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Published: March 6th 2007
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Phi Phi, this is a view over the main area. Its a lot more sparse than before the tsunami Railey had no pier so the only way to get on to the ferry was to boat hop which we are now used to but this time it was from a longtail boat (which arent the most sturdy of things) and in the middle of the sea, lots of fun!!! We got on safely with our bags in tow and left for Phi Phi feeling a little worst for wear from the night befores drinking. This was the busiest crossing we had seen and the only seats were on top of everyones bags. We started to fear for being able to find accomodation. We arrived at Phi Phi and battled our way through another hectic pier. Once again we managed to find accomodation at yet another view point. We dont like to make life easy for ourselves but it was we could find. We stayed at the Lux Guest house, luckily for us it was on the tsunami evacuation route and only 50 meters to the meeting point. Again safety first!
To our suprise Roz and Bob (you may recall this pair from previous blog entries if not please refer to Phg-Ngan blog) were still here, so we met for
dinner and drinks to catch up. First impressions of Phi Phi were not good. It seemed that we had stepped into a scean from Greece uncovered. This wasnt what we had excepted and so were left slightly dissapointed. If you are looking for a party then there are quite a few bars to choose from, Calitos seeming the most popular as it spreads out on to the beach, which was quite cool and Hippies was also popular for watching the sun rise. Another bar which was quite funny was the Reggae Bar. Bizzarly this had a boxing ring where they did show some real thai boxing, but mostly just offered free buckets to anyone who wanted to fight. This mainly being druncken westerners which seemed to turn into your average saturday night street brawl, but with gloves and head protection. We stayed in this area for three nights before finding a much nicer area called Long Beach, this was a 5min longtail boat ride away.
Long Beach had a completely different feel to the pier area. It was very chilled out and the beach was lovely, with crystal clear water and the snorkelling was exellent (we found Nemo!!). We
liked it so much we decided to spend the rest of our time in Phi Phi here. Our accomodation was a bamboo hut on the beach, we loved it even though we had communal showering. We decided to book a day trip around Phi Phi which included a trip to Maya Bay where they filmed the Beach. To reach the bay we had about 100yds swim to a rocky tunnel which we manouvered through and then there was a short walk to the bay. As we approached, the seemed to be alot of noise from the direction we were headed. To our shock, the bay was jammed full or tourists, speed boats and longtail boats, which to say spoiled it was an understatement. If you are going to visit Maya Bay we would advise that you hire your own speed boat for the day and get there early.
Another place we visited was monkey island, the idea being that we swam over to the beach to take a look around, do some snorkelling and hopefully see some monkeys. However we only managed two of the three! Whilst we were snorkelling it bacame very rocky and shallow and we got
Beware of humidity!
I experienced big hair on a daily basis! stranded. We became aware once we had found our feet that we were surrounded by loads of Sea Urchins! We decided our best course of action was to stay still and try and figure our best route out of there. As we were marouned there, the rest of the boat trip seemed to be following in our path. We gave the international signal of go the other way by frantically waving our hands under the water. This seemed to work for all but one who was propelling himself towards us at a rapid rate. He saw us at the last minute and as he tryed to stabilise himself, he put his hand on a sea Urchin, ouch! NEVER NEVER put your hands down to stabilise yourself and NEVER NEVER slam any body part onto a Sea Urchin! It was not a pretty sight, the guy had about ten needles poking into and through his fingers. Suddenly to Jo's shock, Sarah became an expert in Sea Urchins, advising that you couldn't put the needles out and that they would just dissolve in his hand. With this helpful info, we sent him on his way back to the boat, where our Thai
guides snapped them off, ouch! Our trip ended with a sunset which sounded good when we were booking it, sailing aorund Phi Phi watching the sun going down! However in reality, they picked a spot just off shore and we drifted there for about two hours praying the sun to go down quicker, as it seemed to be on a real go slow. We got some nice pics though.
The surrounding area and waters of Phi Phi are so beautiful, very picturesque and in our opinion the best we have seen in Thailand.
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lesley/mum
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phi phi blog
gold star for tsunami evacuation route and sea urchin avoidance!commiserations for humidity hair.looking forward to oz blog x x x