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Ton Sai Bay
Our home for the week.. Well, we arrived in Phuket on 28th June. After bartering for a taxi from the airport for ages we arrived in a place called Kata Beach. This is south of Patong, the party capital of Phuket. We thought we should stay somewhere quieter as we still weren't feeling 100%. It turned out that we made the right decision. When we turned up we were at a 4 star resort !! It only cost 700 baht a night. There were probably only about another 10 people staying in this hotel. We were told that this area of Phuket hadn't recovered much tourism since the Tsunami and this was the reason why the hotel was so cheap. A shame really, as Phuket was a really nice place and the people were very friendly and helpful. We werent used to someone actually giving us good, honest advice after some of our experiences elsewhere in Thailand, so we really appreciated that from the people of Phuket.
Not much else to say about Phuket as we were really only passing through on our way to Phi Phi. We did venture into Patong one night, but we found it to be very similiar to the tourist
Force of Tsunami
Picture speaks for itself really, think there were hotels once here as remnants of the flooring are still there hotspots in other cities in Thailand, lots of stalls selling hooky gear and ladyboys trying to entice you into bars.
We caught a boat to Koh Phi Phi on Friday 1st July. It was very similar to the boat we caught to Koh Phangan, but with less people. It was a glorious day and it was excellent sitting out on the top deck sunning ourselves all the way to Phi Phi. There was some excellent scenery on the way, rocks jutting out of the ocean and eagles swooping through the sky and divebombing for fish.
As we approached Phi Phi we were stunned by how beautiful this island was, and we were only in the bay ! Crystal clear turqoise and green waters with tropical fish clearly visible swimming around the boat- This is what we had been waiting for. The West coast of Thailand is very different to the East, and in our opinion far nicer.
Once off the boat we headed to the bungalow that we had prebooked whilst making the crossing from Phuket. The accomodation was good, however the drainage system left much to be desired, with a rotten stench filling the bathroom after
flushing the loo. However, this really didnt matter as we had the most beautiful scenery outside our window.
When we wandered around we could clearly see the devastation that the Tsunami had left behind. This island was one of the worst hit in Thailand. The bay where we're staying is accesible from both sides of a strip of land by the sea. Apparantly when the waves hit they came from both sides, inialating everything in between ! Now there's just a clearing where lots of hotels once stood. There are people working all over the island trying to restore it, but it's slow work as the Thai government haven't given Phi Phi any funding whatsoever to help. Apparantly this is because they don't want the island restored as they plan on selling off chunks of land to the big hotel chains to make this island a "luxury resort". That would be such a shame as much of the islands charm comes from it's people and simple ways of life. Good luck to the people here and we really hope the government doesnt get its way !
Day 2- We booked a boat trip for the day to explore
Entering Maya Bay
Where 'The Beach' was filmed the island. Phi Phi consists of 2 islands, Phi Phi Don (the main island) and Phi Phi Lay just south of Don. The boat first headed to Phi Phi Lay to take in Maya Bay and some snorkelling. We didn't stop at Maya Bay though as the waters were too rough, this was a major disappointment as we really wanted to see the bay (it was used in the hollywood film 'The Beach'). So we stopped at Lohsamah Bay for some snorkelling. This was excellent as we were right on a coral reef and surrounded by lots of curious fish. Next stop back to Phi Phi Don to Shark Bay. We chickened out of snorkelling here as we're not big fans of sharks, silly really but there you go ! We had some lunch then on the boat which was an experience as it was rocking furiously ! About 10 people retired for the day at this point with sea sickness, and we didn't blame them ! Then we sailed around the island to La Nah Bay for more snorkelling and then again onto Phak-Nam Bay for yet more snorkelling !!!! We didn't realise there was so much snorkelling and
that we'd be on the boat all day, but the trip was still very enjoyable.
Day 3 - At we hadnt got to see Maya Bay the previous day we decided that we would get a boat out today. After hearing how choppy the seas were on the approach to Maya, we didnt trust getting a long tail boat. Instead we opted for a speedboat, which is a good job really as the seas were pretty violent. However, the crossing was well worth it and we weren't disappointed with the beach when we arrived. Wont go on about this too much, as may make you all sick, but the pictures speak for themselves! We spent about an hour there and then headed back to Phi Phi Don.
That evening we took a trek up a mountain to a place called The Viewpoint. As the name suggests it's a great place to see across the island and we decided it would be a good idea to catch the sunset. We underestimated how far away and steep the trek was, and also the fact we would have to dodge hundreds of bats along the way. We actually missed the sunset
by about 5 mins by the time we got to the top, gutted ! But it was still a nice view and we took a rest there before making our way back down.
We managed to catch up on some more thai boxing last night (3rd July), after watching the men's wimbledon final on a big screen in a bar. The boxers seemed to really go for each other, far more so tha the previous fights we had seen in Samui. It ended with a TKO, but looked more like a KO to us! We were also entertained by a couple of posh English lads completely out of the faces on the dreaded buckets, one of which stumbled past us at one point with a gob full of sick- very nice!!! We also saw a Swedish guy getting a huge tattoo done with Bamboo. For those of you who dont know what this is, it is basically a bamboo cane with a few needles at the end which get prodded into the skin with ink, to create the pattern. This poor man had about 7 hours of pain infront of him and he was saying how he would never
do it again.
We've spent the evenings eating at a lovely scandinavian restaurant we've found, really decent food ! About time aye ! Then onto a beach bar called 'Hippies' which is a really nice chilled out place with firedancers providing the entertainment, seems to be a bit of a theme on these Thai islands.
To summarise, we have absolutely loved our time here in Phi Phi, so much so we decided to postpone our arranged boat trip we had made yesterday to tomorrow (5th July). It has topped off our travels around Thailand as its a truly beautiful place. We will be setting off tomorrow back to Phuket to make our way to Kuala Lumpur. Thats if we make it onto the boat tomorrow! We may just decide to hang on here.........
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Kara
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Off to Waga Mama's
Looks like you are having an amazing time - I'm now looking for something to keep me going until the weekend so will be printing off some of those idyllic beach shots for inspiration and heading down to Waga Mama's shortly!!! Look forward to reading the next entries - take care and have fun!!! Kara x