We had a hotel pick up to take us to the Krabi pier to catch a boat to Koh Phi Phi. Tom and Lisa joined us again and we were all looking forward to Koh Phi Phi as we had all heard so much about it before leaving home and whilst travelling so far. Zo was not feeling well again, in fact she vomited just before the boat ride. The whole journey she spent lead on my lap while I tried to get through the remaining part of my book, 'The Girl in the Picture'. Koh Phi Phi is a national park and so on arrival we had to pay 20 Baht each, this goes towards to the upkeep of the island. At first it was hard to see the island's beauty. We were 4 of what seemed like 200 people arriving at the same time to the small pier all were being ushered through the paying station and then being hassled by the hotel and guesthouse touts trying to sell a guesthouse room or bungalow to you that would earn them commission. We did eventually set off and find our own. Before we did though, the other main beach was only about a 3 minute walk away due to the shape of the island so we went to see this first. This beach had a lagoon that never seemed to go above knee height. We could see people in the water, what seemed like 100 meters out and still the water did not pass their knees! It was very hot on Phi Phi, hotter, sunnier and more humid than I could remember experiencing so far on this trip, so by the time we found a guesthouse that actually had space I was dripping with sweat. Our accommodation was right in the middle of the Phi Phi centre so there was a worry it might be noisy here but we thought we should give it a go anyway. No AC, no hot water and the lady at the reception desk laid down the law as though we were being told the rules at a military camp. Any way no messing again, we got in dropped our bags off and hit the beach. The beach was quite busy and there were few long tail boats on the shore, but we found a nice spot. After sitting in the sun and becoming quite hot Zo and I went into the water to cool off. Much to our surprise the water was really warm; almost at the temperature you would have a bath. Since it was a lagoon, the water would sit fairly still most of the day being warmed by the sun. The further we went out though the water became slightly cooler. It turns out that we don't need hot water in our room after all; it was so hot here I would take showers at any given opportunity just to cool down. After, we went to have a look around and guess who we bumped into again, Tom Hannis from Swindon. The girls wanted to have a look around the shops so us three Tom's went for a drink in a sports bar. Had a few games of pool and then went for some food. We wanted to see if we could get some better accommodation and find Long Beach. It turned out to be a lot further down the bay than we had anticipated. We decided to turn back as it was beginning to get late and Zo still needed to call Sarah as it was her birthday. After making the call it began to rain…hard! We took refuge under a veranda to wait it out. That is how we would spend the rest of the night, along with about 30 other people.

The second day on Phi Phi we made an early start on the beach to try and last a little longer than the day before as it's a lot cooler in the morning. However once the midday sun came we went to find some shade in the town again. The rest of the day we didn't do a lot. However the third day was one of the best so far. The previous day we had booked up to do a scuba diving trip. Once we had a quick introduction at the dive shop we carried some of our equipment out to the pier. This was followed by a short boat ride to our first dive spot with a more in depth briefing on the way. I think we (Tom, Lisa, Zo and I) were all a little nervous if we're honest, not something any of us had tried before. We had a guy filming the whole day on deck and under water and we could buy the DVD after viewing it later that day. It wasn't long before we were in our gear and taking one big stride off the back of the boat. We had 2 dives to do, both being an hour long. For the first part of the first dive we were taught some vital skills and then went in search for some sharks. There was the four of us and two dive instructors. It was tricky business to control your breathing at first and also to keep remembering to equalise the air space in your ears. Before long we did indeed see some black tip reef sharks, 4 in fact. They were only about one meter long but still an awesome thing to see sharks in the wild. This dive was all about seeing the sharks, although we did see some other fish and coral, we were told the second dive would be more impressive in terms of these two. For lunch we docked in Maya Bay, the same beach as where the film 'The Beach' was filmed. After jumping in off the top of the boat a few times and catching some rays (sun) we went to the next dive site. The colours from the coral and fish down there, which were enhanced now the sun had come out, where very beautiful. Also the sheer amount of fish down here was amazing; there were times when they gathered together so densely that you could not see past them to see where we would be going next. Unfortunately I had to come up after about 30 minutes as I was having serious trouble with my one ear. I couldn't equalise it (by making it pop) and the compression would cause excruciating pain! Zo on the other had quite literally taken to diving like a fish to water and after watching the DVD later made me jealous I didn't get to see a couple of things they did.

