Krabi / Phi Phi

I arrived in Phi Phi yesterday, a nice little island, with lots of partying at night time. Had booked 3 nights here but I decided to cut it short to have more time in Koh Samui and Koh Tao. Didn't get up to much the first day really because I only got here about 4 ish, so I stayed in that night . Got up bright and early yesterday and went for a walk pretty much around the whole island. Went for a bit of breakfast in one of the quiet areas, I prefer the out the way traditional places, the people are so nice with good cheap food. The more populated areas just want your money and want you in and out as quickly as possible. After breakfast I went for a walk up to the viewpoint which is the highest point you can get to on the island, it took about 20 mins but it was just steps and then more steps which was a little bit gruelling. Well worth it though, the view was awesome so just chilled out there for an hour and drank plenty of water (I probably drink about 2 or 3 big bottles of water a day because it is so hot and humid). After that I made my way down the steps toward the beach, didn't want to just sit in the sun so got a kayak and went for a paddle, got about 20 mins around the side of the island and found a place called monkey beach, so I stopped there. Really nice beach, got talking to a few guys there selling drinks etc, and they said there lots of monkeys there; but not that day but tomorrow, obviously they must speak Monkey and had a tip off. Had a snorkel there and there lots of nice colourful fish from little lion fish to puffer fish over a foot long. I spent about 2 hours there just taking in the place and the surroundings, it was the kind of place you just don't want to leave. Anyway, got back in my kayak and made my way back to the main beach. After a bit of a tiring day I wanted to get out of the sun so stopped for a beer in the apache bar. Got talking to an English guy called Pat, who is now living in Australia, we got on really well exchanged a lot of stories and ended up having a few. I left him about 6ish because I had to pick up some laundry, but arranged to meet him later on. Went back to my accommodation (very basic but okay), and thought it would be a good idea to pack my stuff up rather than leaving it to the morning if I was going out for some drinks (always a good idea). Before I forget to mention it, every time I get to a new place I find myself looking for sneaky places to hide my currency and passport, I usually spent about 30 mins scoping my room out looking for a good stash place. Safe boxes aren't always 'safe' so I won't leave the room till im comfortable, this last place I managed to dislodge a panel from the ceiling and put all my important stuff in a sort of loft area - Maybe I'm being a bit over cautious but hey! The rooms usually have air conditioning but you have to have the key in the slot for it (and the electric) to work so I thought it would be a good idea to take the key off the attachment thing so I can leave the air conditioning on so it's nice and cool when I get in. I also leave the lights on, another deterrent (in my head) for people looking to break in. I think because I'm travelling on my own I'm thinking more about what I'm doing and double (sometimes triple) checking everything, from booking a boat somewhere to leaving my room with all my gear. Usually if your travelling with someone you bounce of each other so I guess I'm compensating for that. I'm quite happy travelling on my own but sometimes when I see something really nice it would be nice to share it with someone. Still, after 10 days I'm kind of getting in to a rhythm with the whole travelling thing, it's kind of infectious and so far away from a 2 week tourist holiday in a nice hotel. It's very easy to lose track of days and the date it doesn't really mean much apart from keeping my onward flight date in my head. I have just had to ask a guy on this ferry I'm on what the date is and he only knew because it's his birthday tomorrow.haha. So, right now I'm on a ferry back to Krabi, then a bus to…somewhere then another ferry to Koh samui, not sure how long I'll be there yet, it's the first place I have been to without having some accommodation booked. Usually I'll go on the internet and book something before I leave one place, but I think it's kind of a right of passage if you're travelling, you should just rock up somewhere and wing it (no pun intended). It's the 12th March today and my flight into Sydney is on the 18th, I'm not sure how I'll feel leaving Thailand, I think I'll be a bit sad because the people are so nice and the places I have seen are just stunning.That said I'm obviously really looking forward to Australia and the next leg of my tour. This ferry is making me feel a bit sick, the sea is a bit ruff..but it's probably from drinks last night, I have been digressing I know but I wanted to get down how I'm feeling and some of the little things so it's a bit more than just a factual account of what I'm doing….ANYWAY…so after tea, I met up with my up with my mate Pat and we got on it. Before he got to the place we were meeting I played connect 4 and pool with some Thai guy - they have connect 4 in all the bars which is a bit random but fine, because I'm pretty good at it J . So we went to a place called the rolling stones bar, live music, pretty good too. I had my first bucket, yes, bucket, it's what everyone does so I thought I'd have to try one, it's basically a little bucket just filled with vodka red bull or whatever you want.haha, awesome…but I thought it best to just have 1!! We then went to a place called the Reggae bar, not sure why it's called that, because there is no reggae what so ever! Its just a bar with pool tables and Thai boxing ring, pretty cool though. You can get up and fight too, they put the pads on you and fight other tourists, haha, you have three one minute rounds. Watched a few of them which were quite funny, even 2 girls having a go - I'm not sure you could really call it Thais boxing though, more just like a messy scrap. I was tempted to have a go, but after having that bucket I mentioned I thought better of it. So I just played pool with the guy I met and kicked his ass at that instead. That was pretty much the end of my night, said farewell to Pat and went to bed about 1:30am. Still, grabbed some fruit for breaky and boarded this ferry I'm on now. Only an hour to go before I'm on a long bus ride, hoping to get some sleep for that journey. Not that I do it at home (or even could)but I find myself enjoying a little kip later in the afternoon for about 2 hours! Must be the heat (not my age). So to sum up Koh Phi Phi, lovely little island, a bit more expensive than Bangkok but still very cheap against the English pound. Its party central and full of Swedish on it till 4am in the beach bars, very loud and busy. Lots of cool trips you can do to different places but I'm happy to leave after 2 days onto other things. Don't think I mentioned my diving, was a really good day, but a 2 and half hour boat ride each way. Did 2 dives, one just off Maya Beach (where they filmed the film - The Beach), it was good to see the beach but I'm glad now I didn't get a trip to it because it's just packed full of boats etc. So the diving was good, saw about 4 huge turtles who came and checked us out which was really cool, saw a snake and some nice big fish. Still, doesn't compare to Egypt, think I have been spoiled doing all my certificates there because it's hard to beat. Glad to have done it though, and you can go Shark diving off Kho Tao so I'm thinking about doing that too. Half an hour now to go on this ferry to think I'm going to go on the top deck for some fresh air.