been very cosy but it wasn't full so a bit more room to spread out and so no worry of waking up being spooned. Thank god. It was surprisenly quite comfortable!! We arrived in Surat Thani at about 05:00 and from the dock it was a tuk tuk too a travel office where we then waited until 06:30 for a mini bus to take us to Krabie. The journey to Krabie was very cramped and took about 2 and a half hours. Once again we were dropped off at another travel agent and from here taken by another tuk tuk to the dock to then get the ferry over to Phi Phi. This was another hour and a half. It left just after 10am and arrived at about 11:45am. So as you can see about 15 hours of travelling. And apart from us both feeling slightly tired we also had to contend with the swaying feeling!! This lasted a lot longer than hoped.

Once on Phi Phi we escaped the hundreds of toats and made our way into the island. Now we weren't one hundred percent sure if we were going in the right direction but we just kinda followed the crowd and it worked. The problem is we didn't want to ask as without sounding horrible we are now very scepital of Thai men holding bill boards! More often than not they are trying to sell you something and normally are out too rip you off!! Horrible but mostly true!! Whilst we were walking along we were given a free map by a dive shop and then a guy (Western) at another dive shop offered to keep our bags in there back room whilst we went and found somewhere to stay. We very quickly accepted, these bags are heavy and its so much easier and quicker to look without our bags. This guy seemed ok, and it was an official looking place, although we were both thinking in the back of our minds whats he's going to try and sell us?! Your'll be pleased to know the answer was nothing! He was just being nice. He sent us in the direction of the village as this was where the cheaper guesthouses were. We looked at 5 different ones and had a drink before deciding to stay at The Pirates House. It was a double bed but it was clean, large and 600 Baht a night. This was the average price in this area. It also had air con-always a bonus!

After retrieving our bags, we checked in, showered, bikinied up and then headed out. First of all we grabbed some lunch and then we booked a tour for the following day. The tour was a boat and snorkelling trip around the various beaches and bays off Phi Phi. From here we went too the beach and got stuck into our new books! Unfortunatly we were also attacked by the sand at many different times due to the wind. Not nice infact it was dam right painful at times!!

We left the beach at about 5:30pm, had a drink and then attempted too Skype Dad and Mel. It was terrible, the signal was crap and get cutting out and dropping the line. The conversation was very broken and frustrating. But on the up hand at least we got too say Hello! One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that for those of who don't know Phi Phi was greatly destroyed in the Tsuanmi. It was one of the main islands that was hit. But now you really woundn't know any difference apart from that there is still some reconstruction work going on and as you walk around there are signs around with "Tsnami Evacuation Point" signposted in various directions inland.

After giving up on Skype we headed back, showered and then went for a very nice dinner at the restaurant next door to our guesthouse. Unfortunatly I can't remeber the name but it was that good that we ended up eating their both nights we were on Phi Phi. Anyway tonight Caroline had a Chicken Panang and I had a Chicken Masaman. Caroline even said at the end that hers was the best Thai curry she had had since coming into Thailand. Mind was medium but I managed to eat it, it was very tasty and I still had my tastebuds left at the end, so all good and well. Afterwards we had a few beers before heading to bed at around 1am.

Monday 3rd August 2009, Koh Phi Phi

Today we were up and out by 8:30am. This was the time we had to be at our meeting point, I had already been out and got coffee and being good girls we were well on time for the start time. But by 8:45am we were still waiting alomg with another couple. None of us looked particularly happy by 8:50am when someone eventually turned up, but too them its no worries were on Thai time!! So different to home! But hey thats life. From here we were then walked to the other office where we joined anothert 30 or so people and were fitted up with snorkels and fins. We eventually left this office at about 9:30am (the boat was meant to leave at 9am) and the walked to the pier to aboard our boat for the day. Phi Phi is vehicle free by the way which is why its walking everywhere.

The trip today was around several bays around Phi Phi including first stop Viking Cave. We couldn't go in this so we just looked at it from the boat and then went round the corner to the closest bay where we did our first bit of snorkelling for the day. We snorkelled at 3 different places today, this one, bamboo island and monkey island. We also did a bit on our swim to Maya Bay. Maya Bay is the beach where "THE BEACH" was set. Our boat was too big to go into the bay so we had too drop anchor the other side in a different bay and then swim to the rock surface, climb a wooden ladder up and then down before then having too walk across some very sharp rocks (I cut the sole of my foot-painful) and then along a sandy path before eventually reaching Maya bay/beach. It was beautiful. We don't have any photos of Maya as we don't trust the dry bags so left our cameras on the boat. So just imagine the clearest blue sea, with the whitest beach surrounded by big rocks forming a bay. Or you could just watch the beach and your'll get the idea!! Stunning scenerey although a tad windy.

The snorkelling part of the day was great fun, at all points we got to see some amazing underwater life. Some very colourful fish and coral. Now we have both deicided that in order to sound smart were going to have to buy a book on fish. With all this diving and snorkelling we can't just keep saying "Did you see that yellow and black fish?" or "How cool was the multi-coloured fish!", we need names!! We also got too see monkeys today on Monkey island. I stayed in the water as I didn't want to get to close, it was a good enough view from there. Caroline braved it but soon came running back into the water if they got too close. There was a mother with baby breast feeding, very cute!!

The day ended about 4:30pm. From here it was straight back to change and then out for a bit of shopping (postcards), use the internet and then dinner back at the same place as last night. I had Italian tonight (pizza) and Caroline had a red curry. Afterwards we had one beer before deciding at about 10pm that we we knackered, so we went back to the guesthouse, watched a film and then fell asleep fairly early!!

Tuesday 4th August 2009, Koh Phi Phi-Puket

We checked out of our guesthouse at about 11am and then spent the next 2 hours book swapping, writing postcards, drinking coffee and eating. At about 1pm we went and got our bags and made our way to the port in order to get the 1:30pm ferry. We got there and were told that the next ferry didn't leave till 2:30pm but feel free to put your bags on the boat and then go and get a drink. So this is what we did. Although having to climb over 3 boats with bags was a balancing act in itself!! Just so you know we didn't imagine the 1:30pm boat, it was on our ticket but we just think because its low season it wasn't running. So we had a drink and read our books before re-boarding the boat at 2pm. It left at 2:30pm and today it was extremely rough with huge waves. We both felt a bit sea sick so spend the hour and a half laying down.

On arrival in Puket we got a lift to Patong and found a guesthouse. Were only here for about 12 hours and having now had a wqalk around were glad were not here any longer!! Its a mixture between Pattaya and a hot Skeggie!!

Were due to fly to Kula Lumpar tomorrow at 8:15am. So our next entry will be coming from Malaysia! See you soon xxx