take me to the beach...

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The days seem to be coming in thick and fast now, there’s so few moments to write the blog that by the time the chance arises there’s loads to catch up on.
So here we go...

Koh phi phi

As I think I mentioned in the last blog, we checked into phi phi inn pretty soon after we arrived. The plan was to stay there for one night (as it was a bit above our budget) and find a cheaper alternative the next day, however the next day had obviously read the wrong script and decided to pick up the whole Andaman sea and released it over our heads in a rather disorderly fashion. It started to slow down a bit later that day, In fact as soon as I had exchanged money to pay for the next couple of nights in the hotel the weather took an unsurprising turn for the better.

So later that day we finally explored the island, which has a strange mixture of very dark and dingy (and a bit dirty) Thai markets selling all sorts of wonderfully coloured fruits, vegetables, meats and dishes swimming in between the islands of hotels and restaurants in the centre of the island. On one side of the island was the white sandy beaches with green/blue sea that we’d come to expect of the islands in the south -which was a shame because this one was exceptionally beautiful postcard material, if it wasn’t for the extraordinary amount of sunbathers, many of the young topless variety (which Yasmin pointed out to me) and general beach goers generally larking about.The other side of the island was the port side which naturally lacked beach but was obviously were the people with all the money (not to mention yachts) hung around with rather fancy, painfully expensive restaurants scattered about like phone shops on any English high street or perhaps more appropriately, some highly contagious disease.

So Yasmin and I are taking a stroll down one of the many, what only can be described as the unwanted result of a messy relationship between a road and an alleyway (They called it Doris). These things criss-crossed all over the island, surrounded by pubs, cafes and stalls and occasional scuba diving shops, upon walking these roads you quickly realised the importance of reacting quickly if you heard the noise “ding” either from a bell or more often than not of the mouth made variety- which in a rough translation meant “I’m on a bicycle and have no intention of stopping for mere walking obstacles” which was a fun game, for a bit.

So anyway were walking down the “Doris” looking for nothing in particular when we suddenly hear this very loud droning noise which can only be described as cows attempting motocross (mainly for the image it generates) puzzled, we wandered around looking for the tell tale signs of a dirt track decorated with the odd cow pat or two but to our dismay found no such clues. We instead decided it best to ask the nearest available person and soon found a nice helpful aussie in one of the scuba shops who kindly explained it was these rather large frogs showing their gratitude for the recent precipitation that had fallen on the island.

We then decided the time had come to eat things so we started the walk towards the concentrated area of restaurants near the centre and soon discovered phi phi was a bit pricier than the previous stops. After looking at a few menus we eventually found a place called cosmic restaurant which primarily caught our eye because there was so many people sat inside eating various dishes, we then looked at the menu and were pleasantly surprised by the prices and soon discovered the meal sizes weren’t bad either.
I had battered red snapper in parsley sauce with homemade chips, which is the still the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. We actually ended up going there 3 days in a row and discovered they also had free Wi-Fi (always a plus in Yas’s books) as well as a big TV showing the World cup (also a plus in Yasmin’s book) One of the more curious things was the crazy amount of kittens everywhere, most shop and market owners had one-at least, we met two especially cute looking ones, where we booked our trip to tour around Maya bay, which Yasmin wanted to take home, one went by the name of Rooney and I didn’t catch the other ones name. This however, was not the curious thing, the curious thing was the amount of “chicken” on the menu of every food stall/restaurant and yet there was a distinct lack of chickens on the island, there was though- as I mentioned an abundance of cats. Or there was for a bit anyway.

So the next day we went on a tour around phi phi via long boat (just for a change) our first stop was monkey island- which was appropriately named as there was literally one lonesome monkey sat in view in a nearby tree. We later found out that it was just badly timed as the tide had come in when we arrived. The group who had visited the island previously took great pleasure in telling us they had been blessed with many monkeys generally harassing them. We met them while we had briefly stopped in a random lagoon and a few of us went for a swim, when suddenly, the rain from the day before re-emerged in glorious fashion only this time it was in a bit of rush and all fell on our heads at once. It was hard to tell which half of me was wetter, the half in the sea or the half in the rain- it was a close call but the rain just about edged it.

The next part of the tour was genuinely amazing. The long boat slowly came to a stop in the middle of what I later found out to be the entrance to Maya bay. It was a vast cove, hidden amongst towers of limestone cliffs that had been persuaded into shape by thousands of years of weathering. The sun sparkled gently on the surface of the water, just enough to notice it but not so much that you couldn’t see through it and even though the water was deep it was crystal clear and you could see down to the forests of coral without even putting your snorkel on. If the view was good from above the water, then the view from within it was enough to make you wonder if you were actually dreaming. Hundreds of fish with more variation in colour and size than you can actually take in, spiralling in and out of each other in such a way that you could probably link it with chaos theory. Ordered madness, floating beautifully in a sea of tranquillity. Then you dive deeper- amongst the many corals (varying almost as much as the fish) sitting politely in between them were sea urchins, giant clams (well they were the biggest ones I’ve ever seen) and sea anomies and even more fish.

