Edit: To see all the photo's of our trip so far, be sure to visit Jess' Smugmug page.Sawasdee! Phi Phi has been fantastic! I've never been to a place with such amazing beaches, water and a really cool vibe in parts of the island.
We've done quite a bit of relaxing on the beach but have mixed it up as well. On our first day on Phi Phi we arrived wet, salty, hot and sunburnt from the boat trip - as Gav has written before, it was high tide so the pier was about a meter under water so we had to hold our bags high and wade through it up to our thighs to get to the shore. So we rocked up to the hotel, dumped our bags and headed straight for the beach! Beautiful crystal clear calm acqua water greeted us which we welcomed excitedly! So we spent half the day swimming and sunbaking (didn't realise till we got into the otel room that we were very burnt) and then spent the evening wandering about the tourist village. It's a really cool little town with a small island vibe - friendly, laid-back and with no neon lights and go-go bars like phuket has. The town consists mainly of clothing shops, beach gear shops, restaurants, bars, mini-marts, scuba diving schools and accomodation/tourist info agencies.
We've become very close with our friend Chang beer since we've been here, it's the cheapest at 50 baht for a tallie and on a few nights we've drunk a couple of tallies on the balcony while the clouds in the sky turn pink and purple-grey. Typically we have spent way too much money so far - mainly on accommodation as it is really expensive on Phi Phi! We luckily booked ahead for the first 4 nights on the internet, which turned out to be cheaper than if we turned up and booked on arrival - plus our hotel was fully booked! We spent the second day wondering how we could extend our stay since we've booked our accommodation for the next 2 islands, only to check over our bookings to find out that we stuffed up the dates and we weren't expected in Railay until Saturday! Yayyy.... very strange that this happened as it meant that we could stay on Phi Phi for an extra 3 nights! Then we weren't rushed trying to do everything.
Although we tried to extend our stay in the hotel only to be told no, they are fully booked, so we spent hours wandering the island trying to find other accommodation that was cheaper and not too grotty (which is difficult on Phi Phi). We ventured to one end of the island close to a Mosque that we found blasts loud and proud prayer through speakers spread out across the island. Another was the backpackers call 'The Rock' which had the nice price of 250 baht that got you in a less-than private room with another 16 people! In the end we went to an accommodation booking place who managed to pull a few strings and get Phi Phi hotel to let us extend our stay in our own room no less! But at a higher rate so we really have overspent! Railay will also be expensive but after that its dodgey fan bungalows all the way! Hello insect repellant...
A little more about awesome Phi Phi! --------------------------------------------
On Sunday we took a long boat out to Long Beach (Hat yao) which is less touristy than Lo Dalam, the main beach, and spent the day lazing about in the shade (since we were burnt we couldn't handle the sun!) and playing cards. There is great snorkelling off Long beach but we forgot the snorkelling gear! :-P
We found a great bar - Carpe Diem - which is right at the end of the beach and has chilled out tunes, cushions and little tables overlooking the beach, cute fairy lights, great staff and fire twirling later in the evening. It's a brilliant place to just chill with a drink as the sun goes down. We had one random night where we went to a funny little makeshift bar selling buckets, kebab sticks and blasting their music out in competition with one of the biggest bars on the island right next door, ordered some kebab sticks and were told to sit and wait while they were cooked. So we down at a table with an irish guy and a thai guy (who worked there but was completely hammered!) We ended up having random banter with them for about 2 hours and got a bit pissy! So was a little seedy when we had to wake up early to go on the snorkelling trip.
Our favourite restaurant (in fact pretty much the only restaurant we've eaten at apart from one night) is the Phi Phi Bakery - which does yummy thai meals for 60 baht - 1 pound! And has great cakes :-) Since we've been spending all our budget on accommodation and going way over budget with boat trips (and booze) we've kept eating to a minimum - 1 pound meals at Phi Phi bakery and we've been trying out the 2 minute pot noodles from 7-11! They're actually pretty tasty here! Mike you'd be proud, I've been eating Tom Yam noodles! Spicy!!!! And we bought a pot of vegemite in Singapore (by the way they have loads of Australian foods in the supermarkets in Singapore! Shapes, arnotts biscuits, uncle toby's meusli bars!! We thought it would be a couple more months till we saw any of that food!) so we've been buying bread and eating a lot of vegemite sandwiches like true Aussies. Unfortunatelyl I haven't seen any pork buns on Phi Phi which are a great snack. They have Thai pancakes here which are the snack food but they are cooked in a pool of oil and then drenched in chocolate sauce, so aren't the most healthiest snack.
Under the Sea -----------------
On Wednesday we went out on a day tour of the islands. We were on a big boat which meant that we couldn't go up to the beaches, we had to either swim/snorkel there or kayak. So we went to Maya bay (the beach were the movie "The Beach" was filmed) and it was full of tourists!! Speed boats lined the beaches and bigger boats filled the bay and the beach was covered in tourists taking photos.
So not quite what we expected although it wasn't really surprising. There's loads of Japanese tourists here although they only seem to come on day-trips from Phuket so they are all gone at night! So we didn't actually get to go to the beach as it was a little far to swim and we spent the time snorkelling around the boat. The boat (which I think was the slowest boat on the entire island) then took us all around the Phi Phi islands, stopping at various places allowing us to snorkel or kayak to the shore to check it out.
There is some great snorkelling spots around phi phi, we've seen some really cool fish! Although the coral isn't colourful here?? It's all brown. Anyway that was a fun trip and we both did the token jump off the top of the boat (I hated it) where as Gav absolutely loved it! Gav lost his snorkel due to the dodgey gear we were given but managed to persuade the tour operaters to replace the snorkel for 120 baht rather than pay their 300 baht price tag for lost gear, robbers!
We went to Monkey beach were apparently the monkeys steal your stuff and would rather your cigarettes than the banana you offer them hehe... but we had to swim to monkey beach so had nothing for them to steal, or offer them and no camera to take pictures of them and their fat bellys.
Step by step
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Yesterday we took a walk up the view point. It nearly killed us!! So many steps! It was 186 meters above the town and parts were very deceiving!
Just when we thought that we had met the last of the steps and we were there, there were even more steps to climb!! Finally we got to the top and the view was pretty amazing. Gav noticed locals going through the rainforest and a sign so we thought we'd take a random trek through the jungle and ended up on the other side of Phi Phi at 'Relax beach' where there are a few bungalows and not much else. It was great! Although the construction noises weren't so relaxing. we didn't realise how far we'd gone, but as it was the other side of the island it cost us 300 baht to get a boat back! :-S But there was NO way I was walking back over the view point! Ha! I was so shattered I was asleep by 8.30pm.
So today is our last day and we're going to spend it.... relaxing on the beach! haha.. we want to make the most of the beauty of the beach so are just going to chill :-)
Until next time!! Now it's off to Railay for us... xooxx
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