Phi Phi Paradise

So we finally left the tourist trap that was Phuket and caught a boat over to the Phi Phi islands. The islands consist of two islands, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh. Phi Phi Don is the only inhabitable island. It's made up of two mountainous islands connected by a small causeway in the middle. Phi Phi Leh is all mountainous and unhabitable... although the famous Maya Bay beach is here (where the film The Beach was filmed).

People have told us in the past that Phi Phi is paradise and they are so right! Pulling into the port on the boat was amazing... the scenery was so beautiful, it was breathtaking.

We didn't have any accomodation so we have to trapse around for an hour and a half in the sweltering heat with our backpacks, until we finally got a room at a guesthouse. They were charging way over our budget but when you're that exhausted you have no choice!

We spent a lovely few days on Phi Phi. We took a boat tour around the surrounding islands, including Phi Phi Leh. We saw Maya Bay which was amazing and Jon went snorkelling in the sea (I couldn't because of my leg). We took loads of great pictures but unfortunately I dropped our camera in the sea and it seems to not work anymore so we can't upload any until this is fixed. How annoying!!

We also met some great people on Phi Phi and had some funny nights out. There are quite a few bars in the main village, including your typical English/Irish bars playing loud music. Whether or not this is a good thing I don't know. It brings in a lot of tourist money to the island, but you can't help thinking these Western ways will eventually ruin such a beautiful place.

Phi Phi Don was hit severely in the 2004 Tsunami. I knew this before I went but nothing prepares you for being in a place where you know so many people died so recently. There is still a lot of building work going on, you still walk past the odd pile of rubble where buildings were pulled down after being damaged by the sea. They have a memorial garden there too near the beach which was worst hit. It was so sad... the two year anniversary was only a few weeks ago and families of the deceased had obviously been on Phi Phi at that time and had brought photographs and flowers and lit candles. There are a lot of evacuation routes and tsunami warnings now in Thailand so hopefully if something so terrible does ever happen again people will have time to escape.

After three days on Phi Phi, we caught another boat to an island called Ko Lanta. We'd heard several good reports about this island so decided to give it a go. After our accommodation troubles on Phi Phi we called up in advance and booked a beach hut. Once we'd arrived, we caught a motorbike taxi to the beach hut, only to be told they'd given away our room!! Typical! Cue Bec and Jon once more trekking about with a heavy backpack in the sweltering heat! We walked past a bar called Groove Garden, a guy came running out and asked if we wanted a room... we said yes... it turns out he had one little room at the back of his bar. And when I say room... it was more of a shack! It had no front door, a mattress on the floor, rickety walls and a cold trickle of a shower. It did, however, have a great view out onto the beach. And it was only 3GBP a night. Of course we took it!!

Ko Lanta is a really nice island with a lot going on. It hasn't been hit by the big tourist boom yet so you still see some real Thailand, it hasn't been hidden behind O'Neills and Sid's Cafe's!!! On our first night the owners of the bar we were staying at invited us to a reggae party being held on the beach, we went along and had a brilliant time. There was a live band playing, a Thai reggae band called (Job to Do) who were were told were huge in Southern Thailand. Anyway this motley bunch of rastas entertained us all night. They were so funny, they looked totally stoned throughout the whole gig, but the crowd loved them! (Me and Jon have since bought their album haha).
We had a couple of days on the beach, then on our last day on Ko Lanta we hired out a moped each and done a bit of exploring of the island. We found these caves in the middle which you could take a tour through. Now I've seen some tourist caves before in the UK so I just thought it would be a case of walking through some nice caves taking pictures etc. OMG how wrong was I!! The hike up to the cave entrance was almost all uphill. We had to climb up rickety ladders perched onto the side of a hundred foot drop!!! Then the entrance to the cave turned out to be a tiny hole in the middle of a load of rocks, which you descend through. Once in the caves, there are no walkways, we had to hang onto ropes and lower ourselves into the next cave, some caves were as big as church halls, some were tiny! The final part of our "trip" meant we had to squeeze on our tummies through a small tunnel deep underground. In any normal circumstance I would have turned right around and gone all the way back, but we were in a group so I didn't want to look like a wimp (even though I was really scared!!) so I just gritted my teeth and done it. Phew! We made it out alive but I'm not sure if I'd do that again!

Anyway we are now in Krabi which is on the mainland. We are staying here for a few nights then checking into a health spa on the 4th for my belated birthday celebrations!! I haven't had a hot bath in about a month and a half so I can't wait to have a bit of luxury!