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Published: March 18th 2007
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We got up early and caught the boat to Ko Phi-Phi from Krabi harbour. There are 2 different islands, Ko Phi-Phi Don and Ko Phi-Phi Leh. Phi-Phi Leh is where 'The Beach' was filmed, its a national park so there are no buildings and you obviously cant stay there. Instead you have to sleep on Phi-Phi Don, which is always really busy, so we booked a hostel in advance. All the accomodation on Phi-Phi is really expensive (ok 6 pounds a night, but thats a lot out here!) We got to the harbour and were taken on a 15 minute trek through a maze of hippy stalls, bars and building sites until we got to our hut. Only to be told there was no record of our booking! We had to walk around for ages trying to find somewhere that wasnt fully booked. We eventually found a room which resembled a prison cell. It was a bare concrete room with no windows and a bed! There was no way i was staying there, especially as it was the same price as the place we had booked, which was set in a jungle area, with a swimming pool and wooden huts with a porch and hammock. After a bit more walking we settled on a small room with a piece of wood in one corner, creating a 'bathroom.' The whole room stank and you had to climb over the bed to get to the toilet, which we avoided using at all times. By early evening we had both turned a lovely shade of scarlet, thanks to the non-brand thai-rubbish suncream and 2 hour boat ride. The worst part was I had been wearing little shorts, so in my bikini i had bright red legs and pasty shorts marks! The next day there was a spare room at the place we originally booked, so we dragged all our stuff back up the hill only to find the pool was shut for cleaning that day...
We made our way to the pier where we caught a long-boat to Phi-Phi Leh. As we approached the island it looked identical to the film set. It was probably the most beautiful place Ive ever been. It was after seeing the film years ago that i decided i had to go to thailand and now i was actually standing on that same beach.
When we got back to Phi-Phi Don I walked around the stalls for a while. The island wasnt how i expected at all. It was much bigger and there was so much building work going on. The tsunami hit phi-phi really badly, but i hadnt expected to see so much work going on. The island was much busier than little Hat Tonsai, there were more tourists and families.
That night we went to an irish pub. The only thing irish about that place was the 4 leaf clover above the door. We ordered 2 buckets of Sangsom and we soon realised why it was so cheap. It tasted like paint stripper! We sat by the bar for about 2 hours trying our best to finish them and playing neon connect 4, which they seem to have in all the bars here! Later we made our way to the mai thai bar, which was a huge out door bar with a big boxing ring in the middle. We stupidly ordered 2 more buckets, which were full of ice. Not wanting a night of toilet hopping, we thought it would be a good idea to fish all the ice out with our hands and leave it on the table... it wasnt. We sat and watched as idiots from the crowd voluntered to fight. An american guy approached me and pointed out that his friend wanted to fight me! clearly the buckets hadnt taken effect yet because there was no fight. After the fights we made our way up stairs to a club where we met the piratessss. A group of backpackers who were all good fun. They had made a beer bong out of a snorkle, bucket and what resembled a culonic irrigation tube, both by sight and smell!! After the club we made our way to the 7,11 where nick thought it would be clever to buy some of the random yellow and pink sandwiches they sell and make me eat them. Thanks to a bit of nagging, me and erin agreed to eat the mystery sarnies. Apparantly that wasnt enough, we then found ourselves involved in a poko race. surprisingly i wasnt sick, and decided i should finish off with a banana roti, its like a pancake. We waited for ages at the stall and met a load of sweeds, who there seem to be more of on ko phi phi than sweden itself. By 5am we had made it half way back to our hut when we walked past a bamboo tattoo place. There was a man in there whose tattoo started at 10pm and wouldnt finish until 8am! most of the staff were laying around asleep! it looked so painful, just being pricked with a bamboo stick over and over by hand! When we made it home we were just getting to sleep, only to hear the sound of retching coming from the hut next door.
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