Drinking with friends and avoiding the rain.

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As I am writing this, we are sat in a bar drinking Magners, on Koh Phi Phi Don. A slightly surreal experience but more about that later…..

10th November 2010

Today started after our first night of 2 in our little wooden hut. We are paying for the privilege of having an outdoor shower of only cold water, no aircon only a fan and feeling damp. It looks like it would be great but the reality is far from the idyllic imagined romantic retreat. I for one was not impressed and wanted to find some new accomodation - at the very least to see if we could find better on the island without breaking the bank.

Having hit the hay so early last night, it shouldn’t have been as tough to get out of bed as it felt, but we did eventually manage to surface about 9 am after a disgusting 14 - 16 hours of sleep!
We made the short trek over one of the little private beaches to reception and breakfast. Neither of us was even sure if we were getting breakfast along with the room, but we ordered anyway.

After making short shrift of the food that we were supplied with, we headed into to town to scout out alternate accommodation for tomorrow, and to head to the ferry for 11am to meet up with Scott and Sara again.

Having checked out a few hell holes we eventually managed to find a hostel that, whilst not plush, was passable and at a price that was significantly below what we had been paying. A quick bit of bartering got the price down a little more and we set out in the direction of the ferry pier with no time to spare.

Arriving at the pier we asked and Scott & Sara’s ferry had just pulled in but nobody had disembarked yet - probably the same carnage collecting bags as we had experienced the day before. After 5 minutes I finally spotted Sara in the crowd and waved getting a smiley wave in response. They made it through the throng of bodies and hugs were shared all round.

After spending over a month with these guys, despite it only being about a fortnight since we had parted company it felt like a lifetime. We had lots to catch up on. We made our way back to the accommodation that we had just found through the quaint little town, and after partially checking in (the room was still being cleaned)we all went in search of somewhere to sit and catch up. Whilst it not being amazing weather, it was looking back pretty decent and far better than what was to come. We headed for the beach in a rather circuitous route, exploring a road en route that we had yet to walk down.

When we got to the beach, the bars that make their money from drunken hedonists through until the small hours were just awakening from their previous nights revelry and so were still pretty quiet. We found a raised bamboo platform complete with cushions and, despite it being only about 11:30am, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to have a beer. So the order for 4 large Changs was greeted without any sign of raised eyebrow from the bartender, we had unsuccessfully tried to get a “no sun discount” from. His response had been that he couldn’t do that but he’d let us use his pool for free - pointing at the stretch of blue ocean only three strides away from our platform.

We returned to the accommodation so the guys could put their luggage in their room finally and decided lunch was in order. With there being pretty much nothing but bar/restaurants on this little island it is not a tough task to find somewhere - although making a decision about which somewhere can at times be a little harder. We parked ourselves in a place only about 5 doors from the hotel and continued to chat away whilst munching on an assortment of tasty dishes.

During the course of the meal, we had decided that we wanted to head back to our place and that the guys were going to come along for the walk, so about half an hour after we finished our dinner we got to our little wooded bungalow. Relinquishing a few items to the sanctuary that was held together with a feeble padlock we continued onwards toward our little private beach. We sat and more beer arrived whilst we took a quick dip, the day was heading in only one direction! Onward again to the next beach over, Long Beach, one that we hadn’t until this point visited. We stopped yet again at a bar, and supplemented the beer with a few bar snacks. The conversation was still flowing and there was no reason to stop, so we agreed to head back to town and continue the afternoon into the evening. We bargained badly for a long tail boat back to town to save us the 45minute hike - the boat drivers must do pretty well as it cost us £2 each, a princely sum in these parts. We headed back to the morning’s beach venue and were pleasantly surprised to find our deck still vacant. The whole day had been overcast, but now the tide was out as well, so we tried for a “no sun, no pool” discount but the bartender smiled and told us that the pool was closed for cleaning but he’d fill it back up in a couple of hours.

