Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
12 December
Railay Beach > Koh Phi Phi
MARK: iPod in (with splitter so both Kim & I could listen). Some kickass trance tunes playing and the 2 hour ferry ride over to Phi Phi was pretty awesome. We had mild hangovers, were quite tired and didn't have any accommodation booked on Phi Phi. When we arrived at the pier it was chaos. Touts & tourists everywhere and everything seemed to run so much faster than the other islands we had been staying on. Definitely not laid back island living. We needed accommodation and it was Kim's turn to find it, so I sat down on the sidewalk and Kim went on the search. We were in 2 minds as to whether to stay in Ton Sai itself (as Sandy had advised) or Hat Yao (Long Beach - as Kim Laz had advised). We were exhausted, so we opted for Ton Sai as Long Beach seemed too far away to get to. After about an hour Kim returned and said that everything was s*** and expensive. No sugar coating there. But she had managed to find two that she reckoned could be ok. We opted for a place called Up Hill Cottages, which was at the very end of the main road and literally up the mountain at the end. But for only 700 baht a night we weren't complaining. After some burger & chips at Cosmic Restaurant, we phoned Up Hill and they came to collect our backpacks in a push cart - at least we didn't have to carry them ourselves. The room was basic and my mattress was a diagonal shape as the springs were long gone, but all good - we had accommodation for the night.
Time to explore the island. We headed off to Long Beach to check that out and possibly find accom for the remaining nights. On the way we passed a pharmacy and after 3 days of Kim telling me to get my foot seen to and 3 days of me thinking it would heal nicely on its own, I gave in. I had been limping for 3 days in mild pain. But some peroxide, alcohol, iodine, plaster and bandage wrapping later, I felt like a new man. Pain gone I could walk again. Next time I won't be so stubborn. The hike to Long Beach is 25mins along a jungle path and some rocks. We made good time and soon rounded the corner to see a long white sandy beach ahead of us. Nowhere near as packed as Ton Sai and with crystal clear blue waters we headed to the first resort to check price and availability... Expensive! All of them were very expensive. We had read about an inexpensive place on Long Beach called Phi Phi Hill Resort, which is the very last resort on the beach, but it also had a pretty bad rap on Trip Advisor... i.e. 'Terrible staff, poor accommodation standards, bad food'.... but we've also learnt that you need to take Trip Advisor reviews with a pinch of salt, so we went up with an open mind. It's a long climb up about 100+ stairs to the resort and by the time we got up Kim was finished! The reception staff seeing we were hot and sweaty brought us two glasses of ice cold water... I'd say that's the opposite of 'terrible' staff. Turns out the rooms are 750 baht for a sunrise facing room. We checked out the room and it was awesome - balcony with a view of the sea and a massive room - quote Kim "I could do pirouettes in here!" SOLD. We booked a room for the following day and they even agreed to pick us up in their longtail boat from Ton Sai pier free of charge.
Walked back to Ton Sai and eyed out a spot to have some dinner at a place called The Rock. The Rock turned out to be crap. Portions were miniscule and we left feeling slightly hungry and cheated. On our way back to bed we booked a half day tour around Phi Phi Leh Island, which is where the movie The Beach was filmed on Ao Maya beach.
- comments