Phi Phi day trip

After two days in Phuket, Jon and I couldn't take much more so we booked ourselves on a day trip to various destinations around Phi Phi Island. We were hoping to get something more than the glimpse we got before. And with a 6:30am wakeup, we got ready for a jam packed day. Until...I got locked in the toilet of our room.

Jon called the front desk. They sent a smiley Thai man who laughed at me from outside the door. He tried to crack the window from the other side of the bathroom, only the window was six feet up and about two feet wide. He retreated and brought back the lady from reception. They both laughed at me from outside the door. They retreated. They brought back a third smiley Thai man with a drill. And 25 minutes later, I was free.

Thankfully, Thai time works a lot like Jen time, and it didn't matter that we were ten minutes late to catch our tour.
We started on a big, pukey speedboat. When the tour guides hand you drammamine, you know it's going to be a rough ride.

First stop, Maya Beach on Phi Phi Island. It was made famous when Hollywood decided to film 'The Beach' there despite the fact it's nowhere near the island that author Alex Garland set the book in.



It looks a lot smaller in real life and sadly, the immense boat traffic means that the beach and surrounding waters are rife with pollution.

Next stop...a trip to Monkey Beach and snorkling off the coast of Phi Phi Don
I didn't get off the boat at Monkey Beach because, and not so secretly, monkeys freak the hell out of me. Jon took a walk, fed the increasingly aggressive monkeys, and got back on the boat. I took a good twenty minutes to tan the other side of my face.

And when we got to our snorkeling spot, I found out that i'm also deathly afraid of fish that look like they're about to nibble your face off. I mean, they seem innocent but they get so bloody close to your personal space that I fear they have ulterior motives.



Final Stop...Khai Nok Island (I think)
The island was just a tiny little spit of land with a snack shop, a jagged limestone cliff and some powerful waves. We docked for about two hours under the blazing sun and roasted. It was kind of perfect.




Bye, bye Phuket!

Kata Beach, Phuket

The highlight of Kata Beach is a toss up between meeting up with Guy and Adi in their posh room/bungalow, the 'dodgy' massage Sara and I got, or buying a pair of very purple shoes. Everything else was severly lacking in class or culture. We'd heard this would be the case of Phuket, but Sara had some advice from one of her friends about a nice part to stay in. We obviously picked the wrong place. However, we arrived at Kata Country House and stayed in a poshish bungalow, as a farewell nod to Sara. This happened to be lovely.
equipped with elephant towels, air con and jon's very own bed

We had a bit of a wander:




And after an afternoon on an admittedly lovely beach, we met up with Guy and Adi at their place just down the road. I'd call it a room but that'd just be a lie:



it was all fun and games until a local snake decided to take a dip in the private pool.

We reconvened an hour later in search of local thai food, ladyboys and a good place to find a drink. We found this:
Spring rolls
lady boys (look in the background!)

connect four on a picnic table in a tourist area that served local Thai/mexican/indian/English food all in one

After a pretty tame and disappointing evening, we bid adieu to Guy and Adi who were headed back to Australia the next day. And early the next morning, we put Sara in a cab to Phuket so she could catch one flight to another to another and land in Austin, Texas ready for work in two days' time.

Farewell and safe travels home, Sara!

The Phi Phi Islands

Due to some bad planning and Sara's impending flight, we only stayed for one night on the Phi Phi Islands. This didn't give us much time for anything other than taking Guy and Adi's recommendation of a restaurant that served a very spicy papaya salad.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted with a plethorah of ridiculous signs:



We made for our accomodation, Chunut House, in the middle of the island. Along the path the constant Tsunami Evacuation Zone signage reminded us that the 2004 Tsunami took its toll on this beautiful island.


Jon took to napping in our bungalow made for three, and Sara and I went off to explore the island. It was a rather underwhelming wander:

other than the cats in jumpers, of course

It's most likely the case that we didn't have enough time to explore the Phi Phi Islands, but we mostly found a place overrun with tourists (of which I am one, duh) and the shops, restaurants and bars affiliated with them. Loud ones with pretty/overmuscled young Irish/English/Australian reps touting their 'drinks for cheap' mantra with music pumping out wide oepn windows 'til well past 4 in the morning. And maybe I'm an old fogey, but sometimes I just want to go to bed at 2am undisturbed.

