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Well our arrival into Phi Phi featured the same trials and tribulations as our previous visit. A very sweaty boat ride, next to what can only be described as the most annoying boy in the world! Your rucksack literally buried under the rest of the boats luggage, so you can imagine what issues followed when 120 people are trying to collect their luggage from a 3m space in 3 minutes! Once docked at Phi Phi Don pier, we had to pay 20Bt each (apparently to keep Phi Phi clean...its hard to see where the money is being spent really...Maybe on overpriced slummy hotels?!) As you can tell we left Phi Phi with rather a bitter taste in our mouths which is sad really as we've loved it on previous occasions!
This time the atmosphere seemed rather different as it was high season. It could only be described as an 18 to 30's playground, complete with seedy bars, tattoo parlours and 3am raves! Quite a different side to Thailand to what I'd seen on the 2 previous visits. I know we may be sounding old beyond our time right now, but really, we may as well have been in Magaluf for all the Thai culture we encounter in Phi Phi town. Unfortunately it has been completely monopolised and ruined by cheap backpacker tourism! Due to this however the place is great for very cheap clothes and accessory shopping, and lots of it! Worth a day trip maybe just for that!
Anyways it wasn't all bad, on the second day we found a little sanctuary in Long Beach. We decided to see if we could walk it rather than take the boat to try and get some nice scenic photos, we did find a trail to follow, but it could certainly not be described as a path! After a rocky 60 minutes or so ( should have been quicker but flip flops did not prove to be appropriate foot ware!) up and down some steep terrain, with steps made only from tree roots, we arrived. Long beach is beautiful, not spoilt by thousands of sunbeds, cigarette butts and larger louts, but a true Thai beach, just like the postcards. Is is where the majority of the longboat photos you see come from, just as ours do! We spent a beautiful lazy day, sunbathing, swimming in the crystal blue sea, strolling up and down the beach, eating in little cafes. As we were preparing to leave we noticed a crowd gather towards the end of the beach we were heading for. A family of monkeys had decided to hit the beach for a spot of lunch. They took over a secluded spot where a couple were relaxing, and set about rummaging through their luggage, playing with their snorkels and towels and polishing off their watermelon!! Some people tried to get a little too close that resulted in a rather vicious looking retreat warning from daddy monkey! It looked like they were settling in for some time ( felt very sorry for the people who's stuff they had!) We made the trek back to phi phi town, only to discover at the next cove you can actually WALK through the water as its so shallow! Doh! So we did cutting off about 30 minutes of steep terrain trekking!!
After a lovely day on long beach you'd think a good night sleep was in order! Well not only were we kept awake by the rave next to our room until 3am but we also found we were not alone in our bed!! Every travellers nightmare was happening... BEDBUGS! Myself been paranoid about the little blighters having been bitten when travelling in New Zealand 2007. Luckily my paranoia this time paid off, if not a little too late! I was convinced the previous evening that we had them, but Tom is used to my melodramatic episodes so shrugged it off. It wasn't until I turned the light on at 3am that we found the bed crawling in them, myself by this point had been eaten alive, tom came off lucky with only 3 or 4 bites! He must not taste as nice as me... But I wish I didn't taste nice! However it proved an excellent way to get him out of bed!! We collected and killed a few of the b*****s and stormed to reception! ( I must add that our room was not cheap, in fact one of the most expensive on the trip... Phi Phi is way overpriced!!!) They tried convincing us that they'd never had bed bugs, which was bull. They moved us temporarily to the most disgusting room, stinking of stale cigs and full of mosquitos (great more bites), the only one they had left and I can see why! With a grand total of 30minutes sleep, in the morning we complained to the managaement. To cut a long story short, after many HOURS of being messed about by a very unapologetic reception, we left the hotel and decided to head of some luxury in Krabi earlier than expected... Still itching and on a diet of hydrocortisone and antihistamine!!!
- comments
Vic Corbett Sounds like you guys are having an amazing start to your adventure. Just a shame Phi Phi has let you down..... but you need some dodgy bits to create a bit of drama and an extra dimension to your camp fire stories!!! We're looking forward to hearing all about it when you get to the SA leg of your tour. Happy travelling xxxx
Aunt Lynn Ok - strike Phi Phi off my list of places to visit : (