Phi Phi part 3

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So we were back working at banana bar and life got back into the same routine. Lie in, lunch at DMC, (what we ordered to eat depended on how many buckets we had consumed the night before )a few hours at the beach if the weather was good, a movie in the room if the weather was bad, dinner at DMC and then off to work we would go! We became somewhat VIP customers at DMC the staff would welcome us like best friends every time we went and they would joke saying see you later or tomorrow! We thought we'd be cool and make a poster to go on the wall with all the others; our poster was a master piece and we noticed a very rude poster which they obviously had not noticed that had swear words on it so we told them to take it down and put ours there next to our table we sat at every day. The staff were so friendly and gave us discount, often free garlic bread and occasionally surprise us with free pancake or ice-cream, it’s fair to say we were fed well and this would account for our holiday weight!
Having Rob working with us at Banana bar meant that it was suddenly acceptable for the divers who had rejected our PR-ing skills to now make Banana bar there daily hangout. The fact that Rob was a diver and now promo meant that the 2 groups were now united as one, and also meant that our bar was a lot busier without us really having to try.
One night when we were working the street corner by banana bar we got chatting to couple Ben and Courtenay from Essex and a girl who they met on their travels a scouse called Claire. They were staying at Tara Inn right next to Banana bar and so for the next few nights would sit and chat to us while we were 'working'. Ben, a big guy who had 2 tattooed sleeves tried his luck in the boxing ring at reggae bar and this soon became his holiday addiction, taking out 2 guys but then being beaten by a cage fighter from London. As the couple didn’t drink Clare tagged along a few of our nights out and we soon converted her to a Samsong drinker! We became closer to the group of 3 chilling at the beach together, going for dinner with them and even went to watch Ben have his bamboo tattoo finished off.
Danni had always talked about getting a tattoo and knew exactly what she wanted in Thai writing. We figured what better place to get Thai writing tattoo than in Thailand and the Bamboo looked painless. So Ben planted the seed of the idea to get bamboo tattoos and later that night we went back to the shop and told him what we wanted. I was still very wary but they looked so pretty and as we’ve had the best time of our life here, thought it would be a good way to commemorate our time here forever. So the day next day we all went for lunch before heading off to the tattoo shop. We had chickened out but when we got there and saw the designs he had done for us we fell in love with the designs straight away and after he had traced them on us there was no going back. They let us be done at the same time, I squeezed Claire’s hand off the entire time, whilst Danni who had to lie in an awkward position grinned and bared it whilst calmly talking to Courtenay. The pain was nothing like we had expected. Bamboo tattoos are done by hand and doesn’t actually cut the skin so you don’t scab as much and can go straight in the water. After half an hour or so they were complete....and we loved them! The guy who owned the tattoo shop loved Ben as he had spent hours in there himself as well as recruiting people to get theirs done at his shop, he arranged for his friend to take the 5 of us plus another girl Marie out on a private boat trip on his long tail boat the following day.
The morning came of the boat trip and of course in true phi phi style the heavens had opened and the rain kept coming! We went down at 1pm when we were supposed to leave and arranged to wait another hour to see if the weather had got better. We went back at 2 pm when the sun was slightly shining and we headed out to the long tail boat. We were excited for our new friends to see phi phi ley and go explore some more, but as we got further out to see sea the waves got bigger and the boat rocked more. With 1 metre or more waves around us the longtail boat driver weaved his way up and over the waves. Zoe screamed and clung to my leg, whilst Marie kept silent and Claire and I laughed through it. Trying to be the positive one I kept reassuring everyone that he wouldn’t have taken us if it wasn’t safe; turning and asking the driver if it was okay he just nodded and laughed at us. With the waves getting rougher Courtney, Claire and Zoe grabbed life jackets to put on whilst Ben stayed huddled under his towel. As not only was the boat going up and down we got completely soaked! About an hour later we got to phi phi ley and were sheltered from the wind and waves. We stopped off at phi ley lagoon and went snorkelling; the sun had popped out just for the occasion, so we donned our masks and jumped in. The water was beautiful and clear with loads of fish swimming around for us to see, we swam around some more then headed back to the boat.
We then got dropped round at Maya bay were we had to break it to everyone that we would have to swim across and climb over loads of rocks hanging onto some rope….obviously not being very pleased we talked them all into and we headed for the rocks. With the waves still present even in the shelter, a big wave came in and knocked Ben and Courtney flying with Ben cutting his leg and foot. We made it and walked through the woods as they do in the film ‘The Beach’ and we made it out onto the beach…the sun was shining and the tide was in so it looked much prettier than when we had gone with Nathan and his friends. We did the usual and got some amazing jumping photos and went in the sea for a bit. In the sea we found something odd, which some suggested a banana, others sweetcorn and when picked it up and through it out of the sea we knew it was neither. Looking at the strange creature we didn’t have a clue what it was; as we all gave it a poke another guy came over and said not to touch it and that it was a poisoness creature. But still he didn’t know exactly what it was, so we let it be and headed back to the boat.
