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The last update was long and boring so I'll try and keep this shorter!
On October 25th we got the ferry from Railay Beach to Ko Phi Phi (after the stupid rock climb). We sat at Railay for half an hour waiting for the ferry and I was so glad I didn't stay there. On both Railay East and West there were only resorts, costing about 5 times what we're used to paying, and the beach that we got the ferry from was absolutely horrible. It smelled like sewage and instead of crystal blue sea like you get in photographs of Southern Thailand the water was brown and murky. I'd hate to pay that much per night to stay on Sewage Beach.
We waded out into the brown water (ugh) to a long tail boat and climbed aboard for a short hop to the ferry. It was a much fancier ferry than I was expecting - air con lounges with reclining seats, or you could sit on the rear deck or walk up to the front of the boat. It was boiling hot so we chilled out in the lounge for most of the about 2 hour journey, but we went up the front for a while to watch the sea. The view from the boat was amazing - there you could see the crystal blue seas and rocky islands all around. It would have been worth going all the way there just to have the boat ride! When we arrived at Ko Phi Phi pier and looked over the side of the boat you could see loads of different coloured fish swimming around and even the beams holding up the pier the water was so clear.
We hadn't checked out the prices on Ko Phi Phi before we arrived so we searched around to find the cheapest place possible and ended up in a lovely room in a small guesthouse about 10 mins walk from the pier. It was a few minutes walk from the beach instead of right on it, how terrible! Phi Phi town has a beach on either side and we ended up near the nicer one which held the Half Moon Party, although we were too poor to join in. We just walked down the beach instead and watched the fire shows at the bars until a waiter came over and asked if we wanted to drink, then we made excuses and moved on haha.
The first day on Phi Phi is a bit of a blur, but I'm sure we just got breakfast in a little cafe close by and went to bed for the afternoon! I wanted to sleep off the cuts and bruises on my legs! It was a pretty uneventful night - we ate at the cheapest restaurant we could find (which was really really good) and went back to bed again!
The next day the weather was gorgeous so we decided to hit the beach. We slapped on a load of sun cream and sat right by the sea for a few hours, just reading and lazing about. There was a little bit of rubbish on the edge of the water where it had been washed to shore (a few bottles or chocolate wrappers) but once you stepped over that the water was lovely. It was really shallow quite a way out, we walked about 10-20m and still only went waist deep, so we went in one at a time (someone had to guard our bags!) and just floated in the shallows. When I got out we looked at eachother and realised we had a little hint of pink to our tans so decided to head back to the room for a shower, but we were too late... By the time we got back and looked in the mirror we were luminous red - totally burned. Apparently our cheap Cambodian sun cream didn't work. We kept getting redder and more leathery looking as the night went on, so much that when we went into the 7/11 to get some drinks after dinner we just felt like freaks under the flourescent lights!
The next morning we'd gone a bit crispy and even redder, so we figured we'd stay out of the sun for a while. The next few days we spent in 'Paradise' we had to live like vampires, it was terrible! There were scuba diving tours running to reefs and shipwrecks, you could rent snorkels for 1pound, there were boat trips to Monkey Island and Maya Bay (the beach that was used in the movie The Beach)... and we couldn't do any of it! We ventured out for aloe vera gel and food and that was it haha. What a waste. I woke up in the middle of the night after putting on the alor vera cooling gel and felt like I was on fire - apparently I was sensitive to it and it made the burn worse. The next day Ryan steered clear of the aloe and played it safe with my cocoa butter moisturiser to help with the burn but that did the same to him! After that we just stuck with cold showers throughout the day. It's been 2 weeks today since we burned and we're still peeling! We're braving the sun again tomorrow though - with Nivea and P20 sun block this time - no cheap Cambodian stuff!
On our last day in Phi Phi on the 28th the sun wasn't as harsh and I wasn't limping so we decided to take a walk to the Tsunami Village and the viewpoint on the Island. Phi Phi was really badly hit by a tsunami in December 2004 and some parts of the Island are still being rebuilt. It was quite scary seeing signs for tsunami evacuation routes, shelters and survival kits around the island! We started the walk from the center of town towards the viewpoint without realising how far it was. We must have been walking for about an hour, and when we finally got to the top it started raining! It wasn't our week. The view was still amazing from up there, you could see the whole town, the pier and the opposite side of the island. The pictures will be up. Because it was starting to rain wuite badly we decided not to continue walking to the Tsunami Village (we didn't know if it was far) and just went back to the guesthouse. We didn't get to find out if the Village was a monument to what happened in 2004 or if it's an area of the island that's still in ruins.
