Phi Phi Viewpoint and more

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After my last blog I had supper in a bar where they were showing the Manchester football derby on widescreen televisions. I only stayed till half time, when United had just scored for the second time and a City win seemed unlikely. Then I went back to the dive shop to be told that no one else had booked, but maybe they would tomorrow.

I had a pleasant walk back to the bungalow. Most of the way the streets were lit by a single line of bulbs at one side but as I grew nearer to the Snowith Resort this stopped and the only lights were from houses and bungalows besids the road and the still nearly full moon. It was actually quite enlivening to be walking in the near dark and I had no trouble getting back without having to use my torch.

At the outside of the resort I was greeted by the large black dog which rests in the front garden and leaps up in excitement whwnever anyone arrives. Phi Phi is the first place in Thailand that I haven't seen stray wild dogs at night (there seem to be a few cats). I wonder if that's because it's an island.

When I got back I sat outside on the balcony for a half hour or so, reading, and then brought in the chair to act as a bedside table. I only had a little water left and I rationed myself so I would have some in the morning when I took my pills.

Yesterday, I got up quite early and went out to climb to the Viewpoint. The path to the viewpoint is quite near my resort but I should probably have gone into the village first to have breakfast. It was a quite a walk, up hundreds of steps and then some steep climbs along narrow paths. I counted 329 steps going up and 341 coming down. Unless someone had cunningly chiselled lots of extra steps whilst I was at the top, I think my second count is probably more accurate. I stopped for a breather twice on the way up but did the way down in one go. As I walked up I saw many coconut husks and shells, fallen from teh tall coconut palms that lined the pathway. I had forgotten, because I'm pretty sure I used to know this, that the coconuts we see on sale is not the whole of what grows on the palm trees. There's an outer husk - looking like a petrified melon - that, together with the coarse hairy copra used to make matting etc, protects the inner kernel which is the nut we buy. Most of the husks were empty, the nut itself presumably taken by animals or men, but in a few you could still see the actual coconut.

At the top I was releived to see a gift shop cum cafe and bought a welcome mango fruitshake which was very reviving. There was a wonderful view and the whole isthmus of Don Phi Phi village was visible below, like a lifesize map. It was very noticeable that the two bays had water of different colours, presumably due to the vegetation and coral that live in each. There was a photo hanging up of the view from the place four days after the great tsunami of 2004 and you could see how much has been rebuilt since then. As I mentioned before, though, unlike Phuket, reconstruction is clearly still in progress and you frequently come across signs saying that tsunami damage is being repaired.

The owner of the place told me that there was another viewpoint further on "Two minute's walk - just follow the path". So I set off to find it. After a short walk across the rocks at the top there was a very steep slope going down. I much prefer going uphil to downhill as it's hard to control your momentum on a slope like that. I took it slowly and got down safely and had just started to folow what appepared to be the correct path when I saw two westerners coming in the opposite direction.

They turned out to be two people from England who had taken a different way up and were worried that they were lost. I was able to reassure tham that they were nearly at the viewpoint, just that one more sliope and they were there. I toild them what the proprietor had told me about the other viewpoint and asked if they'd seen it or signs to it, but they hadn't. I told them what he'd said about it being just two minutes walk and to follow the path and the guy replied that the problem was that there were several paths.

We parted and I turned to watch as they quickly scampered up the slope - much easier up than down. Then I reflected that we had exchanged what could easily have been part of a TV script:

"He told me to follow the path".

"There are many paths to enlightenment, Grasshopper".

At any rate I did follow a path and it turned out, after minimal bactracking, to have been a correct one. After considerably more than two minutes I saw a sign to "Top View" and followed it. This was almost on the summit of the hill and again you could see the isthmus in its entirety and also some of the rest of the island's shore. Large butterlies which were variously black and yellow and brown and yellow futtered about.

I easily found my way back to the main Viewpoint and the climb up there was much easier, as I'd expected. I rewarded myself with a Magnum Classic and started the walk back. It was, as usual, a hot day and I was rather sweaty. I showered and changed and had a brief rest and then walked back to the dive shop, to be told that there was still no news.

I went to an internet cafe to update the blog and had just got this far when their server failed and I lost everything. This time I am trying to remember to save paragraph by paragraph.

Yesterday afternoon, after lunch, I walked to the beach for a lazy afternoon. There are no beach beds here, so I had bought a large beach towel to lie on for 250B. As I've used it again today that means it is only marginally more expensive than hiring the beds in Phuket, even if I have to leave it here as being too bulky.

On the way to the beach I was assailed by the normal shouts of "Massage!" and "Taxiii!" I had thought that on an island without any roads supporting motorised transport I would have avoided being pestered to take a taxi. But these were water taxis which can take you to any point on the island's shore.

I still find the streets confusing here, mostly because none of them have names. So you have to identify them by the buildings that line them or mark their start or end. This is what the maps do, too, and it works well enough except where shops or restaurants have moved or changed their names. There are no streets dedicated to specific things, like the street of the tailors or the street of the Indian Restarants (there are enough Indian Restaurants here to form a very long street indeed). Most of the streets have the same mix of internet cafes cum travel agencies, dive places, bars, restaurants and stalls.