Once back at the boat we braced ourselves for the journey ahead of us, and our driver assured us the waves would be better. But he said he would take us the shorter route back which pleased us all. On the way back the waves were still big, but not as bad as the way there. As we went up and over the waves we all got more soaked than we did on the way there. Finally we made it to dry land and had food on our minds; so still soaking wet we headed to DMC for food and were greeted by our friends who worked there.
The next day we finally decided after nearly 2 months being in Phi Phi to attempt to find Long Beach. Leaving Ben to get more shading done to his tattoo us 4 girls headed of on the trek to find the beach. We made it as far as The Bay View hotel without getting lost then stopped and asked an Ozzy couple for directions they were a bit vague and said to follow the path way. We crossed 3 small beaches, climbed muddy steps and through a bit of jungle and down a steep slope and eventually we made it, muddy and sweaty. A quick photo shoot was had before we attempted to run into the sea and cool off although the millions of sharp rocks got in our way and we soon came back to shore but I cut my foot on my way out. After an hour or so sunbathing we decided it was time to head back but not fancying the jungle trek again opted for a long boat and after bartering with the driver we were on our way home and the boat ride was a lot smoother than the previous day!
Our time in Phi Phi was slowly coming to an end and we decided we had had enough of being rejected on the streets and packed in our job at banana bar and spent the last 3 days hanging with our new crew and partying on the beach. Our final night out had come round and we had somewhat mastered the art of beer pong, challenging a group of boys to a match, we won the first round but then our cockiness came back to bite us when we were defeated in the second game. After buckets and beer pong at banana bar we headed to Rolling Stoned a new bar with live music where a local Thai rock band performed; we had only been saying a few weeks ago that Banana bar would be awesome with live music. We headed off to the beach to dance at Slinkys one last time and as our crew dispersed and went home to bed the heavens opened and Danni and I found ourselves dancing like crazy people in the pouring rain which felt very liberating!
We awoke on our final day in Phi Phi to find the rain had still not stopped and was torrential. It stopped for a brief moment and we headed to Banana bar to watch a movie but then it was torrential for the rest of the afternoon. So we ended up stranded there watching the Inbetweeners and hangover whilst munching on Mexican food. I had spotted the poorly kitten we had been looking after for the last few weeks looked and smelt like it was finally on its death bed lying in the pouring rain. I put it in a box to shelter it from the rain but it disappeared into a crack in the wall never to be seen again, one can only hope it went off to die in peace.
Finally the rain died down slightly and we made planes to meet up for our final supper at DMC with the Bamboo crew (our cool name for us, Claire, Courtney and Ben). Heading back through the rain we were stared at a bit as we waded through the streets wearing our bikinis as it made sense! We got ready and met up for dinner; we were greeted by our friends at DMC and having to make the decision of what we wanted for our last meal felt very strange after 2 months of eating there. We finally ordered and after a while a pizza came over that they said was special for us…our food came and we filled our bellies. It was then time to say bye to the DMC crew, we had our camera out ready and took lots of photos and exchanged facebook and email details; promising that we would be back! On our way back to Banana bar we got stopped by 2 of the girls from DMC who had brought us presents; they were little knitted rabbits as a key ring, we said goodbye and thank you again and they both had tears in their eyes. Even though we hadn’t really spoken much it was sad to say bye to friendly and lovely people.
We got back to Banana bar and sat upstairs sorting out the music on Zoë’s iPod. It was nice to sit down and chill out rather than be working or partying! Rob came up and brought his book of notes he had off everyone he had met on his travels; so we wrote essays in for him and hoped when he read them it would be emotional! It was soon time to get to bed as we had to be up earlyish for our boat at 10.30am. We said our goodbyes to Abel and thanked him for all the fun we had had working at Banana bar and promised to come back next year. We took some more photos and more hugs, also saying bye to Sai who was the Thai owner of the bar. Who ended up being the one to set Zoe off crying as she was sad to see us go too. With tears in our eyes we said bye to Banana bar and headed home, first saying bye to Chaz, Mo and Nicholas who were downstairs in the restaurant.
We wandered home hoping we wouldn’t bump into anyone else we would have to say bye to again, made it home and chilled out with the girls, whilst they waited for Ben to have his tattoo finished. Midnight came and Ben came knocking showing off his amazing finished tattoo that was a piece of amazing art! After some chat it was time to say goodbye; firstly to Claire who is going to meet up with us in Singapore for 2 days, we talked about staying in touch. Then bye to Ben and Courtenay who have plans to head to Australia for a year, so again we vowed to keep in contact and to meet them again one day and hopefully be roomies!
We awoke at 8.30am the next day to find the rain had finally stopped and we sat in the sun eating a very rare and healthy breakfast. My foot that had got manky after cutting it and long beach was now swollen and sore so Nurse Hoare suggested getting some antibiotics in case it got worse in Railay. We said an emotional goodbye to the room that had been our little home for the past 8 weeks and a teary goodbye to Susan our Thai friend and headed off to the pier, sad to leave Phi Phi paradise but excited for the rest of Supergirl and Wonderwoman’s world tour……….

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