Last days in Thailand: Ko Phi Phi

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Ko Phi Phi is a small island known for being very touristy and very good for parties and diving. There are quite a few diving schools there, and many bars! We had been recommended a quiet hostel, where we met Lucy, from Australia. On the first day, we went up to a viewpoint to get a nice panorama of the island (which is pretty small) and where we got violently attacked by mosquitoes! In the evening, we met up with Lucas, a French friend we had made in Ao Nang and went for dinner with him and Lucy. Afterwards, we decided to try the party experience because "while you're in Rome...".
We bought beers in a supermarket and went to the beach to see the fire shows every bar had on. After the (free) shows, the bar we stayed at organized games like limbo and skipping rope - and we would get a free shot of some undefined pseudo alcoholic drink every time we would take part. We ended up doing the skipping rope in the middle of a ring of fire, which was very fun!
We danced the night away, getting quite a few free shots, and spending no money at the bar but to go to the toilets! We had a really good night!
We came back at our hostel at around 2am. On the next day, we had a boat tour booked in the afternoon - which turned out to be quite disappointing! There were a lot of people on a small long-tail boat and the staff wasn't very nice. After a long wait, we left for Monkey beach where we stayed for 25 minutes (everything was timed!). It was a nice beach where monkeys had fun stealing from the tourists. Then we stopped to do some snorkeling - which I didn't feel like doing and Shaun didn't enjoy doing! There were lots of very nice exotic fish. After that, we went to Maya beach, which is part of a national park. National park means entrance fee and Shaun, Lucy and I didn't want to pay 400 bath each to stay on a busy beach for an hour. We had asked before booking the tour if it would be possible for us to just swim around instead of having to wait for an hour in the boat, and we were told that we would be able to. Of course, once there, the staff told us to wait in the boat so we had to argue for 10 minutes to be allowed to jump off the boat. We quickly swam around the boats towards the swimming area and stayed in the water for a while before we started feeling cold and got back in the boat. By then, the sun had almost set. When it was dark, the boat made one last stop for us to see the bioluminescent plankton. It was day and no one wanted to jump of the boat so after a few minutes I got up and decided to go in the water so that other people will feel confident about doing it too. I got a round of applause! I got told to swim fast so that the people from the boat could see the plankton which lights up only when someone moves next to it but nothing happened. Shaun and some other people joined me in the water but we couldn't see anything. The people who used snorkels told us they could see things sparkling when they moved in the water... Shaun and I had higher expectations and were disappointed! Also, the water was very warm but once we got back in the boat, it got cold and we had no towel so we regretted our night swim!
We got back to the hotel, had dinner with Lucy, Lucas and some other people from our hostel, had a beer on the beach and came back early to get some sleep. On the next day, we took a ferry to Phuket and then a taxi to our accommodation near the airport. Tomorrow morning, we will be flying to Malaysia!

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Photos

Party, Ko Phi Phi style
Skipping rope in a ring of fire!