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Hello again,
So we made our way to Phi Phi after a nice chilled out time in Railay, on arrival there was the standard wave of touts that you had to say no to and we were approached by a Dutch lady who owned a local dive shop, I was thinking about doing some more diving so we went inside and she gave us some info on diving in Phi Phi and also gave us a map and some suggestions on where to stay on the island. We wondered off standardly promising that we would return to book some diving....... (which i didnt end up doing, standard)
We found what looked like a nice little guesthouse and after checking out a few others decided to stick with the first one, our most expensive accommodation yet (at 20quid a night), but it was pretty nice and you always expect to pay a little extra on Phi Phi (so we were told). Having taken a walk around to get our bearings on the little island (which has no cars or scooters) we saw a trip advertised which someone had mentioned to us a few weeks before, it was a camping trip
on the infamous Maya Bay (the bay used in the film The Beach). Dave and Sarah had been to maya bay a few days before on a day trip and said that all the people spoiled the scenery so we thought a camping trip would be a great idea as we would have the bay to ourselves (pretty much). We went ahead and booked the trip for the following evening and carried on checking out the island which has a nice little traveller feel to it, I really liked the fact that there werent any cars or bikes to dodge constantly.
In the evening we headed for a popular Reggae bar which my parent's friend reccommended. The restuarant/bar has its own Muay Thai boxing ring and after dinner two people from the crowd volunteered themselves for a fight, I found it hilarious but Heather wasn't as convinced. After the westerners had finished there somewhat short fight, the real Thai boxers came on and gave us a pretty good show (with some parts clearly over done so as to play up to the crowd).
The following day we woke up really early to go to the Phi Phi viewpoint
which was high up in the hills giving stunning views of the twin bays which are at the centre of the island, we got there and got to savour the views on our own for about 15 mins before lots of others began to arrive.We then had to check out at 11am (because we were staying on the beach that night) so after checking out we headed down to a small beach which the diving lady had reccommended, it was awesome, really nice and quiet with beautiful clear water (unlike the main beach in Phi Phi which is crowded with suprisingly dirty brown water?!). We then made our way to the pick up point for the trip, there was to be 17 of us on the island for the night (plus a few staff) which seemed like a good number. On the boat trip to the bay we got talking to the others on the trip and everyone seemed nice and friendly so we were hoping for a good evening. We stopped off on the way for some snorkelling, saw lots of cool fish including some more Nemo's, Heather had a few troubles with her mask but stubbornly refused my
offer to switch so she soldiered on (whilst moaning a little). As we got back to the boat one of the staff (who liked to show himself as a bit of a joker) started throwing bread into the water which attracted hundreds of fish around whoever was near the bread, we all got nibbled on by the fish which was a weird feeling!
It was then time to head for Maya Bay, when we arrived everyone had just left so we had the beach to ourselves, the staff set up some make-shift football goals and the lads on the trip engaged in a beach footie match. I ended up hurting my foot quite badly (standard when on fun trips, remember Chiang Mai?) when going in on a tackle with an Irish guy, so had to pull out. We then watched the sunset which was awesome before heading back for a sweet dinner with everyone. The buckets then made themselves apparent and everyone got drunk whilst playing Ring Of Fire. Drinks were drank, inappropriate things said and done and everyone was having a good time. We then had a BBQ and someone broke out a guitar from no where and
we were all round the fire singing songs (mainly shouting due to drunkness). The next few hours were a bit blurry but I remember hevs going in the water and seeing some of the plankton in the water light up (just like in the film). We then slept (I say slept, it was more like lie down and get sand blown in your face) for about 2 hours before the sun rose and it was time to enjoy some more of the amazing scenery. I seized the moment and stuck Heather's iPod on and listened to Moby - Porcelain (song from the film), although cheesy, it was awesome! After some group photos it was time to head back, everyone else swam to the main boat but my foot was in a bad way so I decided to take a longtail with the bags. We made it back to Phi Phi all very tired but extremely content.
The next day was a massive write off, we slept most of the day and had a bit of food in between. I then got up in the middle of the night to watch Man Utd get battered by Barca (standard). It was
then Sunday and time to leave Phi Phi, we needed to be in Phuket to catch our flight back to Bangkok the next day. The journey to phuket was long, loads of rude people on the boat and chaos trying to get a taxi to Patong, where we had decided to stay. We arrived at the place we wanted to stay at and the hotel owner got funny with me when I asked to see the room, this had never been a problem anywhere else on the trip so I was a bit confused to say the least! We managed to see the room though and it was fine so we dumped our stuff and made our way out into the seediness of Patong (it had to be seen and experienced at least once when in Thailand). The night started off tame but I made a bad call and we were suddenly in a full on strip club which was weird, old men whacking girls up on stage with foam whackers?! We swiftly moved on and had a drink in a normal bar before giving in to the touts constantly pushing Ping Pong shows, we were told "no entry fee,
just buy a drink" which sounded great, until we got in and saw that a beer was 900bht (18 bloody quid), i didnt even have enough cash on me to buy one beer let alone two but managed to bargain to pay 7 quid per beer in about 15 seconds somehow....... The ping pong show was pretty odd, one ugly lady pulling stuff out of areas which shouldnt have stuff pulled out of, followed by some good looking girls dancing around in various outfits which they then generally took off. One guy got up on stage and ate something off a lady and his missus went berserk, it was hilarious (good job i didnt get up there!). After finishing our beers we headed off after a very strange night, but one which will not be forgotten quickly.
Yesterday was spent travelling to bangkok and then sydney, we arrived safe and sound at our hostel this morning and are looking forward to the next stage of the trip, we are already realising how expensive it is out here!! eek, we pick up the campervan on friday and will start to make the journey up the east coast to cairns.
Its bye for now but Im sure I will be in touch soon (if i can afford the internet rates!)
James (and hevs)
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