Island hopping

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Koh Tao

This was our first island of our island hopping excursion which was great but getting there was a major ball ache. We bought what we thought was a night train and ferry ticket from these Frenchies from our hostel in Bangkok.. "sleeper trains with beds" they told us...they lied. It was an 8 hour bus ride to the ferry, but at least we got a coupon for a free meal at the coach station, oh wait, that was a lie too!! Anyway after demanding a refund from the french via phonecall (which we didn't get) and a lonnnng coach ride and ferry, we eventually arrived at Koh Tao. We checked into the Taco Shack which was our hostel, and met the owner. He was cool but we soon found out he was a sexual predator and should probably be on a list... during beer pong, he spurred his team mates on by grabbing their breasts from behind...luckily we weren't on his team....nice guy though.

I liked Koh Tao a lot, the snorkeling was great (saw a shark and a stingray) and we made some great friends on the island. We went to the beach at night to watch these fire dancers and got absolutely hammered on 2 for 1 buckets. Then we stole a dog, named him Fluff Rider and took him back to our hostel. He walked home the next day.
I got a bad stomach (dodgy iced coffee earlier) whilst snorkeling on the last day and had to make a sharp exit from the sea to avoid disaster...I shouted at a poor thai lady for directions to the nearest toilet but she didn't understand me, I almost had to do actions but I had no time...I was scared and alone...but eventually I found my porcelain throne and let gravity do the rest. We stayed for 3 nights, then it was time to leave for the next island.

Koh Phangan
We arrived after the full moon party so everywhere was almost completely dead...the hostel we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere and it was so quiet. Still, we had a pool and a bar so at least we had some entertainment. As the place we were staying was such a ghost town, we decided to explore the island and hired some scooters, 125cc for around £2.50 a day! So a bunch of us headed to a beach north of the island and chilled out there, did a bit of snorkelling and I attempted to even out my horrendous t shirt / vest tan combo, getting burnt to a crisp in the process. We grabbed some food and met the coolest bird we'd ever seen, he talked and mimicked sounds from around him - his motorbike impression was spot on. On further research this was a Hill Myna, youtube it, it's incredible! In the evening we played some more beer pong and headed to Haad Rin where the full moon party is...well, was. It was a bit of an anticlimax, the highlight being an arm wrestling competition where this Iranian beast smashed everyone on the beach, shouting 'WHISKEY' everytime he beat someone and poured it over his face.
The highlight of the island for me was probably the Amsterdam Bar - a lot of people were saying that from this bar you can watch the best sunset in the world; they weren't wrong. Sat in an open air bar with new friends, surrounded by people smoking ganja and listening to reggae whilst watching the sun set over Koh Phangan - it's tough out here.

Koh Phi Phi
We'd heard a lot of great stuff about P P island and I was probably looking forward to visiting here the most. We stopped off in Krabi for one night before getting the ferry to P P the next afternoon. P P is a crazy place, the night life is so good and there are some great bars. We headed to the Banana Bar on the first night and loved it here so much we went back every night afterwards! The english barman was really sound and looked after us, and he was pretty interesting (his best mate drums for the Prodigy and was also his drug dealer and flatmate, so he ended up blowing half his nose off his face after an18 year coke binge) but now he's loving life again, so good for him...I think his name was Ben. There was another place called the reggae bar which had a boxing ring in the middle, the staff would encourage punters to volunteer and we enjoyed an evening of watching a scottish guy punch the head off a fat chinese man - all for sake of a free bucket of alcohol.
The highlight of P P was probably heading to Maya Bay on the long tail boat where the film 'The Beach' was shot, heading to little secluded snorkeling and swimming spots on the way. I preferred these to Maya Bay itself as it was rammed full of people taking selfies using those stupid stick things with a camera on the end and doing those annoying group jumping photos. We also stopped at monkey beach, which were full of lovely friendly and welcoming monkeys...well that's what I expected until a group of 3 chimps mauled a tourist while his wife tried to take a picture of him. I hope she got the shot she was after.
Phi Phi was great, I'd definitely return. Special thanks to Linus and Michael ze crazy germans for sorting us out, you had us in stitches from the ferry to last night- see you in Hamburg!
So that's all the islands done, we're off the Chang Mai now to wash some elephants or something. Goodnight x

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