Koh Phi Phi

As you soon as you get off the boat Phi Phi fills you with a hugely calming effect. It could be the beautiful surroundings, the laid back lifestyle, the fact that you've made it to such a beautiful place after a horrendous journey, but even the locals can't be bothered to hassle you like they do in the rest of Thailand. They just lackadaisically murmur "taxi boat" to you in a fashion that they want you to say no so they don't have to leave their seat.

We pre-booked our accommodation through a local friend of Matt's. Susan (Matt's friend) did well as our room was completely swanky compared to our last room on Phangan and we once again welcomed cool air conditioning and a flushing toilet.

Our first night on the island was probably the quietest of them all as Phi Phi really is a party island that springs to life when the sun goes down and it's hard to resist popping out for a few cheeky ones when you're in the hub of all the activity.

We love sunset

On one of our days on the island was Susan's birthday and she rather kindly managed to get us a free ride of the 'we love sunset' tour where we were taken to Phi Phi Ley (where they filmed the beach) to indulge in the best snorkelling we've ever experienced. There is every kind of marine life there possible, including sharks. One of the guys with us claimed he saw a leopard shark but we firmly believe that the shark - having seen our impressive underwater gun show - was too scared to come near us in case of being chased out of the water!

After an hour or so of snorkelling, we moved around the corner onto Maya Bay aka 'the beach'. Here we swam in the warm water, trekked over to the other side of the island and indulged in a spot of keepy uppies/volley ball without a net. We then got back on the boat to watch a beautiful sunset, hence the name of the excursion. Afterwards we all went out for some well deserved beers and to toast Susan's birthday; the pictures kinda show how downhill it went after one too many beers (and several bottles of whisky and JD).

We found the nightlife was proving burdensome on our daytime activities and we didn't really do a lot apart from sunbath, snorkel and just laze about. However, Phi Phi was definitely the best location we'd been to in Thailand and one we will definitely return to again. However, post tsunami has seen a change in the island and much of the old rustic buildings have been knocked down and replaced with big swanky resorts. We just hope they don't ruin the island completely by going over the top with development as much of the beauty and charisma of this enchanting little island will be lost.