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Published: November 4th 2008
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Karen & Ian's arrival
Why is Ian carrying all the bags? It was with excitement and trepidation that we set off back up to Thailand to meet Karen and Ian (Lisa's sister and brother-in-law) on Koh Phi Phi. After all they were coming to Thailand to meet us and on our recommendation - would they love it? Encouragingly they seemed to be having a great time up north. They went to Nong Khai to a festival with fireballs emerging from the Mekong river, and to Chiang Mai where they stayed in a jungle hut, saw lots if sites and took an elephant ride.
We had another night in Krabi on our way up, this time in the no.7 guest house - unbelievable bargain at first glance. About 4 pound per night for a nice clean room and bathroom. But after about 2 hours sleep the next morning we questioned our stupidity - if it seems to good to be true...
We got the boat to Phi Phi the next morning via Ao Nang pier. The ride to the pier was very entertaining as a Thai lady from Bangkok and her daughter were travelling with us and she got everyones life story within 10 minutes. She was a retired French
Snorkle trip
Arriving at Koh Phi Phi Lai lecturer and her daughter did a masters degree in Birmingham, so we had a fun chat.
We had a very sunny boat trip to Phi Phi - gaining some more interesting tan lines! The first night there we stayed in the Pier Guest House next door to the Phi Phi Hotel which we would stay in for the next six nights with Karen and Ian. It may be next door but is worlds apart - a grubby little room compared to a gorgeous hotel room with a pool and breakfast included for another 5 pound per night.
Meeting Karen and Ian from the boat was a bit of an ordeal - they had somehow managed to book a sight-seeing tour rather than the ferry. We greeted many people from many boats though and made friends with all the hotel touts who cheered when we finally met them. About an hour and half later, and mucho sun they arrived :-D We couldn't go straight to our rooms but I'd warned Karen so they changed in to swim wear and we started our catch-ups round the pool.
Koh Phi Phi is a very popular island for back-packers and
it is a bit of a party island. The beaches and seas are stunning and you can imagine that if you were there back in the 70s (before James Bond and The Beach) it would have been unbelievable. Unfortunately, the island has been a victim of its own beauty and has almost been developed to death. There isn't a square foot left that hasn't been built on. Even so, Koh Phi Phi does have its own special charm...
We had a lazy first day and introduced Karen and Ian to some more Thai curries (masaman my favourite) at our favourite the Lemongrass restaurant. We also just lazed around on the beach on the second day, in and out of the sea. The beach is beautiful (think I said this before!?) if you ignore the other people.
We booked a snorkeling tour for the third day around the two islands - Koh Phi Phi Don and Lai. The trip was from 9 till 4 and included four pit stops for snorkelling and a sarnie for lunch. The first stop was at Maya Bay (from the film The Beach) which is stunning and the snorkelling is fantastic. In fact all
of the sites were really good snorkelling except one had choppy waters which makes it a bit trickier. The corals around the islands are so colourful and there's a huge variety of fish - we saw a huge shoal of parrot fish, some trigger fish and big porcupine fish just to name a few.
We unfortunately fell foul of the old 'overcast' day in Thailand though - we were sensible enough to take t-shirts with us to snorkle in, but as it was so grey and overcast we didn't put them on until the last stop - by which time it was too late! We, being a bit aclimatised now, got away with a little soreness but Karen and Ian weren't so lucky :-( Although after that the weather kind of took a nose dive.
We planned to do a dive while Karen and Ian took a tour on a longtail but neither happened due to the weather. The last couple of days together were spent playing scrabble, dodging showers by the pool, lots of food and plenty of 'cocktails of the day' at the Deco bar.
On our last night we had dinner at our old
favourite (for pizza) Cosmic then went for our customary after dinner cocktails at Deco just as the heavens opened. And when I say rain I mean RAIN! It carried on until about midday the next day. So after a soggy run back to the room we also had soggy fairwells and soggy boat trips off the island.
Miss you both loads xxx
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