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March 16th 2007

Published: November 26th 2007

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Dave Pen

"The Beach" - Koh Phi Phi

Pen surrounded by a huge school of fish between the 2 boats.

Krabi

We crossed over the border into Southern Thailand on the train. We were a little nervous as there has been alot of unrest in the area, so we were very aware of unattended baggage!

We arrived in Hat Yai safely and took a mini bus to Krabi. This was the worst journey we have had to date as we were crushed into the van and driven at near death speeds on roads that were officially 2 lane but were used as 3!

We took a long tail boat to Railey beach and spent the day relaxing on our lilo and just chilling. We met Camilla Todd and her friends Nicky and Tarryn at Raleigh beach, it was so weird to bump into her as it wasn't at all planned. We arranged to meet up again on Koh Phi Phi the next day.

Koh Phi Phi

We took a boat from Krabi to Kho Phi Phi which took about an hour and a half. Phi Phi is full of tourists and very busy and dirty as they are still rebuilding following the Tsunami. We spent a good hour walking around in the heat of the day trying to

Cliff Jumping - Koh Phi Phi

Not as high as Hawaii but still cool!

find a place to stay. We eventually settled with a place for the night but it wasn't great.

We then took a walk towards long beach and on our way found a very cute resort just before Long Beach called Viking Resort. The Thai lady who showed us the bungalows was so polite and kept bowing, smiling and washing our feet. We decided we'd stay there for the next 2 nights. We met up with Camilla & co. in the evening and planned our next day's diving.

We dived at 2 sights off Kho Phi Phi Lay Island. It was a very different type of diving to the diving we had experienced in Cairns. The visability wasn't great but we saw some cool things. We surfaced inside a cave on the one dive which was very scarey but amazing. We are glad we dived so soon after our course as everything was still fresh in our minds.

The next day we hired a long tail boat with Camilla & co and took a trip around Phi Phi Leh to Maya Bay... "The Beach". When we arrived it was early and there were only one or two other

Long Tail Boat - Koh Phi Phi

Looks peaceful in the photo but the engines on these things sound like machine guns!

long tail boats on the beach. As the morning progressed the bay became more and more busy with large boats arriving with loads of tourists.

Koh Pha Ngan

This was probably our favourite place in Thailand. It had a relaxed island feel to it and people weren't constantly harrassing you or trying to rip you off.

We hired scooters and despite a puncture on day 1 found them ideal for buzzing around the island.

There was a lot of hamock and reading time as well as some kitesurfing and snorkelling.

Koh Tao

A short catamaran ride from Koh Pha Ngan and we were on this much smaller island. We didn't dive here but spent 2 days snorkelling at some amazing spots. The visibility was great and there were SO many fish. At Shark Bay we had a late afternoon encounter with 7 Black Tipped Reef Sharks!

Hua Hin

Not really on the Backpackers trail but we stopped here because the wind blows every afternoon and Dave was keen to spend a couple of days kitesurfing. This plan was soon foiled by a large jelly fish as Dave was stung on both legs at the

Friends Reunited

We bumped into Camilla, a friend from London by chance on Railey Beach, Krabi. And spent 3 days with her, Tarryn and Nicky on Phi Phi.

end of his 1st day on the water! The pictures tell the story!

Bangkok

We paid 60p each for a 4 hour train trip up to Bangkok. It was nothing fancy and they packed us in but we enjoyed travelling with locals. We stayed a couple of nights near Siam Sq in the heart of Bangkok and spent the days visiting the Grand Palace and the Wats. We took a pretty exciting canal ride which is the quickest transport for the locals living along or near these canals.

Additional photos below

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