The last of S.E. Asia - Krabi and Koh Phi Phi

So my time in Perth is coming to an end and I’m about to pack everything I own into a small bag again and say bye bye WA…..hello the rest of Australia!

I know I haven’t written anything for months, and of course I have forgotten lots of details but I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on the last 10 months as I’ve only told you about up until the start of January this year!  So to remind you – I left you in Koh Tao and my next stop was Krabi with Aoife. 

Koh Tao had been a fantastic place to spend a week or so getting into the real party spirit of Thailand and also a nice change for having to meet people all the time to go out with – I had ready made party friends right there! 

However, after my break on antibiotics and then the partying to make up for it – I needed another rest!  So off to Krabi Town Aiofe and I headed.  After a long long boat ride back to Koh Samui, and another overnight stay (a pretty mild night apart from Aiofe attempting to hustle the thai kids hustling tourists to play connect 4 against them for money),we headed off to the airport and said bye bye to Amanda at Koh Samui Airport where she headed off to Kuala Lumpar and Aiofe and I jumped on a plan to Krabi.

We arrived in Krabi and headed for the cheapest transport transfer option of a minibus which will drop you at your hotel or at the beach for boats which take you to another amazing beach resort.  Aoife had to get on a plane herself the next day to head also to Kuala Lumpar so that she could extend her thai visa for another 30 days by flying back into Thailand.   That was our main reason for stopping in Krabi on our way to Phi Phi as the town itself isn’t all that great.  We had already booked ourselves in to a hotel in the middle of town and gave the information to the minibus people and headed off.  As usual there was the normal confusion at one end of whether we should be getting off or not as they started to unload our bags outside this shop in town.  EVENTUALLY it became apparent that they wanted to transfer us and our bags into the back of a pickup truck to transfer us to our hotel – what style! This was another one which didn’t have even bench seats in the back – it was just the back of the truck and we ended up sitting on top of our backpacks and hanging on for dear life.  I was kind of used to it by then having spent a good month or so travelling around Asia by that point.

We finally arrived at our hotel and it wasn’t all bad – it had air con, comfy beds and a proper bathroom and tv albeit a bit tatty around the edges.  It was advertised with a bar/nightclub as well……..I peeked in one night and it was full of the locals and some dodgy thai’s singing – we decided not to venture in for a drink – it looked quite shabby and dodgy!  So what was Krabi town like? Well a bit boring really.  I even attempted to find somewhere to get a pedicure and found it impossible – nearly unheard of in most of the places I had been to in Asia . Aiofe and I decided to use it as downtime to recover before heading to Phi Phi fully recovered to attempt scuba diving.  Aiofe headed off for her flight the next day and I was left to my own devices…….I explored the town and found it slightly lacking!  The best bit about it was going to the night market with Aiofe the evening we arrived for dinner.  MEAT ON A STICK GALORE!  Full of stalls cooking fresh food on order and loads of locals sitting there eating away.  I ended up filling my time sleeping in and sitting in cafes write to all you lot!  She arrived back from KL and we headed off the next day on our adventure to Phi Phi Island! 

So first off – yes – I do think that Phi Phi is possibly over touristy, yes – I do think that 10 years ago it was probably so much better…..BUT! I loved it!  You arrive at the harbour which is pretty basic apart from a very long pier leading you out to the boats.  Get off and are confronted with loads of touts either trying to get you to go to that hotel or to meet you as you have pre-booked. 

We had decided to pre-book somewhere for just the first two nights after our experience in Koh Tao!  It was still pretty soon after new years so it was massively busy everywhere and still high season prices.  Having looked around beforehand some of the prices were ridiculously high and it was really hard to find anything under 2000baht – that’s about £40 so quite expensive for Thailand.  A lot of places were much much higher than that.  Whilst in Krabi Town I had done loads of research on all the places recommended in Lonely Planet and on other places on the internet and it was hard to find anywhere and when you called them they didn’t speak enough English if they even answered the phone!

I ended up getting a local agent to book us a room in a place called Uphill Cottage.  It had an en-suite inside bathroom with hot water and air con! Bliss but expensive at 1600 bath a night – 800 each – that’s a whole £15 a night each!  It definitely blew my budget and I became an official flashpacker, but it was well worth the money!!!

So we found our guide on the pier at the harbour and he led us into the start of the town and told us to wait for him there as he went off to round up more people he was “picking up”.  After dragging a few more similarly bemused looking tourists over he started loading our packs onto what can only be described as a large trolley.  On and on they went and we were told to follow him. 

Phi Phi has no roads, no cars and very very very few motorbikes.  The walkways are fairly small lined with shops and restaurants and plenty of tourists and loads of locals on pushbikes. (at the end we weren’t sure what was worse – motorbikes that you could hear or pushbikes that you couldn’t!).  

