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On arrival to Phi Phi, you have to pay a 20 baht entrance fee (40p), which is said to go to keeping the island clean a tidy, but after seeing one of the beaches I did question were this money was actually going. After speaking to a guy who wasn't actually from anywhere, but chose this suave french accent to speak in because it was the sexiest, he said the money actually goes to the mafia that runs the island and probably many other places in the area. (He had never lived anywhere longer than six months, apart from Phi Phi in which he had stayed over a year).
To be fair the island aside from this beach was very clean, and very enjoyable. There are no cars or moped on the island, only many many irritating thais riding bikes, ringing there bell every 5 seconds to get you to move. No where on the island is more than a 5 minute walk, apart from the viewpoint in which you can overlook Phi Phi town. Koh Phi Phi is made up of two main islands: Phi Phi Don, where the only settlement is: and Phi Phi Ley, which has Maya bay where the Beach was filmed, and viking caves which is inhabited by birds making nest out of the syliva. These nests are a delicacy in Asia, used to make birds nest soup. Phi Phi don was once two islands as well, and good old Geology Jack Patching told me that due to currents, the water deposited sediment over many years, connecting the two islands with an isthmus, forming the flat, vulnerable stretch in where the main town is now. Because of this, during the boxing day tsunami over 70 percent of the buildings were destroyed. Phi Phi again is basically a party island, but far more chilled out, and there is the opportunity to go scuba diving (which I took), and climbing.
The first time I came to the island, I was with Hannah, and we met up with our friends Jodie, Georgia and Tiffany that we met from the Full Moon parties. One day to break up the routine of relaxing and partying, we went on a snorkeling trip around the islands of Koh Phi Phi. Unfortunately, due to the relatively early start, we got up too late, rushed out and forgot our sun cream and the sun burn swiftly followed. Our first stop was monkey beach, which involved throwing fruit for the baby monkeys. As we were doing this, all the baby monkeys ran off, and captain slammed the boat in reverse. Slightly startled I looked back at the beach to see 4 or 5 big adult monkeys guarding the trees; these guys are obviously not ones to mess with. We also stopped at Bamboo island, which seemed to be perfectly round, with perfect beaches with perfect clear sea around. We then noticed that the perfect clear sea and giant monster jellyfish in so we were slightly reluctant to go in it. We also visited Maya Bay, which I can imagine would be amazing, but although we were told boats weren't allowed inside the bay, that didn't seem to stop the private speed boats going inside and making a god awful noise as there engines were going with the blades half out the water.
On the 22nd May we left Koh Phi Phi, for Phuket, in which the Harvey's, who so kindly took us in for a week in Kuala Lumpur, lent us their 5 star apartment in Kamala Bay. After a fairly busy few months, I decided that doing b***** all was ok, so b***** all was what we did, apart from the last day, where the waves crashing in to Kammala bay were pretty large, so we rented two body boards and actually did something. Somehow I went through 19 years of my life without body boarding, so I wasn't as good as Jack or Adam, who were seasoned pros compared to me, but I was still having fun getting battered buy the waves.
Then the day came... the 30th of May, where my traveling partner for 3 months, only to be parted for 2 days was leaving me. Hannah was heading home as she re-sitting some exams for university. it's definitely fair to say my trip would have been more expensive; because she bothered bartering, less organised; for obvious reasons, and most importantly less enjoyable. However I was very pleased to found out, that her along with two other girls, Lucy and Anna, are joining me in Amsterdam, to see the boys at the end of there interailing trip. I want to thank and congratulate Hannah for putting up with me for so long, and I look forward to seeing her, as I do all of you, when I'm home.
After saying bi to Han, I headed back to Phi Phi, but this time with Jack and Adam. More of the same occurred, apart from one morning Jack and I went on a scuba diving trip in the Phi Phi marine park. The day before they saw two zebra sharks as well as a turtle and any other cool things. Also the day after they saw a zebra sharks, and some people we met saw a turtle snorkeling. We however, saw none of that, but we still saw some cool stuff, like lion fish, scorpion fish and an artificial reef with a moray eel.
As we were flying from Phuket to Ho Chi Minh on the fifth, we left Phi Phi on the 4th and spend one night in Phuket town. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh, via Bangkok on the evening of the fifth, and stayed one night in the 5 star hotel, The Sheraton, thanks to Adams dad, who had spent years traveling back and forth to Ho Chi Minh with work, and decided to treat us with a night here.
We are currently in the boring seaside resort of Nha Trang, looking forward to leaving for Hue An, where suits will be made again for little money. Thank you for reading.
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