Our last few days - Phi Phi island, Drunken Monkeys & Buckets

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As we were leaving Krabi for Phi Phi, we bumped into an Irish guy called Dan who we had met months ago in Rio, Brazil - such a small world! On the boat over we all had a good catch up and when we arrived on Phi Phi island 2 hours later we stayed toegther and started to walk through the small town to find some accomodation for a couple of nights. As we were walking through the town we saw our friends from Australia who we had met over New Year so agreed to meet up with them later that night.

After checking out a few places 2 things became apparent quickly; the island was very busy so most places were full, and the price of accomodation here was very high compared to the standard you got, and other places in Thailand. Vic stayed with the bags for a while as Scott and Dan kept checking, and came back after a while saying they had found two rooms. We all got our bags and walked to the place the boys had found, only to discover it only had cold water and the rooms were horrid! Luckily Scott had found another 2 places next door so we had a decent room with tv and air con and so did Dan, just a few doors down, although they were still more than we had paid for higher standards elsewhere, this is what Phi Phi is like and as its so popular the guesthouses can charge more.

Anyway after a quick freshen up the three of us went for some lunch and booked onto a half day boat trip leaving that afternoon which would visit various beaches and coves, let us snorkel and see the sunset on the way back. We made our way after lunch to the pier for the boat trip and quickly discovered that most people on the boat were very annoying, but luckily the trip was only a few hours so it was fine and the three of us stuck together.
First stop was monkey beach which we had been to before and there were no monkeys, but this time there were loads! They were so cheeky, drinking from beer cans and trying to take people sunglasses, it was funny to watch if you kept your distance!

We left monkey beach and went to a spot where we could snorkel, although there wasn't much to see in the water but it was clear and warm so we all had a swim around before going back on the boat and heading towards Maya Beach, where the film The Beach was filmed. It was as lovely as before although it wasn't as sunny this time, but we had a nice time lazing on the white sand and paddling in the sea, before the captain of the boat gave us all free drinks and fresh fruit, lovely!

Back on the boat around 6pm we started to see the sunset which was nice, before the sea suddenly became really rough and choppy, and being on a wooden longtail boat we were being thrown everywhere and got soaked from the massive waves - it was funny at first but after a few minutes it became a bit scary, especially when we noticed there were a lot more people on the boat than life jackets! Got to love Thai health & safety...

The next couple of days were spent chilling on the beach and eating and generally enjoying our last few days of our trip. We were enjoying spending time with Dan and we also met an Irish couple, Amy & Richie who were cool so the 5 of us made quite a nice little group.

We had a moment where it hit us that we had been away almost 5 months and were going to be home in just a few days and we both got a bit emotional - we really had had the most amazing few months away and experienced so much, while we were looking forward to seeing our friends and family there was a part of us which wasn't ready to go home just yet.

One evening we had all been out for dinner and drinks and it got to about midnight when Vic said she was tired and wanted to go back to the room. Scott walked her back and then carried on the night with the others, although bars on Phi Phi close by 2am so it wasn't particularly late. One thing that does stay open late are the tattoo parlours! Now a lot of people wouldn't dream of having tattoos in Asia, and Scott was one of them, but he had been talking of getting a tattoo towards the end of this trip for a while now and felt the time was right to have it done. So, bless him, before going ahead with it, he had the guy draw it on and come back, wake V up and show her to make sure she liked it first! She approved, so Scott went back to get inked. He had 12 small stars in total - 6 on his side and 6 on his ankle - to represent every country we had visited on this trip so far. He wanted to get something which was meaningful and this was a great way to remember an amazing journey. The tattoo place was very clean and he had seen the guys work on other people over the last few days and their work was very good, so laying down on the floor, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, with someone playing a guitar and the Thai's all singing along, Scott got his ink done! You wouldn't get that experience at home! Dan then decided he wanted one, but wasn't quite sure what, so got a banjo on his leg, as he felt it was a good Irish instrument...!

The next day some of our friends arrived on their holiday from home, so we booked them into our guesthouse and had a couple of wild nights out with them (and a lot of buckets!) which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately our time had come to an end all too quickly - even though we were only meant to stay on Phi Phi for 2 days we ended up staying for 5, so we made our way to Phuket on the ferry where we would get a taxi straight to the airport for our flight to Bangkok where we would have our last night in Thailand before flying home to London the next day...cue more tears from Vic with vows that we would return to Thailand one day soon. It really captured our hearts and even though at times it was very touristy, the food, people, weather, value and general feel of the country will stay with us for a long long time.

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