Koh Phi Phi

---

After waking up mega early to be picked up for our journey across to Koh Phi Phi, we realised what Chaweng beach was all about when the minibus driver picked up some people staying on the main street which we hadn't visited - despite how early it was there were still a number of ladies and ladyboys of the night wandering around so we didn't feel like we had missed too much.

The best thing about travelling around in Thailand is that everything is done for you even if there are sometimes a lot of switching around. So we transferred from the minibus to a coach which then took us on to the ferry. We then got back on the same coach when we arrived at Surat Thani and it then dropped us in the middle of nowhere for a minibus to pick us up and take us to another shop cafe thing in the middle of nowhere to then transfer to a tuk tuk to get to Krabi Port to then get on a ferry to get to Koh Phi Phi. As we went further south we experienced our first big tropical monsoon rainstorm - very dramatic and you could definatly see a greater Muslim population and more tropical vegetation.

We arrived at Koh Phi Phi and was met by a man from the hotel we had booked and he put our bags in a trolley and led the way. There are no roads on Koh Phi Phi which is nice but made us very glad we had some help with our bags. We knew we had booked somewhere up a hill but we had no idea how much effort it would be. Thankfully the trooper of a hotel porter carried mine and Dans bag up the - can't believe he managed both bags at the same time as we could barely walk up there without our bags!

On a side note my knees have behaved themselves virtually the whole trip and it is so nice being able to climb up stuff without thinking.

I realised as soon as I opened my backpack that someone had been inside it as everything was in a strange order. It must have been on the ferry journey from Koh Samui to Surat Thani as this is the only time we couldn't see our bags (i.e. they were in the coach hold). Unfortunately for the wannabe theives there was nothing except my dirty washing bag, toilettries and smelly walking boots in my bag - not really high value items! They also had the unfortunate task of trying to repack it all! hahahaha! Trust me - it is a skill!

Anyway, we were a bit dissapointed with "Phi Phi Arboreal" as it didn't quite look like it did in the pictures. The staff were lovely but it was a bit like a building site currently so we moved the next day to back down right into the centre - no more stairs!

We did however make the climb up to the view point before we left as we were almost half way there anyway! It was a beautiful view and in a small cafe halfway up there was a picture of what it looked like just after the Tsunami and it was amazing to see the difference - it was hard to imagine something so awful happening somewhere so lovely. There was also a picture of what the view was like 20 years ago and I have to say it was much more like what I had expected. The whole area was just covered in trees and there were virtually no buildings in sight. Unfortunatly the whole area is now a mass of building tops - catering to mass tourism is to blame even though I'm sure most people would have preferred it how it was. I know I was slightly suprised how developed the island was.

We stayed in Phi Phi for a few more days than expected as it is a lovely place to chill out. We took a trip over to the famous Koh Phi Phi Ley island where the film "The Beach" was filmed and some of the surrounding islands. Dan snorkelled for the first time and loved it. We saw so many amazing fish and corals, it was great. I did however get stung by a jelly fish and so although this trip has rid me of some of my other phobias, I have developed a new one. It was only a minor and I was OK after an hour or so. The Thai crew we a little less fearless and picked up a jelly fish or two to show us - great.

We arrived on "The Beach" island late in the day when the tide was out, it was raining a little bit and the sun was setting - this didn't make for the best experience and we were a little annoyed the trip hadn't taken us here earlier as it was a moster effort getting from the boat to the actually beach as we had to walk most of the way with the kayak over lots of sharp rocks as the water wasn't deep enough. That aside it was a brilliant day trip and I was really glad Dan enjoyed the snorkelling.

Also bumped into our friend Frederieke from Koh Tao diving and so went for drinks with her which was really nice - it's such a small world.

We finally managed to drag ourselved away from this strange paradise and made our way to our final Thai destination.... Phuket!

---