The worst thing about having to spend time indoors on Phi Phi wasn't that we couldn't do any of the activites or go to the beach etc, it was the fact our guesthouse only had one cd in their restaurant, right outside our door, that they played over and over and over morning until night. We got so sick of hearing Extreme - More than Words, Eric Crapton - Wonderful Tonight, James Blunt - Beautiful, Micheal Buble - whatever Micheal Buble sings and I can't even remember what else repeatedly for 2 days!! I was really upset we had to leave the island without doing anything or seeing much of it, but I was so thankful we left that cd behind. We should have snapped it on our way out.
We had planned to spend a few days at Ao Nang Beach so we caught the ferry to Krabi town on the 29th and got a local bus/taxi to the beach. We wandered down the main street (the only street really) and came across a travel agency advertising 3 nights for the price of 2 at a local gueshouse - yay! We got a nice little bungalow 5 mins from the beach for 2pounds each a night - a relief after the prices on Ko Phi Phi. Phi Phi was obviously a lovely place to be, the island and surrounding islands are beautiful (not that we actually went to them) but I didn't like the town itself. It was the beginning of high season so the place was overrun with tourists and crammed with resorts and expensive restaurants. The bars were all packed together so their music was up stupidly loud to compete with the place next door and it just wasn't in any way relaxing or anything like 'Paradise'! Ao Nang town on the other hand was lovely. It was just one main street with a couple of side streets filled with bars, but it was a lot more spread out and a lot more chilled. I sound old talking about how Phi Phi was too busy haha!
We had a relaxed night on Thursday when we arrived, but on Friday we went down to the beach to have a look around. We were still trying to keep in the shade so we didn't burn. My forehead had developed a thick brown leathery skin which peeled at the edges and Ryan had blisters on his nose and chin. We looked lovely.
At the end of the beach we spotted a girl with a monkey on her back and a woman selling bags of fruit and nuts so we walked towards them. When we got there we realised the place was filled with monkeys! There were tons of them! There was a walkway through the cliff and trees at the end of the beach and the monkeys were climbing all over that playing around, they were up in the trees, on the beach, in the sea - everywhere! We figured if people were feeding them they must be used to it so bought a bag of nuts and started handing them out, it was cool. I'd never seen monkeys wandering around like that before. They were really friendly and climbed up on people's backs. One climbed on me when I had a handful of nuts so I gave him one and when he finished it stuck his hand back in front of my face for another haha. He kept doing it until I was out of nuts then scarpered! It didn't last long though, one came up behind Ryan and snatched the whole bag of nuts so we had no more! We stayed around playing for a bit (I must look like I have nits because they kept jumping up to root through my hair) but one of them thought it was fun to gnaw on Ryan's chest. We skipped getting rabies shots we figured it would be a good idea to leave in case one broke the skin while it was playing about.
We went back to our bungalow to wash off the sand they left all over us while they climbed and headed out for dinner.
Our guesthouse was on a road just off the main street, and on the corner on the way to town an Italian restaurant was having it's opening night. In restaurants everywhere around SE Asia people stand at the front and if you stop to look at a menu or even pause outside for a second they're on you like vultures to try and get you inside! We've discovered after 2 months that saying 'no thank you, we've eaten' is the easiest and most polite way to stop them trying. God knows why it took that long to figure it out. Anyway, the guys standing outside the new Italian restaurant were ridiculously pushy. Anytime we passed they told us to eat there - not asked, told. We went there for dinner on our second night only because we were scared that they'd leave a horses head in our bed if we didn't. It turns out it was really good though! They were a group of Indian guys, I don't know why they set up an Italian restaurant, and they made amazing pizza. I would have eaten there again if they weren't expensive and terrifying. When we paid the bill and started to leave that night they even asked 'you'll come back tomorrow yes?' haha. I don't suppose they got much business as they were off the main strip of restaurants so I felt kind of sorry for them.