Wow basically. I almost didn’t care that I kept getting sea water in my mouth as the whole snorkelling thing was a bit new to me.
The next move was to actually get to Maya beach, which was on the other side of the island to the bay we had been snorkelling in, which meant that we all had to swim across some quite strong currents to a very dodgy looking set of slippery wooden steps draped across the cliff, which was quite a mission, even for the most confident of swimmers. I think it’s safe to say that Yasmin was not happy about the whole situation; just getting her in the water was harder than a diamond encrusted brick. I pretty much had to pull her along with one arm and keep hold of my waterproof bag with the other. All this while I tried (and failed) to convince myself that I had a third arm somewhere to drag me along.
We did eventually make it and once we got past the ladder draped on the cliff (where’s health and safety when you need it eh?) and the spiky rocks lining the path on the other side of the cliff we were well on our way to Maya bay.

Now as Yasmin proof-reading this, I would like to point out that Jake is not as macho as he is making out and I did manage to swim most of the distance un-aided (although in hindsight I should have probably wore a life jacket) I am terrified of the sea and especially deep water and it was genuinely strong currents and hard work for the most confident of swimmers. I would like to blow my own trumpet here a bit (as Jake hasn’t) and say that I did bloody well!

And then you get there. Suddenly all the effort and worry doesn’t matter, it all seems worth it. It is so far the only beach I have been to where there is no evidence of people destroying it, no litter, no fag ends, no lights, and no buildings: Just a beach. But the word just does not give it justice, it’s The Beach; you really can see why the all saints sang about it even if Leonardo di Caprio was spoiling the view.
Oh yeah and I almost forgot to say, like usual we met some really nice people on our tour and immediately forgot most of their names. There was two Irish guys though- Shaun and mark, who we can’t help but remember, they were such good fun and possibly two of the nicest people you’d wish to meet and as you can probably guess, were quite partial to the odd drink.

That night was the night England played Algeria and not knowing quite how bad England were going to play, we made quite a night of it. We had buckets by the, well by the bucket load, we had a bit of a boogie in a few of the bars on and along the beach, who’s names I could not say (purely because I can’t remember) we then headed towards the bars in the centre of the island where the atmosphere was immense because you had a mix of Germans, yanks, English and many other nations all in one place so there was a hell of a lot of banter. We went to this bar that was playing the England songs to build up the pub spectators and everybody was just going for it. It was a lot of fun until England actually started there half arsed attempt of a football match against Algeria (I can safely say, I would rather deposit something brown and smelly in my own hand and clap than have to watch it again) but we carried on having fun regardless and at 5.30am we were still up, playing pool, drinking mojitos and striking up random conversation with a Scots man and an Irish man (although yas was convinced he was Italian) wondering if there would be a joke coming our way. It turns out there wasn’t so we decided it best we get to bed, so that we did.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the island, an Irish man was almost certainly about to do something pretty amusing.

So the next day we got up, fighting off the advancing hangover with a large blunt object and proceeded to sort out our boat off the island with the same lady we booked our Maya bay tour with, which left at about 3pm.
It’s safe to say, our last day in phi phi was when the sun decided to dig out the biggest hat available (possibly one of those daft ascot numbers) and made a real day of it, so much so that I got more than a little sun burnt. Actually more than car insurance for a Citroën dolly in a war zone, if you know what I mean (Just nod and walk away) we spent most the day relaxing around the beach and bumping into people we had met the night before or had some sort of recollection of a previous meeting somewhere.
Probably.

Then the clock struck three and we were on the ferry, our eventual destination being koh Tao, an island on the other side of Thailand- which meant once we got off the ferry and onto the mainland, we then had to get onto a very full, open mini bus which seemed to break more health and safety regulations than a kebaby on Saturday night.
Just for a change, we were the last ones on and had to literally sit on the floor at the back of the bus (which is where the entrance was) with our legs over hanging and more dust going in our eyes than should be possible, despite the very cool shades. I think if you were to ask most Thais if they knew the meaning of the sentence “limit to numbers of tickets” they would probably look confused briefly, and then ask if you would like to buy a ticket for anything.

We eventually moved to a much more sensible sized coach, which took us from near Krabi to surathani, where we had to hang around for three hours before the night boat left at about 11pm. Now thinking I had gained an understanding of the phrase “tin of sardines” I was shocked by just how little space you had to yourself on the “night boat” especially after actually being able to move a bit in the last mode of transport.
There were basically rows and rows of single mattresses, lined up next to each other, like a conveyor belt. each single mattress had to sleep two people (whether you knew them or not) with numbers above the mattresses corresponding with numbers on peoples tickets, which wasn’t so bad for me and Yasmin as we were next to each other and are in fact on same bed terms (most of the time)

So after a pretty poor excuse for a night’s sleep we arrived at koh Tao and immediately set about finding the nearest accommodation possible, which meant, for the first time ever, we actually used one of the people waiting at the port.
Happy Bungalows was the name and sleeping was the game.


P.s sorry guys, getting pretty slack with the blog at the moment, we're actually in malaysia now!shall try and update more often- the koh Tao blog should be ready soon!

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Photos

hello phi phi
yasmin walking along a "doris"

"Rooney" and his brother
The kittens in the shop we booked our tour ect

rain part II
the sudden downpour i was caught in while going for a swim

Snorkling at maya bay
so many fish!

Eng-a-land
the place of many an england song

bye bye Phi Phi
the view from the boat as we left

Im a yasmin get me out of here!
yasmin showing her displeasure for the conditions on the night boat

time to get "cosy"
the night boat as it started filled up