There is one 7-11 here, which is fair enough. Phuket had far too many - five on the road my hotel was on and two more in nearby side streets. I think there were a few more on the beach road too. And in addition a copycat had opened an 11-11 shop as well. Sometimes the competing shops were almost next door to each other. I expect it's some sort of franchise system and the supply infrastructure makes it hard for other businesses to compete with 7-11 or Family Mart. There is another convenience store here, actually. I forget it's name but I think it must be Japanes owned as many of the products have Japanese script on the labels and the store assistants looked Japanese and not Thai.

Talking of various scripts, I have not seen so much Hebrew writing anywhere else in Thailand, even in Bangkok. Lots of the internet cafes boast Hebrew Keyboards and there are signs in Ivrit (Hebrew) on many restaurants. These do not provide kosher food, or at least I saw none that said they did, but are presumably owned by Israelis and cater to Israeli tourists, although they all seemed to be staffed by Thais.

This is the first place I've been in Thailand with strong evidence of the moslem minority which has been the cause of so much unrest in Southern Thailand. I have seen a mosque here, but no wats! From my bungalow I can hear the moslem call to prayer. Many restaurants, if moslem owned, do not sell alcohol and do not allow customers to bring any to drink with their meal. I think the family that owned the Viewpoint cafe were moslems as the women wore veils.

Of course, this attitude to drink is not shared by most of the tourist industry here which sells strong drink, literally, by the bucket.

This has given me an idea with regard to the name "Phuket". This seems unsatisfactory to me in two ways. If you pronounce it how it looks it comes out as "F*** it!" and if you pronounce it the Thai way it is "Poo kit" which sounds like something you might give a young child to help with its toilet training.

My idea is this. The Thais don't really make a distinction between P and B. I saw that with Phoph or Bhobh or whatever his name was. So they could easily call the place Bhuket and say it's named after the buckets of drink on sale.

At the same time they could rebrand Phi Phi too which looks like a My Little Pony and sounds like another part of the child's toilet training.

I lazed away the afternoon thinking deep thoughts such as these as I sat on the beach and drank by now luke warm green tea, looking out to sea and at the rocky cliffs framing the bay. Then I went back to the bungalow for another shower and change and a rest, because I meant to be going out later to see some of the island's famed nightlife.

First, I popped back again to the Adventure Club dive place, but there was still no news. Now, I have to thiknk seriously about trying one of the other providers. The trouble is that Adventure Club is the only one I've found so far that does optical masks and assists people who are not confident snorkelling. The others just hand out plain masks and flippers and let you get on with it. But there's not a lot of point in snorkelling if all you can see is a blur. I was thinking that I might give it a go anyway. I know that if I open my eyes underwater in a swimming pool I can see better than usual - the water itself must refract teh light in a way that helps my sight - so maybe I would be able to see something through ordinary goggles.

Jumping ahead, so you are not in a state of worry, I am now going with Adventure Club tomorrow morning - 13 May. At least three others will be on the excursion.

After my disappointment at Adventure Club yesterday evening I had supper and then walked down the beach to Carlitos, which advertised a Fire Show at 10.30. It was almost that time so I ordered a mojito and sat down in a seat with a view of the show. Their price list showed that mojitos cost 220B each but went on to say that "Price depends on the attitude of our customers". I was as nice as I could be, saying Sawatdikrap and Khop Khun Krap, but they still charged me 220B, about GBP4.30. Prices are high in Phi Phi.

The fire show was very good with both men and women whirling about with lighted torches in their hands. They whirled them so fast that it appeared as though they had angel wings or a halo and, as they got into their stride the expression of concentration left their faces and they seemed almost as though they were in a temple of old giving praise to the fire god.

A waitress noticed that I'd finished my mojito, which was very good. Just the right amount of ice, quite strong and well flavoured with a bit of lime on the rim of the glass. So I had another one, which lasted me to the end of the show.

I wandered back through the village past Jordan's Irish Pub which was advertising a wet T shirt competition, to start at midnight. It was almost midnight now, and I was tempted. I wondered if the pub was owned by Katie Price and if she would be taking part in the competition. But I decided that this was unlikely so soon after her break up and carried on back to the bungalow.

Although it was after midnight and it was getting late, I found getting to sleep a problem. This was due to my legs itching ferociously as a result of insect bites. I'd bought mosquito repellent in England and put it on regularly, but I suppose it was mosquito specific and did not deter other biting insects. In addition, a visual inspection showed that my bed was infested with small insects which may have been bed bugs.

In the end I put on a pair of long trousers and sealed them by putting socks on over them and also wore a long sleeved T shirt and I finally got to sleep.

Today I bought some antihistamines that are supposed to reduce the itching and also some general insect repellent which should keep all species of insects away. And I also got the news, given away already, that my snorkelling expedition will finally take place tomorrow.

On the 13th.

Could this be an omen? I can't help worrying a bit after the failure of the trek and also that I was out of breath at the Viewpoint. Only time will tell . .

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