After dinner we went down the street to the pubs for a drink and chose 'Rocky Bar' because we figured it wouldn't be playing RnB like everywhere else... ugh. There was a terrible covers band with a drum machine playing that night, but in front of them was a list of songs they could play and you could sing - like live karaoke. A woman was singing when we went in there, and after her a little boy with a saxophone took the stage. I thought he was going to play some rock song along with the band, but he started playing 'My Heart Will Go On' solo haha! He had to keep pausing to take a big breath in the middle of verses and then carry on, it was so funny! The last thing I expected to hear at a rock bar was a small boy playing Celine Dion on the saxophone! When he finished his performance and sat down a man (presumably his Dad or some relation) drunkenly stood up and slurred 'that boy you just heard, he's going to be a big star…', or something along those lines, and slumped back into his seat. The poor boy looked mortified!! It was the highlight of the night.
The next day we had a cheap breakfast and went for a walk or something, I can't remember. It was Halloween that night and we'd seen flyers all around town for a Halloween Party at Luna Beach Bar not far from where we were staying, where they gave free 'Blood Punch' and you got a present from Dracura (haaa) at midnight, so we decided we'd go out and party for the night. We had an ace curry in town, then started to walk towards Luna Bar. On the way we saw a sign for 40B (about 80p) whiskey and coke so we called in for a drink there and I really wish we found it sooner! The people that ran the place were really nice and chatty, sold cheap whiskey and played good music, it was great. We'd decided on the party though so told them we'd come back afterwards. We got down to Luna Bar and there were about 4 other people in the whole place, the beer was about 3 times the price of anywhere else, the music was terrible and I don't think the 'Blood Punch' was even alcoholic, so we left after one drink… So much for meeting Dracura. We went back for some more 40Baht whiskeys and decent music, had a boogie with the owners little daughter haha and then went to town to try a different bar. They had cheap vodka and rum to keep us happy and Ryan had a game of pool with a very Canadian man before we got a chilli dog at the 7/11 (mmm!) and went to bed.
We left Ao Nang on Sunday morning the 1st of November for Surat Thani on the opposite coast so we could get the ferry to Koh Phangan the next day for the legendary Full Moon Party! Surat Thani's a bit terrible really - it's mainly a business centre I think, lots of factories and such, so not much to do for the whole day we were there! We found a hotel (an actual hotel!) for about 3pounds each for the night and checked into our huge room. Then we spent ages trying to find somewhere to eat that had some description of the food in English. We came across a night market and got the fattiest snack possible - hot dog sausages wrapped in bacon on a stick, and eventually found some noodles and rice. We took a shortcut back to our hotel and on the way found a big shopping centre with loads of restaurants like KFC, Pizza Hut, Mr Donut and more, all in English - typical! At least rice and noodles were healthier…
On Monday we got the ferry to Thongsala Pier on Koh Phangan and a taxi to our pre-booked bungalow on Ban Tai Beach. We showed up and the owner gave us the key to the worst bungalow there… we figured out that because we had booked online and the T&C said we had to pay if we cancelled at short notice, when people just showed up on the day looking for a room he showed them the nice ones and left the bad one for the idiots who had to take it. There were gaps in the floor, no mosquito screens and no mosquito net - brilliant. We had a look for a net so we wouldn't get eaten alive but couldn't find one that didn't cost a fortune, so we just decided to brave it. We wouldn't be sleeping there that night anyway because we knew we'd still be at the Full Moon Party!
