Sawatdee Kaa from Thailand (by Trisha)

Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Phi Phi Don
October 20th 2009

Published: October 24th 2009

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Trisha Ann

Spa Treatment #1

This spa was amazing! We did a couples massage for $20 total. In September Monty treated me to one for my birthday for $300... this was better :)

We arrived in Phuket, Thailand on October 16th at night via Malaysia Airlines. With a bit of trouble for Trisha at customs (still no idea why?), a nice Thai man picked us up to take us to our hotel, Sino House, in Phuket Town. We wanted an easy stop over for a night before jumping off to another paradise. What we found was wonderful hospitality, comfort, cleanliness, free wifi, breakfast buffet included and $10 massages in the upscale spa at our place so we stayed for two. (For 1200 baht aka $40, it was a no brainer) Phuket Town was a bit like a small Kuala Lumpur, which isn’t surprising since people call it a younger sibling of Bangkok. It was busy and cheap and had great shopping! We really aren’t looking to load up our packs anymore, but Monty ended up with a stylish shirt for 200 baht ($6) & I ended up with a stylish bag for the same. We probably would have bought more except it was a challenge to find our size. We had a fabulous Thai dinner at Lemon Grass and an hour foot massage with cocktails to top off the 2nd night. It was a

... at The Beach Resort

nice break from the beach life, but head back quickly, we did.
A 90-minute ferry ride with a hundred other backpackers brought us to Ko Phi Phi Don (pronounced "pee pee"). It’s sister island, the uninhabited Ko Phi Phi Ley, is a short boat ride away and where you’ll find Maya Bay (“The Beach” was mostly filmed there). Ko Phi Phi, among many places in SE Asia, is also where the devastating tsunami of December 2004 swept away the islands and many lives were lost. Just 5 years later, surprisingly the aftermath is barely seen. Imported sand and quick builds have brought it back to life. We searched high and low for beautiful budget accommodations, but it was quite a challenge. Ko Phi Phi is known to be spendy. So, for the price of a room at the Howard Johnson in the U.S., we splurged a bit on a fantastic beach bungalow overlooking the bay. It’s only a couple of nights… no biggie. Besides the beach thing, we shopped some more, sat in some cool bookstores with iced coffee and endured a monsoon rainfall that left us drenched!
While everyone was paying $60 U.S. each to take a tour boat

Maya Bay

Amazingly clear water!

to the amazing Ko Phi Phi Ley, on our last day, we checked out and headed there by sea kayak. How else would you get to “The Beach” but by enduring manual labor? In the movie, they actually swam there, so kayaking was the closest 2nd. Maya Bay was amazing… lots of tour boats which was a bit of a shame, but you can see by the pictures why it was the perfect place for the movie and why we were glad we worked so hard to get there (2 hours of kayaking). We think it meant so much more to us than everyone else! But, with a little rain & wind that came up while we were there, we knew our trip back was probably not the smartest idea, so we took a long boat instead & barely made it to our ferry to Krabi. Stayed tuned for 2 more week so Thailand.

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