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Published: November 11th 2010
8 November 2010 Day two in Phuket and I think that, today, we have come to more of an understanding with it. That is not to say that we are suddenly in love with the place but Kata Beach is, if you over look the Newquayness of it, a relaxing place to while away half a day on a sun lounger paying £2 each for the privilege.
Oh and did I mention that Phuket has surf? So today looked like it was gearing up to involve me reading (I have developed an ability to read at an alarming pace as if my life depends on it - or perhaps it had just been laying dormant) and Gregg hiring a board and making the most of the first surf to be sighted in the last 2 ½ months. First however, I needed breakfast (Gregg can’t surf on a full stomach) and was delighted to find a restaurant (in the loosest sense of the word) that had muesli, yoghurt and fresh fruit on the menu - labelled ‘Healthy Breakfast’. It has, at times, become difficult to find anything other than toast and some form of eggs for breakfast and I
was therefore delighted. Unfortunately however “Muesli finish” so I had to have toast with my fruit and yoghurt anyway. Breakfast is the one meal of the day in South-East Asia where you can virtually guarantee that one component part with be “finish”. Yesterday, for example, “Orange Juice finish” and the day before “banana pancake finish”. Now, surely one buys bananas and the constituent parts of pancake batter separately and I have more than once been tempted to ask whether it is the bananas or the batter which is finished because I will quite happily make do with one without the other. And come to think of it, eggs were still on the menu.
As we arrived at the beach, it looked like Gregg might be out of luck with the waves but the gentle slope to the sea was hiding them. They weren’t big enough for him to be up for hiring an ‘alright but nothing special’ body board so he just spent an hour or so body surfing whilst I speed read. We then spent the next few hours lost in our own paper and print worlds before deciding that we needed to organise ourselves for moving on
tomorrow. We therefore headed back to the hostel (via lunch) and, rather than organise ourselves, both lost ourselves in our books again.
At some point during the evening (early) we zoned in on the fact that we really needed to sort out onward transport for tomorrow and Gregg was getting hungry so he went out on a double mission leaving me to catch up on blogging pack and, most importantly, finish my book.
Gregg returned at about 10:30pm - I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t beginning to worry - having successfully booked tickets to Ko Phi Phi for tomorrow, dined out on buy by weight street food and spent an hour in a bar talking to the owner - an English ex-pat from Lowestoft.
Tomorrow morning we have to get up at 6am for collection some time between 7am and 7:20am. We hope that a minibus will take us to Phuket town where we will board a ferry to Ko Phi Phi.
As yet, we don’t know how long we will stay in Ko Phi Phi. After that however, we will be lucky to find constant electricity on some of the islands so
may be out of touch for a while. We’ll update the blog as regularly was we can but don’t shoot us if there are some big gaps!
9 November 2010 Some time before 6am, Gregg suddenly got up out of bed and slipped out on to the balcony. Then, just as suddenly, he came back in and got back in to bed. I was somewhat concerned that he had developed a sleep walking habit. As it happened, he had heard a vehicle outside and was worried that we had overslept or (more likely since it was still dark) the minibus to take us to the harbour was early.
We were just settling back down to sleep when the alarm when the alarm did go off. Alas, sleep was behind us.
At around ten to six, Gregg heard another engine so we both shuffled out on to the balcony to watch a guy get out of a minibus and shout up at us “Phi Phi?”. Relieved that we had transport, we nodded, shouted back “Yes” and indicated that we would be down stairs in a minute. At the same time, the guy motioned that he
would turn around and come back for us.
We arrived downstairs and there was no sign of a minibus. Several arrived looking to take people to other destinations but ours seemed to have vanished into thin air and we were both becoming concerned that we had been abandoned.
Eventually, near half an hour later, the minibus returned filled with passengers. Clearly, what we had interpreted as “I’ll turn round and come back for you” actually meant “ I’ll drive around the entire area and pick up everyone else first and only then will I come back for you.”