We were supposed to meet some people at the party that we'd met on the slow boat to Laos, so we decided to get there quite late as they wouldn't be there until midnight. We couldn't get through to their number so just had a wander on our own having a look at everything. There were buckets on sale everywhere but we just opted for beers from the minimart - cheaper! Buckets are famous at parties in Thailand for anyone who was wondering. You're given what's basically a small plastic sand-castle bucket, a bottle of whiskey or vodka etc, a bottle of energy drink and a can of coke and you mix it up and drink it from the bucket. They're lethal! We decided on some beers and then a bucket to pace ourselves, we wanted to still be there for sunrise. We didn't do much for the whole party to be honest… just chilled out on the beach, met an Arab from London who was wealthy and bought us drinks, had a bit of a dance at the drum and bass bar, lost our Arab friend, walked up and down the beach a bit and watched people being drunken messes - it was fun! As it got later and later you could slightly make out the shape of the mountains in the distance as the sun started to come up, then all of a sudden it was bright! The sun came up so fast in the morning, it was unreal. It was really windy that night, and as the sun came up the tide also came crashing in really quickly, the waves were huge. It was the first time we've seen the sea anything but still since we left in September. It was funny watching people after the sun came up. Some people took 'bring only what you need' really seriously and only came in boxers, and two of the guys that did were dancing together near where we were sitting while it was still dark. They didn't find it at all odd that they were dancing around together scantily clad, but when the sun suddenly came up and it didn't seem like such a party they got really awkward! They suddenly stopped dancing, shook hands and said 'nice to meet you' and parted ways haha. There were loads of people stumbling home or dancing out into the water grinning stupidly, and even one very productive guy who kept dancing but started picking up rubbish, putting it in plastic bags, tying them up and leaving them in a nice neat pile - he cracked me up. Taxi boats started taking people back to other beaches at this point too and after watching them head out I'm so glad our guesthouse was accessible by road! They were only little motor boats, packed with about 10 people and the driver (captain?) and they were really no match for the waves… The kept crashing into the waves and being thrown way up into the air, we saw one guy fall out and they had to stop and haul him back in. People are mad to get into them! We tried to take some pictures of the boats and the nutty drunk people, but we couldn't. We didn't want to bring our cameras along in case something happened to them so we bought a disposable camera with 27 exposures between us. When we tried to take pictures in the morning we realised we'd used the whole film but we only remember taking about 4 photos. I can't wait to get it developed and see what we were taking so many photos of!
We got to bed about 8am on Tuesday and slept the whole day away, we just surfaced to go for dinner at a restaurant down the road. I forgot to mention that restaurant actually, we ate there the night before too. They had two dogs wandering around and we were fussing them, then the owner started calling us towards a room in the house. We didn't have a clue what she was talking about but when we got there we realised she was saying 'Gibbon'! They had a pet gibbon asleep in bed in the house, it was adorable! She was wearing a nappy and sucking her thumb and was really shy because we were strangers. We meant to get a photo of her but we forgot to bring our cameras anytime we went back to the restaurant.
We stayed a few more days on Ko Phangan and just relaxed. The night after the Full Moon Party there was a thunderstorm and it rained so heavily the beach and storm wall in front of our bungalow was covered over! We walked down to Thong Sala (the town area was bigger than Ban Tai) to have a look around the next day and a local guy told us that the storm that hit the Phillipines and Vietnam had moved down to Southern Thailand - that's why there was so much rain, and it was due to get worse. He was wrong though, he'd never make it as a meteorologist. It rained a bit, but nowhere near as bad as the night before. We booked our ticket from the Island to the Malaysian border for Friday the 6th, and spent most of that day just killing time. The bus to the pier wasn't until 4pm and checkout time at the bungalow was 10am so we just went for a very long walk… we didn't think it was worth it to rent a bike for a few hours when it cost so much so didn't make it to the other beaches or the waterfall, just to a very disappointing Pagoda that was infested with red ants.
The journey down to Malaysia was typical of every journey we've had so far - very delayed. Our transport to the pier got us there just after 4 and the ferry didn't leave until nearly 6. Then we had about 2 hours on a bus to the train station back in Surat Thani. We got there at 10.30 and had something to eat before our train at 00.10, but the train was delayed… we ended up waiting in the station until 1am. Both of us were tired and cranky by then (especially Ryan) and were really thankful when we could finally get into our beds on the sleeper train.
We then had just over 10 hours on the train before we got to Sungai Kolok on the Malaysian border, where we would get our visas.
I'll leave the rest of it for another day.
Also, apologies for any American spelling in what I've written. I've had to type it up in Microsoft Word because the internet keeps freezing and it only clicked when it changed 'realised' to 'realized' the last time I typed it that it's set to auto correct. I can't be bothered going back through to correct their corrections!
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