We were a bit apprehensive about getting to Thailand as we feared we would be left stranded at the border again, like Malaysia. We got a minibus right from our Hostel to Hat Yai, there was a really annoying kid on the bus who had a toy car that kept playing a stupid song, we were praying for the batteries to run out but they never did. The border crossing was fine and we arrived at Hat Yai 5 hours after leaving Penang. We waited to transfer onto another minibus to Krabi in the travel agents office, while we were there a group of other travellers turned up, they must have been on an organised tour, their leader was telling them how to spell Penang and where to write the date on their immigration cards at one stage we thought he was going to wipe their bums for them!! We felt very thankful that we were not on a tour!! Anyway the next minibus turned up and there were a finnish couple and an american family on board who kept us entertained for the next four hours, as did the breakneck speeds the driver was going (he got pulled over twice!!)

So we arrived in Krabi and found some amazingly cheap accomodation in a hotel which had a slight wiff of urine to it, but as we were only going to stay there one night, it didn't matter! We went and got some dinner and enquired about a boat to Ko Phi Phi. The ferry was quite expensive and the person offered us accomodation aswell which seemed quite reasonable (we were lead to believe that accomodation on Ko Phi Phi was really expensive) so we decided to book ferry tickets and accomodation, after we did it we were a bit worried that we may have been ripped off- maybe we had let our guard down a bit from India!!?? We went to bed a bit worried about what we had let ourselves in for.....

So we got up at 8 and sorted our bags out again, then went and waited in reception to be picked up and taken to the ferry. When we got to the drop off point, more and more backpackers were deposited with us. Next thing another bus turned up and we all piled on, it took us to the actual ferry terminal. We felt like cattle being herded about. We got to the ferry and proceeded to board, it was quite a big ferry and was just packed with backpackers (who all seemed really young looking!!) The ferry journey was 1 1/2 hours long, started to feel a bit uncomfortable on the boat like we were all backpacker lemmings, I know we are backpacking aswell but when you're all clumped together all going the same place it seems to take the fun out of it. Anyway we arrived on Phi Phi and the first thing we noticed was the colour of the water, it was turquoise and there were big tree covered rocks coming out the water..it looked pretty good! We all piled off the boat and were greeted by a man with dreadlocks and sunglasses that had a skull and crossbone on the lens (we named him Mr Rasta) There are no cars on Phi Phi so Mr Rasta had a trolly for our luggage and led us through little streets past restuarants, internet cafes, bars and loads of dive shops to our accomodation. Our room turned out to be fine and some other guys we met staying at the same place had paid about 3 times what we had to stay there so we felt quite lucky! We went out exploring straight away, sampling beef noodle soup, having a look at the gorgous beach which had clear turquoise water. A bit later we went out again to the harbourside where we got a big bottle of chang beer each and relaxed in a nice bar. A teeny weeny kitten came up to us, it was so so cute we had to take some pics of it. It was watching the crabs on the beach..ahhh. The chang went down really well and we walked around to find somewhere to get some dinner. We were opposite an Irish bar which had English people outside promoting a Wet t shirt competition for that night...now I'm not sounding snobby but YUK! We are on such a beautiful island - why would you need to be entertained by that!?? There were more bars offering cheap bucket drinks-it all made me think about what you would expect on a club 18-30 holiday somewhere like Falaraki!! It started to tip down so we decided to have one more chang beer in a bar opposite our room. We had a really good tipsy heart to heart. The bar had really loud trance music playing and there were some western men who seemed completely out of it falling about over Thai women, they occasionly got up and did some sort of out of it dance complete with funny hand movements....we went to bed and slept very well!

The next day we purposly got up at 7am so that we could try and get a boat out to see some of the surrounding Islands, including Maya Bay where the beach was filmed. We had spoken to the man the night before who old us to turn up before 9 to get a boat, so thats what we did, but when we got there the man said the weather was to bad and to come back at 1.30. There was a massive grey cloud in the direction of Maya Bay, so a little bit dissapointed that we had got up so early we went and walked along the desterted beach and had a little paddle. As it wasn't to hot and humid yet we decided to take a walk up to the view point, we climbed many steps and realised how unfit we both were! We stopped at the first viewpoint , we could see the harbour and the other beach. We sat down for a while, we were approached by another cute little kitten, it was really friendly at fell asleep on my lap! We decided to call the kitten Rar-roo!!! We were a bit sad when we had to leave it, but we then made our way up to the next viewpoint. There was a shop/cafe here and we were greeted by a sweet little man. He had a beautiful garden and there were a few cats milling around. It was very peaceful and the view was amazing. On the right hand side of the Island the bay of water was a very light turquiose colour and on the Harbour side the water closest to the Island was a very vibrant turquoise and then a lovely blue further out to sea. We could see a ferry pulling in with more backpacker lemmings piling out onto the Island. On the Harbour side the sky looked really miserable and grey, the grey sky and the colour of the sea looked quite stunning. We got a bottle of water and sat down to relax, there was a paper about the Tsunami and it had pictures of Phi Phi before, it looked a lot more greener before. It seemed really surreal to think that it happened at all, looking down on the Island that day the sea seemed as calm as a paddling pool and looked very peaceful. There were a few memorial signs in the pretty garden which made us feel very sad, especially one for a baby who wasn't even a year old. We stayed up there for a while then headed down for some lunch, it then started to tip it down again. The rain lasted for a few hours by which time meant there was no chance of us going out on the boat...we were really gutted! When the rain finally stopped we went and got a drink and sat on the gloomy beach, it was refreshingly cool. We waited for the sun to set , not that we would see much because it was cloudy. Kam suddenly got a poo attack so we went back to our room. When we came out again we couldn't believe our eyes. The sky had turned a wonderful purple and pink with grey clouds in between, the camera came out quickly!! We went and got some dinner and then headed back to our room avoiding people handing out leaflets for bucket drinks!!

Next stop Phuket................