I am convinced that we are missing something. Not once in the last 2 ½ months have we been the first to be collected by a minibus. In fact, it seems that we are always last. If anyone knows the key to being first, please let us know. I feel that we won’t be true travellers until we have cracked it.
The minibus wound its way towards Phuket town through dramatic and picturesque jungle covered hills. Phuket town is, however, the antithesis of that. If Kata beach was Newquay on acid then Phuket town is Benidorm laced with
similar narcotics. (NB, I have never actually been to Benidorm but I saw one episode of the sit-com so I do feel qualified to comment).
I had been imagining that the ferry over to Ko Phi Phi would be half empty and, if I am honest, constructed of faded blonde drift wood even though I had seen a picture of it and knew that not to be the case. It is like any passenger ferry that you might find in the UK and it was absolutely jam packed with human cargo each adorned with a sticker indicating the bearer’s final intention for Ko Phi. Red for “cheapskate one way ticket only”, blue for return trippers and yellow for day trip “package tourists”.
We dined out on free tea and croissants and settled in for the journey. Unfortunately, the sun was hiding so the journey was not one that dreams are made of.
Ko Phi Phi is a group of islands of which Ko Phi Phi Don (the largest) and Ko Phi Phi Ley are the most well known. Ko Phi Phi Ley houses the beach made famous in the film adaptation of Alex Garland’s ‘The Beach’ which
has, undoubtedly, added to the tourist traffic to this small archipelago.
The harbour at Phi Phi Don is like nothing I have ever seen before. Boats dock off a long pier which connects to the tourist village. What is remarkable however is how unbelievably blue and clean the water is. Schools of fish dart around under the pier - a far cry for the shoals of debris that one would find under a pier at home.
Visitors to Ko Phi Phi are required to pay a 20 Baht fee on arrival for keeping the island clean. As is the South-East Asian way, we therefore queued up to buy our tickets and two steps later queued again for a someone else to punch them.
As we wondered along the pier, our minds turned to travel arrangements onwards to our accommodation. The pier was crawling with boat taxi drivers (there are no cars here) offering their services and hostel employees waving boards showing glossy pictures of their rooms. Then I noticed a guy holding a piece of driftwood on which was pained the word ‘Viking’. That was where we had booked to stay and I was already looking forward
to it.
The man from Viking called his friend with a long tail boat and, after a short to medium wait, we were on our way. Our arrival at Viking Nature Resort could not have been more appealing. The boat landed on the private beach belonging to the resort and we hopped out in to the water below and headed into the jungle swathed restaurant and reception area to check in.
As it was still morning, we were too early to check in and the receptionist suggested that we might like to chill on the beach whilst we waited. Needing no second invitation, we located ourselves on a table and chairs on the beach which was made of tree stumps and Gregg hit the sea. I hadn’t put a bikini on when I got up this morning so my moment of bliss had to wait.
After lunch, we were able to check in to our traditional bungalow. The tourist trade here has clearly caught on to the fact that westerners find this little wooden huts fascinating because we are paying nearly as much as we paid in Bangkok for a 4* hotel for a tiny hut with
no aircon, an outside cold water shower and no sink. It is however beautiful and, dare I say, romantic and does have views over the Adaman sea which is but metres away. Oh and a deck out front with a hammock. I think that this may be paradise.
Having settled in, we headed off in the direction of the tourist village to explore, find wifi and appropriate some supplies returning as the sun started to drop around 5pm. We sat out on our deck enjoying the view until we realised that we were being eaten alive by mozzies so retreated inside and under our mosquito net for a rest before heading back into the village for dinner.
We both closed our eyes to rest and when I opened mine again, it was gone 9pm. Being the rock & rollers that we are, we decided that it was far too late to get ourselves organised to go out so went back to sleep an hour or so later.
Perhaps tomorrow we’ll push the boat out a little further. Who knows.
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