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Published: March 25th 2006
Our next destination was Koh Phi Phi, another tranquil island which was unfortunately devastated in the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. Sam and Thilo (a.k.a. Thilo-Fish) decided to join us for this leg of the journey, with the dutch girls, Nicole, Kim and Meike joining us the day after on their return from the Full-Moon party on Ko Pha Ngan, which we decided to give a miss to let our liver's recover. We again took a boat and a looooong bus, then another short boat to arrive at the island. We got checked in to our guesthouse then had a tour around the small town and the beach. As it turns out, Phi Phi has very successfully recovered from its devastation in 2004, with the guesthouses and town being rebuilt and the beaches still having their glorious white sands and palm trees which was more than a relief to all of us. We also had a look at some of dive centres as we wanted to put our new PADI certification to good use and decided that a couple of fun dives were in order for the day after the girls arrived.
Come sunset, after a day spent on the
Sun-Downer Bar
Where the tradition began...beach, we commenced the new tradition of having a "sun-downer" drink in a nice beach-hut bar that was at the end of the beach, although naturally the sun-downer involved many many drinks and went on late into the evening. Later on we were directed by many flyer-girls to a bar called "Hippies" which was found at the end of the opposite beach on the stretch of sand we were staying on. The atmosphere there was great, with the nights going on well later that I could stay awake for. They also put on a live music show and an amazing fire show with men, women and a kid aged ten, spinning and throwing sticks and poi in front of an awing crowd. Absolutely mouth-dropping!
The following day we picked up the girls from the port and got them booked into our guesthouse and then onto the scuba fun-dives. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach, and for once, we had an early night with very little drink! The next day we went on our scuba trip with our Dive Master, Erik, and the underwater sights we saw were amazing. The visibility was a lot better
Fireshow
The nightly fireshow at Hippies Bar. than in Koh Tao and there appeared to be a lot more variety in coral and fish. After the first dive we stopped for lunch at the small island just off of the main Koh Phi Phi island where the film "The Beach" was set. Unfortunately we didn't land at the specific 'beach' but it was close-enough all the same. Our second dive involved us diving through swim-throughs where we could view the schools of fish that settled inside. Again this was fantastic, with us seeing countless fish including the deadly Lion Fish and Scorpion Fish. Sam, being my 'scuba buddy' decided to breath a little too much of his air and in the excitement, ended up running out. Therefore he had to use my alternate air-source right before the final swim-through which the others have assured me, was the best of them all. In his panic though, he ran my air supply dry too and so both of us ended up taking the alternate air supplies from Nicole and Erik.
That evening and the next few days were spent in the usual manner as the days in Koh Tao (but with nothing lost), with Em and I finally
breaking up the party by reluctantly buying a ticket off the island to head for Malaysia. We unfortunately had to return to our tandem journey as the others were heading north to Bangkok and so again we had to say our tearful goodbyes and headed off to our next destination, the Pulau Perhentian islands.
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Aussie Mick
non-member comment
lovin'Asia or what?
G'day Phill, just thought I would take a sec and tell ya that I have been readin'all the bloggs of your journey, sounds awesome mate. Asia sure is a long way and a world apart from the UK hey, welcome to the southern hemisphere! p.s still gettin monsoon up there? we're gettin smashed with cyclones here!