Take me to my beach!

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So we set off from Bondi to begin our epic journey to Ko Phi Phi, taking every form of transport we could possibly imagine along the way. On our way out of Australia, immigration requested a "chat" with us about staying 2 days longer than our visa allowed (ooops! Black marks against our names then)... Hopefully they'll still let us in next time we visit.

Our flight from Sydney to Bangkok was delayed so we eventually landed at 3am and shot through border control and baggage collection in record time, only to have a 6 hour wait before our next flight to Krabi. We were flying with Bangkok Airways, who describe themselves as a 'boutique airline' - we're still not really sure what that is but we are now big fans, as they were super cheap and let us to into their lounge at a very unsociable 4.30 in the morning, which meant free breakfast and coffee. Cue Hazel opening a banana leaf to taste the fruity rice inside...she's shaking her head, not sure we're ready for this yet!

Arriving at Krabi was the easy bit. We then had to catch a bus to Krabi pier, where the driver detoured via his restaurant to sell us drinks and marked-up ferry tickets. We succumbed to the tourist trap and paid the extra 200Thb (about £4) for the tickets, mainly because we didn't know how else to get there! When he eventually let us leave the restaurant and dropped us off at the pier as promised, we discovered that the ferry takes another hour and a half...time for some snoozing! Once we arrived on the island, we were charged 20Thb as an island cleaning fee and, although this felt a bit like another scam, to be fair there were locals around picking up the litter. Hazel had done her research on the location of the guest house we had booked, so we could march confidently through the enterprising locals offering deals on beds and head to our room...only 34 hours after leaving the house in Sydney!! Phew

As soon as we stepped off the first plane the humidity had hit and from then on we were sweaty all the time. This took some getting used to and we were so glad of the air-con and fridge in our room....turns out we can afford the slightly nicer rooms here 😊 Thanks to good old Tripadvisor, our guesthouse was clean and quiet. They were a bit crazy with their rules - there were posters everywhere about removing your shoes as you come in the door, keeping quiet etc but as pretty ancient backpackers we were pleased with our choice. The street outside was not too busy and we were away from the more "party-backpacker" side of the island which is a bit of a mess. This could be put down to the Tsunami back in 2004, but we reckon it probably has more to do with the tourists - think Maguluf on a quieter night, but definitely with that type of neon lighting and lager louts!

The centre of the island is known as Ton Sai Village, which is where we were staying. This is really just a collection of hotels and shops sandwiched between two beaches - Ton Sai and Lo Dalam. We much preferred the far end of Ton Sai beach, which was lovely and quiet most days, with a steep drop off from the beach so you could go for a proper swim. The alternative, Lo Dalam, was really shallow, so you had to wade out for ages just to get water up to your knees but was also jam packed with hungover backpackers...

Whilst there was some litter and a few building sites especially as you walk along Lo Dalam Bay (or party bay, as we now refer to it), the majority of the island is made up of beautiful beaches. As we were there at the start of the low season, the place felt relatively quiet and during the day we often had restaurants and cafes to ourselves.

However, the busy side of the island did have some advantages - lots of market stalls selling cheap clothes and jewellery, and some nicer bars and restaurants where you could watch the sun set over the Andaman Sea and then watch a group of pyromaniac Thais perform their fire show. We did try our hand at some bartering, by taking what the market owner offered as the price, halving it and starting from there, but it didn't come particularly naturally to us... According to Mark, half of 250Thb is 200Thb, which is a mistake that cost him 20Thb (a whopping 50p!). After watching Mark's first failure, Hazel did much better and we're both starting to get the hang of it now (and both now own a few more scruffy traveller T Shirts, just to help us blend in)!

The main reason tourists come to stay on Ko Phi Phi Don (to give the island its full name) is to see Maya Bay, which was the setting for the film "The Beach" staring Leonardo Di Caprio (as if you didn't know)! Maya Bay is on Ko Phi Phi Leh, which is the uninhabited island next door to Ko Phi Phi Don. We organised a longtail boat trip around both of the islands including a visit to this beach for our second full day on Phi Phi (in an attempt to make to most of our stay before the forecast rain turned up). After an included breakfast of chicken frankfurters, curry and rice, we waded out to our longtail at Ton Sai Bay and sped across to nearby Monkey Bay, where we found some Long-Tailed Macaque Monkeys sitting in the trees. This was Mark's hightlight of the day and it was only 11am!

