Mike Thai - son

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I’m off again. I couldn’t resist travelling back to Asia for another 10 week trip. So unfortunately I had to save up some money and then get on a plane. This was hard. But I feel I owe it to the citizens of Thailand, the Philippines and Borneo to pay them a visit. It’s only fair.

The airport in Phuket isn’t much to be desired. It is very small but it’s navigable and there are plenty of taxi’s outside. The airport is quite far out of town so these can be expensive. I ended up in a pickup truck because the price was much less. The journey was fine though and actually quite nice to be alone in the back. About 5 minutes in and the driver offers me a smoke and as I feel obliged to smoke when in Asia I accepted.

“Where you from?” he asked.

“Im from England.”

“Ahhhhh England! Alwite mate, alwite mate,” sounding more like a seagull than a cockney.

“ha yes - thats the place!”

“You want girl?”

“No Thanks mate, im alwite.”

I am only really stopping here for a day to meet my girlfriend and catch up on sleep and then to head over to Ko Phi Phi so I’m afraid I cannot provide anywhere close to a comprehensive review on the place. I stayed in a cheap area in the middle of a lot of roads and a lot of people. This place was devoted to backpackers and had very helpful staff and very nice rooms. The one free day I had here I spent eating street food and getting over my jet lag. If you like your food hot then you need to make sure they know you are serious! They apparently laugh at the foreigner’s tolerance for chilli and when I asked for my noodles extra hot it came to me pretty mild. Now I know Thailand is renowned for its heat so, slightly bemused, I took it back to the lady:

“no chilli?” I asked

“you wan local hot?” she laughed. It was re-cooked with a bit more spice and BOOM - 5kg’s lost.

There are sooooo many options when it comes to booking a boat over to Phi Phi. They are all very similar - as long as you book from a respectable looking establishment. I booked the trip over at the hostel. This included transport to the docks, a very nice boat (with breaky) over to Phi Phi and that’s all you need. Except for the cheeky little entrance fee they charge when you get off the boat. Cheeky little Thai’s - I’ll getcha!

You can book accommodation ahead, which is probably not a bad idea with this popular place, but I was meeting friends who already secured me a place at Twin Palm Bungalows. I highly recommend this place. It is over the other side of the island from the docks (not as far as it sounds) and the coast line on this side is beautiful and a bit quieter during the day. The little bungalows are all made of bamboo and have a nice little veranda to sit outside on and ponder the reasons why you still live in England.

I got a feel for the vibe of this island straight away when meeting my friends just off the boat. They looked sick and were both desperately clutching their respective 2 litre bottles of water.

“hey Guys good to see you”

“we’ve been waiting here for like 50 minutes, lets go.”

“charming - im guessing by the bloodshot eyes and the water that you two havnt stopped drinking since you got here?”

“Nah - we had a fight last night in the reggae bar to try and win a bucket of alcohol, feeling it this morning.”

“oh...yeh.....of course.”

Ko Phi Phi was very pretty. Ive never had much of an urge to go to Thailand because of the tourist trap it has become but there is a reason it is so popular - because of its beauty. The islands are best described as sheer, sharp and steep; very prehistoric. The water is clear and clean and the beach passes the test. On our first full day here we booked up to do some diving. I did two dives and they were pretty enough but nothing compared to the waters of Indonesia. Visibility wasn’t great either so that probably didn’t help.

Each night we went to the Reggae bar. I am a big reggae fan but this is no longer why this bar is famed. Every night they hold fights between anyone who is up for it/drunk in the daunting boxing ring in the middle of the bar. The winner gets.......a bucket of alcohol! WOOOO! These fights are highly entertaining and I actually found myself looking forward to this part of the evening. The opponents are normally always “friends” at first but they all seemed to get properly into it. Blood was often the main course, served with a side order of a lost friendship - brilliant!

On our other spare day we booked a boat trip for the day - taking in the common destinations (monkey beach, the beach, snorkelling, lagoon).

“The monkeys here will not attack as long as you don’t have food.”

“perfect - let me just get a nice picture of this female...AHHHHHH”

I was chased into the sea on monkey beach by two female macaques. Laughter erupted at first from the other guests as they watched me run backwards into the sea but when the monkeys began ‘wading in’ to the water after me things got a little bit more serious! They gave up in the end - coz they are short little things aren’t they - but they weren’t afraid to get wet. BEWARE - I have a feeling they are going to learn to swim...

Overall It was a very nice day and the places we saw were very pretty, especially the lagoon. However - we paid a little extra because we were told we would get a “sea food buffet dinner upon returning to the island.” Don’t bother, seriously. The cheaper trips are the same. We didn’t get a seafood buffet - we got cold paella in a Styrofoam box on the beach when we got off the boat.

Ko Phi Phi is very busy and the parties go on every night. I was happy with this because we only had three days here so two nights in a row is pretty easy. However, any longer on this island could have got annoying. The surroundings are stunning and the facilities are excellent but I think if you are travelling with the aim of partying only occasionally then 2 or 3 days will suffice here. Unless you have a large amount of money - it is hard to properly relax on Ko Phi Phi.

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Photos

Phi Phi beach
View from beach outside Twin Palm

Rainbow
Nice view over lagoon

Lagoon
A great dive