More beer flowed and we felt that it was necessary to eat something, so headed back to the hotel to drop off some items before going to a nearby eating establishment called Garlic. By now the details start to blur around the edges, but what followed was a slightly surreal experience. We wound our way to a bar which was empty and played pool together for free on a table that was so worn that the cloth was patched with masking tape in places. We also danced to Last Christmas by Wham whilst in this place, which was in no way set-up for Christmas celebration and rightly so given it is November!

The four of us bumbled our way on again to a place called Apache Bar where there were a couple of young guys playing with fire - literally. The fire-stick twirling was impressive if somewhat precariously close. Indeed so close that at one point the stick whilst still lit hit Lou! (She is fine so don’t worry)

This signalled the end of the night for us and we made the long trek back to our damp bungalow in the dark, only having a pair of torches to guide us. I blame the fact that my torch kept flickering out on me stumbling and falling over - the beer played no part whatsoever!

We collapsed into bed and were asleep before we knew it.

11th November 2010

Needless to say, the morning was not a good one. We awoke feeling a little ropey, and had to pack as well as make our way across the island to our new hostel. We had said we thought that we would arrive for about 11am which turned out to be a little ambitious, by the time we had packed in the gloom of the bungalow we were short a lock and Lou’s sunglasses. We walked to reception to check out and breakfast if it was included, which it turned out not to be, so returned and started out on the hike with full bags on our backs.

The path as has previously been mentioned is far from level or true and this was to be a physically demanding trek, that ended up taking about an hour whilst fully laden down. On arrival the guys were out and about and we couldn’t check-in straight away so we sat in reception and waited. We were just getting ready to go and find them when they returned and we all headed out for breakfast, as after the trek we were starving. So hungry in fact that 2 dishes wasn’t enough so we ordered 3 between us, sharing French toast in supplement to my chicken pad thai, and Lou’s fruit and yogurt.

We exited the restaurant and the sun had decided to show its face, so we opted to nip back to the rooms and get our beach gear. We readied ourselves even applying sun cream in the room so it didn’t sweat off on the beach. Whilst this frenzy of activity was taking place I looked out the window to see a large cloud on the horizon. This ominous sight didn’t go away, and by the time we had got to the beach, which was only about 100m away from the hotel, and found a spot on the beach we jumped into the sea and the rain arrived. It had been preceded by about 15seconds by a strong blast of cold wind. This wind didn’t ease as the rain arrived and it started to come down at an almost British angle of about 45 degrees. The comical sight of everybody on the beach scurrying to get out of the water to get to their stuff on the beach was akin to the sight of people on Treyarnon doing the same thing - a sight I have watched on countless occasions and everyone made me smile just as this did, even though I was doing the same thing! We dashed to a nearby restaurant, as had everybody else, with the thought of waiting out the storm. We sat and ordered a drink each and started playing cards. Eventually we decided it was a bit rude to sit for so long in a restaurant without ordering something so decided to get a pizza to share.

After a half hour wait (which was fine by us in the circumstances) the pizza arrived and was polished off in short shrift. We adjourned to the nearby hotel to get out of the wet clothes and pick-up the computers in an attempt to utilise the appalling weather for some admin catch-up (we were at this point about 3 blogs behind). We headed for a bar called “breakers” which we had previously spotted, and all ordered Magners, for us a taste of home, for Scott and Sara a new experience.

This brings me up to where I started. In a bar, watching surfing videos and sport, drinking cider, and listening to good music, whilst playing cards with friends. It may be raining in “paradise” but we are still having fun. After a couple of pints I got peckish and ordered some chips and chilli, whilst Lou got some crisps and salsa. We eventually relocated to another restaurant for dinner (yep more food!) where I had a curry and rice and Lou had a plate of pork with chilli (not that it was hot).

We headed home to bed for a relatively early night having had 4 meals each, spent loads on very expensive imported cider, and got soaked. Its fun this travelling lark, but its certainly not straightforward!

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Photos

Venue 1
Our first beers of the day

Long Beach
With Koh Phi Phi Ley in teh background

Private Beach
From the water taxi

The Sun
According to the barman