Jon and I ended up taking a day trip back to Phi Phi later on in the week, but I still don't think we had enough time to get a true feel for the place. Maybe next time.

More Railay

After a night of drinking buckets (a concoction of thai whiskey, red bull and coke) and watching toned, tanned men throw fire at aptly named 'The Last Bar' (located at the end of Railay East), I was yearning for a day of nothingness. Jon and I made for the beach where I was promptly found by my Phillipino bartender from the night before. He tried to teach me how to throw fire. Tried is the operative.

In the meantime, Sara made for the steep jungle path and came back nearly four hours later with new friends in tow. Guy and Adi live in Australia and invited us back to their uber chic bungalow where we snacked on fruit and coffee. Later that night, they took us on the whistlestop tour of Railay including Local Thai Food that serves, get this, local thai food, then on to The Last Bar and finally over to the other side of the island for an inebriated wander to the cave of phalluses and swim with the bioluminescence.

But before that, we had stops for drinks:

the bookshelf of my dreams

And onto the evening:
This little hole in the wall was probably the best food we had on all of the trip. For the grand total of something like £3 each, we had a homemade meal of spring rolls, thai curry, rice and beer. By the end of our three-ish day stay, we'd had about five meals there. At 70 baht, the cashew and chili stir fry was by far our favourite.
signposted next to Local Thai Food at the outdoor internet cafe where the high tide water lapped the lower level of the concrete floor...
buckets at the last bar and my new bracelet!
Guy and Adi!
our new crew, including Nick, the 22-year-old American travelling solo through Asia. I didn't know americans did this kind of thing!
dodgy two-in-one men's/women's bathroom
fire throwing!

after meandering in the dark to the other side of the beach, we ran the myraid crabs off the beach and into the water before heading to Tham Phra Nang (Princess Cave). As ancient tradition stands, the fisherman of the area honour the spirit of a drowned princess who inhabits the cave. By placing carved wooden phalluses, they hope the princess's spirit will provide them with multitudes of fish.
These two photos are the less crude of the bunch:0)

From there, we took a moonlit swim in the Andaman Sea where the plankton took a liking to us and lit up when we moved hands, arms and feet. It was like a little underwater lightning show.

We spent the next morning in a slight muddle-headed stupor before being tractored out across the low tide mudflats to our longtail boat that would take us to a ferry that would take us to the Phi Phi Islands. No one said transport in Thailand was easy. As a final treat, this man:
took a shine to me and kept staring at me like I was the one dressed like Jack Sparrow, not him.

Upon reflection of the rest of the trip, we decided we would've scrapped Phuket, and perhaps the Phi Phi islands to spend another day or two on Railay. It suited us, the lawless, laid back, rock climby, monkey infested, beachy mainland tucked away from everything else. Simply fabulous.

Railay Beach

On our first day in Thai paradise, we took to the beach, the bars and the bungalows. Anything I say would be an understatement, and i'm too far removed from the trip to remember quirky nuances that I forgot to document in my journal.

I can, however, make scant comments on the geography: Rayleigh is not an island but is only accessible by longtail boat from either Krabi or Koh Phi Phi Don. Because there are no inroads, there are no local police, no busloads of tourists and no sense of the chaos we experienced on the rest of Thailand's islands. Thus, Rayleigh is a haven for laid back bars, pot smoking thai hippies and very dark star filled evenings.

The German guy on our Chiang Mai trek drew us a very 'The Beach'esque map of what to do/see with our time there. And what a map it was. Walking from Railay East to Railay West took us in the direct path of roughly 14 bars equipped with cushions and low tables, one path guarded with sentry-style wild monkeys, two very steep jungle paths and a cave full of phalluses.

Pictures from day one:



wild monkeys are so not okay






sunset on Railay West

More to come!