It’s a real assault to the senses arriving and following the man with your bag quickly down loads of little streets and trying to remember which way you are going and taking in everything that’s going on around you.  We started dropping people off at different places along the way and me and Aiofe kept going.  I started to think..whoops have we made the wrong choice….we are heading so far away from everything……but no we certainly hadn’t!  We finally ended up at the end of the path at the bottom of a hill where the reception was in a little hut.  We got checked in and then hiked our way up the steps to our “Uphill Cottage”. 

We were tucked away in the corner and had no view to speak of from our terrace with two little chairs out the front.  Our room was one of the best we had stayed in – very comfy beds and the place looked practically new!  Whilst we were there we had cleaning every day (or would have done if we had gotten out of bed early enough!) and it was just so comfy and – quiet – especially at night.  Well apart from the monkeys that ran across the roof sometimes!  The thing was – that long walk that made us think we were away from everything was great – most of the accommodation was really close to all the bars and the night went on really late sometimes so an early night was impossible in some areas.  We were only an extra 5 minutes walk in reality so it was well worth it for a bit of peace and quiet sometimes!  Believe me, it did happen on our 10 night stay in Phi Phi.

  

The plan was to head out the next day to find somewhere else to stay that was cheaper…..never as easy as it sounds.  We did find quite a few places, but they were so shabby and horrible and dirty compared to where we were we couldn’t help but carry on and shell out paying for Uphill Cottage and managed to negotiate a discount to 1500 a night!

Phi Phi is a small place especially the area we stayed in – Ton Sai Bay, there are two main beaches, and neither are that amazing to swim in. One side where the harbour is, is full of boats (of course) and the other side has a beautiful view but the sea is very shallow for ages out and isn’t very clear.  The main town is just shops and tour companies and restaurants and bars. 

Aoife and I spent our time firstly focussing on sorting out something for a scuba diving course.  We spent a fair while going around the different companies asking them what the deal was.  All of them offered the same thing so it was working out which one we liked.  We ended up going to one where my brother-in- law knows someone.  A girl he met when travelling around the world.  She was working in a scuba diving place in Phi Phi.

Well we went there and got our books and spent all night studying.  We passed our first exam the next day and headed out to try the equipment just off the beach.  We struggled our way into a wetsuits and had to poke a hose down them to soak us through before we went outside in them and boiled.  It was only a few minutes walk from the scuba place to the beach but it felt like hours – it was well over 30c in the wetsuits and the tanks weighed a lot!  We had to get into the water and start practicing all different manoeuvres.  Unfortunately it was at this point I discovered that scuba diving is not for me L.  I couldn’t control myself in the water with the tank and the flippers and really didn’t like it.  I attempted to put my head under the water to use the regulater and mask and didn’t like that either – although I did get to see a few fishes for a few seconds!  I ended up having to get out of the sea and trek back to change and wait for Aoife.  I was disappointed that I didn’t like it but I just couldn’t do it. 

Aoife came back and had been having great fun learning and had gotton all the manoeuvres right so she could go and do her final exam that evening and then go on the boat the next day.  She went out diving and successfully did her padi!  We watched the video in the place and it was amazing.  So……..it had been about a week since we had left Koh Tao and it was time to head to some bars!

What can I tell you about the rest of our time in Phi Phi?  Of course there was plenty of eating and drinking.  The food was fantastic – a mixture of our meat on a stick and various other mysterious things from the stalls on the streets, to little restaurants serving fantastic thai dishes to a good ole burger (its nice to mix it up a bit!).  We discovered a rooftop Banana Bar

 Which became a firm favourite of ours with amazing Magaritas for less than £3!  Very cute and nice bar staff and a good vibe.  It was only open until 12 or so though so after that it was time to head down to the beach to another bar, the name escapes me at the moment, which is where we usually hung out to finish off the night.  There were trips to other bars, trailing down the beach, trips to another bar in the centre, the Regae Bar in particular which is where Lou and Yazz met all those years ago, and we watching 3 year old boys thai boxing.  Chris, who I met in Pai ended up in Phi Phi at the same time as us and we ended up meeting up with him for a drink too. 

 

 Of course, however, a trip to Phi Phi cannot be complete without a trip to Maya Beach.  It’s a cliché but it had to be done.  We chose to go out on one of the smaller boats- a traditional thai boat.  I think there was about 10 of us in it, plus our slightly dodgy looking captain.  We sailed out and visited lots of different bays and lagoons on the way to Maya Beach and then when we arrived we could just explore for a bit.  Its fairly developed in that there are signs saying this way to this, and that….

 But other than that there isn’t much there at all.  A few sandy paths and that’s about it.  The bay itself is very pretty but you don’t get a sunset from it.  You all get back into the boats and head back to watch the sunset, all in all a lovely day and a lovely place to visit. 

 Aoife and I had great fun in our 10 days or so on Phi Phi but by the end of we both needed a rest from all the partying.  Aoife was heading to Koh Lanta for a more peaceful time on some of the other islands whilst it was time for me to start heading even further south to Singapore to get me one step closer to Australia!