Later on the same day Zo and I took a walk up to the view point and although we went the long way by mistake it was really worth it. Tried the Thai version of fish and chips, same as ours except instead of cod the fish was red snapper, it was gorgeous. We had an appointment at 9pm to go back and watch the DVD of the morning's dives. We brought a copy between the four of us and planned to make copies to share around. While there the instructors told us about a band that played at a bar called The Rolling Stoned Bar so we thought we would check it out. The band played classic and new rock and they played it well. Something that was quite odd was they had two lead singers and would take it in turns to go up on stage to sing. We mistakenly thought that a guy stood near us was one of the singers so in a slightly drunken state I went over to ask him. Turns out he was not, he was a tattooist. We couldn't understand each other very well, what with him speaking little English and me being well oiled and only being able to say "hello" and "thank you" in Thai, so he went to fetch a German girl who worked for him. Spoke to her for a while and she gave me his name and where he worked. Not that I could make much sense of it.

The following day began with a day trip that was due to take us around the 2 islands of Koh Phi Phi. After receiving our free food and water, the food being fried rice that was obviously going to be cold come lunch time, we walked to the pier with about 20 other people. The ride out was smooth and we were going to stop on Monkey Bay but there were no monkeys so we carried on to Maya Beach, as I said before where the film 'The Beach' was filmed. Maya Beach is undoubtedly gorgeous, however with so many visitors and powered boats on the shore it is not the paradise you see on the Microsoft screen saver, not relaxing at all. We tried do some sun bathing in the wind and took the postcard photos. Since the tide had gone out we had to walk out to the boat to leave for about 50 meters at around knee high water, no easy task considering how many rocks there were on the sea bed. When travelling to the next destination the sea had become rough and the driver seemed to be struggling to handle the boat. As he was trying to direct us onto another bay the bottom of the boat hit a rock hard, the engine went off and the driver said "ok everybody walk to the beach". Kiwi Tom and I joined most of the others to the beach while Zo and Lisa stayed in the boat, I think they believed we were not going to be staying long. On the beach were only two ladies, this was the kind of peaceful beach we had expected. Unfortunately the sun had disappeared and it began to rain so we took cover under the rocks. We had to wait for another driver as the sea had become too rough for our existing driver who had only been doing this sort of thing for 10 days. After some fresh coconut straight from the tree, we took the rough ride back to the main Koh Phi Phi island, getting very wet on the way.

After Dinner that evening I asked Zo what she fancied doing this evening, she suggested we maybe go and find the tattooist we met the previous night. She had wanted to do something with her existing tattoo and I had been threatening to get one. Once we dug out the scrap bit a paper with his details on, we went in search of the tattoo shop. It turned out to be a fair size bamboo hut with a bar at the front. Before we knew it Bia, the tattooist, had drawn a lotus flower on Zo's back from a drawing that Zo had given him. It looked really good and Zo liked it instantly. Once Zo confirmed a time to start having it done we went to grab a drink and some stuff for the rest of the evening. I sat with Zo for nearly the whole night, only leaving to grab Zo a drink or some more food, like pizza. There was a very strange atmosphere in the tattoo shop, nothing like how I would have imagined, although I would have thought it would be different in a tattoo shop back home. First there was a bar at the front of the shop, the front was open for anyone to come in if they wished and all the tattooists drank excessive amounts of alcohol. Apparently because they are addicted to alcohol they have to drink to stop their hands from shaking. There was loud music all night long and a friendly atmosphere throughout. The tattoo was done with bamboo and not a gun, you should get an idea of how they do it from the photos. With a bamboo tattoo there is no blood therefore you can also drink whilst having it done. Zo did plenty of this too to help with the pain. You can imagine that after a cocktail, a few whiskeys and coke and many shots of sambuca and tequila Zo was quite drunk. Throughout the evening I became more and more tempted to get a tattoo myself as I had something in mind that I wanted, until I was booked in for the following evening! Bia had begun Zo's tattoo at around 8pm and finished at 3:20am.

Due to the late night, we had a lie in the following morning and pretty much spent the day relaxing waiting for when I had to go and have my tattoo done. Zo's tattoo looked as though it had been there for weeks, no scabs or redness. It's amazing! I had to go and see Bia first to see some of the designs he had done. Once we agreed on what I wanted, he wanted to draw some examples of shading to help me choose which I liked best; while he was doing this we grabbed some food. Got back to the shop and one of the guys, who had been having a tattoo done for about 3 days, had brought his tattooist a bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey. He shared it all around and I took the opportunity to get as much alcohol in my as possible to help with the pending pain. After 2 beers and 4 whiskeys it was time to start. Zo obviously hid the pain quite well the previous evening as although the first 3 hours was ok, the last 2 hours were really painful. Again this can be seen on the photos. Zo continued to bring me drinks as I was having it done. She also joked that her sister, Steph, had handled child birth better than I had handled this…well at least I think she was joking!

The following morning Tom and Lisa woke us fairly early to say goodbye as they were going to Phuket and we were going to Koh Lanta. Strange to think we had travelled with them for almost 3 weeks! My head was understandably banging this morning and wasn't looking forward to the boat journey to Koh Lanta too much.