We then cruised across the open sea to Phi Phi Leh, where we entered a cove and had a short swim & snorkel amongst the other long-tail and speed boats. It is quite an experience looking at the fish in the clear blue water and keeping an eye out for boat propellers, whilst also trying not to inhale motor boat fumes through your snorkel! Next up was a cruise past Viking Cave, where we could see bamboo ladders and netting. Apparently, this is where swifts build their nests - these are harvested by the locals and then exported to be made into the Chinese delicacy of birds nest soup.

After all these little detours, we were finally on our way to Maya Bay. However, instead of just motoring straight into the bay and parking up on the beach like some of the other tourist boats, our captain had decided to make things a bit more interesting. First, everyone in the group had to all put their cameras and beach things into one waterproof bag. Then, we followed our captain's son, along with said bag, into the water and swam across from our boat to a cargo net at the foot of a cliff. From the cargo net, you had to climb along and up some steep steps through a gap in the rocks, whilst avoiding being washed onto the rocks by the waves. Unsurprisingly, some people found this harder than others, and we're still not quite sure why we had to take this route. Nevertheless, it was worth it - it gave a great build up to a stunning beach...On the other side of the steps was a sand path through the jungle, which lead out through the trees and into Maya Bay. Welcome to "The Beach"! Sadly there was no Di Caprio in sight, just a few tourists, but not nearly as many as we had feared there might be. The beach is beautiful, and is surrounded by high limestone cliffs and tropical jungle. After an hour on the beach, strolling on the perfect white sand and wading through the turquoise water, we returned to our boat by the same route...before the captain cruised round the island and motored us directly into the bay...!!

After the excitement of seeing Maya Bay from two angles, our afternoon was spent swimming and snorkelling around Shark Point (sadly no sharks), Mosquito Island (luckily no mosquitos) and Bamboo Island (indifferent about bamboo). We stayed out on the boat and watched the sun set over Ton Sai beach and then headed back on to dry land for a Pad Thai.

We started off eating fairly cautiously in Thailand... We first tried some restaurants and ordered non-spicy mains like fried rice and pad-thai. We then moved up a notch to currys like Massaman and, Hazels favourite, Tom Ka Kai soup. On our last evening, we ventured into the market and ate at a stall where you pick your food and then watch as they cook it on demand. We have discovered that Thailand is cheap for most meals, but Thai food is cheaper, and market food is cheaper still. Despite the Phi Phi island tourist prices, we were paying about £1.20 for a Pad Thai. I love this country!

As well as wandering around the market stalls, one morning we decided to walk up to the viewpoint mentioned in our guidebook. We must have missed a turning somewhere because we climbed up a couple of hills before the road turned off onto a mud track and lead off into the jungle. We persevered and were rewarded half an hour later with a sign pointing to viewpoint 2 and 3. At this point we were so hot and sweaty that we didn't really care that we seemed to have missed viewpoint number 1, nor that we came to a hut where we were charged 20Thb just to climb some wooden stairs to Viewpoint 2. It was definitely 50p well spent though, as there was an amazing view across the island and over to Phi Phi Leh! After sitting at the top to cool off for a while, we began our descent (this time following the signs that said 'shorter route down to Ton Sai Village). It turned out to be the way we should have come and we found Viewpoint 1 a little further down a brutal set of steps. We managed to miss viewpoint 3 somehow, but never mind, lets head to the beach to cool off...

We had some cracking weather during our time on Phi Phi, so we found some time to lay on the beach - although it was more "slow roasted pork" than "rotisserie chicken" tanning. We can't complain though, as the sand was white and the water was warm. It was only on our final day when the monsoon rain fell and drowned the town for the entire day. We hid inside a local bakery until it was time to catch our ferry back across to Krabi, and to begin another epic schlep up to Bangkok.

We had been sold a return ferry ticket for 400Thb when we were on the mainland the week before, but later learned that it was only 300Thb from the island! We had obviously been too trusting, so we put it down to experience and bought some overnight coach tickets back to Bangkok with much greater success.

After a relatively choppy crossing back to Krabi, we were transfered to the bus station (another restaurant owned by the bus driver it seemed!) and then marched onto a double-decker coach. The interior was dodgy Thai-style decor, with gold curtains and a blue padded ceiling. We also had piped thai music playing, so it felt a little like being in a restaurant. That is, apart from the snoring guy sitting in the seat in front. Hazel was relieved that we didn't take the front seats though, as the driver was a bit erratic to say the least... 12 long hours later we arrived in Bangkok and set off to try and find our hotel!

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Comments

[Christine Wetherall]

Love it!!