Maya Beach and Phi Phi

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It has been too many days since our last blog entry, but we have been so busy we forgot!

Last time we wrote in here we were in Bangkok, now we have traveled through Patong, Phi Phi and Koh Lanta! The internet on Koh Lanta is really slow so hopefully we can post some pictures when we get back to mainland or Phuket.

Our stop in Patong was a short stay, just a stepping stone to Phi Phi.
Since I was last in Patong 2 years ago I noticed there has been a few changes, mostly fixes to what was still damaged by the Tsunami when I visited last time. Also last time I visited was during low season, what a difference! You can hardly move on the beaches during high season, we were more than glad to make a quick get a way.

We found a great place on Phi Phi through the internet called Phi Phi Relax Beach. After arriving to main Phi Phi we had to take an additional ride on a long tail boat to a remote beach, which was more than worth it. We booked a double bed hut right on the beach. It was so beautiful and basic, the bathroom was done really nice with multi colored chunks of tile, our bedroom had several big windows and what hut wouldn't be complete without bamboo siding and a grass roof! We also had a nice little deck to lay back on while we took cover from the sun and watched the waves during mid day. The beach was exclusive to our accomodations which made for only a handfull of people on it at time. We watched several different species of crab scamper about and dig holes in the sand. One brave crab, which we named peach pie, dug a hole right inbetween our beach chairs and then closed up the entrance with sand and proceeded to sleep there for till the next day. The hermit crabs were also very fasinating to watch. I saw a green snake in the tree above my chair, several lizards around the beach and on our hike and a huge spider the size of my palm in the washroom. We took the hiking trail just off to the side of the beach on the second day. It was really hot and I had not been feeling that well so after making it over half way I had to return. Marcin and Mark went all the way to the view point that looks over all of Phi Phi. Mark took some fabulous pictures that we can hopefully post later.

After our stay at Relax beach we headed to main Phi Phi to go on a camping trip to Maya Bay. It started to rain like crazy and we had to rebook for the following day. We then booked into a resort for the night. We explored most of Phi Phi the next day while waiting till 4pm for our camping trip. We had a really good turn out on our camping trip, about 20 other people showed up. One of the campers was also a McElhanney worker from Edmonton, what a small world!

We proceeded to the island on a rasta themed boat painted in bright colors of red, green and yellow. Our hosts were very friendly and up beat and looking very rasta themselves, one of them wearing huge thick rimmed and round yellow sun glasses on top of it. We started off with some Bob Marley music on the boat which quickly progressed into some house and trance. The boat anchored just inside maya bay and we were all handed snorkles and told to jump in! After an hour of snorkling a long tail escorted the crew to the beach for the night.

Soon after arriving the tour groups visiting for the day all went home for dinner and the beach was our own for the night! We had a chicken, rice and veggie thai dish for dinner washed down by a few buckets (redbull, pop and rum mix). The bongos and guitar came out for the night and we proceeded to sing partial songs, a mixture of what songs the guitarist knew accompanied by our lack of lyrics usually consisting of the first verse and chorus and then a bunch of mumbling as we all couldn't remember any words beyond most of the choruses. But that didn't seem to matter, everyong still belted out the choruses and would end the song there to start another partial song. We had some night swimming and then the hosts BBQed up some tastey chicken wings. I did a bit of a hula hoop show, everyone seems to love it and were still complimenting me on the next day. We settled down with some straw mats on the beach and fell asleep. The sand felt so soft when we were walking on it, but quickly turned to hard bricks when faced with sleeping on it. I think it is safe to say we all woke up several times during the night but it was worth the experience and having the beach to ourselves.

After waking up we had a swim and ate toast and eggs cooked by our wonderfull hosts before exploring the beach a bit and taking more pictures before the tours arrived for the day. We then loaded back into the long tail boat which was so full it almost sank and the water actually came over into the boat on my side at one time, but we made it safely back to our main rasta boat. We then headed back to Phi Phi in party style with our trance music and coffee cups.

Right away we booked a boat to Koh Lanta. While on the boat we were approached by a hotel promoter and decided to change our accomodations. We have booked into a resort double room for only 1000 baht a night, roughtly 30-32 dollars CND. The places are clean and basic, but also have a tv and A/C. The beach is nice and there is also a pool which is handy when tide is low. The place really is nice and would easily be 150-200 dollars a night somewhere else.

Today was our first day of our 4 day Open Water Padi course. 1 more day in the pool, then we will be headed for some of the most amazing dive sites in the world. We will go through 4 real dives and an exam and then we will be PADI certified for open water allowing us to dive anywhere in the world up to a max depth by ourselves. After we are certified I was thinking about taking 1 or 2 more additional dives and renting an under water digital camera, but we will see how tired I am.

I bought a bag of cat food at the corner store and have started to feed the skinny cats residing here. These two paticular cats live off of the tourists and they seem to know how to work it. Since I fed them they hang out on my banister, I suspect they will till we leave.

We are having a great time. Koh Lanta is really cheap for an island and we are eating our meals for only a few dollars each.

Laura, Marcin and Mark.

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